BACKGROUND INFORMATION |
When did you start bodybuilding, and where? |
I started training in high school at our school gym. It was more the thing to do with the football team off season, than a quest to build a great body. I knew a little about supplementation and had a great school coach who really emphasized form. I credit him for my adherence to form to this day. |
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Explain your training style and philosophy. |
I am data driven. I like to monitor my progress on reps weights and if I don’t see the progression I expect, I change it up. I also listen to my body quite a bit. If I was supposed to do 3 sets, 3 exercises, but I am stumbling through it, I cut it short. Feeling a twinge, cut it short. But I also dig deep when I am feeling strong. I will push that last set to more reps or a higher weight and really blast it. I also feel that bodybuilding is a lifestyle choice for maintaining health and body aesthetics. I try not to make choices that will jeopardize that view. |
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Favorite body part to train? |
My legs are strong and I love to really push on squats. |
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Least favorite? |
| Back. I am strong on certain movements (bent over rows and cable rows for example) but weak on pulldowns. I feel my lats are under developed and even though I pound them, it is hard for me to recognize growth in that area. |
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What supplements do you take?. |
I try things from time to time, but I always have my basics. In bulking season I take gainers for the extra calories, glutamine, creatine, and multi vitamins. I also use potassium and cycle milk thistle (month on month off more to make me happy). In contest prep, I run just whey and casein proteins (they both have glutamine in them so I don’t add any extra). I take the multi, potassium, Vitamin C, fish and primrose oil and I try to get a tribulus cap in pre/post work out.
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What is your precontest diet like? |
I used the Palumbo diet last time and it worked wonders, so I am using that again. This time I am starting with 2 fat, 2 veg, 1 fat, 2 veg cycle. I will adjust as needed. I also decide to add a spoonful of PB to my preworkout nutrition to fight off catabolism. We'll see how that goes |
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What is the hardest part of precontest? |
I get heartburn from the diet and I get moody as hell because I have heartburn and I can’t eat anything I want when I want. |
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How do you deal with it? |
I watch Food TV constantly. And then I do some bathroom posing and admire the changes coming about and realize it is all worth it. |
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What is the first thing you want to eat after a show? |
Anything bready. It was pizza last time. And beer of course. Then a nice stack of pancakes for breakfast the morning after. |
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Best nutrition tip? |
Eat big to grow big. I struggled for years trying to break 200lbs. then I started to eat more and take higher calorie shakes. Brought my daily intake up 1000-1500 calories and I started to get the results I was after. |
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Do you have a trainer or coach? |
I know this guy, Bruce. He helps me out from time to time. :) |
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Who do you admire in the bodybuilding world? |
That’s a hard one. I really liked the persona and attitude of Chris Faldo. He has stood by his principles and gives a 100% to the sport every day, contest or not. But I also really like Zane. His posing was masterful and his physique was more in the realm of what I feel is attainable. The guys today are massive, but its hard for me to look past the substance use. |
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What would you like to achieve in bodybuilding long-term? |
My only real goal is to bring home an overall title, especially one that gives me a sword. |
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What do outside the gym? |
I am an development engineering manager for a local manufacturing company. That keeps me pretty busy. But I also have a 2 wonderful kids and a wife. We spend time on the weekends getting the kids to gymnastics and summer sports. This year my 6 yr old son and I began go kart racing. So now I’ve got plenty to wrench on and keep busy during the weekends. |
What is best piece of advice ever given to you and by whom? |
For workouts: Listen to your body. Bruce gave me that one.
For work: Do it, Delegate it, Delete it. I read it somewhere, but don’t recall where. Works wonders for managing my email box at work. |
What's your best Gym Story? |
This one just happened!! I have a ritual of going to the crapper before squats as a way of making sure I am cleaned out and ready for some serious pushing. No need to make fudge ribbons. So anyway, I’m one for laying TP on the seat. On this particular day, I laid a little piece between the split in the seat as the rim looked nasty. Apparently when I got up, this little piece fell off and into my pants. I walk out to gym and over to the squat rack where I jump on bike to warm up. I am talking to a long-time friend when my wife walked up to him laughing so hard she can’t speak. But she keeps pointing to me. He then figures it out and laughs as do about 3 other people trying to figure out why my wife is laughing so hard she is red and not breathing! Then I figured it out. I balled it up and threw it at her. |
To the Average Joe this is crazy. Why do you do it? |
Why do I compete? I wanted some way to give it all purpose. A way to see how my hard work compared to that of others. And then to provide a new set of goals. It is easy to say I want to get bigger, but until you strip yourself down, you really don’t know where. |
