"THE BOYS FROM THE WEST" By Gina Ford...

I had the opportunity to chat to two guys that have done extremely well again this year in their quest for the NABBA Universe titles of Mr Class 2 and Juniors in Southport sometime in October. Finally the West have two guys to be proud of in the Bodybuilding World, and I managed to catch up with Dave and Dan while at a photo shoot for promotional posters and advertisements for their sponsor Trojan Fitness (based in Bristol - photographs by my partner Chris Small).



Dave Guest won Class 2 at this year's NABBA Britain Final, taking the Overall title to become MR BRITAIN 2010. A shame that through injury Dave Titterton was unable to compete this year. If he had been there I truley think it would have been a spectacular show down of physiques, I will still stick to my boy Dave taking the title though!!



Dan Barry came back this year looking his best ever to retain his NABBA Junior title and then 3 weeks later going to Malta for the NABBA Worlds taking the Junior title there as well. I am so chuffed for Dan as he did have a disappointing Universe 2009 (he will admit to it himself), but he has come back this year with even more determination.



At the time of this interview Dave and Dan have approximately 14 weeks before the Universe so my first question was "what have you guys been up to in the time you have taken off between preparation for the shows?"
Dave - I had a couple of weeks off training after the Britains and enjoyed some nice food all though I couldn't over indulge as I had a guest spot in Gosport on 3rd July and needed to look half tidy! But after that enjoyed chocolate, especially those peanut M&M's, roast dinners, desserts, take aways, alcohol.......need I go on!? I had a good rest in Turkey for a week, but back to the gym now BIG TIME!!!
Dan - I took a week off after the Worlds chilling and taking my girlfriend out to places we wouldn't have been able to enjoy while I was dieting. It has been great to eat forbidden foods like Nandos, Ben & Jerrys (I can relate to that one Dan one of my favourites out of comp) all the usual stuff.

Guys do you think your preparation for the Universe will change much from the Britains/Worlds?
Both Dan & Dave agree that they were happy with everything and basically "if it ain't broke don't try and fix it" "yeh hopefully get the same physical results for the Universe" says Dave.

As this will be Dan's last year competing in the Junior class I asked him what his plans are for the future regards competing? "well I'm not really sure, I have to get the Universe out of the way first and if all goes well I may do a show or two next year, or take a year off who knows!

Dave agrees with Dan "it depends on how it goes at this years Universe. If it goes well I may feel that I have achieved all I can in my world of Bodybuilding and take at least a year away from it all. After all I did start Bodybuilding with the intention of only doing one competition, but that's not happened!

I did ask Dave as this will be Dan's last year in the Juniors what did he feel Dan needs to do become one of the leading big guys? "Dan's already had a fantastic year and proved himself. He wants to go all the way in bodybuilding and I hope he does. If he keeps doing what he's doing I am sure he will achieve his goals (but he'll never beat me, lol!!!! I would have retired by the time he's ready for Class 2).

I know that you guys train together, do you ever get on each other's nerves? (be honest) Will this continue leading up to the Universe and although good mates will you feel that nearer the time you will need your own space? They both agree "training together does keep us motivated and works well most of the time. However when you are both dieting for the same show, tempers can run high and we can both be like bears with a sore head. We try not to take it out on each other and our preparation does differ so nearer the time it works out better to have our own space, focus on our training go home and have a good sleep.

As far as NABBA goes how do you guys feel it compares to other associations? Dave is quick to compliment NABBA "I feel it rides as high as any other, NABBA seem to be looking more for condition", Dan agrees "NABBA competitors are one of the highest and hardest standard of amateur Bodybuilders. I'm with Dave condition plays a big role for NABBA however size is a factor too and if you have both....SORTED!.

FINALLY, as a good friend of you both, I see a great future for you in the sport of Bodybuilding. Yes I do class people like us as atheletes, do you ever get frustrated when people who don't know or understand the sport make stupid assumptions about Bodybuilding/Bodybuilders? Have you ever encountered stupid comments and if so how do you react?
Dan - People don't realise the amount of work and dedication that goes in to doing this. They just seem to think you get on stage and it's done, but there's so much more to it. The food every 2 hours the amount of time spent in the gym. I have had some nasty comments in the past but the best thing to do is shrug it off. At the end of the day it's what I love doing and jealousy gets the better of people.
Dave - Personally my experiences of Bodybuilding have always been positive on a face to face basis. Yes some people do seem to have a little too much to say, but in my opinion it just comes down to them being jealous. After all, would they live as we do for 12 weeks before a show?


