BODY-BUILDERS are being invited to take part in a competition later this year.

The International Bodybuilding and Fitness Association UK (IBFA UK) announced that it is going to be accepting entrants to its Northern qualifiers on Sunday, April 24, in Gateshead, and May 29, at the Carnegie Theatre in Workington.

The qualifiers are for the main competition, and the final on June 12, which organisers say will be the sixth show they have put on.

For the final, they take the UK team to Rome to compete in the international finals.

Carlisle’s Martyn Yates Brown, of the IBFA UK, helps run the competition in the UK.

He said: “I am coming up 75 years old now, so so that gives people a view of where my body building started — in 1963.”

He said this in reference to what they claim is a preference for ‘old school body building’.

The IBFA UK says that it ‘encourages classic grassroots bodybuilding, characterised by our old school values and our ethos of passion, not profit’.

Martyn explained more about what body building meant for him. “My old school ethos comes from being sort of a journeyman, I competed abroad for a lot of my life, but I really started to make my mark when I got into my 60s in Italy for the IBFA competition there.

“The term ‘old school body building’ comes from body building in its true form, like it was in the days of Steve Reeves and Reg Park.

“They were the pioneers of body building.

“Nowadays it has changed a bit.”

He said that one of the biggest changes is that some of the contemporary competitions are not done in posing shorts, they are done in shorts that cover the legs, which are an important part of body building.

He also explained that nowadays body building has become something of a mainstream goal, moving from its niche roots.

Martyn explained that body building is all about creating an exaggerated anatomy, whereas now its much more common to just want a good physique — which Martyn said he was not criticising, just highlighting a difference.

For more information about seeing these old school body builders, or if you are one and want to compete, visit their website at https://ibfa-gb.co.uk/.