Last Friday night (23rd May 2003) I travelled down to Wales (UK) to Ali Oun’s Power House Gym in Aberdare ready to shoot the Kamal Elgargni workout the next day. Kamal is UK’s newest young pro bodybuilder and the NOC will be his pro debut. Accordingly we timed this workout video to be shot exactly one week before the event, to be held on May 31st this year in NYC.

It is a very special year being the 25th year of the NOC, and if it were not for the enormous video fee being asked by the N.Y. theatre union, I would have been there to tape the event. My plan is to call the video “Road to the 2003 NOC with Kamal” as I have been monitoring and recording his progress over the last 12 months or so and offering help and advice regarding IFBB protocol at their top pro events. Clive Jaques as his manager has also been of enormous assistance to Kamal with all the paper work, obtaining British citizenship and so on. Not to mention taking most of the photos for me.

At 11am the shoot began and Kamal had chosen a task that is beyond most bodybuilders, namely a complete workout covering every body part with his usual number of exercises, sets, reps and poundage’s! Plus he is on a refined diet of just chicken breasts and almost no carbs!

The last bodybuilder to attempt this on video for me almost “killed” himself and he was ill in bed for the next 2 days! So I did have concerns for Kamal as the workout went on and on.

Each 2 hours I called a short break so that we could all grab some food and water, change the camera batteries, move all the lights to the other side of the gym and so on. Starting with chest and shoulders, then arms etc Kamal found some inner strength as we ploughed through set after set, exercise after exercise, all done at high intensity.

Last of all were legs. By this time the tank was pretty empty for poor Kamal, so it was leg extensions (his favourite pre contest leg exercise) and calves on the standing calf machine to round out the most intense, gruelling gym shoot I have ever experienced.

By this time it was 5pm and the 6-hour shoot was over. With the concentration and pressure off I realized just how exhausted I was myself having shot 3 hours of tape and approximately 250-300 photos taken by Clive and I during the course of the workout.

It was time to leave for a restaurant and more grilled chicken breasts for Kamal, Clive and myself plus some steamed broccoli. Kamal was so exhausted by this stage he could hardly keep his head off the table and he didn’t look too well. But what he produced that day was the best ever, most “gut-busting” all in one workout I have ever shot in my 35 years of filming bodybuilders. I can’t wait to get it into the editing studio when I get back home.

Kamal weighed 89kgs at a height of 5’6” (that’s about 196lbs) and plans to drop another 3 to 4 kilos of water to come in at a hard, ripped 85kgs at the NOC. He is blessed with wonderful genetics and perfect symmetry such that no body part dominates his physique. Now it is all in the hands of the judges and I know Kamal is hoping to crack the top 10 in this his first pro show. But as he says, after being a top amateur who won everything, “this is a whole new ball game”.

When Kamal returns from NYC, he and his business partner Keith will open the doors to their new gym in Peterborough. I certainly wish Kamal well in both the NOC on Saturday and in his future career as a Pro Bodybuilder and gym owner.

I also caught up with former Mr. Universe, Mr. Germany winner Helmut Riedmeier. He is now 59 and still plans to go on competing. I got some photos of him so check out our Gallery after my return in June.