70’s Big Guide to the Arnold

The annual Arnold Sport Festival is this weekend, and if you aren’t going, you’ll wish you had. It’s the biggest sport festival in the world and will include twice as many competing athletes as the Olympics. There will be over 175,000 people in attendance over the weekend. It will truly be a spectacle. This is a day-by-day guide of the coolest stuff going on. You can also look at the official schedule and purchase tickets to the Expo and special events. .



Locations
[spoiler]Note that there are two primary locations for the fun stuff. The Greater Columbus Convention Center will be the primary location that includes the Expo, Weightlifting, Powerlifting, Strongman (pro and amateur), etc. Veterans Memorial is only about a mile away and is where all the bodybuilding and figure stuff is going on (including pre-judging, finals, etc.). The Arena Grand Movie Theater will host the Arnold Sport Film Festival, but I can’t imagine myself going over there unless they played Pumping Iron, Predator, or Conan on repeat (which is what they should do). There are much cooler things to see than independent films on high school football or empowered teenage girls who powerlift. I could be wrong, but I prefer to see the live entertainment at the convention center. The LC Pavilion will host the MMA Festival and the “Arnold Party With The Pros” (hang out with pro bodybuilders) — so two demographics I’ll undoubtedly want to avoid. Unless you’re viewing some of the bodybuilding shows (some of us are attending the finals on Saturday night), you’re only going to hang out in the convention center. [/spoiler]

Thursday
[spoiler]This is the first official day of the entire shindig. There’s some bodybuilding stuff going on at Veteran’s Memorial, but more importantly, there’s professional boxing on Thursday night. I’ve never seen boxing in person, so I’ll be attending and primarily shouting, “Hit him! C’mon, hit ’em!”. From what I see on TicketMaster, seating is assigned, so plan accordingly. You can get some tickets in the $20 range. [/spoiler]

Friday
[spoiler]Expo
Here’s where things get intense. This is Day 1 of the Expo, which lasts from 10:30 AM to 6:00 PM. There will be over 700 booths set up of people trying to sell shit, and there will be many fitness celebrities in attendance fulfilling their contractual obligations. I’ll definitely check it out, but this is going to be irritating for someone (like me) who hates large groups of people. Rest assure that with almost 200,000 people in attendance, at LEAST 30% are going to be jackasses. It’s simple statistics. Hopefully we can make up for it by asking people how much they curl and other various questions. Speaking of which, post funny questions to the comments; I’m gonna make a list of stock questions to use when we’re walking around.

Powerlifting
The Raw USAPL Championships begin at 8 AM (with women and lighter men’s classes) and should end around 1:30 PM. The heavier weight classes (105kg and up, including Chris/Mike/Alex and NolanPower) will be lifting from 2:00PM to 6:00PM. The quality of lifting should be pretty high; to qualify lifters needed a 375 in the Wilke’s formula, and only the first 75 entries were accepted. Raw powerlifting means there isn’t any supportive gear; knee sleeves and belts are allowed. USAPL often receives criticism, but they hold lifters to a high standard (the squats will be deep). There are a lot of good lifters, especially in the second session. I’ve been to two national USAPL Raw meets, and I suspect (hope?) that this one will be of the highest quality.

Olympic Weightlifting
This event counts for Senior Nationals and the Olympic Trials for USA Weightlifting. Each weight class had to meet a minimum qualifying total in order to compete. The lighter men’s and women classes lift earlier in the day. Notable men’s classes are the 77s (including Chad Vaughn) at 2:30PM, 85s (including Kendrick Farris) at 5:00 PM, and 94s (with five really good lifters) at 7:30 PM. There is also weightlifting on Saturday, including Donny Shankle at 10:00 AM. If you’ve never seen a national meet, this is a great opportunity to see a lot of different types of lifters.

Strongman
There will be amateur strongman stuff starting at 8:00 AM and running until 1:30PM. But the money maker is the Arnold Stronngman Classic with its impressive list of competitors. Unfortunately we are gonna miss this since it’s 2:00 to 4:00 PM schedule will be exactly when Chris/Mike/Alex are lifting, but there is more of it on Saturday. This would be amazing to see in person.

Fencing
I put this on here because apparently you can go and try it out. If there’s time, I definitely want to get my fence on. It’s just like Game of Thrones, right?

Other
There’s also plenty of other things I didn’t highlight. There is CrossFit (9AM to 6PM), Gymnastics (8AM to 10AM), Mighty Mitts grip challenge (4PM to 5PM), Table Tennis (1PM to 7PM), Boxing/MMA stuff (noon to 10PM) and all kinds of other frivolous bullshit (like cheerleading, fitness clinics, zumba, etc.). [/spoiler]

Saturday
[spoiler]There’s a lot of amazing stuff happening this day. I’ll only list the major differences from Friday, cause a lot of the same stuff is going on (like fencing, CrossFit, teenager shit, and dance/cheerleading). Note that the Mighty Mitts grip challenge is 3:30 to 4:30PM.

Expo
This is the same, but it opens earlier at 9AM and runs until 6PM.

