John Hansen’s Guest-Appearances

Guest Posing in Oregon May 2008

On Saturday, May 3rd, 2008, I traveled out to Bend, Oregon to guest pose at the NPC Bill Pearl High Dessert Classic. Thanks to the efforts of Bill Hayes and his lovely fiancé (now wife) Michelle, I was able to visit the beautiful state of Oregon as one of the featured guest posers for the Bill Pearl Classic.

Bill Hayes is a big supporter of Natural Bodybuilding and, although this show was not drug-tested, Bill wanted to bring out a natural bodybuilder to guest pose at his first contest promotion. Bill and Michelle could not have been any more accommodating as hosts and I had a wonderful time during my stay in Oregon.

I was also interviewed by the local television station in Bend, Oregon on Friday, May 2nd in an effort to help promote the contest. The legendary Bill Pearl was the featured guest at the competition and it was great to see Bill looking so healthy and fit at the age of 78 years old.

I used the outfit from the movie “300” to begin my guest posing performance. My bodyweight was about 208 pounds for the guest posing as I was in the process of dieting for my photo shoot a couple months later (see story below). Thanks again to Bill and Michelle Hayes for bringing me out to Oregon and for their efforts to support Natural Bodybuilding.

California Photo Shoot

After an incredible 24 weeks of dieting, I finally traveled to Southern California for a photo shoot with Rick Schaff and gorgeous fitness model Dina Al-Sabah. Although I normally shoot with IronMan Magazine whenever I travel to California, I wasn’t able to schedule a session with them this time because of the busy schedule of head photographer Michael Neveux.

I contacted Rick about possibly shooting with him. I had some great photo sessions with Rick back in ’95 and ’96 so I was excited about shooting with him again. Rick is one of the true physique photographers in the industry. He knows just how to direct you to look your absolute best for the photos. There are probably only a handful of individuals who are true physique photographers in this country and Rick is one of them.

I was also extremely happy to have the opportunity to shoot with the beautiful Dina Al-Sabah. I have been a fan of Dina for years and, when she was competing in the professional Figure division, I always felt she should have placed much, much higher than she did because of her incredible body. When I saw Dina on the recent cover of IronMan Magazine, I contacted her to ask if she would join me for a photo shoot.

Getting ready for this photo shoot was incredibly taxing. I started my diet on January 21st, after I got home from my vacation in Costa Rica. I had let my bodyweight get up to 230 pounds and my waist was at a truly expansive 37 inches. The diet worked great in the beginning and I was about 10 pounds down with over an inch off my waist after the first four weeks of dieting.

After that initial progress, however, I hit a major sticking point. It took me almost four months to lose the next two inches off the waist. It’s amazing how the body continues to change as we get older. Although I was using the same diet that I used the last few years when I was getting ready for a contest or photo shoot, it was no longer effective this year.

After consulting with my friend, fellow natural bodybuilder Joe Silzer, I made some slight modifications to my diet in order to get that last bit of bodyfat off. The changes worked and I was able to come into the photo shoot at a bodyweight of 200 pounds and the waist was down to a ripped 33 inches.

Rick and I started the photo shoot at the Golds Gym in Hawthorne, California. After shooting for a couple of hours, Dina joined us for some photos. We took a break for lunch and then met up at Hermosa Beach for the second part of our shoot. We drove up to Palos Verdes and shot some magnificent photos with the ocean as our backdrop. Rick couldn’t have picked a better location and the photos look fantastic.

It was a pleasure working with Rick again and it made all the dieting and sacrifice over the last 24 weeks worth it. It was also great meeting Dina and getting to know her. I can honestly say she was the coolest “fitness model” I have ever met. Totally down to earth with no attitude and it was awesome that she came all the down to L.A. from Vegas for the day just to shoot with me. She’s the best!