Thanks boys it has been a pleasure spending time with you both and I look forward to the Universe. Although I will be in Vegas getting married (sorry lads got to get my priorities right) I am sure you will keep me posted by text messages, and I am sure once again you will do us proud.
This article was written by Gina Ford (pictured right at 2009 Universe)

WATCH THE FIRST CALL OUT FOR THE CLASS 2 AT THE NABBA BRITAIN THIS YEAR, WHICH TROJAN'S DAVE GUEST WENT ON TO WIN!

DAN BARRY & DAVE GUEST SWEEP THE BOARD AT THIS YEAR'S NABBA BRITAIN!!

Dave Guest won his Class and the Overall at this year's NABBA Britain finals after just loosing out last year, Dan Barry won the Junior's again, a repeat of last year's victory! Check out these video's of the boys!

DAVE GUEST & DAN BARRY TRAIN ARMS AT RISK GYM BRISTOL SAT 1st MAY 2010

It's 4 weeks untill the NABBA Britain Finals in Southport this year, and the morning before Dave Guest was due to guest pose at the NABBA Wales, he and training partner Dan Barry dropped into Risk to train some guns... 3 exercies for biceps and 3 for tricpes, working around 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps. His diet is still mainly egg whites, chicken and brocchli at the moment. Dan Barry is also competing at the NABBA Britain finals, looking to capture the title of NABBA Junior Mr Britain again, after he won it last year at his first attempt.

DAVE GUEST... 6 WEEKS OUT FROM THE NABBA BRITAIN FINALS 2010...

Gina Ford caught up with Dave this week, and was kind enough to send us the pics of Dave so we could have a look at his progress.









At 6 weeks out Dave's conditioning looks better than ever, his waist is looking small and tight, and he's already starting to achieve that dry hard look.



It should be one hell of a battle come the Britain Finals, and Dave definately has the tools to take the title away from last year's winner Dave Titterton (pictured right.)

Book the day off work, get clearance with the Mrs, and make sure you're there to give Dave all the support he needs!

NABBA BRITAIN FIANLS MAY 29th 2010,
Southport Theatre and Convention Centre.
Tickets are available on the day at the NABBA ticket Kiosk located in the Theatre Foyer from 0935 hrs - 12 noon and 1830 hrs - 2000 hrs.

SEE YOU ALL THERE!!

GINA FORD CATCHES UP WITH DAVE GUEST....

This week, Gina Ford caught up with NABBA Mr England 2009 Dave Guest, and was kind enough to share the details with us here at Trojan!!!

"Well I met up with Dave Guest today, unfortunately Laura Butler was unable to make it so I won't be seeing her now until the show at Exeter next Sunday when I am judging. Next Sunday.........blimey I can't believe it's here already and it really does feel odd that I am not getting ready for it myself, I miss the stress of it all, tanning, final count down of training days, depleting..........do I really miss that?!?!?!?

Any way back to Dave Guest, at our last met and my last article I said that Dave had some home work to do. Nothing major just fine tuning and 3 weeks later that fine tuning has turbo-charged his physique.

Considering he has another 6 weeks until the Britain Finals I was pleasantly surprised with the change, the extension of his lats as I spoke about last time has improved, even down into his lower back muscles we are seeing definition/separation that hasn't been there before.


We were looking at improvement at the top of the front thigh, again a great change. The sartorious of the front thigh has started to separate from the main quadriceps. As for the hamstrings as we all know these are comprised of three separate muscles the bicep femoris, semitendinosus and the semimembrnosus, all these were prominent today. The serratus anterior muscles, oblique's, abs all sharp, but with Dave these always are, so all-in-all good stuff.

Put the tan on pumped up, boy oh boy looking good.

I must admit judging is a hard game, you have to remember that on stage at the West Britain's there are going to be at least 4-5 guys that I know and have at point given help and advise to. I do take pride in the fact that I will judge those people as I see it on the day, whether I know them or not, those I feel worthy of placing I will place accordingly.



