MONIQUE MINTON

Get to know Monique Minton from our 2010 FLEX Swimsuit Issue

Monique Minton

Height 5ft 10in
Weight 150 lbs
Birthdate Aug 17, 1984
Marital Status Single
Home Dallas, Texas, United States of America
Occupation Figure Competitor/Spokes Model/Fitness Management Group Athlete?IFBB Bikini Pro

Monique enjoys reading and cooking in her spare time. Her favorite foods are protein pancakes, fish, sushi and ezikiel bread. Her favorite cheat foods include peanut butter, cheese and bread. MOMO, as her friends call her, is also obsessive about BJJ and MMA. She is a NAGA grappling champion, so look out for her to be taken on some big names in MMA in the next few years.

Participated in the following shows contest
2010 IFBB Olympia NP

2010 IFBB Pittsburgh Pro Figure & Bikini

2010 IFBB MuscleContest Pro Bikini 2nd

2009 NPC USA Bodybuilding & Figure Championships 1st

2009 NPC USA Bodybuilding & Figure Championships 1st

2008 NPC National Bodybuilding & Figure Championships 5th

2008 NPC Team Universe Bodybuilding, Fitness & Figure National Championships 4th

2008 NPC USA Bodybuilding & Figure Championships 3rd

2008 NPC John Sherman Classic Bodybuilding, Fitness & Figure Championships 1st

After Watching IFBB Pro League bikini competitor and 2009 FLEX Swimsuit Issue cover model Monique Minton glide into place onstage or turn it on for the camera, it's hard to imagine her putting the hurt on opponents on the jujitsu mat. Although "tough" is the last word anyone would use to describe a bikini competitor, in Minton's case, it's more than appropriate, because this statuesque beauty won the women's novice class in the NAGA Texas and Europa Grappling Championships in 2009. "I like the challenge of getting on the mat and going against my opponent," Minton said. "Competing in bikini and jujitsu, I get the best of both worlds--the glamour and the grit."

Minton credits her parents and her upbringing for her ability to excel at two disparate activities. Her mother, Nadine, was a model and her father, Oscar, was a strict disciplinarian who taught her humility and mental toughness and instilled in her a strong work ethic The result: a girl who will break your heart and your arm, then, smiling gently, help you into the car and drive you to the hospital.

FATHER KNOWS BEST 1

"My dad is very old-school 1 Filipino, so I wasn't allowed I to do anything other than go to school and stay home with the family until I finished high school. After that, we were on our own and could do what we liked, so I've been doing a lot of catching up."

NO SISSY STUFF "I was never athletic growing up. My mom got me into runway modeling when I was 13, because she used to do it. I stopped when I was 21, because I got burned out. I took a year off and that's when I got into figure."

TOUGHEN UP "Every holiday, my dad was in charge of lechon [roast piglet]. I was the oldest, about eight or nine the first time, and while my dad cut the pig's throat, I had to hold the bucket and catch the blood. I remember the pig squealing and how sad it was, because it was once our pet. Dad treated us like boys to toughen us up. I guess you can say it worked. I'm not afraid to train or fight with anyone."

HOT AND HEAVY "I used to lift really heavy. I don't anymore. Now, I get a good workout in, but I'm able to take my aggression out on real people. It's a huge stress reliever. I just feel sorry for my opponent if I'm having a bad day."

SKILLFULLY SEXY "I feel strong when I'm rolling on the mat. Winning at jujitsu is a different feeling, because I'm not being judged on my looks. It's about technique and utilizes a different set of skills than it takes to win in bikini. It makes me a more well-rounded person."

GIRL POWER "Training with men sharpens my technique, because I have to counter their strength. It makes you better for when you go up against women. I've beaten a lot of guys--even a brown belt--but they're cool about it. There are no hard feelings afterward."

IT'S ABOUT RESPECT"ln bikini, I get to dress up, be sexy and show off all the hard work I've done in the gym. That's something girls love to do. In jujitsu, on the other hand, I go in dressed like a boy. I don't feet sexy at all, but that's what I need to do to earn respect."

