Ministry of Muscle Gym in Kent : News about Bodybuilding and Strongman Competitions and other events

NEWS

UK's Strongest Man 2009

Jay Hughes is off to Belfast this week to take his place in the final of UK's Strongest Man. Jay is being supported by Big Steve Winter, Little Mick his bag boy, and Dale "Fokker" of our very own Ministry of Muscle TV crew. Jay is in a tough group including Britains strongest man finalist Mark Westaby and last years UK champion Glenn Ross. Good luck Jay.

Let battle commence!

TEAM STRONGMAN 2009-READING

The Ministry Of Muscle guys did very well yesterday with Jay Hughes and Chris Gearing teaming up to enter this two man strong man event. The first event was a 30 ton truck pull. After Jay and Chris nearly burst blood vessels the organisers realised if our boys couldnt shift it, no-one could, so they lightened the load and made them have another go. Our boys finished second overall by one point but in effect had done an extra event so well done guys. We are proud of you.

KENTS STRONGEST MAN RESULTS

Having just dominated the Britsh Powerlifting Finals in Bournemouth with a mixed aged and sex team the Ministry were back in action again this weekend.
A huge well done to the Ministry boys who pulled it out the bag at Kents strongest Man in Romney Marsh. Paul Cuddles Carter came first, with Chris Baby Whale Gearing coming second. Martin Bellis did well to dust of the rust and came fifth in his first comp this year.
The next huge event being run by Ministry of Muscle is the Kent Klassic bodybuilding show which is a qualifier for the UKBFF British Finals. This is being held in conjunction with this years Britains Most Powerful Man at the Woodville Halls in Gravesend on Sun 30th August. The reigning champion Jay Hughes from Maidstone will be defending his title at the strong man comp and will hopefully not be too jaded from his attempt to win the UK's strongest man in Belfast next week.
Tickets for the Kent Klassic/Britains Most Powerful Man are £17.50 and can be obtained directly from the gym in Aylesford or on line from the website www.ministryofmuscle.co.uk.

KENTS STRONGEST MAN

On Sat 25th July Ministry's Chris Gearing, Paul Carter and Martin Bellis are dusting off the cobwebs to compete in Kents Strongest Man run by Scorpions gym in Romney Marsh Kent. These guys are itching to do the Ministry Proud. Go on down and give they guys your support.

Also on Sunday 26th July Big Steve Winter is judging the England final of the 105kg strongman competition at Whitstable Rugby club. The event starts at 12pm so come down and watch

WEEKENDS SUCCESS

Excellent results this weekend for the Ministry crew. Juniors Chris Gearing, Callum CookShane Harrison won their classes, Tony Hale and Dave Mannering won their masters classes, Mike Jones and Ben Williams came in the top three of their classes and girlies Emma and Gina won their classes with Gina winning the best overall female lifter in this years British Powerlifting Final.

Also our own Jay Hughes has qualified for the final of this Years UK'S strongest Man. In a close battle up in Lichfield Jay came sixth and Big Paul Cuddles Carter came tenth

JUNE UPDATE

Ministry of Muscle have joined up with World Powerlifting champion Dave Mannering to help produce some serious competiton to the rest of the country in this years British Powerlifting Finals to be held at The Bournemouth International Centre on 4th and 5th of July. By training at the Ministry and Daves training camp, these guys are combining all the available expert knowledge and facilities to gain the best preparation possible.This years team consists of juniors Callum Cook, Shane Harrison and Chris Gearing, seniors Andy Gower, Ben Williams, Mike Jones, Tony Bond, Dan Cook, Alan Luker, Dave Mannering, and girls Emma Weston and Gina Iaquaniello. The team will be being supported by Big Steve Winter and the all important runners and assistant Wayne Medhurst and Danny Mehmet who are crucial to the team for their perfected art of lifting suit fitting and adjusting. We have high hopes for all of the team and we are expecting several to qualify for this years World Championships in November.

Also and unfortunately on the same weekend Ministry of Muscle's Jay "Hollywood" Hughes and Paul "Man Bear "(aka cuddles) Carter are both competing in the Englands finals of this years UK's strongest man in Lichfield. If they are successful against some very stiff opposition they will go on to represent England at this years UK Strongest Man final in Belfast.

Dont forget guys to come and give these people your support if you can.

We at the Ministry wish all the guys n gals competing this weekend the very best of luck.

Remember, Anyone who does not stand by your side and fight is an enemy you must crush.