Weightlifting
Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here? Donny Shankle has two chances to make the Olympic team. This is arguably the best shot. Lifting starts at 10:00 AM and will probably last until about noon. Remember that as of now, the men do not have a spot at the Olympics. However, if all the male competitors lift like shit a few weeks later at the Pan Ams, they will still earn a spot. The top guys include Chad Vaughn, Kendrick Farris, and Donny Shankle. They are all great lifters, and they are all still Americans, so let’s get behind them in their session. They’ll have another shot to better themselves at the Pan Ams, but flying out of country, going to South America, and eating bad food typically doesn’t result in optimal performance. This weekend will probably be the best shot.

Powerlifting – Single Ply Equipped
The North American Powerlifting Federation is having its championships at the Arnold. It’s similar to the “Pan Ams” for weightlifting and is a step up from USAPL but a step down from IPF World’s. Women and lighter men’s classes will lift from 9AM to 1PM, and heavier classes will lift from 2PM to 5:30PM. Expect big lifts and top levels of competition.

Arm Wrestling Finals
The preliminaries occur on Friday, but these finals last from 9AM to 10AM. I don’t think Stallone will be there. Still would be kinda cool to watch…maybe?

Strongman
Luckily this is going on since I will miss Friday’s events. Lasts from 1:30PM to 3:30PM and will be fucking awesome.

GNC ProPerformance Amp Pro Deadlift
This event is just big deadlift fun. Brad Gillingham has pulled 400kg in this competition in the past. Big deadlifts, nothin’ else. It’s one hour after the Strongman Classic finishes.

Other
Of course there’s other shit like CrossFit, World Jump Rope Championships, and table tennis. But that’s all secondary to the cool, big, and heavy stuff.

Bodybuilding Finals
Of course the fucking Men’s finals are going on Saturday night. This is the second biggest bodybuilding show of the year, and Arnold is going to be on stage. I don’t know if there’s much of a chance to see or meet him if you don’t pay the money to attend the “meet and greet”, but this will be the closest I’ve ever been to him…

But seriously, some of us are going to the show, and it should be, at the very least, entertaining. The event is at the auditorium.


[/spoiler]

Sunday
[spoiler]Honestly, there’s not a lot of stuff going on. Most people will be going home. Unless you like women’s weightlifting, amateur strongman, running a 5K, or the standard CrossFit/cheerleading/fencing/MMA/boxing shit, you’re not gonna be sticking around on this day. All of the badass stuff is happening Friday and mostly Saturday. [/spoiler]

Communicating
[spoiler]The easiest way to communicate with people over the weekend will be on Twitter (@70sBig). I can provide basic updates and let people know where the action is (regarding events or food). You guys can twat at me, but if you want everyone to see it then maybe we should use a #70sBig hash tag? If we use an #Arnold hash tag, it’ll get lost in the sea of 200,000 people. If you have a better suggestion, post it in the comments. I look forward to meeting and hanging out with those of you attending.

Oh, and don’t be afraid to come up and say hello. We are all just normal people and you don’t need to put anyone on a pedestal unless its Arnold himself. Come up, say hello, and we’ll probably shoot the shit with you. I’ve had people ask for pictures, which was weird for me, but just remember that there’s no reason you shouldn’t say hello. If we have some time, then we can talk training, programming, and whatnot too. You’re not a bother! Just be aware that if we are in the middle of the meet (i.e. I’m coaching) or an event, then it may be brief. Oh, and be prepared for everyone to be way more weird than you anticipate. We’ll twat where we’ll hang out on Friday and Saturday nights, so hopefully we can get a fun group together. [/spoiler]

Special Update
[spoiler]This is from a guy named Kyle, who is a Columbus Police Officer with some good information (he put it on the Facebook Fan Page):

Columbus Police Officer here. Here’s some tips for out-of-towners coming to Columbus.

Food: Closest Chipotle is at 401 N. Front St., but it is frequently closed–it is only open during special events, so I don’t know what it’s hours will be during the Arnold. Next closest Chipotle is about an 8 minute drive away from the convention center, in German Village at 488 S. High St. There is a Mongolian BBQ within walking distance of the convention center at Nationwide and Marconi Blvd (just south of Nationwide Arena). If you’re more into experiencing local food, check out Liz Lessner’s restaurants.

Closest grocery store to the Arnold is a Giant Eagle at 777 Neil Ave., which about a half mile away from the convention center.

Closest night life for bar hopping is on Park St. Cheapest alcohol is at Brothers bar, but we have the most problems (fights, etc.) there too. My favorite bar is Callahans just down the street. Crowd tends to be a little more mature. I’d avoid Mynt and Musiak, those are occasionally frequented by gang members. Rest of Park Street is pretty safe though.

The first Saturday of the month is always the (art) Gallery Hop in the Short North, which is the area just north of the Convention Center along High Street. It’s likely to be even busier than usual because of the warm weather forecasted.

I’ll one of many police officers you’ll see there patrolling the event itself and the parking lots. We do not have that much crime here in Columbus, but remember it is a metropolitan area, so be smart about hiding your valuables in your car and not leaving gym bags lying around unattended.

Thanks for the information, Kyle.[/spoiler]