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Fitness For Pam Wentz, it's not only about how the muscle looks on the outside - it's also about how the muscles feel, on the inside.Wentz, a 30-year-old Ohio native, who is climbing up bodybuilding's competitive ladder, certainly approaches muscle from the aesthetic point of view. She's been competing since 1998, and has reached a level where she is competitive - finishing seventh in the middleweight class of the 2001 NPC USA - on a high amateur plane. But, in addition to her own championship musculature, Wentz has used her skills as a massage therapist to contribute to the muscular health of athletes on an even higher level - the Olympic Games. And those athletes were not limited to the two-legged variety.  "I can do massage therapy on horses, as well as people, and I did both at the Olympics," says Wents, who gave up her own time, early in her career, to volunteer as a massage therapist at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games."I did mostly equestrian, mountain biking and pentathlon, but there were also other individuals from other sports," says Wentz, who was licensed in 1995 and worked for herself before taking time off for the Olympics. "I was in Atlanta four weeks prior to the competition. I worked on a couple of equestrian gold-medallists, and on a couple of athletes who had been there before the Olympics and were only able to compete because the massage therapists were able to get them ready." That Wentz' Olympic experience included equestrian comes as no surprise. Her own athletic experience began with horses. Wentz began riding at age five and by the time she graduated high school in 1989 she was a three-time national teen champion in dressage, stadium jumping and cross-country. She won the titles in Combined Training at the United States Pony Club Nationals. And she got more from riding than ribbons.  "Well, besides really, really strong legs, I think the biggest thing I got out of riding was the discipline to take care of something else (a horse) besides myself," Wentz says.Of course the strong legs didn't hurt either. Wentz played four years of high school volleyball and at only 5-foot-2 had the highest vertical jump of anyone on the team. She also did a couple of years of track, but curtailed that activity because it conflicted with riding. "I was a very in-shape kid," Wentz recalls. "I started lifting weights in my early teens because I wanted muscles. I wanted round shoulders and lean legs and I wanted to look like Cory (Everson). I had boxes of muscle magazines. "I remember doing more pull-ups than the guys when I was 14, and beating them arm-wrestling. Even before I started lifting weights, I had biceps from riding. They were already there. Then, when I was 16 I started driving myself to the gym. I bought my own membership." Wentz emerged from high school -- and all that riding and lifting and volleyball playing - with a physique that was already winning awards. Her muscular, athletic body was voted "Best Body" in her senior ballot. "By the time I graduated high school, I had a physique … really tight, visible abs … people commented on it. I wasn't defined all over, because it was hard for me to stay lean, but I had muscle."  After high school, Wentz attended Ohio State University for two years, but found that her intended fashion merchandising major just wasn't right for her. But, in meeting a massage therapist who was undergoing chiropractic treatment for chronic neck pain, she found her calling.After the Olympics, Wentz began to lift regularly and consistently again. She also went to work as Director of Massage programs for Healthy Outlook Worldwide. Her supervisor there, Arnold Coleman, who had trained Gayle Moher, became her trainer, and after taking first lightweight and overall at the 1998 Mike Francois World Gym Classic, Wentz' bodybuilding career was born. Since the first show, Wentz has gradually worked her way up the ladder, placing in the top five in the 1999 and 2000 Team Universe, and the 2001 Junior Nationals. Email Pam at pamwentz@hotmail.com |
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