May Update

Another excellent successful day for the Ministry gang down at The British Powerlifting congress British qualifier in Hawkinge
Big Chris Gearing still a junior at 22 lifted in the 140+ class, Danny Mehmet set a new British Bench record of 295kg in his 110 kg weight class and Mike Jones set a new deadlift record in the 100 kg class. Emma Weston lifted in 56kg class and Gina lifted in the 52kg class.They were all invited to the British Finals to be held in Bournemouth on 3-5th July.
They will join Andy Gower, Callum Cook, Ben Williams and Tony Bond who train both at Ministry of Muscle and with World Champion Dave Mannering who all qualified at an earlier event.

Ministry of Muscle presents

Newquay Rally

Ok so here it is, the Ministry of Muscle takes Muscle to the beach this summer in the 'Newquay Challenge' . Team up and strap up as each competitor will go head to head in a test of both endurance and deviousness.

Anyone on Facebook will be able to see the Event and rules, anyone who isnt can see all the information provided on the 'Gym Events Page' right here at www.ministryofmusclegym.com.

Competition Success

Another triumphant weekend for the Ministry of Muscle. Danny Mehmet set a new British record at The Bodypower event at the NEC. Danny entered the bench competiton in 120kg class and benched a whopping 300kg.
Danny will try and repeat the lift this weekend at the British Power lifting Congress competition in Hawkinge

Also Rob Brice entered the classic class at the UKBFF South East show at the Becks theatre in Middlesex and came first. He now qualifies for the British finals in October.Rob deserved to win and has sacrifiiced so much to compete. Extremely well done to you both. We at the Ministry are behind you every step of the way.

April Update Portsmouth takeover

From all of us at The Ministry of Muscle Gym, a huge congratulations to all of our boys who took part in the Uk Strongest Man Qualifier in Portsmouth Yesterday.
Chris Gearing came seventh out of nine in his first major competition. He was up against some quality guys and experienced some new events. Chris did himself and the gym proud and we are looking forward to Chris becoming a seasoned warrior.
Paul Carter gave it his best and just missed out on a qualifying place coming fifth. Our gladiator Mike Walsh pulled it out the bag and gave the crowd a huge shock by coming in an excellent third place. Rob Frampton came second on his home turf.
Our very own Jay "Hollywood" Hughes put in a fantastic performance with some personal bests along the way to take first place. Jay and Mike go through to the next round.

Just also a quick mention and thank you to all of you who made the huge effort to go down and support these boys. Nearly the entire crowd was made up of Ministry people and the spirit and camarade was excellent and Im sure the brilliant support made a difference.

Also congratulations to our two boys Rob and Dave who looked awesome down at the UKBFF bodybuilding show in Portsmouth. They did us very proud and were in fantastic condition thanks to the advice of James LLewellin.

May 2009

On 16th May, Chris Gearing, Gina and Emma Watson, Danny Mehmet and possibly Big Steve himself are all lifting in the British Powerlifting Congress British Qualifier at Hawkinge Community Centre, Hawkinge in Kent. We expect some good results and for most to qualify for the British Finals to be held in July. There will be several excellent lifters from Dave Mannering's camp taking part including Dave himself (World Record Holder). These guys have popped in and out of the gym in the last few months and are a great bunch and we wish them all good luck. The event starts at 10:00am and everyone is welcome to come along

Ministry of Muscle features on the Channel 4 Programme Extreme Male Beauty broadcasting on dates to be confirmed in May - it was originally due to go out during April but is re-scheduled. Cheetah Television paid a visit to the Gym to film part of the programme, which is about different types of training being experienced by the Presenter. He came to the Ministry to see what its like to work out with the Strongmen

April 2009

Andy Gower will be competing in the British Powerlifting Congress Southern Area Championships at The Gallery Gym in Windsor on Sunday 5th April in the 125kg class and is hoping to qualify for the British Finals in July

April is a busy month with quite a few people competing in various events

We are invading Portsmouth on Sunday 26th April. The strongmen Jay Hughes, Paul Carter and Chris Gearing are all taking part in the Southern England Qualifier for UK's Strongest Man Competition. They are hoping to win this to get through to the England Final and then go on to represent England in the UK Final later in the year. This will be an all day event

Also on the same day Rob Brice is competing for the first time in the Classic Class of the UKBFF South Coast at the Guildhall in Portsmouth, hoping to qualify for the British Finals. Pre-judging starts at 1:00pm with the evening show at 6:00pm.