Remember I am only 1 judge of 5, we don't always see eye to eye and do look for slightly different things. That's why some times when I have been competing or just watching a show, they call out the top 3 it can be totally different to how you have seen and judged it. (pictured - Dave winning the NABBA England in 2009)

I think the women's is probably the hardest to judge, even the judges get confused. I have been to competitions where other male judges have had to ask my advise. If you read the rule book for something like the NABBA Toned class, then the girls get on stage and are then asked to display a pose that they haven't practiced it just throws them and adds confusion.

Maybe back stage there should be posters of the poses the girls can practice before going on stage so that they are prepared, and maybe a guideline written out for the judges to read on the day so that we are all on the same page!! I also think NABBA shouldn't have taken away the women's physique class. The Physique class now only runs at the England to qualify for the Universe, and I believe that the Figure class girls are becoming more like the light weight physiques.

When I first started competing 12 years ago the Figure was more or less like the Toned is now, taking away the Physique I personally feel was the wrong move, but hey, who I am, that's just my opinion on the matter, but speaking to a lot of female competitors they really don't know what they should be training towards, they look at the rules and descriptions then get to the shows and get judged totally differently!!!"

A BIG THANKS TO GINA, AND HOPEFULLY WE WILL GET SOME PICS SOON!!

GINA FORD CATCHES UP WITH DAVE GUEST & LAURA BUTLER.....

I met up today with Laura Butler and Dave Guest both supported atheletes of Trojan Nutrition

It was to see how they were looking and getting on with their preparation for their next competitions....Laura competing in a month at the NABBA West Britain in Miss Toned, and Dave Guest although appearing at the West doing a guest spot, to see how he is squaring up for the NABBA Britain Finals in 9 weeks time.

Firstly I trained with Laura, we haven't had a training session in a while and I must say I was really pleased with her progress. It was back and shoulders today and I was on a mission, that mission was to make Laura work her ass off and go away burned out........"mission accomplished".

Her strength has improved tenfold I know that Laura always trains hard but it is different when you have some one there pushing and spotting you to go that little bit further and heavier.

We started with wide pulldowns in front then on to close grip bar for narrow pulldowns. Next we hit the barbell for bent over row, standing up straight in between the rowing movement finishing with D/B single arm row. With the D/B single arm row we did it with no rest, so doing 15 reps each side, straight into 12 reps each side then 10 then 8. This is good to finish the workout aiming to get a real burn and fatigue the muscles.

Fatigue setting in it was onto shoulders, we started with B/B clean and press from the waist, on the press going behind the head, then infront before going back to being position arms down. After those side lateral raise machine, then shoulder press machine finishing with front lateral raise both hands holding a single D/B making a close grip rather than a D/B in each hand. Then as I was checking Laura out and we had just worked the upper I thought I had better get her on the treadmill to get the legs and glutes worked, so had Laura walking at 6.5 incline 10 for 15 mins then working back down to the flat for the last few minutes.

I must say I last saw Laura about 3 weeks ago in the evening and she did look quite flat, but that isn't a good time to check some one out physically, she had worked, trained had a personal training client and was tired, therefore her body reflected that. Today a completely different story, sharp, toned and quite dry. All good.....her arms back and chest were really sharp, as with the Toned we are not looking for muscle mass or being vascular, Lauras legs really looking good with 4 weeks to go. The only thing we have to work on is sharpening up the mid section, a bit of water but aiming to get them leaner and just a bit more through mid delts.

GOOD WORK LAURA, KEEP IT UP !!!!!

Dave was next, he had just finished training abs I think, stripped off for me (oh I love my job!!!). After seeing him last year in the NABBA Britain's and Universe respectfully getting a 2nd and 3rd placing I knew where there was room for improvement. In the Universe the guys who came 1st and 2nd it was all down to the legs. Dave has awesome legs lets face it with the power lifting back ground the size and thickness in the legs are there but it was just a matter of fine tuning, getting a bit more cut through the very top of the quads and today I saw it. The 2 guys that placed infront of Dave at the Uni their legs were bang on, in your face ripped and they seemed not to have to think about tensing them......Dave does have to be reminded but he is getting there. Second place for Dave to tackle is his lower back as an extension of his lats.......if you know what I mean?! If you look at people like Jason Corrick who have got freakish lats, his lats extend down to his ass!!! We won't be able to get lats like that for Dave he isn't genetically built that way, but we have a plan of action which Dave will hit this week.



