My wife and I attended the NPC Southeastern GOLDS classic saturday and were blown away by the current look of Dexter Jackson. The man is always muscular, but his overall lower body thickness and density is at another level now. His arms were as thick as you can get and when he did a crab shot he was still hard as a rock. I have never seen Dexter this massive and thick. I think he has a real shot at the O, if it is objective.WE forgot our digital camera

, my wife snapped a quick pic of Dex doing a pose in the audiance on her cell phone. I purchased a signed pic from Dex to put on my fridge as motivation to diet

The man is a class act, when speaking to the crowd he made the point that he guest posed in decent shape showing his body in a true professional manner, not like some , who appear 50 lbs over wt (and smiled) . He feels he is a real legit contender now for the O and wants it bad, etc.
I have seen a sad trend recently in the figure div. Many of the girls winning look quite androgenic now.
It seems that the girls that looks like FIGURE division contestants are being overlooked in favor of those that look bigger ad harder similar to bodybuilders.Hmmmmmm>

??The figure class was loaded with about 20 girls, while the female bodybuilders were few in number.
Overall this show promoted by Stace Beechamn held year at Gadsen, AL community college is an outstanding event.The mens contest was great with a really shredded guy around 5'11" and 215 winning the overall. In the novice was an absolute freak of a man. He looked and sounded Jamaican , was 6'2" and around 220. a little light in the legs/calfs but wow , his upper body was incredible. His first name was "Jr" , which was kinda funny when they yelled it and here stood this massive , ripped man.
It was his first show and he looked like he could be drug free at this point looking at his physique.
This guy had some of the best genetics I have seen in a new bodybuilder. Hope he stays with it.
In the grandmasters, area legend 78 yr old James "Traps" Ayers was on stage and got special award from the promoter. He has written many published letters in various mags, many in Muscle Mag Int.
One grandmaster had the wrist case of "polumboisim" I have ever seen. He looked like he had swolled a basketball and while he had some chest and lats , his legs and arms were stick thin and his face was very swollen. His left knee cap was very distorted looking, extending out from the bone for some odd reason, his right knee was almost as bad. I saw him at show a couple years ago and he had started looking like this, now it was rather sad to see. He used a cane to walk around when not on stage and looked in pain walking on stage. I felt bad for this old gent, hope he can get some help to just get healthy and get off the excessive HGH>.
Top NPC Masters bodybuilder Gus Carter did a guest posing spot , 5 weeks out from the masters nationals.He must have a sponser as he was selling pics in the lobby. He was huge and thick espcially in the back but smooth overall. His waist was pretty badly distended. I don't expect him to win his pro masters card , but ya never know.
Overall the place was packed but seemed to lack the raw energy and hype at most hardcore meets.
I was suprised the crowd did not go MORE wild over Dexter looking as awesome as he did, but whatever??
The MC was great and the bodybuilding judging was pretty decent overall (except for figure???).
It was also a BIG reminder that as long as you have some ok/ decent mass for your frame, being ripped is the key to doing well at regional NPC shows like this.
* I am teaching summer school now from 8 am to 5:30 pm with labs, etc. Good $$ but real busy for one more week. I am working legs hard now, we shall see if I can start my hard diet next week.
Howard