When I first meet Medina and the M&M extreme team I didn’t know where to start ,or if I had any business in Competitive physique. I spoke briefly with Medina and she was very matter a fact about what my strength and weakness were. She invited me to a posing session just to see if competing was for me. When  I attend the posing class Medina and Heather were  helpful and outgoing. They both encouraged me to compete in an upcoming show.  All along the way Median was so positive and always reassured me that I would make my goals. Her advice on nutrition gave me a strong foundation on what to eat and help me understand what my body needed. At times  I felt like cheating or stopping the diet all together ,but Medians constant positive motivation kept me from letting her and myself down.

    In August I competed in my second Physique competition  where I placed second.  I cannot explain how important the positive support from Medina  and her team was  to me on this unbelievable journey.  I don’t  know a more positive and encouraging individual than Medina, when I didn’t  feel like I was doing well she there to say you look great just keep going. Thank you Medina for all the coaching, encouragement,  motivation, and support. Without  you I would not have realized my goals.

                             

                              Many Thanks,

                                              Andrew Van Kleeck

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Kate Parks  

"Working with Medina during my prep for my first bodybuilding bikini competition was such an amazing experience that I will always cherish. She took me under her wing immediately and taught me nutrition, lifting exercises, and posing to get me geared up for my show. Medina taught me how to love myself and gain the self confidence that I've always wished for but never had. I'm not only physically stronger I'm mentally and emotionally stronger! Words cannot explain how grateful I am to have worked with Medina. She will always hold a special place in my heart. I have said it before and I will say it again, I could have not done this without you!" Xoxo Kate

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Arina Lovernovic

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My story of bodybuilding began not that long time ago, since I moved to DC. I would never think I could ever compete. But after I met and talked to Medina first time, she told me to try and offered the help, she believed in me since the first day. After the few months of training and cutting diet created by Medina, I came to her posing class and it was a blast. I felt so much more confident in my own skin so posing came to me naturally. I didn`t pick the day of my first show but Medina told me to go for the OCB Presidential Cup that was happening in 2 weeks. She convinced me of my form being ready, she gave me an extra energy and support, I decided to go! After a few sessions of posing with Medina and eating just vegies and protein for two weeks, I stood up on the stage. Here I am, my first time ever! I took 1st place in Novice, 2nd in Debut and Open. I would never do that without her believing in me and her support. Thank you! The journey just begins!

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Desha Gaston

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Three years ago I had a bad riding accident resulting in me being in a coma with two brain bleeds. I had to learn how to walk with terrible balance and do a lot of things to help my memory come back. I had to be babysat for months just Incase my brain did bleed again. I wasn’t able to ride or do anything physical for 6 months, resulting in me gaining 40 lbs.

Two years ago I met Medina at my apartment gym and she told me she could help me regain my balance, strength and lose the extra weight and then some.

Before I started lifting with Medina to help slow down the weight gain all I did was cardio and I didn’t really eat much food. She has instilled the importance of eating clean every 3-4 hours and lifting heavier to help me drop the weight and rebuild my muscle.

Medina has gotten my balance better than before I had the accident, and she has made me 10 x more stronger and confident in the gym. More than that Medina acts like my mom and isn’t afraid to tell me right from wrong. I will be forever grateful to her.

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Shervonne Smith

 

Hello everyone. My name is Shervonne Smith, and I am a Natural physique competitor. I am also an adaptive athlete. Aside from competing on stage, I am also a certified adaptive Rower. Who has competed in that sport as well.


I have been fortunate enough to compete on stage as a physique competitor for a little over a year. I started last year June 2018. And it was love at first sight.

I am a physically challenged competitor. I have a mild case of cerebral palsy. In my case, The condition affects my lower extremities, (my legs). This means that I walk with a slight limp or a scissor gate as it is commonly known ass. But that does not stop me.