TWO-TIMER "What's great about the training for jujitsu and bikini is that they intertwine so nicely. I go lighter with higher reps, and that helps a lot with my jujitsu training."

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Men's Health - May 2010 (US)

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Hugh Jackman's Workout Plan

The X Factor

(X3's Hugh Jackman reveals the muscle-and-mind tricks that transform him into Wolverine)

The most amazing physical feat I've ever seen was performed not by an elite athlete, but by Hugh Jackman, who becomes Wolverine once again this month in X-Men: The Last Stand. This miracle of physicality wasn't as eye popping as, say, Bo Jackson running up a center-field wall and then rocketing the ball to the catcher. (You remember that one?) But for sheer intensity, Jackman matched Jackson on this one.

Film director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) has invited me into the editing room to see footage from his upcoming film, The Fountain, which stars Jackman. For a pivotal scene, our hero -- shaved bald -- hovers in outer space, surrounded by a transparent bubble. He's in full lotus position, then spins upside down, stretches out into a traditional Superman flying pose, and floats away. A standard Hollywood effects shot. What's the big deal, right?

Then Aronofsky shows me the raw footage with no effects added. There's Jackman in full lotus again -- this time submerged in a water tank and held in place by the equivalent of a barbecue spit. A pole with a scuba regulator gives him some air, and the take begins. The spit, attached to a harness around his torso, turns him upside down in the water, and then he flattens out into the flying pose. It's a languidly paced scene. That's when you realize how intense it is. Just try pretzeling your legs into a lotus in your living room, let alone underwater, then holding the pose, along with your breath, while performing slow acrobatics.

"What take was that again?" Aronofsky asks the man working the video monitors.

"Nineteen," the guy replies.

Aronofsky grins at me and shakes his head. "We had Hugh in that tank for 3 days. He never complained once."

Actor and Stuntman

Jackman, 37, isn't known as an elite athlete. He's just an actor. He's done some physical scenes playing Wolverine in the X-Men movies, some running around in period garb in Van Helsing. But if you do a little research -- talk to a guy like Aronofsky, for instance, or chat with Jackman himself about what he's done to prepare for all these roles -- the "just an actor" label starts to stretch and split open like the Hulk's purple pants.

At 6'3", Jackman's an imposing presence, and he backs up that looming quality with muscle power: He benched 315 pounds and leg-pressed 1,000 prepping for X-Men: The Last Stand. ("But I pretty much shat myself" on the latter, he says with a belly laugh.) He perfected key tai chi forms and groin-shredding yoga positions for The Fountain. He does almost all his own stunts.

And yes, fellas, he does have a secret behind his physical achievements: brainpower. He's always searching for the tipping point between what the mind wants and what the body can achieve. "I don't set goals in life," he says. "In this country, people are all about goal setting. And I concede, to a point, how it can help you get going. But we limit ourselves with goals. We have far more ability than we give ourselves credit for. You see that in people under pressure. How does someone run a 100-meter race at the Olympics? When it's once every 4 years, with everything they've done leading to that? It can't just be adrenaline." Then he nods and smiles. "Maybe it's just the mind getting out of the way."

Getting in the Mind Set

There's no better laboratory demonstration of this hypothesis than the psyops that go into Jackman's Wolverine weight-lifting program. "For Wolverine, I ramp it up," he says. "I do an hour and a half a day in the gym and eat a thousand calories more a day than I would normally. And I train really hard. I crank up the Godsmack and Metallica. I yell and scream, which helps me get into the character and have a bitch of a workout."

The workout itself is not groundbreaking. Lots of heavy iron: bench-press variations, barbell lunges, light squats, and leg presses, among other staples. "I'd change it up every 3 weeks," he says. "Three weeks heavy with lots of rest between sets. Then change to lighter weight, slower reps, four count up, four count down. Then mix in fast, explosive lifting, always changing the workout."

