FitX

I wasn't going to attend FitX - trekking to the city is such a huge PITA when you live out in the boonies. Besides, I'd been to a fitness expo in Melbourne once before and was pretty unimpressed, so didn't give it a thought. THEN I got a message from Selina, who was coming down from Mackay for the weekend and wanted to know if I was going...? Well, HELL YEAH!

So I jumped online to find out the details and almost fainted at the $20 price tag for entry. But wait...what's this? Free entry for fitness and health business people? Awesome. I registered and printed my free ticket and I was all set.

Being pretty focused on some fat loss at the moment, I wasn't prepared to take a chance on the catering options at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. There *may* have been something relatively healthy there, but there's no guarantee at those places. So I packed a portable meal:

Very unexciting, but protein, carbs and plenty of fibre. And handbag-portable!

I was hoping to find a salad available that I could add my home-brought goodies to, but when I attempted to check out the cafeteria area, the queue was so long, I couldn't even see the end of it. Bah. The smell of hot chips pervading the entire exhibition space didn't encourage me to spend thirty minutes or more waiting in line in the hope of a bit of lettuce.

I found Selina and Shannon down the front of the main stage area, waiting for the IFBB Pro ladies to come onstage for pre-judging. The show was running horribly late (I think that's just a given with every bodybuilding federation), but it was worth the wait. Top four:

I can dream of having legs like those, right?

While we were waiting for the girls, we got to ogle a bit of beefcake:

I have no idea which division this was - possibly the Pro qualifier?

Overall, I wasn't impressed with FitX. Maybe if I'd got there early.... it was horribly overcrowded and very hard to move along the aisles, let alone get close to the stands to see what was on offer. I've never seen so many "Bros" in one place. It was also noisy and the catering facilities, as mentioned earlier, were inadequate. I wanted a bottle of water but again, wasn't about to join the queue. I did spy a drink vending machine though ...which was out of order.

I was glad that I hadn't paid to get in. I did get to hang out with the Queensland girlies though, so it wasn't a total loss. I may go again next year, but I'll make sure I don't arrange an 11:30am osteopath appointment on the day, which delayed my arrival until almost 2:00pm. Getting there when the doors open probably makes all the difference.

They did have a variety of "entertainment" going on. This made me raise an eyebrow:
 

There's a FEDERATION? for ARM WRESTLING?

I'm a little inspired by the impressive IFBB ladies (no, I am NOT going to compete again) and I really pushed things up a few notches in the gym this morning. I even managed three sets of very light deadlifts with no issues - of course, making sure my legs and butt were doing all the work, not my shoulders. That made me feel so good I went on to spend twenty minutes on the dreaded elliptical when I'd finished my weights workout. Go, me!

It's long weekend here, so I need to urgently get on with doing nothing very much at all. Later...