Bodybuilding competitors define new standards of fitness, discipline, and beauty

I watched Travis Wolford and Ruby Bautista train hard for weeks at Paradise Fitness Center, and it paid off. Ms. Bautista placed in every female category at the 2023 NPC Michelob Ultra Guam National Bodybuilding Championships Saturday at the Rihga Resort in Tamuning.

Mr. Wolford was the star of the night, taking the overall prize for both men’s bodybuilding and men’s classic physique competitions.

This year’s competition featured 40 competitors and a wall-to-wall packed house at the hotel’s ballroom that I’m certain broke several fire codes. The excitement was a snapshot of gym life the past year, when the men and women on the stage this past weekend along with their trainers and friends would grunt it out, repetition by repetition.

Progressive overload. Powerlifting strength foundations. Preworkout and creatine. Melatonin for that recovery. Sweat. Vlogs of progress. That blood-filled pump. The horrible 45 minutes walking up that boring incline. All that shirtless posing under the fluorescent lighting of the aerobics room. The dieting. OMG the dieting.

Those sculpted bodies are the byproducts of months of discipline most people will not endure.

MaryAnn Camacho, a former titleholder and the woman who brings us these competitions every year, has built up quite the outlet and opportunity for men and women of health, vanity and accomplishment to take their fitness journey to the next level and to make Guam proud.

The annual competition will be moving back to the summer time, according to a post today on the Guam National Physique and Bodybuilding Federation’s Facebook page.

Congratulations to all the competitors (names and placement listed in images below), who on that night defined a new standard of fitness and beauty for our region.

May you enjoy all the rice, pizza, and ice cream until your training starts again.