Montgomery resident wins Eastern PA crown
By: Meredith Make
It is difficult to detach the stigma of steroids from the maniacally muscled world of bodybuilding, but Ken Turash makes the dissociation refreshingly easier.
Last month, Turash, a 29-year-old certified personal trainer, was the overall winner of The Natural Eastern Pennsylvania Bodybuilding Championships. Emphasis on “natural.”
He also placed first in the Open Class of the competition, which was sponsored by the Amateur Natural Bodybuilding Conference (ANBC) and held in Easton, Pa. Turash’s overall win earned him a two year invitation to compete in November Nationals, which he will accept in 2001.
Turash plans to defer the invite until next year because of other impending occurrences in his life which take precedent over the demands of strict training schedules and eating habits. Aside from running a business, Personal Training Studio of Princeton, Turash will marry his fiancee Melody and buy a house in Montgomery during mid-June.
These chaotic events would make intense training for November very difficult. In preparation for the Eastern Pennsylvania Championships, Turash worked out six days a week, combining one-and-a-half hours of weight training a day with three days of cardiovascular exercise, all in addition to teaching three spinning classes at PTS and endeavoring on personal hiking trips.
He dropped his off-season weight of 230 pounds to a competition weight of 205, with an impressive four percent body fat measure, by following an inflexible ten-week diet that excluded pasta, fruit, dairy and alcohol and mandated the careful cycling of carbohydrates.
Fatty foods aren’t the only items which Turash won’t allow into his system; he also eschews steroids and all illegal substances. The ANBC runs thorough investigations of all competitors prior to competition. Turash had to take urine and polygraph tests and was questioned by detectives. This “natural” aspect of the competition is of great importance to Turash, who believes that “you can’t compete against synthetics. It’s just not fair.”
The Amateur Natural Bodybuilding Conference allows the ingestion of anything which can be bought over the counter, such as fat burners, vitamins, amino acids, and popular products such as creatine. However, not a single injection is allowed, a carefully enforced regulation for which Turash is grateful.
He once participated in a competition sponsored by the National Physique Committee and was disgusted by the glaring absence of any form of drug testing and the monstrous appearance of other competitors.
“They were freaks,” Turash said. “Freaks all around me. I still placed but I will never compete in another show for NPC again ever. There were no tests, no questions asked.”
With the comforting knowledge that intricate testing had been administered by the ANBC, he found the championship in Easton to be much more enjoyable and fair. Judges could rate symmetry, body proportion, muscle definition, and leanness without the taint of drugs spoiling the balance of the playing field. Turash was also excited that Jeff Meszarous, his friend and fellow trainer at PTS, took fifth in his class at the competition, which was Meszarous’ first.
Turash’s big win in Easton was more of a personal achievement than a life-changing opportunity. There are no cash prizes in amateur competitions, only trophies. Even if Turash wins Nationals and is given his pro card to become a professional bodybuilder, he is able to comfortably admit, “I don’t have the genetic dynamics to be a pro. Some guys are born to do this. I want to expand my business and have a family.”
That doesn’t mean that Turash isn’t serious about bodybuilding and fitness. He majored in adult fitness and minored in athletic training at Montclair State University. After a knee injury prematurely ended his football career at Montclair, he turned his efforts toward bodybuilding and has now been training for 12 years. He is eager to compete at the national level but doesn’t place unreasonable expectations upon himself.
He is also clear about what he wants from life, and being a professional bodybuilder, especially in a world plagued by widespread steroid use, isn’t number one on the list.