Hello everyone,
I am happy to be writing about one of the most exciting times in my life right now. As many of you know, I have spent the last 5 and a half years pursuing my PhD in Nutritional Sciences. Well, I am proud to say that this past March I defended and deposited my thesis and graduated this past weekend with my PhD in Nutritional Sciences from the best school in the country for Nutritional Sciences, The University of Illinois. Some of my research has already been published in the Journal of Nutrition, but much more will be coming in the future. My thesis was entitled:
"Leucine is a critical factor determining protein quality and quantity of a complete meal to initiate muscle protein synthesis" This PhD was by far the hardest thing I've ever done in my life and is the only thing that I have ever wanted to quit at, but after everything my wife and I have gone through I am glad we have stuck it out. Many people have asked me what I will do now that my PhD is finished. I have decided not to go further into academia but instead to expand my current business, BioLayne Inc. As many of you know, I currently do nutritional and training consultations for bodybuilders, fitness, and figure competitors as well as strength athletes and serious non-competitive lifters. I will use my degree and the knowledge I gained through my academic pursuits to help others accomplish their goals in bodybuilding and fitness. This is my dream job and something I have enjoyed for the last 4 years and cannot imagine doing anything else. It has been more successful than I could have ever imagined and I owe a great deal to my hard working clients.
Another big change in our lives is that we will be moving from Champaign, IL and relocating to Tampa, FL. Isabel and I met in Tampa in undergraduate school and have always wanted to move back. Now we are in a fortunate position to be able to do so. Last week we closed on a great house in Tampa and we will be moving down this weekend to sunny Florida! We are so excited we can hardly contain ourselves!
To make life even more interesting/hectic, I have begun dieting for my first natural pro shows! I promised myself that once I won my pro card, I would not diet for another show until I was finished with grad school, it just takes took too much out of my research and set me back too far when I did it before. Now that I'm finished with my PhD it is time to return to the stage. I have not announced what shows I will be doing but stay tuned as they will be posted in the coming months. In the meantime, please follow along my precontest journal here: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=124195121
I want to take this time to thank everyone who has supported me and followed my journey over the last few years, without your interest and support I would be nothing. I promise, I will always work as hard as I possibly can and leave everything on the table. I will never look back with regrets.
"Unless a man takes on more than he can possibly do, he will never do all he possibly can." ~Henry Drummond
Thanks you all! Big things are in store!
-Layne
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Arnold Classic 2010
Hey Everyone,
Well I'm back to the grind after attending the ASC this past weekend. I was there blogging the live play by play of the show as well as doing interviews for bodybuilding.com in addition to spending some time with my good friends at the Scivation booth.
Isabel and I arrived on Thursday and immediately went down town to train at Metro Fitness because we knew if we waited too long it would get very crowded. I was pleased to find the gym was relatively empty other than a few IFBB pros & top NPC guys. I was happy to find that I was the only one working out legs that day; everyone else seemed to busy primping in front of the mirror doing bicep curls and lateral raises. I started out with some heavy hack squats but after 3 sets of hacks I became disheartened starring at the poor empty squat rack. The squat rack seemed so lonely so I decided to go keep it company. I hit a few sets of 10 with 405 and then decided to go for a PR. I hit 455 for a set of 8 which would have been a PR if I was fresh, but this was after 3 sets of heavy hack squats and 2 sets of squats with 405 so I was VERY happy with this PR. Isabel and I then went back to the hotel and chilled out for the night.
While I was happy that I got to train legs, the next day my body hated me for it walking around the expo for 6 hours. I was doing interviews for bodybuilding.com the first half of the day, which was fun, though I always get nervous doing interviews because oftentimes we'll interview someone I'm not super familiar with and I would hate to ask a dumb question. This is exactly what happened when I interviewed one of the olympic lifting coaches LOL. The latter half of the day I spent at the Scivation booth meeting and talking with fans & taking pictures. I gotta say the level of support this year was incredible. I must have met and talked with several hundred people. It was really awesome. After the expo was finished on friday Isabel and I headed to the women's finals where she was doing the play by play with Marika Gethin from bodybuilding.com. The women's finals were awesome and afterwards we chatted with our friends Troy Johnson & Krissy Chin (who had just competed in her first Arnold) and with our good friend Ava Cowan who was also standing in the lobby. Ava had to be up early & headed home but Troy and Krissy went out to dinner with us and we had a blast. I've gotta say, if you've never met Troy & Krissy at the Gaspari booth at one of these expos, you need to. They are easily two of the nicest people I've ever met and we always have so much fun with them.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. To our surprise, we were woken up at 3 am to a fire alarm. Apparently some jackass decided it would be funny to empty out the fire extinguishers on the 6th floor. This set off the alarms and emptied everyone out of the hotel. Needless to say we did not sleep well that night and we were dragging all of Saturday. We made it through and attended the men's finals which were a treat. Perhaps the highlight of the night was watching Derek Poundstone propose to his girlfriend after winning the arnold strongman! As for the show itself, I thought Phil Heath should have won, but Kai is so huge and freaky, it's hard to overlook him.
