My name is Jerome Dinh, I was born on June 5th 1978 in Fridley, Minnesota. I hail from a Scandinavian and Asian descent. My mother is Finnish and father was Vietnamese. As a child, I had no solid residential base. Growing up I was primarily raised by my mother who struggled to support two young boys by herself, as a result our residence moved quite frequently. With that being said, I had no opportunity to participate in any sports growing up, though I was a very active child. It wasn’t apparent how athletic I was until I was 13 years old. I was in 7th grade in physical education class and we were required to run 1 mile as part of the curriculum. I was never one to let anyone beat me or look like a failure no matter what so during the run I gave it my all. Come to find out that I broke the school record and ran the 1 mile in 5mins and 42seconds. I didn’t think it was a big deal, I just didn’t want to look like a failure, failure was never an option in my mind and never will be. That was the first incident that really got my gears thinking about “fitness”. What really perpetuated me to getting more involved with weight training was when I was diagnosed with Graves Disease when I was 14 years old. Graves Disease means your Thyroid is over active so you are burning more calories than you can take in, as a result I drastically lost a lot of weight. Once I got on my medications, I started to weight train to build myself back up. The gains came quick and those gains were noticed by an elder classmate by the name of Shawn Barthel who was a successful football and wrestling athlete as well as a Bodybuilder. He approached me one day after school in the gym and asked if I wanted to be his training partner. I humbly accepted and that is when my bodybuilding career took off. I ended up winning my first show just months after I graduated high school and after I turned 18 years old and won the Teenage Overall and took 2nd place in Men Open Lightweight class. The experience was an unforgettable one. The feeling posing in front of thousands of people, the camaraderie back stage, the compliments from complete strangers off stage, it was the most memorable experience! I dedicated my first show to my Father who passed away from Stomach Cancer several months before I graduated high school, RIP DAD I LOVE YOU!
I did one more show following my teenage overall win but lost the passion to compete. I thought I was competing for the right reasons but I wasn’t, It wasn’t until several months after I got married, gained an astonishing 50lbs that I found the true motivation to train and compete. When I started bodybuilding I was training for attention but I was at a point in my life where that no longer mattered. I wanted to train to better myself physically and improve my health. The day we invaded Iraq was the day I forever changed my life. No more excuses, no more wishing, I took responsibility for my carelessness and said THE ONLY THING STOPPING MYSELF FROM BEING WHO EVER OR WHAT EVER I WANTED TO BE WAS “ME”. It was clear as day. I then entered the 2003 SportPharma Pepti-Lean Challenge, lost 50lbs in 12 weeks and was announced the Grand Prize winner. One year later I would compete in my first bodybuilding show in 6 years and would win 2004 NPC Natural Northern States Mens Open Lightweight class! I successfully competed several times after that until I complete tore my right pec 8 weeks after winning the 2008 NPC Flex Wheeler Classic Men Open 2nd place. It happened to be a blessing in disguise. The time I took off training my upper body gave me time to focus solely on my lower body and bring it up to match my upper half. Since then my leg have been my best attribute.
Presently I’m competitively active in bodybuilding and I’m more focused on making myself the best “PRODUCT” I can. I’m not focused on getting grossly big but adding quality to my physique. I’m all about aesthetic and marketability. I’m very outgoing, down to earth as they come, I say how it is rather you like it or not I keep it real and passionate person in general especially when it comes to health and fitness. My goal isn’t only to improve my outer shell but inner self too. There’s nothing to anything without a good core ,without a good core the “whole” will collapse upon itself eventually!! Be good and kind to those and it will come back 10 fold! Everything happens for a reason, accept what life has thrown at you. It’s your job to find the good in the bad that’s thrown at you, stay positive, stay productive, stay hungry!

I side from my fitness life I’m also a very very proud father to a 9 year old daughter and 4 year old son.

CONTEST HISTORY:

BODYBUILDING:

1996 NPC Ironman Championships- 1st place & Teenage Overall Winner, 2ND place Mens Open Lightweight
1998 NPC Ironman Championships- 2nd place Mens Open Lightweight
2004 NPC Natural Northern States- 1st place Men Open Lightweight
2006 NPC Greater Twin Cities Championships – 1st place Mens Open Middleweight
2006 NPC Minnesota – 1st place Mens Open Middleweight
2008 NPC Flex Wheeler Classic- 2nd place Mens Open Middleweight
2010 NPC Minnesota- 1ST place Mens Open Middleweight
2011 NPC Gopher State - 3rd place Mens Open Light Heavyweight
2011 NPC Fox Cities Showdown- 1st place Mens Open Middleweight
2011 NPC Minnesota- 1st place Mens Open Middleweight
2012 NPC Badger State Championships- 1st place Mens Open Middleweight

TRANSFORMATION:

2003 SportPharma Pepti-Lean Transformation Contest- Grand Prize Winner
2005 Instone Nutrition LifeChange Challenge – Runner Up
2008 MuscleTech/Bodybuilding.com Transformation Contest- Runner Up


LINKS:

www.facebook.com/jeromedinh
http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/jeromedinh/
www.facebook.com/theotherrock
http://jeromedinh.wordpress.com/

SPONSORS:

Force Factor
Muscle Egg
Fitmark Bags
Ultra Tan
True Iron

Former SPONSORS:
MuscleTech
One of One Clothing Inc.
I was also sponsored and featured in numerous Muscle Tech ads between June 2009 through June 2011.

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