When did you start exercising and when you being concerned about fitness?

I started exercising when I was about 14 years old and fitness didn’t really concern me until a couple years later. I’m 24 now so it’s been about 10 years.

Why did you start? How did you begin?

When I was younger I tended to be on the chubby side so kids used to pick on me. And I guess one day I didn’t like getting picked on anymore and it clicked and I started exercising and losing weight. I had no clue what I was doing so basically I starved myself for five months until I dropped 50 or 60 pounds. I went to the gym because I thought it was the right thing to do, and I guess you call that weightlifting. But maybe two years into dieting, 10th grade, I got more into bodybuilding.

The driving factor in the beginning was I didn’t want to be fat anymore - I just didn’t like the chubby people were treated. I became more comfortable with myself and what I looked like. Part of it was that I started looking better because I was lifting. But mostly it was that eventually you grow up and you don’t want to think like that anymore – always thinking of what other people think and letting comments bother you.

After doing this for 10 years how do you maintain your body?

I wouldn’t say I maintain now, I still try to get bigger. But this effort is time consuming. I spend an hour in the morning running everyday and then I spend about 3 hours or so in the gym, every day. I go six days a week and take off Sunday.

Not very often. I do go out with my friends a lot, but you’ll see me drinking water while they’re eating or I’ll order the grilled chicken. It’s mostly a high protein low carbs diet. There’s numbers and figures for the amount of protein you take in for the amount of carbs.

So how many calories a day do you consume?

It changes every day based on how much I work out and what my workout is that day. It ranges from 1,700 calories to 2,300 calories.

That’s not that much.

No, well, it’s summertime, so…In the wintertime I’ll take in as much as 3-4,000 calories day to try to put on as much mass as possible, while in the summer I’m trying to keep my mass as light as possible. It’s more for the looks in summer, and you put on as much size as possible in the winter. I still eat low fat, but instead of taking in 30 grams of proteins and 25 grams of carbs a meal, I’ll double it. Then by the time you get cut in the summer, you’re bigger.

What’s the difference between a body builder and a weightlifter?

It’s a question of workout and mentality. Bodybuilding is more like body sculpting, you want your body to look a certain way, you want each muscle to be shaped a certain way. If I think one side of my biceps is more rounded than the other, I’ll put more pressure on it for the next few weeks.

Did you have friends that did bodybuilding as well?

I really was all alone in the process when I started. I didn’t have friends who lifted with me or dieted. I was very influenced by what I saw on television. And when I went to the gym just to get in shape, there were these big guys there and that caught my eye more than just being healthy and in shape.

Did you compete?

I started competing my senior year of high school. I competed four or five times a year, between my senior year of high school and my last year of college. The business, I guess, is like anywhere, it’s corrupt. A lot of it is basically run by companies who want to get to the couch potato sitting at home watching the bodybuilding. And there are lots of steroids.

Have you used steroids?

Absolutely not.

Is it hard not to?

In all honesty it really was, because when you are around people who are doing it, a business that’s almost requiring you to do it, it's hard, really hard, to stay away from it. But I believe that it's really better to do it the hard way and appreciate it more. I can really say that now, after working out for 10 years, probably getting what I could have gotten after 2 years on steroids, it still doesn’t bother me, because I know I earned it, and there’s nothing better than earning it the right way.

for more of the interview

to go back home