Gain muscle

“Winning begets winning … it becomes a habit,” said Roy Leedy, owner of Fit 1 and the women-only Mansfield Super Fitness, both located at opposite ends of the Johnny Appleseed Shopping Center. “People get attracted to winners; they want to know what they’re doing. We want to be known for fitness.

“The ‘1′ goes with believing you’re winners.”

Several members not only believe it, they live it.

A 12-member team representing Fit 1 took 11 firsts and the overall title in a bench press and deadlift tournament at the Ohio State Fair. It was also a good summer for J.P. Pocock’s Fight Farm club, which trains out of Fit 1. His MMA fighters, including pros Cody Stevens and J.P. Jaranowski, won all seven of their matches in a recent show put on at the Richland County Fairgrounds.

“The gym provides a great atmosphere,” said Leedy, whose co-ed Fit 1 is managed by former Mr. Ohio bodybuilder Greg Trail. “I took some of the older people at the gym who never thought they’d do anything like a bench press competition and told them to mark their calendars. If you know you’re going to represent yourself and a team, you’re going to be motivated to show up for workouts. And once they’re here, they have a blast.”

Nobody had to light a fire under Deb Mitchell, Omar Holt and Robbin Smith. They’ve been workout partners for the last decade, moving to Fit 1 when it opened in July, 2007.

A BODYBUILDER who charmed women before sadistically manipulating them into sexual submission has been jailed indefinitely.

Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court was told Nigel Dunn, 28, of Pant-y-Cerdin, Cwmbach, was a manipulative, paranoid, controlling jealous man who turned women into shadows of their former selves.

Bubbly, outgoing and social women who held down responsible jobs were systematically sexually and physically abused by Dunn.

He forced them to give up their lives and to quit work, making them break all ties with their past by cutting up their clothes and forcing them to sever family ties.

He also made one of his victims shave off her hair and took a carving knife to one woman, scarring her for life.

Dunn faced a 17-count indictment and admitted five of the charges against four different women between January 1, 2001 and January 10, 2010.

The charges consisted of rape, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

His victims, from the Pontypridd and Rhondda areas, were in court to see their attacker being given an indeterminate sentence for public protection.

They were only traced when Dunn’s final victim came forward and the investigative work carried out by Detective Constable Erica Ray was publicly acknowledged in court by the judge in helping to bring the case to court.

Dunn will have to serve a minimum of six years before being eligible to apply for parole, and the judge added that the greatest degree of care and caution should be used in the decision regarding his release.

Dunn was also ordered to sign as a sex offender indefinitely and banned from working with children.

The court heard Dunn’s narcissistic, paranoid tendencies and underlying mental health problems had been compounded by anabolic steroid use.

Ieuan Morris, prosecuting, said Dunn’s crimes had been acts of violence of a sexually sadistic nature over a nine-year period against four women.

“It was his trademark to be manipulative and controlling,” he said.

“Dunn had a stranglehold over each of his victims and calculatingly destroyed each of their attributes.”

Steven Donoghue, defending, said Dunn’s offences could have been the result of anabolic steroid use.

Not literary since that makes you seem needy. And it’s illegal. After finding someone that interests you, find information about them. Think of it like screening for a job. Have you ever been convicted of a crime? Where do you see yourself in five years? What position do you prefer — in this company? And most importantly, are you already in a relationship? Good in a job interview, good in a relationship.

Be subtle, especially when trying to figure out the status of your object of affection. A simple question like, “What’d you do this weekend?” is an innocuous probe and gets immediate results.

“Oh I was out with my boyfriend/girlfriend/other who looks like a bodybuilder/supermodel/you, if you wore your hair differently, who works as a sensitive poet/erotic accessory retailer/dolphin trainer.” Barring any of that, move on and set a trap.

Separate them from the herd

Finding romance in class is probable; continuing romance in class is impossible — unless you’re in a porno. So get them the hell outside and see if your love is as pure in the harsh light of day.

An easy way to do this is to try a subtle test date. It’s an opportunity to talk to the person outside of the class without any looming awkwardness. By the way, the test date is almost always the same in every culture, coffee.

“Hey, I was going to grab a coffee after class. Would you like to join?”

For either sex, this is biological need and not a stepping stone to something more. It also has good plausible deniability in the event of rejection. They says no to coffee, “That’s cool, see you later” is your response and you’re off the hook from embarrassment and free to try again and ask them out later. If she/he is onboard and the test date goes well, say a prayer to the secret gods of the universe and ask them if she/he is busy Saturday.

Twenty-something girls flashed their tattoos at mostly virgin-skinned young men. All swayed, just a bit, to the old fogey music outside: a pleasant guitar duo who sang Neil Young and Fleetwood Mac. Nearby, a leather-faced fisherman with missing fingers shot back whiskey. Hippie-type artists sat on the lower deck by the water, mesmerized by the dramatic sunset. Shady-looking men hovered.

They all could have walked out of the pitch-perfect novels of local writer Carl Hiaasen.

Action ensued: a bodybuilder pulled a bar seat out from under his date. She punched him. They walked out, hand in hand.

Older women, stuck in their ’80s heyday and proud of their weapons of seduction — big hair, short skirts, unadulterated cellulite — flirted shamelessly. It’s no wonder Courtney Cox’s TV series, “Cougar Town,” is set in the Sunshine State.

Leeks in the creamy Prince Edward Island mussel appetizer ($12) were a nice, subtle touch and the mollusks were small, tender. I liked the idea of the grilled Caesar salad ($9) better than the result: it was chewy. Neither warm nor topped with much crabmeat, as promised, the baked brie ($12) was a disappointment.

Entrées were far superior, although the kitchen mixed up a couple of fish dishes; cobia (instead of grouper) was covered in a delicious, peach almond sauce.