This weekend has become something of a "Gym Outing" with quite a few going down to Portsmouth on Saturday 26th April. Everybody is welcome to come along and support our guys as they have worked long and hard towards these events. The more the merrier

26 February 2009

The Arnold Sports Festival is taking place in Columbus, Ohio during 6, 7 and 8 March 2009. Our very own Viking Steve Winter, Mr Scott Horton from Hercules Gym, James Llewellin and Pat Warner are ganging up and are poised to
descend on the poor, innocent inhabitants of Columbus. The Fab Four's mission ... to visit and take over the Arnold Classic being held on Saturday 7 March, do as much networking as possible
during the rest of their time over there to get The Ministry and Hercules Gym lots of attention, and to promote Mr Llewellin to the World. Poor British Airways are going to have to bear the costs
of extra fuel consumption due to muscle mass of this "little" party of 4. They can restrict the baggage but that just seems a bit pointless when the bag carrier weighs as much as a small elephant!

5 February 2009

The Ministry has an important new addition to the family. Its a wee monster who is gradually settling in as the Ministry's Gym cat and is named Kilo. He does have some serious "Kattitude" though.
He'll shred your arms and legs and make you resemble a self harmer but you'll melt when he looks at you in his cute way and you'll have no choice but to forgive him!
And some really hot news - Steve is growing a beardy kind of thing that he wants to be able to plait. He is starting to look like Hagar the Horrible! It does have its uses though ... it catches his dribble when he is sleeping.

4 February 2009

Updates have now resumed on the site and there's new bits and pieces, and some reorganisation, particularly for some of the older articles and photos. These have been moved to the new Archive page so don't worry, none of it will be deleted, the Ministry website's history will stay fully intact! If you think something's missing, you'll find it has moved to The Archive.

7 January 2009

Well another year dawns and we hope all our customers had a good Christmas and the New Year brings you what you wish for. Updates and some exciting bits will be coming to the site, with some new photos also being added very soon.

22 October 2008

On the back of his superb victory at the British Finals 2008, here's a short promo of James Llewellin's "1 Step Ahead" DVD. Filming concludes at the end of this month and the release date for the DVD is 1st December 2008. Christmas is coming .... perfect! Be warned there's a little bit of naughty language in this clip .....!

20 October 2008

It was a great day at the UKBFF Finals on Sunday 19 October and a fantastic victory for our very own James Llewellin, who not only won his Middleweight Under 80kg Class, but went on to take the British 2008 Title. A huge well done to James who we're extremely proud of, and who is now also rewarded with his pro card. We also congratulate Phil, Barry and Tracy for their outstanding efforts in their respective classes.

17 October 2008

Its with regret that we have to announce that the Final of Britain's Most Powerful Man 2008 will NOT be taking place on 2 November. Despite our very best efforts this is something that is completely beyond the control of the Ministry of Muscle Gym. We apologise to everyone who has supported and been involved with the organisational aspects of this event.

13 October 2008

The UKBFF Finals are fast approaching and take place on Sunday 19 October at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham. We'd like to wish the very best of luck to James, Phil, Barry and Tracey in their respective classes.

4 August 2008

The Gym will be closed on Sundays as of 10 August 2008.

22 July 2008

Please note that the Final of BMPM 2008 has had to be postponed and will not take place on Sunday 27 July because of injuries to a large number of the athletes leaving them unable to compete. We wish all the best to the injured for a full and speedy recovery. The proposed date for the Final is now Sunday 2 November.

1 July 2008

The Qualifier for Britain's Most Powerful Man was held at the Ministry of Muscle Gym on Sunday 29 June.

16 June 2008

Some photos have been posted up on the site from the Southern Qualifier of UK's Strongest Man that was held at Ministry of Muscle on 1 June.

4 June 2008

Jay Hughes sets off for Minehead today to take part in the Finals of Britain's Strongest Man 2008. The event will be televised and broadcast on Five - dates to be confirmed. The qualifying rounds are held between 7 and 9 June with the Finals held on 11 and 12 June. We wish all the best of luck to Jay, who battles on despite breaking his foot four weeks ago - there's just no stopping this guy!

19 April 2008

We're delighted to announce that we now have a rare and unique piece of equipment installed at the Ministry - the Monolift. Read the story of this exciting addition to our Gym equipment here.

27 March 2008

We are currently trialling our own "Ministry of Muscle Complete Protein Drink". It is presently exclusive to drink only at the Gym, although there are plans to move forward and sell it by the tub. It contains 30g of protein, 10g of carbs, 5g of creatine, 10g of glutamine and also ingredients to assist with digestion and absorbtion. This unique drink provides not only protein and carbs but also includes glutamine and creatine all mixed in one which ensures you get ALL the required nutrients together, and is very convenient as it negates the need to use three or four different products. The drink is currently only available by the glass exclusively at the Gym.