The mental approach, however, remained constantly vicious and very Wolverine -- and that ability to shove the mind out of the way is what allowed Jackman to do what he'd never done before: bench a six-plate barbell. "When I have 315 pounds above me, there's that little breaking point," he says. "You either get really pissed off at that weight, or you ask for help from your spotter. It's that exact point -- and every guy reading this article will recognize it -- when Wolverine gets not just pissed off, but insanely pissed off. I try to reach that point every day in my workout. And then push through it."

That approach applies to any of Jackman's physical quests, as does a strong shot of tenacity; that is, If I can't do it today, well, then I'll go again tomorrow. Some men fail in this area. Are you willing to chase a physical challenge for a year? For The Fountain, it took Jackman 9 months of daily yoga to achieve the lotus position, and another 3 months to be able to hold it long enough for those underwater takes. Why not just hire a body double? Aronofsky certainly offered. Jackman just shakes his head no. "I always take things like the lotus scenario as 'All right, let's see if you can do this.' "

That's Jackman's primary driver: Instead of setting goals, seek defining moments. Those are the real tests, because you have to be willing to fail in a pressure situation in front of other people. "That fear holds all of us back," Jackman says. "And that's the toughest thing about aging. With age, you see people fail more. You see yourself fail more. How do you keep that fearlessness of a kid? You keep going." Then he smiles. "Luckily, I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself."

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American curves November 2009 (from Muscle Mag publisher)

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Spartan Workout Secrets from the Star of 300

To become fit for a king, 300 star Gerard Butler trained harder than most pro athletes for 4 months straight. But his biggest challenge came when the cameras stopped rolling

As Gerard Butler rushes into his hotel lobby, he seems slightly disoriented. Maybe it's the chill winds buffeting New York City. But more likely, it's the lingering effects of his just-completed session of eye- movement desensitization and reprocessing, a laser-light show of sorts that supposedly hot-wires the synapses of your gray matter. "It's normally used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder," the 37-year-old actor says. However, his hope is that it will help coordinate the analytical and creative lobes of his brain, enabling him to better manage his life.

Perhaps he should ask for a refund. Butler not only is 45 minutes late for our interview, but also requires an additional 5 minutes to tidy up -- his pug puppy is in heat -- and then another 10 when his room key won't open the door. Once inside, he quickly apologizes for the clutter of brochures and tile samples, which he attributes to the overdue renovation of his Manhattan condo -- the one he bought in early 2004 but has yet to occupy.

While all of this frustrates Butler enough to take a stab at laser-light therapy, at least he can justify his disorganized personal life as an occupational hazard. After all, his success as an actor depends on his ability to inhabit the mind of another person and then stay in character for months. And when you consider his larger-than-life roles in modern-day epics such as Dracula 2000, Attila the Hun, and the newly released 300 -- in which he plays Leonidas, King of Sparta (*1) -- you understand why he might run late for an appointment or take 3 years to remodel his apartment. Would a vampire heed deadlines? Would a king compare swatches?

To become King Leonidas, Butler, who by his own admission was in less- than-ideal shape when he was tapped for the starring role in 300, spent 4 months transforming both his body and his mind. Early on, it became an all-consuming task. That's because the intense training required to build a warrior's physique -- aesthetically and functionally -- simultaneously cultivated a warrior's mentality. Or maybe it was vice versa.

Either way, it's the reason Butler enlisted the help of Mark Twight, a former world-class mountain climber who, based on personal experience, believes in training as if your life depends on it. In fact, Twight would argue that a good workout should make you feel almost queasy upon hearing what lies ahead. For example, to hasten Butler's mind-body transformation, he created what he calls the "300-rep Spartan workout." (Trust us, 100 reps is plenty hard.) (*2) It goes like this: Without resting between exercises, Butler performs 25 pullups, 50 deadlifts with 135 pounds, 50 pushups, 50 jumps on a 24-inch box, 50 floor wipers (*3), 50 single-arm clean-and-presses using a 36-pound kettle bell, and 25 more pullups. All this, in addition to utilizing other unconventional yet equally taxing training methods, such as tire flipping and gymnastics-style ring training. Sound like hell? It is. In fact, upon receiving his marching orders for a Spartan workout, one of Butler's costars told Twight, "It feels like you just killed my dog."

