Only a few friends really knew of my intentions of switching from Bodybuilding to Men’s Physique. Half of them laughed and the other half supported my decision.
In 2010 my 
bodybuilding career came to an ultimate peak when I was crowned welterweight champion of Canada. What an incredible journey it took to get to that point! It started in 1994 where I placed fourth in the bantamweight category – not a spectacular beginning to say the least. I went from 180 pounds to 135 in 12 weeks dieting on egg whites and white rice… I had no idea what I was doing, but if you had asked me at the time, I was doing it like the pros. About 10 contests and 16 years later I reached the pinnacle of the sport for me.
Late in 2012 I decided to give the Nationals one more shot – the following year it was going to be held in my hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia and my company, Advanced Genetics, would be the title sponsor. The previous year I had come fifth and I was determined to get my title back or move up a weight category. I hired a top coach and started the mass building looking to improve my physique. The food and training built me up to a solid, though very round, 198 pounds (at 5’5”). Once the dieting began I noticed that things were not happening the way they had in the past and seven weeks out I withdrew and focused on helping promote the contest itself.
I did manage to get into “okay” shape and I knew I wanted to compete, but killing myself to be as good as or perhaps slightly better than 2010 seemed to be a no-win situation. I had seen the new Men’s Physique division and thought my body would work well for it. I was never a massive bodybuilder anyway and the new physique guys looked to be getting bigger all the time and it seemed like their physiques would be in line with my own. That’s when I committed to the East Coast Classic – a novice show that would qualify me for Provincials then, hopefully, Nationals.
Without too much of a break, I kept on my diet (the Nationals were July 6th and the ECC was to be held November 23rd). I was about 175 at the time and knew that I would have to make a few changes to be competitive in the Men’s Physique category. But not as many changes as you might think…
A lot of people assumed that I would try to lose a lot of muscle to compete in physique, but as a bodybuilder, that didn’t sit well with me (I had never trained to LOSE muscle). AND I knew that the look for Men’s Physique would be changing and the guys would be getting bigger by the time I was ready to go to Nationals. My training and diet wouldn’t need to change much, but it did evolve.
In the past I’ve done very well with keto diets, but I’ve tried it all. It was under the watchful eye of Dave Palumbo that I won Nats in bodybuilding. With Salim Satir I had done a mix of macros, but mostly very low carb. My first coach was Scott Able and we had done a higher amount of carbs with very low fat and I did okay on that. John Meadows had me eating much higher carbs with just as much fat and protein that I was used to and I grew well, but the fat came off painfully slow. The point is, I kept ALL of the notes I had made from my experiences with these amazing coaches, added it to my personal wealth of knowledge, and created a diet that ended up working perfectly… for me… at this time in my life.
My “new” diet consisted of two weekly re-feeds when I would eat higher amounts of carbohydrates. I would also eat carbs during and eventually post-workout. I say “eventually” because I was able to add more food as I progressed towards the show. For the first time ever I was able to, in fact I HAD to, eat more food as the competition neared. My fat and protein remained virtually the same throughout the entire prep as it does most of the year – and as much as possible organic.
I trained twice a day with weights, taking Sundays off. Doing Physique didn’t mean training lighter or with more reps, even though I did train with higher reps with the pure intention of “feeling” the muscle and getting a pump – something I hadn’t been doing, instead focusing on heavy weights. The workouts were amazing and where before I felt like one in three workouts were good, EVERY workout felt productive.
Under the advice of Musclegenes.com I switched from low intensity cardio to HIT
T on a stationary bike two-three times per week for 24 minutes (three minutes low intensity followed by 30 seconds of all out ball-busting pedaling for six rounds). My body responded well.
Supplementation stayed virtually the same, but I switched my intra-workout protein source from whey hydrolysate and cyclic dextrin to essential amino acids (AMMO-8) and coconut water, which made a huge difference. I’d eat an organic banana immediately after every workout. Each workout was preceded and followed by GP3 EVO, and F-10 was my fat burner of choice.
I ended up winning my class at the ECC (November 2013) and a few months later, with some minor alterations to diet and cardio, I came third at Provincials (April 2014). Looking at my pictures and the pictures and videos of the Pros, I knew I would have to get into “bodybuilding condition” to do well at Nationals. I once again did my own diet, referencing the knowledge I had gathered over the years. I dieted even harder and this time opted for two cardio sessions a day using low intensity to get ultra-ripped.
I also started paying more attention to my skin and hair, opting for high quality skin products and, for the first time in my life, I bought a hairbrush. Unlike Bodybuilding that is judged from the neck down, Men’s Physique includes the face. I practiced posing as much as I had as a bodybuilder. Physique posing is much more intricate than one may think until they actually try it. Arm and foot position can make a huge difference and smiling… well, that’s a real challenge in itself. Imagine yourself posing for your graduation photos… remember how silly you felt with that fake smile? Now hold that for thirty minutes.
End result: Overall Master Men’s Physique and IFBB Pro card. I was able to achieve in less than one year what I had strived for almost two decades in Bodybuilding. In other words, the change was good. The “other half” isn’t laughing now.
