Welcome to Ironbodies!

My background -

My name is Gerald Gore and I am a bodybuilding artist from Texas. I have pretty much been doodling and drawing pictures for the majority of my life (for as long as I can remember). Over the past few years I had gotten away from drawing so I am now re-teaching myself or should I say re-training myself to draw again. In November of 2003 I had completely by accident discovered sculpting and have been a avid sculptor since (which happens to be my favorite form of art). I have been fortunate enough to be able to teach myself how to sculpt.  I have also found the internet to be a wonderful resource for learning all types of styles and techniques.  Sculpting is a wonderful art that teaches me something new every day. 

If I look back at my artwork over the last 15 or so years the one thing that is consistent with the majority of it is that I love to draw muscular physiques (yea I do some wildlife stuff now too, which can be viewed at www.geraldgore.com,  but the majority of my stuff has bulging muscles). I believe that a muscular physique is a form of perfection and a wonderful subject matter to either capture on paper or in clay.

Bodybuilding background -

I started lifting weights back in 1986 (I was 13 years old). At the time I was 82 pounds (yes 82 pounds) and quite the amusement of others. I never could understand the bully concept and especially with me being a pretty shy and introverted kid I took it personally. I knew at that time lifting weights would change my life but it did take some time for me to start putting on some size. I really didn't start showing results until three years after I started lifting (partially due to the fact that I had no clue on what I was doing). I entered my first bodybuilding show when I was 18 years old and weighed in a whopping 138 pounds. I was really shredded to the bone and took fifth place against guys that outweighed me by at least 20 pounds. A year later I competed in the same show and took 2nd place at a competition weight of 150 pounds. Three weeks after that I finally won my first show (class and overall title). The funny thing about that show is that I told one of the other competitors that I wanted to do another show later in the summer about ten pounds heavier. He pretty much told me not to get my hopes up. I ended competing four months later at an eleven-pound increase in bodyweight (man I love to prove people wrong when the doubt me - maybe it stems back from the bully days). I won the teen heavyweight and overall title at that show too.

Well, fast forward eight years later and I had finished college (graduated from Baylor in 1995), got married, had a little girl and took on the task of doing my first novice show. I was around 28% body fat when I decided to do this show so I had to do a six and a half month diet. Same story as before, people laughed at the idea of me competing, I went and did the show, won the light-heavyweight class and overall title. I did another show five months later but over dieted and came in third place. I really wanted to do the Jr. Nationals in the following year and forced myself to compete five weeks later. My heart wasn't into the third show and I came in holding water and in the worse shape of my life but still pulled off a fourth place finish. At that point I had been dieting for almost a year straight and really needed a break. Unfortunately that break has turned into another long hiatus and I haven't competed since. My wife and I have had another child (little boy this time) and I have just let life give me an excuse not to be focused. The past year and a half I probably have spent more time out of the gym than in the gym. Over the past month or so I have been re-bitten by the bodybuilding bug and I am now setting my sites to maybe do a show late 2006.

I have found that you cannot truly be happy unless you recognize and embrace who you really are. The bottom line is that I am a bodybuilder by birth and that by avoiding that I have created an emptiness in my life. It feels good to get back on track and embrace the new challenges ahead of me. I hope you enjoy this site as it grows and I hope that it as well as my artwork adds some enjoyment to your life.

All the best,

Gerald Gore
www.ironbodies.com

P.S.  Click here to read my 1999 Caveman Classic Bodybuilding testimony