Five weeks before the cameras were to roll, Butler took on extra sessions with a Venezuelan bodybuilder named Franco LiCastro in order to exaggerate the physique he was after. "I wanted to look really strong," says Butler. "I've seen so many actors play these kinds of roles, and you see all this equipment on either a big belly or skinny little arms." It worked in more ways than one: On-screen, the bearded actor lords over the battlefield like testosterone incarnate, with the steely gaze, cobblestone abs, and broad, chiseled shoulders you suspect one would need to command 300 men to their slaughter.

"You know that every bead of sweat falling off your head, every weight you've pumped -- the history of that is all in your eyes," says Butler of his dedication. "That was a great thing, to put on that cape and put on that helmet, and not have to think, Shit, I should have trained more. Instead, I was standing there feeling like a lion."

Branch Warren

Biography

Warren first competed in 1992 when he won the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Teenage Mr. America competition. His first National Physique Committee (NPC) event was the Teenage Nationals, where he won again. His first IFBB event was at the 2004 Night of Champions competitions, where he placed 8th. His first Mr. Olympia was in 2005, where he placed 8th. The following year, in 2006, he competed in his first Arnold Classic for a 2nd place finish. While slipping to 7th place in 2007, he improved to 4th place in 2008 and 3rd in 2009, while winning the title of "Most Muscular". Warren placed 12th in his 2nd Mr. Olympia contest in 2006. Warren also placed 1st at the 2007 New York Pro.

2009 Mr. Olympia
After not competing in the Olympia in 2007 and 2008, Warren returned to shock the bodybuilding world by placing 2nd at the 2009 Olympia, one spot ahead of 2008 Olympia winner Dexter Jackson, and losing only to three time winner Jay Cutler.

Personal Warren
has featured in many bodybuilding magazine articles, as well as appearing on the magazine cover of Muscular Development. He endorses MuscleTech supplements. He currently lives in Keller, Texas with his wife Trish Warren, and often trains at MetroFlex Gym in Arlington, Texas.

Statistics

• Full Name: William Warren b.
• Nickname: Quadrasaurus Flex
• Place of Birth: Tyler, Texas
• Date of Birth: February 28, 1975
• Residence: Bel-air, Texas
• Occupation: bodybuilder, Logistics Company owner
• Height: 5'7"
• Contest Weight: 250 lb
• Off-Season 255-265
• Eye Color: Brown
• Hair Color: Yellow
• Arms (contest): 19"
• Thighs (contest): 29"
• Waist (contest): 42"
• Incline Bench Press: 505lbs*6 reps
• Barbell Curl: 115 lbs 10 reps
• Deadlift:´650lbs 5* Squat: more than 700lbs
• Military press: 315 lbs 20 reps
• Marital Status: Married.
• Wife: Trish Warren, IFBB Fitness.Fitness Pro

Contest history

• 1992 AAU Teenage Mr. America, Short and Overall, 1st
• 1993 NPC Teenage Nationals, Lightheavyweight and Overall, 1st
• 1999 NPC Junior Nationals, 4th, Heavyweights
• 2000 NPC USA, 3rd, Heavyweights
• 2001 NPC Nationals, 1st, Heavyweight (Earned Pro Card)
• 2004 Night of Champions, 8th
• 2004 Show of Strength Pro Championship, 4th
• 2005 Mr Olympia, 8th
• 2005 Charlotte Pro, 1st
• 2005 Europa Supershow, 1st
• 2006 Arnold Classic, 2nd
• 2006 San Francisco Pro Invitational, 2nd
• 2006 Grand Prix Australia, 5th
• 2006 Mr. Olympia, 12th
• 2007 Arnold Classic, 7th
• 2007 NewYork Pro, 1st
• 2008 Arnold Classic, 4th
• 2009 Arnold Classic, 3rd
• 2009 Mr. Olympia, 2nd
• 2010 Arnold Classic, 3rd