Sunday we spend the whole day at the expo other than grabbing lunch and chatting with Ava, which was nice because we never get to spend much time with her because we are always so busy at these things. Before we knew it, Sunday was done and we were driving home. As I've always said, the Arnold is one of those things I am really excited to get to, and really excited to leave from.
Thanks to everyone we met for making it special.
-Layne & Isabel
Well I'm back to the grind after attending the ASC this past weekend. I was there blogging the live play by play of the show as well as doing interviews for bodybuilding.com in addition to spending some time with my good friends at the Scivation booth.
Isabel and I arrived on Thursday and immediately went down town to train at Metro Fitness because we knew if we waited too long it would get very crowded. I was pleased to find the gym was relatively empty other than a few IFBB pros & top NPC guys. I was happy to find that I was the only one working out legs that day; everyone else seemed to busy primping in front of the mirror doing bicep curls and lateral raises. I started out with some heavy hack squats but after 3 sets of hacks I became disheartened starring at the poor empty squat rack. The squat rack seemed so lonely so I decided to go keep it company. I hit a few sets of 10 with 405 and then decided to go for a PR. I hit 455 for a set of 8 which would have been a PR if I was fresh, but this was after 3 sets of heavy hack squats and 2 sets of squats with 405 so I was VERY happy with this PR. Isabel and I then went back to the hotel and chilled out for the night.
While I was happy that I got to train legs, the next day my body hated me for it walking around the expo for 6 hours. I was doing interviews for bodybuilding.com the first half of the day, which was fun, though I always get nervous doing interviews because oftentimes we'll interview someone I'm not super familiar with and I would hate to ask a dumb question. This is exactly what happened when I interviewed one of the olympic lifting coaches LOL. The latter half of the day I spent at the Scivation booth meeting and talking with fans & taking pictures. I gotta say the level of support this year was incredible. I must have met and talked with several hundred people. It was really awesome. After the expo was finished on friday Isabel and I headed to the women's finals where she was doing the play by play with Marika Gethin from bodybuilding.com. The women's finals were awesome and afterwards we chatted with our friends Troy Johnson & Krissy Chin (who had just competed in her first Arnold) and with our good friend Ava Cowan who was also standing in the lobby. Ava had to be up early & headed home but Troy and Krissy went out to dinner with us and we had a blast. I've gotta say, if you've never met Troy & Krissy at the Gaspari booth at one of these expos, you need to. They are easily two of the nicest people I've ever met and we always have so much fun with them.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. To our surprise, we were woken up at 3 am to a fire alarm. Apparently some jackass decided it would be funny to empty out the fire extinguishers on the 6th floor. This set off the alarms and emptied everyone out of the hotel. Needless to say we did not sleep well that night and we were dragging all of Saturday. We made it through and attended the men's finals which were a treat. Perhaps the highlight of the night was watching Derek Poundstone propose to his girlfriend after winning the arnold strongman! As for the show itself, I thought Phil Heath should have won, but Kai is so huge and freaky, it's hard to overlook him.
Sunday we spend the whole day at the expo other than grabbing lunch and chatting with Ava, which was nice because we never get to spend much time with her because we are always so busy at these things. Before we knew it, Sunday was done and we were driving home. As I've always said, the Arnold is one of those things I am really excited to get to, and really excited to leave from.
Thanks to everyone we met for making it special.
-Layne & Isabel
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Meet Layne at the Arnold Classic!
Hi Everyone,
A lot of people have been asking me if I will be at the Arnold Classic and where they can come meet me. Isabel and I will be attending the Arnold from March 4-7. We will be covering the men's bodybuilding and women's figure for bodybuilding.com. For a good bit of the expo we will probably just be walking around and meeting up with friends, business associates, etc. But I have set aside blocks of time where I will be at the Scivation booth people can come say hello and chat a bit. You can find me at the Scivation booth at the following days and times:
Friday: 2:30-4:30pm
Saturday: 2:30-4:30pm
Sunday: 11:00am-1:00pm
There is a good chance that I will have several copies of my DVD with me, so those of you who have not had a chance to pick up my DVD, you will likely have the opportunity to purchase it from me in person for $30. Keep in mind that we have almost sold out of these DVDs and there is a good chance there will not be a re-order, so if you want to get one, make sure you pick on up at the Arnold or order one through http://www.biolayne.com. I will also have competition pictures of me that I will be signing for people who want one.
