Ironman Magazine

After straining for more than a year, Ironman magazine, the nation's No. 2 bodybuilding publication, has finally moved to Ventura County. Since February, 1992, John Balik, managing partner of the magazine and a related mail-order business, has been trying to buy a 15,000-square-foot headquarters building in Oxnard's Channel Islands Business Park. Balik finally purchased the structure from the Resolution Trust Corp. for $650,000. But he found the experience unnerving.

After straining for more than a year, Ironman magazine, the nation's No. 2 bodybuilding publication, has finally moved to Ventura County. Since February, 1992, John Balik, managing partner of the magazine and a related mail-order business, has been trying to buy a 15,000-square-foot headquarters building in Oxnard's Channel Islands Business Park. Balik finally purchased the structure from the Resolution Trust Corp. for $650,000. But he found the experience unnerving.

Anabolic steroids have long been chemicals of choice for bodybuilders wanting to bulk up. But the substances can cause men's breasts to grow, their hair to fall out and their testicles to shrink. The steroids also show up in blood tests. Insulin, however, does none of these things, which makes it especially appealing for bodybuilders who want help achieving a desired look.

Authorities evacuated about 700 people from a south Oxnard industrial center and nearby mobile home park Wednesday after two military-issue metal drums marked "high explosives" were found in a vacant lot. After a lengthy investigation, a bomb squad determined the barrels were empty--but not before many business owners in the Channel Islands Business Park told employees to take the afternoon off.

Having brought out a frozen fast-food-style French fry, Ore-Ida is test marketing frozen mashed potatoes that include small lumps for home-made authenticity. Don't Bother to Wrap It, I'll Eat It Here The Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange, a commodities trading institution, has announced a proposal to deal in Cheddar cheese futures, where you agree to buy (or sell) 40,000 pounds of cheese at a particular price on a particular date.

The first time Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger walked into the original Gold's Gym in Venice, in 1968, its legendary proprietor greeted the young bodybuilder warmly: "Arnold, anything you want, it's yours." But Joe Gold wasn't done. He quickly added: "You're just a stupid farmer from Austria and you got a balloon belly. It will take us a year to work on that. "Hey, you need an apartment? "You need a car?"

The morning that the campaign press corps had been waiting for began long before the 10 a.m. start time. The lobby of the Westin hotel near Los Angeles International Airport seemed as quiet as a Wednesday morning might be. But around the corner, outside Grand Ballroom A, the corridor rumbled with the anticipation of about 160 journalists from around the world.

Her body has yet to acquire the likeness of a statue, but the self-proclaimed Greek body-building goddess of Signal Hill envisions the day it will. Fortified with motivation and 2,000 calories a day, Stella Keriotis lifts weights and waits for her muscles to become as developed as her dreams. "I want to be the best in the sport," Keriotis said at a recent Pro Muscle Management Inc. body-building camp at Loyola Marymount University, where she went by the name Stella Starr.

From the moment he built his first crude barbells out of parts found in a junkyard more than 50 years ago, Joe Weider dreamed of power. He was 13, rail-thin, living in a gang-infested Montreal ghetto. Beaten up more than once, he feared traveling from one neighborhood to the next. Lifting weights, he hoped, would change all that. But Weider did not stop at building his biceps. Body building swept him up, he recalls now, "like a religious fervor."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ended his $8-million contract with a muscle magazine publisher last week. But his deep emotional, political and business ties to bodybuilding -- and to the supplement industry that feeds it -- won't be so easily severed. Since becoming governor, Schwarzenegger has remained closely involved with the bodybuilding world and with the supplement companies whose products promise such things as ripped muscles, "thermonuclear" energy and better sex.