Flexing his faith

Date: 10-04-2007 Posted by: Anabolic Info TeamUnited States

Russ Testo, once Mr. Capital District, now teaches posing techniques, praising God with every rock-hard pose he teaches
"Jungle Boogie" plays as he choreographs a posing routine for a female bodybuilder in Montana.

     
He's dressed in a wrestling singlet and training shoes, and wears an ichthus, the Christian fish symbol, on a chain around his neck. His tanned skin stretches around his bulging calves. Muscles pop as he flexes his arms and contracts his back, as solid and defined as a stone wall.

In a small photography studio in Troy, Testo stands in front of a video camera teaching each segment of the "Jungle Boogie" routine to his long-distance student. She should crunch her abs on the singer's scream, flex and show her calves during "Feel the funk, y'all."

Testo, a "physique artist," works with bodybuilders throughout the United States. They seek out his artful style of choreographing their posing, one of the elements of bodybuilding competitions, to music.

At 49, Testo is decades beyond the days he competed as a bodybuilder, but his physique is in competition shape. He looks the part in a sport where looks are everything. But, as it has been from the beginning, there's more to Testo's bodybuilding work than that, something bigger than bulging biceps.

"What drew me to it was the art of it. I'd say I liked the posing; the posing part was always the best part for me. I love looking at the posing. I didn't see it as a macho thing. I didn't see it as a 'look at me' thing; I saw it for the beauty of it," says Testo, who has a degree in communications and once worked in television and radio. "I guess I've always believed that (God) blessed me with this gift to pose. ... Yeah, I've dieted hard, and I've worked hard, but the ability to do that comes from God."

Today, Testo makes a living by choreographing for bodybuilders, doing a few guest posing engagements like one this month in Seattle, and partnering with Cindi Stone in a personal training business called Sonshine Fitness, based at Best Fitness in Albany.

At the beginning

The Troy native started training at just 14, as a way to increase his strength and size while playing ice hockey. He entered his first bodybuilding competition in 1978 when he was in his early 20s and continued competing into the mid-1980s.

He earned only one title in his career, Mr. Capital District, but picked up countless best-posing awards.

"I was competing against a lot of steroid users; I didn't have the size. I didn't have the muscle maturity," says Testo, an opponent of steroid use.

His success came because music was just being integrated into the posing segment of bodybuilding competitions. Unlike many of his competitors, Testo didn't pose with music playing in the background. He posed with the music, timing each flex and contraction with the beat and using dance moves to transition between poses.
Guest posing

In 1981, another bodybuilder admired Testo's posing during a Natural Mr. America competition in Utica. That bodybuilder was able to get Testo an audition with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who at the time was a bodybuilding and weight-lifting competition producer. After seeing Testo combine robotic movement, mime and dance with standard bodybuilding poses to the song "Magic Bird of Fire," Schwarzenegger asked him to guest pose at the 1981 Mr. Olympia, an event he would perform at for three more years.

"(His routines are) light years ahead of any other routine I've ever seen," says Kelly Sprague, a title-holding bodybuilder from Clinton, Oneida County, who started working with Testo on choreography two years ago. "You actually see the artistry in the routine. He's known worldwide."

His robotic dance-style posing routine to the jazz version of music from "2001: A Space Odyssey" once drew a standing ovation from the 1,600 people watching.

Testo's guest-posing took him to competitions throughout the world. He made the cover of the now-defunct Strength and Health Magazine in January 1985, and was featured in Muscle Mag International in 1985.

A devout Christian, he decided to use his notoriety as a way to share his faith. He thanked God at the conclusion of his routines. He quoted scripture, such as Jeremiah 9:23-24: "This is what the Lord says, 'Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, or the strong man boast of his strength, or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts, boast about this: That he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight declares the Lord.'

Some bodybuilders told him they appreciated how he expressed his faith. No one ever said anything unkind about the routines, he says.

Faith and sport

His guest-posing invitations have dwindled over the years. It's mostly a financial decision by show organizers, who can book guest posers who are sponsored by companies to do the job for free, he says. But he has sometimes wondered whether a few promoters might have taken offense to his religious messages and decided not to have him back.

At times, he has questioned whether his faith and his sport are compatible, whether standing in a skimpy Speedo, flexing his muscles and putting so much emphasis on the outside would really meet the approval of God.

But Testo loves it too much to give it up. And he says he feels there are many ways, even unconventional ones, to honor God.

At Grace Fellowship Church in Latham, where Testo participates in the drama ministry, no one has ever questioned his faith or chosen career, says Pastor Phil Catchpole. Several years ago, at a church coffeehouse, Testo performed one of his routines, set to Christian singer Carman's "Lazarus Came Forth."

"He is passionate about what he does, and he is at the same time passionate about his relationship with the Lord," Catchpole says. "That double passion is the way he ministers."

And for Testo, it's what makes a sport built around brawn somehow bigger.