What is BodyPower Expo?
BodyPower Expo is the most celebrated fitness event in the UK with almost 100,000 people in attendance across 3 days at the start of May. It holds visitors and athelets from all over the world and covers the full spectrum of sports, products, services and athletes.
For all who are curious, this is the low down on visiting the Expo, what to expect and a few tricks to get the best from your experience.
Going In
As you go into the expo you are overwhelmed by the size of the event, there are hundreds of stalls hosting all manner of merchandise, products and athletes for you to explore.
The Events
You’re spoilt for choice with entertainment: live demonstrations in one of their open gyms, bikini, physique and bodybuilding competitions, a live kitchen show where you can watch your favourite athletes educate on nutrition, shopping, networking, food, meet and greet, awards, lectures from big names in the game, challenges, the list is truly endless.
For example: in their open gym there was a demonstration from some inspirational amputees showing that their disabilities where nothing more than a mild inconvenience. The guy pictured below was incredible, not only was he doing one armed pull ups but he also did a 75kg deadlift with one arm and one leg. Mind = blown.
Getting Involved
There are loads of opportunities for you to get involved as well, loads of booths offer prizes for taking part in their challenges. I took part in 3; a press up challenge where you had to do as many press ups as possible in 1 minute, I lasted about 30 seconds!!! A squat challenged where you have to do as many squats as possible in 1 minute with a specific weight, this one was 50kg for men and 25kg for women, easy right? WRONG! After the 15th rep with 50 people standing behind you watching your butt, a commentator to your right and a counter to your left shouting at you push harder you can start to feel the pressure. Needless to say when it finished I couldn’t feel my legs. I managed 36.
There was also a bucking bull, the challenge was simple; hold on for dear life for as long as possible. You can see from the pictures below that my smug face quickly turned to awkward spouts of brute strength ending in a beautiful failure. I lasted 47 seconds.
The Athletes
The biggest and best names in the industry are at this event and they fly in their much loved athletes from all over the world to come and meet the fans. Personally I’ve never been one to swoon over famous people, they have to spend hours on end smiling and hugging people they don’t know to the point of exhaustion and i’m sure after the 150th person it can feel robotic. I say this but my experience of meeting my chosen athlete made me swallow those words.
I chose to meet Heidi Somers, she’s YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat famous, has her own clothing brand and is also sponsored by the Live Fit clothing brand and 1Up Nutrition supplement brand.
I had the full intention of holding an intelligent conversation with her however when she looked straight at me I nearly cried. She was humble, energetic and chatty, I brought her a “strange British chocolate” (Dairy Milk with Oreo filling), she hugged me several times and was gracious about pictures and compliments.
For all of you athletes out there, thank you for taking the time to meet with your crazy fans and making the effort with every individual. People may not remember your name but they will always remember how you made them feel.
If you get the chance to meet one of your idols, do it. Heidi made my expo.
Tips and Tricks
- Get there early. For the sake a few extra £££ get yourself a VIP ticket so that you can enter 1 hour earlier than the masses. You will have time to get familiar with the layout and get in the queues for your athletes early.
- The most productive times are between 9am-12pm when it’s fairly easy to manoeuvre around at a leisurely pace, after 12pm the place starts to become pulsing with thousands and thousands of hot, sweaty bodies and it’s impossible to move around without feeling like you’re in an angry mob.
- TAKE FOOD! By lunchtime the place is booming and you could be waiting up to one hour for a burger and by that time you’re going to be HANGRY! That could ruin your experience and waste a lot of time, be smart, meal prep.
- BRING WATER! Like the food but more important. This is essentially a giant greenhouse with a million angry and excited ants inside with limited watering holes and hour long queues. By the time you’ve got a small bottle of water you’ll be so dehydrated and full of headache you’ll just want to go home. Take a 2 litre bottle and shove it in your backpack, thank me later.
- Network. Take your business cards and get talking to people, this a place where everyone in the industry is in the same building so take advantage of the opportunity and try to expose yourself as much as possible.
- Don’t be afraid to have fun. I have gone to BodyPower 2 years running and both times I have gone alone, yes it would be awesome to share the experience with someone equally as excited but going alone means you’re not waiting on someone else or worrying about them getting bored. Get involved in the challenges, try on all the clothes you want, eat all of the food and hang around for as long as you want.