Thank you all for your support and I look forward to seeing you at the Arnold!
-Layne
A lot of people have been asking me if I will be at the Arnold Classic and where they can come meet me. Isabel and I will be attending the Arnold from March 4-7. We will be covering the men's bodybuilding and women's figure for bodybuilding.com. For a good bit of the expo we will probably just be walking around and meeting up with friends, business associates, etc. But I have set aside blocks of time where I will be at the Scivation booth people can come say hello and chat a bit. You can find me at the Scivation booth at the following days and times:
Friday: 2:30-4:30pm
Saturday: 2:30-4:30pm
Sunday: 11:00am-1:00pm
There is a good chance that I will have several copies of my DVD with me, so those of you who have not had a chance to pick up my DVD, you will likely have the opportunity to purchase it from me in person for $30. Keep in mind that we have almost sold out of these DVDs and there is a good chance there will not be a re-order, so if you want to get one, make sure you pick on up at the Arnold or order one through http://www.biolayne.com. I will also have competition pictures of me that I will be signing for people who want one.
Thank you all for your support and I look forward to seeing you at the Arnold!
-Layne
Check out the New Powerlifting episodes on bodybuilding.com!
This is by far the most watched series on the site right now. It is hot! It's so cool that people like this stuff; keeps me going. Episode one has over 65,000 views! Please check out Episodes 2-7 below
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Hope you guys enjoy!
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Hope you guys enjoy!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Team Norton Preparing to storm the stage... again in 2010!
Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who chose to work with me last year and congratulate you on your success (and take the time for some shameless self promotion). Last year the Team brought home over a dozen pro cards and over 20 overall victories. This year I think we can set our goals even higher. Over 20 pro cards is the goal! Thank you to those of you who have signed up to join Team Norton. The response has been enormous and we are poised to have our biggest and best year yet. Slots are filling up fast and there is even a waiting list for non-competition nutrition, so if you have been interested in joining Team Norton for contest prep, please send me an email at biolayne@yahoo.com.
I leave you now with some images from some of the pro card winners from last year!
I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who chose to work with me last year and congratulate you on your success (and take the time for some shameless self promotion). Last year the Team brought home over a dozen pro cards and over 20 overall victories. This year I think we can set our goals even higher. Over 20 pro cards is the goal! Thank you to those of you who have signed up to join Team Norton. The response has been enormous and we are poised to have our biggest and best year yet. Slots are filling up fast and there is even a waiting list for non-competition nutrition, so if you have been interested in joining Team Norton for contest prep, please send me an email at biolayne@yahoo.com.
I leave you now with some images from some of the pro card winners from last year!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Natural Bodybuilding Tribute Video
Anthony from http://www.simplyshredded.com has been a big supporter of natural bodybuilding and doing a lot for the sport recently in terms of coverage. Check out the awesome new tribute video he put together for Natural Bodybuilding. I have a few shots in it. Unfortunately most of me in the offseason haha!
Hope you guys enjoy!
Hope you guys enjoy!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
The new episode is up on bodybuilding.com!
I know many of you have been anxiously awaiting the return of my series on bodybuilding.com. Well the new episode is finally up, and my video editor has absolutely outdone himself. Not only is it some of the best footage to date, it is also some of the most hardcore training, with badass music from my friends in Chimaira.
The footage for episode 1 is from way back in august but the next 6 episodes will cover my training and my last 2 meets: The APA Indiana Power and the AAPF Illinois Raw Power Challenge! This is the best episode of the series yet!
http://videos.bodybuilding.com/watch/42261/layne-nortons-powerlifting-episode-1-new-perspectives
Be sure also to check out more of Chimaira's music at http://www.chimaira.com
The footage for episode 1 is from way back in august but the next 6 episodes will cover my training and my last 2 meets: The APA Indiana Power and the AAPF Illinois Raw Power Challenge! This is the best episode of the series yet!
http://videos.bodybuilding.com/watch/42261/layne-nortons-powerlifting-episode-1-new-perspectives
Be sure also to check out more of Chimaira's music at http://www.chimaira.com
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