As a bar of cold, unforgiving steel lingers over your head and fatigue starts to whisper doubt, it's mind over matter in the struggle to sculpt your physique. Adrenaline sets in. The weight is lifted. That's rep one.
Bringing in the best bodies Buffalo has to offer and showing them off like a prized gallery, The NPC Mr./Mrs. Buffalo Bodybuilding, Figure and Bikini Championships will be pumping up the Center for the Arts Mainstage Theater Saturday, March 28 at 7 p.m. The glistening star atop Buffalo's competitive tree, The Mr./Mrs. Buffalo Championship offers a final stage to see Grecian modeled talent before they soar off to a national level.
Joe Lazzaro, current leader and Master of Ceremonies for the Mr./Mrs. Buffalo Championships, can attest at a personal level to how important the competition is in both a traditional and prosperous sense. Having watched his father win the competition in 1954 and later the Mr. America, Joe followed in his gym shorts, winning Mr. Buffalo in 1990 and an eventual Mr. USA.
"The Mr. Buffalo is the longest standing competition in this area and, I believe, in all of New York State," Lazzaro said. "The tradition of the contest itself is significant. Coming out of the Mr. Buffalo gives you recognition nationally."
Riding his post-Mr. Buffalo and Mr. USA success, Lazzaro signed a self-proclaimed "sizable" endorsement contract with EAS supplements. A success in bodybuilding and current member of the Buffalo community, Lazzaro continues to tone the sport locally and run the prestigious Mr./Mrs. Buffalo Championship in a way that's intense for competitors and also fun for the families cheering them on.
Though all the judging is done in the morning and competitors will lie under the judgmental scope for quite some time, the evening show is where all the nail-biting excitement takes place.
"We expect approximately 70 competitors and between 1500 and1600 people in the audience. We have a great time that evening. Everybody lets loose and cheers on their families," Lazzaro said.
One such competitor is UB alumna and powerhouse mother of three, Sue Alongi Manera. Though a faithful lifter for 20 years, Manera found an untapped love for competition in 2007 and has been a die-hard competitor and trainee ever since.
"I've been training for the last two years. I have a trainer who I work with four or five days a week," said Manera. "We train for about two hours a day doing pretty hardcore weightlifting. On my own, I do a couple hours of cardio a day. When I'm training for a contest, I train for about four hours a day."
Ever-competing, Manera recently took first place in master bodybuilding and second in open bodybuilding at the INBF Mr./Mrs. Supernatural meet. Though undoubtedly gratifying, winning Mrs. Buffalo would be a bit of a dream come true.
"It would be very meaningful to me. It would be like I was accomplishing a really huge goal to take first place or even second place in any of the categories. I've been training so long and so hard. It would really mean a lot," Manera said. "On the other hand, if I don't place, that's okay too because I was so glad that I was able to get on the Mrs. Buffalo stage. It's a huge accomplishment to just be able to say I did it."
Crushing stereotypes left and right, Manera is proof not only that a woman can look incredible in her fifties and be in better shape than any of the men she knows, but also of the health and beauty found within female bodybuilding.
"I'd like to really stress the point that many women are really scared to body build. They really shouldn't be because it's not only beautiful to have a muscular body, but it's also very healthy," Manera said. "It's just so healthy for you to have good muscle on your body. Women bodybuilders are sometimes preconceived [as] masculine and ugly, but they really aren't. Bodybuilders are athletes, and there's hard work and hard training that goes into it. It's a very beautiful sport."
Whether you're cheering on Manera in master and open bodybuilding, or rooting for the 69 other hard-bodied competitors in their respective fields, the 2009 Mr./Mrs. Buffalo Bodybuilding Championship should be an exciting and refreshing way to spend a Saturday night.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
