Tell
me a little bit about yourself.
I live and Barbados where I'm a personal trainer, massage
therapist and nutrition advisor. I earned my pro card in 2005
when I won the Central American and Caribbean Heavyweight
and Overall championship.
I
was born and raised in Barbados, one of five children. I
also have a son that is 5 years old.
How
did you get into bodybuilding?
I had an uncle that was a pro bodybuilder, Patrick Nicholls.
I admired him a lot; he was really my idol. When I was 15
he won the Mr. Barbados Nationals. I started bodybuilding
at 16. He is a personal trainer in the UK now, but we still
talk from time to time.
At
23, I did my first show when and I came in 4th in the Caribbean
classic. That was in 1993.
Are
there many bodybuilders from Barbados?
Cricket and bodybuilding are the most popular sports in
Barbados. Barbados has been a traditional power in international
bodybuilding. Albert Beckles, Henderson Thorne, Charles
Clairemont, Roy Callendar and Earl Maynard all came from
Barbados. Many have moved to Canada or the UK to get their
careers going, but they all started here.
Where
do you train?
Today it's a little harder to find basic bodybuilding gyms.
We have a lot of fitness clubs. I train in 3 different gyms
to get the choice of equipment that I want.
Tell
me about your approach.
Normally I like to build up the shows, because I can keep
my body fat low and I have more time for growth. It has
worked for me in the past, and it worked for guys like Robby
Robinson and Arnold too. They built up to shows too.
This
approach is a lot easier on my body. I like see where I'm
going and I can make adjustments. Going up with quality
is easier and I have more control. I haven't had good experience
with coming down. I did that last year and I didn't come
in as sharp as I wanted to. Cutting down has never worked
well for me. I'm putting on about 10 pounds for my upcoming
shows and I started about 14 weeks out
I'll
hit each body part once a week. As show gets closer, I'll
be a lot leaner and hit each part twice a week and cut the
training time down from 30 to 45 minutes. I change the movement
to hit them more so I don't over train. The leaner you get,
you have to avoid over training balancing anabolic vs. catabolic.
You just want to stimulate the muscle. Now you can't train
that way all year because it's too much stress on the body
and that leads to injury.
Cardio
helps too. I do my cardio at least 30 minutes every day.
If I haven't worked out too hard, I'll do 45 minutes. I
do cardio according to how I feel.
What
is your pre-contest diet like?
When I'm getting ready for a show I eat very clean, limiting
the fats and really watching my carbs. I normally taper
off carbs in the evening and don't consume more 200 grams
of protein. As I deplete my carbs, I increase my protein.
I have to watch to see how my body is responding to decide
how to adjust when to drop and increase the protein. Once
I cut back on carbs, I have to increase the fats.
Right
now I eat every hour, alternating cars and protein meals.
I drink a lot of protein shakes. And my carb meals consist
of rice, potatoes or yams. I try to cut back the carbs in
the afternoon and have broccoli or beans with a protein
like fish or chicken. At night I'll get protein from eggs.
I'd say I get about half my protein from shakes and the
other half from fish and chicken. My first meal is a protein
shake at 7am, and my last meal is at around 11:30 or 12:30
It
sounds like a lot of food, but these are small modest portions
and no more than 50 grams of protein per serving. I also
drink 25oz. of water at the half hour. So in an average
day I consume 4 protein shakes and over 2 gallons of water,
and between 3000-3200 calories.
Describe
your training
I really believe in isometric contraction and I built it
in to my movements. When I'm getting ready for a competition,
I like using modern equipment for better isolation and contraction.
I
also train instinctively. I listen to my body. If I go into
the gym and feel like my chest needs more rest, I'll do
something else.
Isometric
posing is also a big part of my training. 4 to 5 days a
week I do 30 minute session. When I do that, then I won't
work out with the weights as long.
Why
is posing so important?
It brings the whole package together so you can present
everything together, working in sync. I start posing 8 weeks
out from competition. It brings out the separation and cleans
the muscle out so it falls into position when your on stage
and shows just the way you want it to. Training adds the
size, posing molds it. It puts a finished look onto your
physique that you won't get from training. When you put
the time into posing, your muscles will speak for themselves.
Your
body has to speak a language and create an attitude with
every pos that you hit. It's a lot more important than people
think. You have to create an attitude with your body so
your body will respond the way you want it to. It allows
you connect much better with your body and so you can train
it to contract just at the perfect angle. By training it,
you can generate the hardest muscle contraction and sculpt
the muscle to look the way you want. Posing helps you flush
the muscle and stimulate more growth.
I
like posing early in the morning. I look for the angle I
can get the best contraction, not necessarily what looks
the best until about 2 weeks out, then I work on what's
going to look best on stage.
I like the way the old bodybuilders and kept their stomachs
under control. They were able to do that because they practiced
posing.
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