When I was born, I was born two months premature. This caused a lack of oxygen to my brain which caused the cerebral palsy that I have now. But I am a fighter. As a child, I went through a series of several orthopedic surgical procedures that allow me to stand as I do now. Following those surgical procedures,I went through physical therapy. This lasted From the age of two until 15. For at least two hours five days a week. And many times the sessions would be very basic things. The kinds of things that Many people take for granted.

I do believe that it was all of those years of physical therapy that taught me the discipline and the love that I have for competing now.

Although, most of my exercises are modified, I always manage to get a good training session in. And I love taking my body to new heights of strength.

I have two beautiful children who are age 18 and 25. They are very proud of me.

I'd like to thank my beautiful children, my wonderful friends, my trainer, all the wonderful people that I've met along the way who encouraged me to continue perfecting my place in this wonderful sport ❤️🤗


Elaine Self

 

Huge thank you to Medina Roberts for all the continued support and training she continues to do each and every day. When I first played with the idea of competing I knew I wanted to work with a trainer who was knowledgeable and actually cared about the physical  and emotional health of her client.  That is what I found in Medina.  I have lost many inches and to date about 19 pounds but have gained muscle in the process.  Still a work in progress but I know with Medina there pushing me to be better than I was yesterday I can do anything I set my mind to . And in the end I gained a friend that I cherish ❤️❤️❤️ you Medina

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Michael Sikorski

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My name is Michael Sikorski.  Starting in my teens I always had a fascination for self-defense, the military and bodybuilders.   I remember watching guys like Frank Zane, my all-time favorite, on TV along with my father and brothers during broadcasts of the Mr. Olympia.  My father, Anthony Sikorski, ingrained a strong appreciation for weights, strength, and boxing into us.

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He was born in 1917 and shortly after his birth he contracted the Spanish Flu.  The doctor at the time told my grandmother to throw him on the trash heap because he didn't think that my father would live.   His aunt decided to nurse him and, as the story goes, she fed him milk, whiskey and honey.  He pulled through but not without problems.  His lungs were scarred for the rest of his life and he could not walk until he was five years old.  He was weak and frail throughout his childhood. 

As he got older, and because of his condition, my father grew obsessed with strength and health.  He looked for, and found, as much information as he could on weight lifting, strong men of his time, and boxing.  

 

There were no weight lifting gyms around so he gravitated to boxing.  He eventually became a professional prize fighter and fought for the welterweight championship of Texas.  He made weights from old coffee cans filled with cement or lead connecting the together with a metal bar.  I still have a pair of those lead dumbbells that he made so many decades ago.  During the last year of WWII he was drafted into service.  He asked to join the Marines because he had heard they were the toughest.   He went through Boot Camp and Infantry training in preparation for the invasion of Japan.  His unit was loaded onto ships headed overseas but Japan surrendered after the atomic bombs were dropped.  His ship was turned around and he was discharged.  

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Around that time, my father was married to his first wife and would eventually have four kids, 3 boys and a girl.  He passed his passion for strength and fitness onto his sons.  They would eventually open their own gym in my hometown of Carnegie, PA.  It was called Sikorski's Barbell Club.  The gym was a private, not a for profit club.  Membership was granted to those who could be vouched for by another member and who were willing to pay dues which helped cover the rent and utilities.  It was on the top floor of an old apartment building.  The equipment was not fancy.  A lot of old York Barbell dumbbells, plates and homemade benches and other machines.  They even used large, pit car wheels for their homemade leg press.  The bare studded walls were covered with graffiti written in weight lifting chalk.  There was no air conditioning in the summer and in the winter heat came from electric space heaters.  The bathroom was a toilet and small sink.  As time passed, more and more weights and bars were added.  There was a padded section for boxing and wrestling.  A platform was made for squats and dead lifting. 

