Meet Jackedtivist and founder of MuscleFest Russell Gonzarelli by Hillary Gluck

He’s America’s first ever jackedtivist and he’s rededicated his life to spreading awareness about the two headed muscle that lies on the upper arm between the shoulder and the elbow. He‘s also the founder of MuscleFest: A Comedy Festival Devoted To The Bicep which has been known for being the largest gathering of Bicep enthusiasts and fellow jackedtivist in the world. Jackedtivism is simple, it’s about 2 things and 2 things only: verbal/positive reinforcement of your buddies body (not limited to only biceps) and to distribute knowledge about the evils of carbs and sugars. Russell Gonzarelli began his journey into jackedtivism in 2017 when he and his now deceased friend Joe “Muddles“ Tomasulo (Americas 2nd self declared jackedtivist) were forcibly removed from their Retirement home they’d been living in (the Cedar Oaks Senior Center) after starting a massive brawl in the Recreation room. Vowing to never allow themselves to be tossed around like that again they committed to a program that was organized by Gonzarelli‘s former high school wrestling coach Jerry Hillenbrand, a Canadian immigrant and the son of former American industrialist Theodore Marshall Hillenbrand. Gonzarelli met Hillenbrand in December of 1969 when he was a high school senior and just 2 weeks away from graduating Bishop Helen High School located on the West Side of Manhattan. Hillenbrand had just been hired to be the assistant wrestling coach starting in the spring of 1970, Gonzarelli who was a wrestler for all 4 years of high school never got the opportunity to wrestle under Hillenbrand despite the pair often being seen performing wrestling moves on one another privately in Hillenbrand‘s family den. After years of not hearing from Gonzarelli, Hillenbrand fielded a phone call from the bicep enthusiast on October 30th 2017. The two discussed many things but as the two of them recounted the most important thing that they discussed was a focus on strengthening the bicep. This would become Gonzarelli‘s mission from that day onward. As time passed and tragedy affected the MuscleFest founder he continued to preach against the evils of carbs and sugars in the name of jacktivism with eventually organizing a quarterly summit now known as Musclefest where a bunch of jacked ass dudes worship each other’s bodies in the name of Joe Rogan. When we asked Russell, “why does he do it? What’s it all for?”, he replied “to inspire and motivate others that share one common interest: And that’s getting fucking jacked“.