By Gary Chappell
THE British Physique Alliance has increased prize money for the Scotland show on March 23 with £750 now on offer for each overall winner.
BPA vice-president and Scottish representative Harry Ogg confirmed the increase while talking to The Superhuman Podcast this week. With the 2025 competitive season fast approaching, he also discussed the importance of posing and what goes in to hosting a bodybuilding show.
"With the sponsor money coming in, I've managed to put the prize money up from £500 up to £750 this year," said Ogg. "It's not all about the prize money. But when we first broke away and set up the BPA, we wanted to look after the athletes, that was our main thing. We wanted to have good quality trophies, we wanted to have prize money, we wanted to have things like tiaras, flowers, champions jackets, all these different types of things for the athletes. Because you guys know as well as I do how expensive it is to be an amateur bodybuilder.
"In my day, there was no prize money for an amateur at all. You were lucky if you got a sponsorship, which I was lucky enough to get. But there's a lot better bodybuilders than me that have never been sponsored. It's a very hard game. It's an expensive hobby and we wanted to make sure that we had good quality trophies as well and medals."
In their third season, the BPA will making improvements to the stage set-up this season, as well as introducing new classes. Ogg expained: "It's just sort of an update of the current stage setting. We're trying to improve every year, that's our main thing, to listen to the athlete.
"We're bringing in new classes this year. We've got four new classes coming in. We've got novice bikini and novice men's physique that we're bringing in. We're also bringing in the fit model, for guys and for females. So that's a new category going back to what the original men's physique and original bikini looked like back in the day when they first started."
As a judge as well. Ogg also outlined what he was expecting to see from competitors this season. He said: "We're just looking for everyone to try their best to fit the criteria of each class. Come in at your very best and that's something that we've been lucky with. We've had some great physiques on our stages, we've had some fantastic physiques all around coming over. And that's really what we're looking for and giving the new guys a chance to compete without pressure. We really want to maintain that friendliness and openness to everyone.
"We're a non-profit organisation, what money we do get all goes back in. We are intending on trying to fund athletes to go internationally, but the funds quite haven't made it there yet. But that's what we're hoping for, that we can reward the athletes. To help them on their journey to better things, bigger shows.
"But anyone who is prepping for a show, I always say 'give plenty of time'. So you've got that time to refine your condition, or your physique to whatever way you want on stage. And posing is very, very important. They've got to practice posing. When I first started bodybuilding, my main thing was my physique and my condition. I didn't practice enough posing and it let me down.
"I was lucky enough to win a few shows just purely on my physique because my posing was ridiculously bad. But that is something that, when I'm helping guys get ready for shows, I'm very hard on. You can have the best physique in the gym, in your bedroom, or in front of the mirror. But if you can't present that on stage, then that's where you're going to fall down.
"Sometimes the guys who are presenting it better get the nod. That's because the other guys are just not holding their poses, especially from the rear. I've seen many people, much better bodybuilders, physique, females, figure, bikini, getting, beat from people they shouldn't because of their posing. So that's something that I would always say is first and foremost to get right."
WATCH THE FULL SUPERHUMAN PODCAST WITH THE BPA'S HARRY OGG BELOW:
February 27 - March 2: IFBB Pro League Arnold Classic, Columbus Convention Center, Ohio.
March 22: FMC Scottish Fitness & Bodybuilding Championships, Stewarton Area Centre, Ayrshire.
March 23: BPA Scottish Grand Prix, Gardyne Theatre, Dundee.
March 30: PCA First Timers, Town Hall, Birmingham; IBFA Granite City Classic, Aberdeen Beach Ballroom, Scotland.
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