DAVE "MONSTER" GUEST WILL BE GOING FOR IT THIS YEAR, AND I CAN'T WAIT!!!

All in all I am very excited for the West Britain's this year, we have some new faces on the block and all looking good............RICH RUBINO YOU BETTER BE THERE?

Take care all and will be letting you all know any news when I get it.

DAVE "MONSTER" GUEST.... WRITTEN BY GINA FORD FOR THE BEEF MAGAZINE....

I am here today with who I feel to be one of Britain's rising Bodybuilding Stars... Dave Guest.

To look at him, and if you didn't know him, you may feel some what intimidated!

He is 5'9, and a big guy! Off season he walks around 19st 7Ibs, and competes around 17st 7Ibs.

He is one of the nicest and unasumming guys you will ever meet! Believe me, I have socialsed with Dave,and when he walks into a room, heads turn, but he seems oblivious and uneffected by it all, and this is what makes him the type of guy you would like to meet and have as a friend.

Dave is 31, from Bristol, and only started competing in Bodybuilding in 2009.
He got the bug for contests years ago when he competed at weightlifting. Starting at the very young age of 14, he was 8 times British Champion between 1994-2002 in the 94kg class.



Dave went on to win 2 silver medals in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002.
When asked - "why change from weightlifting to bodybuilding?" Dave replied,
"I felt I had got as far as I could in the world of weightlifting, I no longer felt challenged, and I had always wanted to give bodybuilding a go! With Weightlifting it was more about regular training and eating more or less anything you wanted, where as with bodybuilding it really is down to eating far more regulary and correctly, and then the training, which is still very important."

Off season, Dave tends to eat what he wants, but when in contest preparation he eats every 2 hours, small amounts of carbohydrates and good sources of protein, including Pure Whey Protein Shakes and BCAA's, allowing himself 2 cheat meals a week.



I know that he can leave his cheat meals in up to 2 weeks before a competition, he is always very lean and his body eats up cheat meals very quickly! Saying that though, if he feels things aren't looking quite as they should be, he reins it in abit, but Dave is a true believer in the rule that "IF YOU ARE TRAINING HARD, IT SHOULD TAKE CARE OF ITSLEF!"

As for his training schedule, this doesn't really change much off season or on season where the weights are concerned, but when in contest preparation Dave liks to break it down to doing about 45 mins of cardio in the morning and then weights are done in the afternoon or evening, training 6 days a week.



When I asked Dave what his goals are for 2010 (after doing so well in 2009! - his achievements I will list at the end) he said he is hoping to improve his placings from the ones he had at the 2009 NABBA Britain Finals and 2009 NABBA Universe.
Plus he has already been invited to participate at the NABBA Worlds in June in Malta.

As I have already mentioned, I know Dave well, I have seen him compete, and in all honestly there isn't much he needs to improve on. He did some guest spots in 2009, one in Coventry for Future Physiques, and another in August for the NABBA Ireland. Dave will be guest posing at this years NABBA West Britain in Exter - April 25th!

These Guest spots will help Dave improve his stage presence, and given more time and experience, I am sure this will eventually become natural to Dave - and when it does, we will see the true professional I feel he can become.



Finally I asked Dave if there was someone who had inspired him in the world of bodybuilding, and given the chance who would he go for a pizza and beer with???
"Dorian Yates." Dave replied. "After all, he is the Britain that has been there and done it all. I would like to thank Mike & Julie at Trojan, for all of their support and sponsorship throughout 2009, it has been very much appreciated"

DAVE'S ACHIEVEMENTS FOR 2009:

NABBA WEST BRITAIN 2009 - CLASS 2 WINNER, OVERALL WINNER.
NABBA PRO AM - PLACED 4TH.
NABBA ENGLAND - CLASS 2 WINNER, OVERALL WINNER.
NABBA UNIVERSE - CLASS 2, 3RD PLACE.

DAVE GUEST... SPONSORED BY...



Great work so far Dave, and a big thanks to Gina Ford for letting us have this article... look out for it in a coming BEEF MAGAZINE Soon!!