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At this point my father had divorced his first wife and married my mother.  He had 4 more kids, 3 more boys and another girl.  I was 9 years old when I visited this gym for the first time with my father.   I remember watching the guys doing heavy squats and dead lifts while music played from an old transistor radio.  I also remember trying to pick up a weight to lift over my head.  I got it up but lost my balance and fell backwards with it.  I was a little embarrassed but I also felt pride at having lifted a "heavy weight" over my head.  As I got into my mid teens, I joined a local boxing team and also tried my hand at weight lifting.  However, my father was much older and was in poor health.  As such he could not work too much so we never had a lot of money and food was a scarce resource.   There were a lot of lean times in my teen years so I never had an adequate diet to help me gain and keep a solid physique.

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Three days after I graduated high school, in 1984, I shipped off to Marine Corps Boot Camp weighing only 130 lbs.  It was in boot camp that I was able to eat enough food to put on weight.  I remember thinking the first time I ate at the chow hall that I never knew there was so much food.  Because I was underweight the drill instructors made sure that I ate extra rations.  By the time I graduated I had gained more than 30 lbs.   I went to Infantry school and immediately afterwards I was sent to my first duty assignment in the Philippines.  While there I began to study Karate and Judo.  I kept up with studying the martial arts for about 20 years after that.

 

Towards the end of my tour in the Marines I started to, once again, lift weights.  After I had left the Marines and moved back home one of the first things I did was begin working out at the family gym.  I slowly gained in size and strength.  I also started to teach Karate to some of the club members.  In time I would reenlist in the National Guard and try out for the reserve component of the Army Special Forces.  I drilled with the SF for about a year until a series of injuries (broken bones) derailed my dreams of becoming a Green Beret.  I did stay in the Infantry for a couple more years but eventually, I changed my military occupation to Military Intelligence and got involved in a counter-narcotics program.  I also was trained in specialized surveillance and reconnaissance and ran my own teams for several years. 

 

Eventually 9/11 occurred and I was deployed overseas.  After my first deployment I began a nearly decade long assignment in counter-terrorism.  I would travel all over and received a lot of training.  Through it all I kept up my weight training and martial arts.  By this point I was around 200 lbs. 

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In 2012, I finally retired from the military.  I had accumulated a number of injuries which included 9 broken bones, including 3 vertebrae fractures, and had two surgeries.  I had to scale back a lot of my activities as a result.  I gave up martial arts altogether.   I still kept up with my weight lifting but did not push the heavy weights I used to.  Fast forward to 2015.  I started to work for the Army as an analyst and it was here that I met several people who competed in natural amateur bodybuilding.  They were members of the National Gym Association (NGA) and the Organization of Competition Bodies (OCB).   They noticed my interest and told me how to get involved in the sport. 

 

I was 49 years old when I decided that I wanted to compete.   I started to train and diet under the guidance of one of my body builder co-workers.  I trained for 9 months and signed up for my first competition with the NGA.  It was a week out from competition when I received a call telling me that the event was cancelled due to a problem with the venue.  All that effort for nothing.  

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It would be a year later when I decided that I would try it again.   This time with the OCB.  I trained myself and adhered to the diet I used for my earlier attempt.  After 10 months of training, and at 53 years old, in December of 2018, I stepped on the stage for the first time.  I was the oldest athlete in the competition.  I admit that I was not in as good of condition that I should have been but I did manage to take third place in both the debut and age 40+ brackets of the new, "Classic Physique" division. 

 

A couple of weeks after the show I reflected on everything and decided that I would try it again.  I felt that I could, and should have, done better and that I left something on that stage.  I reached out to a friend and retired professional bodybuilder in New York who I met through my wife years earlier.  He laid out a weight training program and provided some additional mentorship which I immediately put into practice. 

 

Everything was going well for a few weeks when I injured my bicep, from my elbow to my shoulder, during a workout.  It would be four months before I would be able to flex my bicep again.  I finally went to a doctor who gave me a cortisone shot in my shoulder.  I was really frustrated because by this time it was April and I was planning on competing in December.

