More than muscles: Meet the people behind the Red River Classic bodybuilding competition

Riverview Hall’s stage lights were on, but it was not the symphony or ballet that was being lit, it was the well-toned and well spray-tanned individuals flexing their muscles for the NFF (Natural Fit Federation) Red River Classic event.

The ‘natural’ means it’s a natural bodybuilding competition, “We drug test for performance enhancing drugs…We are proud of that because we are committed to keeping our competitors on a level playing field,” said co-owner Larry Shaw.

Shaw feels the bodybuilding community is his family, “Bodybuilding is the one percent of the one percent. A lot of our staff, our judges, our promoters are ex-competitors that are trying to find a way to give back.”

It’s true for promoter Todd Tanner. There was a time when he did not know what to tell his son when asked if he would be around to see his grandchildren. At the time he was obese. Today, after years with a 100-pound weight loss, he not only sees his grandchildren but his great grandchildren. “Fitness saved my life.”

Co-promoter and personal trainer David Nguyen feels the same about the sport that he discovered after a painful breakup 15 years earlier, “Without bodybuilding it would have been a life of depression. It teaches you a lot, inside and outside the gym.”

With the DJ playing Mariah Carey’s ‘my all’, Nguyen performed his choreographed routine of poses to the audience during the second part of the competition, “I can display my body as art, bodybuilding is an art.”

Nguyen’s client and fellow pro-bodybuilder, Emily Johnson, was behind the stage volunteering as ‘house mama’ at the event. Bodybuilding came into her life after she had given birth to her third child and felt she was beginning to lose her identity. After seeing Nguyen’s social media posts showing off his female client’s physique she thought, “I want that” and soon after was working out six to seven days a week.

Johnson is not one to knock anybody down for using steroids, to each their own is her philosophy, but not using them is part of why she chooses NFF. “What I got is because of everything I put in. To be a mom of three, almost 37 years old, stand up on stage, get a pro card, them compete and win again, knowing I did it without any type of drugs, well that’s a pretty damn good feeling,”

The NFF plans to return to Shreveport next year.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Meet the people behind the Red River Classic bodybuilding competition