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

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

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!

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!

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!

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

700 lb raw deadlift falls!

As some of you may know, this past weekend I competed in the AAPF Illinois Raw Power Challenge in Willowbrook, IL. It drew a pretty good number of lifters for a raw only meet at well over 50 I believe and there was a lot of big raw lifts going down! I had a good day hitting a 567.5 lb squat, a 331 lb bench press, and a 700 lb deadlift! I went for 711 on my third attempt but I was just too gassed out and could not lock my hips through. I probably would have also gone for more on bench press but it was very cold in the building (probably in the 50s) and several people got injured that day so I decided not to chance it and did not take a third attempt on bench press. I ended up with a 1598 total which was good enough to win my weight class. My squat and deadlift were both the highest in the 220 lb class. I was extremely excited to accomplish my goal considering this time last year I had not even begun to deadlift again after my pec tear surgery! As cheezy as it sounds, it goes to show that when you write your goals down, work hard, and truly believe in yourself, it's amazing what is possible.



-Layne