Alex

Hickory, NC

I started weight training with the football team my freshman year of high school after getting fed up over how skinny I was, then got a gym membership at our local YMCA soon after that.

I started getting noticed in the gym by an older bodybuilder that had multiple Mr. North Carolina and Mr. South Carolina titles, and recently a very successful competitor at the Masters Nationals, who told me I had great proportions and symmetry. He told me that I should try competing, so I did my first show in 2004 at 17 years old in the Novice division. I placed dead last, but that really motivated me so I continued to compete after that in the Teen division at the state level until I won that at 19, and then competed in the Men's Junior division until I recently won that, the middle weights first and then the overall title at the 2009 NPC North Carolina State Bodybuilding Championships, which was my 8th competition.

Bodybuilding is my absolute favorite sport & hobby, the greatest motivation in my life & number one passion. I love it because to me, it's the greatest sport in the world because it challenges you not only physically in the gym but mentally most of all, because it teaches you discipline, determination, patience, and through your training and diet it motivates you to be the best you can possibly be, in every area of your life and not just in the gym or on stage. I love it because no other major sport in the world like football, baseball, or basketball require their athletes to have such physically demanding workouts in the gym, or such a strict diet to follow before a game, meet, or competition. In bodybuilding those things are absolutely necessary and only those that are truly dedicated to their training and diet will be successful.

Bodybuilding has given me confidence that I didn't have back in the early high school years, and it has taught me that if I want something, I have to work hard for it because there are no shortcuts in life. This sport has made me a better person and given me respect for the smaller things in life that most people take for granted. I will continue bodybuilding for the rest of my life, for it will always be a part of me because I wouldn't be who I am today without it. As the great Arnold once said perfectly, "Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body."

Having grown up the past 6 years with a great interest in health and fitness, I've been able to see first hand from family, friends, personal training clients and the general public that many of the major health problems that people have today are side effects of a poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle. That fact alone is enough of a motivator for me to want to stay active and do my best to continue the bodybuilding lifestyle for as long as I can. We only live once, so why not live life to the fullest, and make the best of our time on this Earth by staying active, healthy and strong? So the fear of losing my good health is probably what motivates me the most to continue following a healthy lifestyle, because I know that if I let my body go, my health will go with it.

After experimenting with many different weekly splits, I've found that what works best for me is training each muscle group usually just once a week. Occasionally I'll switch it up and work everything twice in a week, but if I do that it'll only be temporary and just for a change to shock my body or move past a plateau, because I feel if I train everything twice a week for too long, I don't get enough rest and eventually lead to overtraining. So I try to keep my body guessing so it doesn't get used to the same workout routine, because if that happens then I'll stop seeing results. So my usual off-season training split looks something like this:

Training Split:

Day 1: Back
Day 2: Legs
Day 3: Chest
Day 4: Off
Day 5: Shoulders
Day 6: Biceps
Day 7: Triceps

During the off-season I try and stick to more compound movements, or multi-joint exercises for mass building like heavy deadlifts, squats and bench presses, always high volume workouts using the pyramid style of sets and reps, starting out with lighter weight for reps around 15-20, then adding weight and decreasing reps after each set until I get to the heaviest weight I'll use for a solid 6-8 or sometimes 3-6 reps. After that I'll start decreasing the weight for usually 2 sets to get in more reps after the heavy weight.

I usually don't change my training split until the last week before a competition, and at that point I do a circuit that consists of only upper body, since my last leg day is about 10 days out from the competition. I'll superset one exercise for chest, then one for back, then shoulders, biceps, triceps, and then rest. I'll go through this circuit about 3-5 times, and switch up the exercises every circuit. The point of the circuit is because when you start to carb-up before a show, the muscles most depleted will get the most carbs, and so during that last week if the last thing you train is chest for example, your chest will be the most depleted and so it'll need the majority of the carbs to fill out, while other areas remain flat, so the idea during that last week is to evenly deplete every muscle, except legs of course, so when it's time to carb up, you fill out evenly.

My off-season diet usually consists of about 5-6 meals a day. In each meal I make sure I get a source of protein, usually a lean meat such as chicken, turkey or fish with a source of complex carbohydrates like sweet potatoes or brown rice, with a mixture of starchy and fibrous vegetables like carrots, peas, corn, and broccoli or green beans. My protein shakes are always 3 scoops of Optimum Nutrition's 100% Whey Gold Standard, which I'll drink post-workout, before bed, and/or in between my food meals. In the off-season I also have plenty of cheat meals every week, usually either pizza, or some kind of pasta.

My pre-contest diet starts 12 weeks out from a competition and is very strict. My daily calories and macronutrient ratios change every week to two weeks, and are based on my bodyweight, the speed of my metabolism and the progress I make each week, which is determined by a 4-site skin fold calibration using the tricep, abdominal, kidney & subscap areas. Measurements are also taken of my chest, shoulders, arms, waist, hips, quad, and neck. My daily calories and macros for each week from my most recent competition looked something like this:

Week 1-2: 3200 Calories, 450g Protein, 190g Carbs, 71g Fat

Week 3-4: 3360 Calories, 470g Protein, 200g Carbs, 75g Fat

Week 5-6: 3045 Calories, 470g Protein, 80g Carbs, 90g Fat

Carb-Up: 3570 Calories, 210g Protein, 600g Carbs, 40g Fat

Week 7-8: 3045 Calories, 470g Protein, 60g Carbs, 100g Fat

Week 9-10: 2887 Calories, 470g Protein, 30g Carbs, 95g Fat

Week 11-12: 2835 Calories, 470g Protein, 0g Carbs, 105g Fat

Carb-Up: 3570 Calories, 210g Protein, 600g Carbs, 40g Fat

At 12 weeks out from the competition I weighed in at 193 lbs. at 8% bodyfat, and ended up getting down to 175 lbs. on stage at 3.25% bodyfat. Within two months after the show I was back up to 200 lbs. at a little under 6% bodyfat, so during the past 5 months, 3 before the competition and 2 after, I was able to put on a solid 7 pounds of lean mass.

I will always look up to and respect the bodybuilding legends that helped bring this sport into mainstream culture like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but my personal favorite is Ronnie Coleman, and I would like to thank him for all the support and encouragement that he gave me in answering my e-mails during his reign as Mr. Olympia. He is an awesome guy, very humble and down to earth, a great role model and really cares about his fans. I'm also a big fan of Dexter Jackson for hanging in there and finally getting what he's deserved for a long time, a Mr. O title. I also enjoy following Kai Greene, Victor Martinez, Branch Warren, Phil Heath, and Dennis Wolf. These guys are the best of the best and I can't wait to see how they place in the Olympia this year.

"Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body."
-Arnold Schwarzenegger