February MOTM - Bengi
Name: Ryan
Nicknames: irrelevant
DOB: irrelevant
Birthplace: irrelevant
Currently Lives At: irrelevant
Height: irrelevant
Weight: irrelevant
Marital Status: irrelevant
Family: irrelevant
Pets: irrelevant
Occupation: irrelevant
Hobbies: irrelevant
Started training: 2003
Reason for starting training: I started because I wanted more respect and wanted to impress a girl.
Gym currently training at: Xtreme Physique, uni gym, garage.
Favourite Lifters: Anyone who isn’t a pure meat head. Intelligence and muscle should go hand in hand – Justin Harris is a great example.
Favourite bodybuilders: Justin Harris, Layne Norton.
Your best and worst bodyparts: Synonymous.
Short term goal: Continue to drop body fat and improve my cardiovascular efficiency.
Long term goal: Achieve a perfect balance in life that allows me to still train hardcore.
Favourite exercise: Bench Press
Least favourite exercise: Something that irritates an injury.
Exercise everybody should do: Core work.
Favourite music to train to: Metal
Favourite music to relax to: Classical, trance, 90’s dance.
Favourite food: Tuna, low fat cottage cheese – because it makes me leaner.
Favourite treat food: Don’t want to think about it lol.
Favourite place to eat out: All you can eat.
Favourite tv shows: irrelevant
Favourite movies: irrelevant
Favourite actor and actress: irrelevant
What other sport would you liked to have pursued? Irrelevant.
Nutritional supplements you use: ON whey.
How you stay focused and motivated? It’s just what I do now… I’ve had times where I said I wanted to quit… But 10 mins later I’m cooking chicken? I don’t know how to eat/live any different lol.
Do you train with any partners? Yes.
Advice you'd offer to anyone beginning powerlifting? Make sure you have the right mentality from the start.
Who has helped you in your lifting journey? My mates for maintaining my mental clarity. I’m fortunate enough to be friends with real big dudes who are also intelligent.
How do you think the ordinary man on the street views powerlifting? Strangely aroused.
Typical Training Split: Upper/lower x 2 a week.
Disappointments: Bombing on squat.
Best Lifts: I bombed.
Hints or tips you'd like to pass on?Everyone wants a quick fix: People are under the impression that their gains will come instantly after they workout, or instantly if they take a natural supplement. When the actual reality is, the body doesn’t work like that. Like a plant, it must undergo some adaptations. The first adaptations is that you learn the skill (learn the exercises in the gym). Slowly, your body works out what muscles to recruit, how to recruit it, which contributes to your strength gains. The body will then become accustomed to the workout load set on it and realises that it can perform it easier if it increases its contractile fibres. This is an example of muscle growth being an adaptation to strength. The next example of muscle growth, is to use your muscles to perform a task for a given time period. This requires glycogen and water in the muscle, increased capillaries for the blood to reach the muscle and other connective tissues grow. Now, the other science is that these adaptations occur rapidly in the first year of training. After all, it’s a completely new stimulus to the body but will adapt to its own adaptations… So to speak… The growth of a muscle is expected and therefore regulated. Also, once you have learnt a movement and it is no longer new to the body, the adaptations cease. So now the basics must be implemented in order to sustain growth. The basics being… A stronger muscle will grow and a more ‘efficient’ muscle will grow when considering work capacity (stated why, above).
Now, normally people will give up when they don’t receive their quick fix. Because effort is generally not warranted by humans. Hence the reason for inventions such as the remote control and microwave dinners. Humans will often try and find the easy option. This why it is important to gain and maintain a rhythm of behaviour that is suited towards lifting and progressing in weight training. Normalcy for a human suggests that we have 3 meals a day. To become a good weight trainer the new normalcy must be 6-8 meals. There is plenty of evidence to justify this dietary pattern so you can in theory put anyone who opposes it in their own place. Arm yourself with knowledge as to why you do the things you do. Be able to reason with people about your goals and never let them pull you down. Excuses such as “Oh but I have a life” isn’t warranted, because life itself isn’t defined.
Life is what you make it, if you want to have more muscle or lose fat then what better way to celebrate life than in changing your own physiology. Emotions may often stop you from reaching these goals, because society disapproves of those who work hard, as they themselves, are lazy. What better way to justify your laziness than to ostracise the hard working? Be surrounded with people who want to achieve the same goals, or have their own goals and are heavily dedicated towards them. Distance yourself from the lazy and the people who want to pull you down. If distance doesn’t work, attempt to explain your reasoning… If their response is “you’re weak as piss”… They’re not a mate, just another guy who isn’t willing to go the distance with you.
Girls are another factor in men’s lives that distract them from a lifting lifestyle. Women don’t know what they want; men see pure logic which women cannot. This messes with men especially when women feel a sudden need for a change. Weights are logical, consistent and most of the time, you’re in control. Understanding that women’s emotions are not justified and that they don’t really know what they want, shouldn’t have to reflect upon your own life. If a girl tells you to quit weights, or stop eating so much after being told why you do it… Stand your ground, she will respect you for it… Women will test you, it’s your job to be the man. If she leaves… She leaves… Muscles pull the chicks, they come and go.
The last thing I want to discuss, is that a weight lifting lifestyle requires ‘living for function’. That is to say… Your room must be clean, you only have what you need… Grade 10 school books shouldn’t be kept because it has a note written in it from your old crush. Throw the shit out. Your food must be stacked evenly and in such a way so it’s ready to be prepared for a next meal. This stops the mucking around between meals and so you can get on with your ‘life’. Your clothes should be also adjusted accordingly so it is considered a part of your structured schedule. When you’re studying, you allocate particular times each week to study… Always stay on top of your studies so that you do not rush at exam time. Schooling can be just like bodybuilding, you need to make sure everything is ready by the time the competition/exam is on. Work has its own schedule so ensure you know when exactly to work your meals in and how far you can push the boundaries.
