Vail business owner wins bodybuilding competition at age 52
Oziel Martinez, 52, took first place in the classic physique masters class 40+ at the NPC Rocky Mountain championships
Physique Visuals/Courtesy photo
The body-building path inherently fosters inward focus. But for Oziel Ramirez, sculpting quads and chiseling out abs has been a physically transformational journey characterized by the inclusion of others, especially those closest to him.
“My whole motivation of course was my family and my kids,” he said after winningat the National Physique Committee (NPC) Rocky Mountain championships on Nov. 11 in Denver. He also placed fourth in the novice class C and fifth in the classic physique open class.
When the 52-year-old owner of first got hooked on weightlifting at 35, he was going to the gym alone. He said those daily dumbbell dates were a source of “friction” with his wife.
“To fix that, I got her into the gym,” he laughed. “Then it was the both of us and then our kids started. Sometimes it turns out to be a family hobby 鈥� all of us go to the gym and just workout.”
His oldest son , was Oziel’s coach through his first competition build. Jonathan himself competed in a body-building event this past September.
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“That’s how he got me into it,” Oziel stated. “Like, ‘it’s your turn.'”
From Texas to Vail and skinny to strong
Struggling to find work after graduating from the University of Texas-El Paso, Ramirez visited a friend to ski in Vail about 30 years ago. After his day on the slopes, he applied at Vail Resorts.
“I started working the next day,” he said. “The idea was to save some money, go back to Texas and get married, but I brought my wife over and my kids were born here and I’m still here.”
Ramirez played soccer and football growing up, but aside from occasionally striving to out-squat the team captain, wasn’t much of a lifter. Body building wasn’t even on his radar.
“That kind of started after I was 35,” he said. In advance of a California beach vacation, a friend kindly reminded him, “You know, we look terrible. We need to hit the gym.”
The pair’s last-second iron-pumping plan didn’t yield noticeable results. “But I kind of liked it,” Ramirez recalled.
“I stayed on it. I was pretty skinny back then. If I showed you a picture of where I started, you’d probably laugh.”
Ramirez went from 190 pounds at 35 to 210 at 40 (he cut down from 248 to 224 for last week’s competition). Those huge initial gains were made working out with a buddy at the Avon Recreation Center. “It’s great when you have somebody else,” he said. “It’s good, safe competition and you have someone spotting you.”
He relocated to the Gypsum Recreation Center for the next 10 years before conducting his competition prep at Endorphin because he needed more logistic flexibility and less traffic around key machines.
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“But all three places are great,” he said. “They’ve got enough equipment, if you really want to reach your goals. It’s mostly on you just really wanting to.”
If 久久热精品视频app are evidence, Ramirez’s desire clearly isn’t lacking. Over the last 17 years, his bench press went up by more than 200 pounds; he’s gone from squatting four total plates to five on each side. Thus, his fitness was present when he decided to actually compete, he just had to trim his diet.
“Which is the tough part,” he said before crediting his son with giving him the final push.
“He’s been telling me to do it, and you know it was like, I didn’t have the time, I was busy with my business,” Ramirez said. “But then I got to a point that you know once you hit 50 it’s like, you only live once, so you might want to experience the feeling of everything. So I really wanted to do it.”
A typical week in the final build included 90-minute lifting sessions 鈥� upper body on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and legs on Tuesday and Thursday 鈥� with 30 minutes of cardio to finish things off. Jonathan sharpened his dad’s physique for Nov. 11 with specific physiological guidance and advice for macro-and micro-nutrient timing.
“I just knew enough to keep working out and growing muscles, but he understands the whole science,” Oziel said.
“Part of it was motivation from my son that he took this path and I’ve seen him grow and compete and go through that whole process.”
Oziel felt his son’s involvement was even more gratifying than his victory and pair of top-five finishes.
“The fact that my son is doing this, it’s a huge accomplishment for me,” he said. “I was the one who got him into the gym when he was a kid.”
Building for the next one
After identifying strengths and weakness from the NPC event, Ramirez plans to target another competition at the end of 2024 or beginning of 2025.
“Usually muscle is not something you develop in a few months,” he said. Fittingly, the family-man is going to do the next one with his son.
“That was kind of the main goal this time, but he wasn’t able to compete because he just got engaged and he went to France, England and all those places and ate too much,” he laughed.
In the same way he connected his family with fitness, Ramirez hopes his YOLO attitude in taking on a body-building competition 鈥� even at 52 鈥� will affect future generations.
“Mostly, I was doing all of this because at one point I thought, you know I want to show my grandkids something. You know, have some pictures, like, ‘oh my grandad was a bodybuilder,'” he said. Presumably, the lesson he’ll tell them will be about patience, persistence and giving goals a chance.
“I tell guys, it’s not going to happen in one year. It took me 10 years before I really started showing any muscle definition. It’s one of those things that really takes time,” he said.
“When I saw people competing, it was kind of a dream. That was kind of my theme on all this,” he continued.
“I dreamt of it, and now it’s time to do it. So I did it.”