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In order to rehab I brought exercise bands into work which I would use during breaks and slow periods.  I began to do isometric exercises for my bicep to help regain my ability to flex it again.  Finally, by August, I could flex my bicep and could curl enough weight to train again.  And train I did.  I busted my butt in the gym but I also recognized that I needed something more. 

 

It was then that I reached out to Medina Roberts.  Medina was recommended to me by a work place colleague who had worked with her in the past.  Medina was exactly what I needed.  Medina coached me in posing and provided me a nutrition plan that really made the difference during the last 3 months of competition prep.  She showed me not only how to hold a pose but to work into positions that brought out the most in my physique.  She taught me how to "display" my physique not just hold a pose. 

 

I took her coaching to heart and spent hours each week posing in front of the gym and home mirrors.  After each set in the gym I would hold a pose.  After my workouts I would spend another 15-20 minutes posing in the locker room.  At home, I played YouTube videos of other shows and practiced each pose as the judges in the video called them out, practicing my transitioning from pose to pose. 

Finally, it was time. 

 

On December 14th, 2019, I stepped on stage for my second show.  I entered the Novice, and Master's 40+ and 50+ brackets of the Classic Physique division.  At 54, I was the oldest Classic Physique competitor in the show.  The next closest competitor to my age was 42 years old.  The rest of my competition was in their 20's.  I honestly felt good.  At 172 lbs I came in 5 lbs. lighter from the previous year, but I had still gained and held about five more lbs. of muscle.  I was down to 7% body fat.  I was far from the best physique in the show but thanks to the nutrition plan Medina provided me I was pleased with what I had accomplished and had a better physique than the last time. 

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Back stage I pumped up with exercise bands and the homemade, lead weights my father made in his youth.  My son Michael Jr. was there to help me.  I stepped on stage 4 times during the show, once for each bracket and again for my individual routine.  Because of the sequence of events, I had to go onstage, step off, and immediately go back again 3x in a row without any rest.  The younger guys who I competed against in Novice were inspired and began to cheer me on.  All that coaching and posing practice paid off.  I was exhausted and tired but I could still hold the poses without shaking for each stage appearance.  My competition in the Master's could not say the same.  By the end of the show my back was killing me.

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Finally, it was time to announce the winners and receive the awards.  I had no certainty as to how I did.  My position onstage was changed several times during the judging.  All I wanted was to walk away with a 1st place trophy in one of the brackets.  In the end, I took 1st place in the Master's 40 and 50+ brackets and 4th place in Novice.  I was told by other competitors that I should have placed 3rd in Novice and that I was ripped off.  But the cherry on top of it all was that I was awarded the winner of the overall Master's and was elevated from an amateur to a professional athlete!!  I was so surprised I did not know how to act on stage. 

 

At 54 years old I became a professional bodybuilder and after only my second competition.  I took home 4 trophies and a medal.  I was the oldest Classic Physique competitor but I took home more awards than any other athlete in the show.  What a day!!  After my father (pro boxer) and youngest brother, who is a professional strongman athlete, I became the third pro athlete in my family.  I guess the saying is true, "it is never too late".  I never would have guessed that at my age I would become a pro athlete.  But it happened. 

 

After the show I received comments that my posing was excellent.  The email feedback from the judges was also positive with them noting that I had put on more muscle since my first show.  I can honestly say that I owe that to Medina Roberts and her coaching.

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You may not remember who I am. I have to say that you are one of the most influential people in my life. Most likely you are the most influential person in many people's lives. I had the opportunity to meet you when I was a young man, a trainer at Sport and health. Dennis Overton introduced me to you. You hired me in 2008. Even today You are the cornerstone too many of my ideas and philosophies when it comes to the fitness industry. I am forever grateful. You as well introduce me to Buddhism, which has changed my life. You will never be forgotten and always be part of my personal success story. The least I can say is thank you.

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