1 March 2008

James Llewellin took 5th place at the Arnold Amateur Classic Finals today. An absolutely superb result at this level of competition and certainly a very impressive achievement. The standard of the athletes was fierce and James firmly stamped his name into US soil. We hope he and Nic enjoy the rest of their trip and we're looking forward to posting some photos up on the site.

29 February 2008

Its been confirmed that James Llewellin has today made it through to the Finals of the Arnold Amateur Classic, being placed in the top 5 of his Light Heavyweight class. The Final takes place tomorrow Saturday 1 March, and we're wishing you all the very best of luck James!

7 January 2008

We now offer mixed martial arts training sessions with Steve Wilcox at Ministry of Muscle. For more details click here.

1 January 2008

Wishing all our customers, current and new, a very happy and healthy 2008 and we hope to help you achieve the goals you've set yourselves for the year.

15 December 2007

Andy Gower organised The Pantiles Christmas Strength Challenge which took place in The Corn Exchange and lower walk in front of the arcade at the Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells. Paul Carter and and Rob Hughes who train regularly at our Gym were both competing. Jay Hughes, who is the current holder of Ministry of Muscle Gym's "Britain's Most Powerful Man" Title was judging the competition. It was the first full scale strongman contest the town has hosted and events included Deadlift, Super Yoke and Atlas Stones.

27 October 2007

Miles Ludlow is again representing the Gym and competing as part of the WABBA UK Team at the International German Championship being held in Frankfurt on 28 October.

15 October 2007

Miles Ludlow represented the Gym at the UKBFF British Championships held in Nottingham on 14 October. He competed in the over 40 Class where he did us proud coming 4th in an extremely high calibre line up.

Also at the British, James Llewellin came 2nd in the Light Heavy Weight Class being beaten by James Flex Lewis who went on to win overall. Our James did brilliantly and we thank him for representing the Gym so well.

10 October 2007

Mick Holding has just returned from Lithuania having competed representing Great Britain in the IFSA Strongman World 2-Man Championships on 7 October.

30 September 2007

Miles Ludlow took part in the UKBFF Midlands Championships in Birmingham and won his Class. He will now be competing in the UKBFF British Championships at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham on Sunday 14th October. We have high hopes for Miles and for James Llewellin who also qualified for the Final at the Gravesend Show in August. We wish both guys the very best of luck and know that they'll do the Gym proud.

26 September 2007

Mick Holding has just returned from Korea having represented Britain in the IFSA World's Strongest Man 2007. This was his first outing and he gained some invaluable experience and hopes to go again next year.

15 - 23 September 2007

Terry Hollands took part in the MET-Rx World's Strongest Man Competition held in California, USA. The competition will be aired on Channel 5 in the UK sometime during December.

10th September 2007

Mick Holding is currently in Korea taking part in the IFSA World's Strongest Man Competition.

9 September 2007

Steve Winter and Barry Saunders both competed in the UKBFF Welsh Championships held in Port Talbot. Steve came third in the Over 90kg Class. Barry did very well in a extremely tough First Timers Class. The competition was fierce and both are now keen to get back in training, the plan being to compete at the Southern Qualifier at Portsmouth in April 2008.

4 September 2007

Jay Hughes recently came 5th in UK's Strongest Man in Ireland. Up until the last two events he was sitting in second place. He qualified for the Final having beat the current UK's Strongest Man Glen Ross in the heats. He's the first to have done so for three years.

26 August 2007

James Llewellin won his Class and the Show at the UKBFF Kent Counties Championship in Gravesend and in doing so qualified for the UKBFF British Championships to be held in Nottingham on 14 October 2007.

5 August 2007

Britain's Most Powerful Man Competition was held at Ministry of Muscle Gym. The title went to Jay Hughes.

8 July 2007

Not being one to rest on his laurels, Jay Hughes next competed at London's Strongest Man. Here he again stamped his authority over the competition and won the event to take the London's Strongest Man title. The Gym has an excellent group of lads now all interested in strongman and as a result Rob Hooper came third in the Novice competition. There were over 20 competitors overall so it was a fantastic result for both boys.

3 July 2007

Jay Hughes and Mick Holding have just returned from the final heats of Britain's Strongest Man 2007. They both went to Minehead in Somerset after qualifying earlier on in the year. Mick was doing extremely well in his heat until a leg injury thwarted his efforts. He came third in his heat but remained in Minehead for the Final as first reserve. Jay came second in his heat and got through to the Final held on 1st / 2nd July. Here he did extremely well for a first effort and came 7th overall.