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Long
Beach is a microcosm of Southern California: racially mixed,
neither small nor large (population 400,000), with hard-edged
Compton on one side, and conservative Orange County on the
other; and home to both gangbangers and new money millionaires.
A hundred years ago --- as a manufacturing mecca and resort
destination - it was the fastest growing city in America.
It's port remains the second busiest in the United States
(trailing only the neighboring port of Los Angeles) , and
its shoreline is indeed lengthy, but urban sprawl has otherwise
blurred its distinctions. Today, it is just another jigsaw
piece in the nearly unbroken stretch of Golden Arches, strip
malls and gated subdivisions from the valley's north of
Los Angeles to the Mexican border south of San Diego.
Lionel
Brown, who was born on September 14, 1971, and his younger
sister were raised by their mother, Annette Mason. Life
on the Long Beach streets was rough. "We had gangs,"
Brown states. "I knew them, I was taught to stay away
from them, but I kind of took advantage a little bit to
go where I shouldn't and watch what they were doing. Still,
I was always receptive to my mother's teachings, and when
I saw some of those guys going to jail, that kind of kept
the focus on what she told me, so I never really got in
trouble."
"I
ran with Snoop Dog," he remembers with a smile. "Snoop
used to spend the night at my house, when I was little.
We were on the same team in Pop Warner football. I was the
tight end and he was the quarterback. I always knew Snoop
was going to make it, because everything he's doing now
was doing then. "
L-Train
was first introduced to bodybuilding by his father. "I
remember him taking me to see Pumping Iron," Brown
reminisces, "and I was really blown away, especially
by Robbie Robinson; his muscles wer like balloons. When
I saw that, I wanted to get big."
Playing
football and running track in junior high and high school,
Brown was enamored with physiques of gridiron greats Herschel
Walker and Bo Jackson. He followed the Walker workout of
pushups and situps during his early teen years, but he graduated
to iron after he saw a photo of Lee Haney. Hitting the heavy
basics, he quickly established himself as one of the strongest
members of his football team. The more Brown bodybuilding
magazines, the greater the pull of bodybuilding grew.
Brown
was 21 and working as an exterminator when he entered his
first bodybuilding contest, the 1993 San Diego Championships.
Late IFBB pro Ray McNeil assisted him with his preparation,
and L-Train took sixth. "I used to just come in to
the gym and bench press, bench press, do some arms, bench
press, and do a little hack," Brown says. "I only
did leg extensions for lower body, and I called that 'doing
legs.' When I went into that first show I was blown away
by everyone else's legs. I started adding squats and more
and more exercises. From then on, I trained legs and every
body part as hard as I could. I'm like that. When I see
a little improvement, it fuels me to go harder and harder."
In
1994, after growing on a more balanced workout routine,
he won the Gold's Classic in Visalia, California. He subsequently
took four years off from competition to focus on his family.
He has two children, Isaiah, age 12 a football player, and
Loren, age 10 she's a ballerina. (He and his wife Myrtle
are expecting their first child together in 2007.)
Returning to the stage in 1998, Brown showed promise but
few cuts. Over the next three years, he racked up heavyweight
thirds and fourths in local and regional shows. Brown reflects
on those years, "I thought I'd win on a tapered physique
alone, but my conditioning just wasn't good enough. I had
to learn a lot about the discipline side of bodybuilding."
L-Train
worked on a variety of jobs, often doing club security.
The occupational high point came in 2000 when he traveled
North America as a bodyguard on the "Up in Smoke"
tour. The tour's rapping headliners included Snoop Dogg,
whom Brown hadn't seen in seven years. Inspired by Snoop's
rapid rise from poverty to superstardom, Brown dreamed even
more about making it big in bodybuilding.
In
2002, having honed more details and density into his physique
and mastered his diet, Brown won the Orange County Classic.
The next month, he was second among heavyweights in the
strongly contested California Championships. Ten years after
his first contest, Brown was finally ready to battle the
best amateurs. He got up to 273 pounds in early 2003, relying
on heavy weights and protein and consulting with IFBB pro
Patrick Lynn.
"Five
weeks out from the USA, I was looking so good I started
to have anxiety," Brown states. "I had all kinds
of weird things going through my head, like I'm going to
miss my plain or something. But I made it and looked at
my competition, and I thought I CAN TAKE THIS THING. I just
KNEW I was going to win. It came as a total shock when I
didn't. I was always taught to remain professional no matter
what. When they announced me second, I was crushed. But
I congratulated Mike Dragna and told myself 'I'll deal with
this in private, but I'm going to be professional on stage
and good things will come to me in the future'.
"Flex
Wheeler told me if I came in the same condition in the [2003]
Nationals, I'd win the show. I had dieted for so long getting
ready for the USA that I wasn't really ready to diet again,
but everyone was telling me this is your career, you need
to do it." Brown prepared for the show but with the
stress of months of dieting he came in flat, taking fifth.
2004
brought more disappointment, finished 8th at the USAs and
3rd at the North American Championships, and L-Train resolved
to move up to the Super Heavies in 2005. "I got too
heavy in the offseason. I hit 285 pounds it was hard getting
leaned out. Now I try to stay with 25 pounds of competition
weight year round." He took fourth at the USAs and
he'd learned his lesson. 15 months later he won the Heavy
Weight Class at the NPC Nationals to earn his pro card,
and the long journey was over.
Personal
motto/saying: Don't stop dreaming.
Hobbies: Learning to play the guitar
Long term goals: Always be successful, business man hopefully
playing guitar at a jazz club one day.
Role models/heros: Martin Luther King, what he stood for
and great ambassador and human being. Harriet Tubman (Freedom
Railroad) fearless about life.
Favourite music: Jazz
Favourite films: Glory with my favorite actor, Denzel Washington
Favourite colours: Blue
Click here for Lionel's MuscleMag
Profile
Click
here for Lionel's FLEX
Feature
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