The Item: Career Updates, Contest Preparation, Andrew Oye's IFBB Pro Athletes Roundup
The Scoop: Just Reported: IFBB Pro Hidetada Yamagishi suffered a quad injury prior to the IFBB Tampa Bay Pro Bodybuilding Championships over the weekend. (IFBB Pro Ben White won the Open Division. IFBB Pro Jose Raymond won the 202 Divison.) While he soldiered through the morning Prejudging portion of the contest, Yamagishi was ultimately forced to withdraw from appearing on stage at the evening Finals portion due to his injury.
The "So What?": "Hide has been competing since the [2009] Olympia non-stop," said
retired IFBB Pro Rich Gaspari, whose company sponsors Yamagishi. "I told
him it would be difficult for any bodybuilder to sustain getting ready
for competition and staying in shape month after month after month...It
was a freak accident that he tore his quad...He told me, 'My mind wanted
to do it, but my body couldn't.' That's the way it is in bodybuilding.
From my years of experience, I know this."
Ironically, according to Yamagishi, the leg muscle tore -- not while blasting through heavy squat exercises as one might guess, but -- when he sat down to train his upper body in the gym. The 8th place finisher at the Arnold Classic over four months ago; winner of the Europa Orlando Pro Show of Champions three months ago; and 2nd place finisher at the New York Pro (won by IFBB Pro Roelly Winklaar) two months ago, Yamagishi was on a quest to compete in every U.S. IFBB Pro League contest on the 2010 IFBB Pro League event calendar. However, many insiders had warned him against attempting to achieve such a lofty feat.
Andrew Oye's Verdict: On his journey to challenge Mr. Olympia IFBB Pro Jay Cutler, hungry Hidetada Yamagishi would be wise to heed advice from veteran Rich Gaspari, who obviously knows a thing or two about navigating the bodybuilding stage -- the Arnold Sports Festival's first-ever 1989 IFBB Pro Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic Bodybuilding Championships winner and 3-time runner-up at Joe Weider's Olympia Weekend (won by 8-time Mr. Olympia IFBB Pro Lee Haney). Many wonder if Hidetada Yamagishi had something to prove. Now they wonder if the determined athlete, who had already earned 2010 Olympia qualification several times over, will miss the biggest show of them all.
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