My Journey into Bodybuilding Part 3
By
Billy Mimnaugh
My journey to bodybuilding hasn’t been an easy one. The diet, the cardio, the
training—it’s all become old pretty quickly. I’ve found that the most difficult
thing about this “sport” is the time you need to invest in it to make it work.
Powerlifting is a sport where you gear up for one major training session, do it,
and then you’re done. The only thing that you need to do is make sure your
nutrition is on point with what you’re trying to accomplish—gaining, losing, or
maintaining weight. Not so with bodybuilding. This sport is a never ending task
of training, cardio, cooking, posing, tanning—it never ends.
The only thing that I’ve enjoyed is getting back into Westside training
again. I looked back at some old training logs and found that as the years
progressed, I had drifted further and further away from what got me strong in
the first place. My movements had become incredibly slow and plodding. I no
longer had any explosion, speed, or power. I had turned into the typical
guy you see in a commercial gym sans wife beater—a pump boy with no real core
strength. When I put the Westside back into my training, my strength took off.
Now, granted because I’m dieting, dropping weight, and doing almost two hours of
cardio a day, my strength isn’t impressive at all. However, compared to
what it was, it has been a dramatic increase.
When I first added box squatting back into my routine, I added chains and
then bands. I found that I just wasn’t strong enough for either. I actually had
to start all over again from scratch and start with just straight weight. I
needed to build back speed. I also dropped my box height back to 13 inches.
Again, as the years have gone on, my box squat has crept up. I justified this in
my mind by saying, “I’m wearing tighter gear now.” What a load of crap! The fact
was squatting low hurt. It made me use less weight. When I switched back
to a lower box, I found that my strength in the hole was next to nothing.
The next adjustment was getting rid of my multi-ply briefs and going back to
the old champion suit with the straps down that I wore at the start of my career
and all through the years that I was strong. Again, what I found was that I
wasn’t strong. I had added more and more and tighter and tighter gear to mask
the fact that I was slacking and wasn’t willing to endure the pain of real
training. Looking for an easy way out so to speak.
I also discovered that my back flexibility was a joke. I had long ago stopped
doing bent rows from the floor and instead took the bar from the rack, walked it
back, and then rowed. Why? Because bending over and pulling from the ground was
hard. I was starting to see why my totals had gone down all these years.
It wasn’t due to injuries or being afraid of getting hurt. It was because I had
become a pussy and wasn’t willing to put in the work to get strong anymore. Oh,
sure, I was training hard, but I was doing everything in my power to avoid
feeling uncomfortable or really straining. Training hard but not doing it right
is hard training for no reason.
Even on movements like chain suspended good mornings, I used to do them with
the bar hung at 32 inches. Now, I was doing them with the bar hung at 42 inches.
Why? Easier to squeeze under the bar. Never mind that it killed my pulling
power. No sir. When I did good mornings, the whole gym stopped and stared at the
weights that I was using. Who cares if the movement was only half as effective.
What an idiot.
Instead of making the training as hard as possible so the meets would be
easier, I had made the training as easy as possible and the meets invariably
ended in bombouts for depth. However, I’m sure all my training partners were
impressed with my strength in the gym. Can you imagine? Getting caught up in
impressing others and then going to the meet and getting laughed out of the gym.
What I was doing was cheating my training and really, in a sense, cheating the
sport and the reason I got into it in the first place. I was taking the easy way
out and getting the results that I earned and deserved.
So I went back to the start and boy oh boy is it frustrating. Weights that I
had taken for granted were now almost max efforts. Yes, I’m weaker because I’m
lighter, and the diet and cardio sap my strength. But really I’m weaker because
I’m trying to do things the right way. Where I was doing bent rows with 425–455
lbs for repetitions of five, now I’m getting 380 lbs for five and a hard
five. Sometimes I only get three.
Where I was using 405 lbs, 455 lbs, and 515 lbs as my weights in a three-week
wave on the box squat (that’s adding chains or bands), I’m now using 350 lbs,
385 lbs, and 420 lbs (and some weeks only 400 lbs) with just straight weight. I
feel like I’m right back where I started and relearning everything. On top of
that, I’m trying to diet and get my cardio and bodybuilding stuff done as well.
It’s very frustrating to know that I’ve been training so hard but so incorrectly
for so long.
As far as the bodybuilding goes, that seems ok. I seem to be on the right
track. Obviously, I wish everything would happen faster. Dieting at 46-years-old
is far different than dieting at 25-years-old. I remember getting away
with eating bowls of oatmeal with honey the entire way through my diet and
showing up ripped. Now, I can’t afford to eat one ounce more of chicken than
prescribed or it’s a set back. Certain areas just seem to hang on to fat now.
The sides of my pecks, the ham-glute tie in, the obloquies—the fat just seems to
want to stay around. I used to diet for 16 weeks and I was ready five weeks out.
In fact, I’d be so ready that I’d start hitting pre-shows and win those as well.
Now, I’m dieting for 25 weeks, and I’m praying that it’s enough time to get as
good as I can be. Getting old sucks!
I’m also finding there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything
done that I need to. I have to wake up earlier and earlier to fit everything in.
On days when my son has a game, I have to wake up at 3:00 a.m. to get my
training and cardio in so that I can watch his game. So because I can’t split
the cardio, I have to knock it out in one session. However, in the past when
getting ready for shows, I’ve gypped my son in terms of time. I’m determined not
to miss a home game (away games here are too far to get to in time) even if I
have to wake up at 2:00 a.m. I don’t want that feeling in my gut like I’m living
only for myself or have him look into the stands and not see me there because I
was into my training.
Nothing has changed as far as my eating. I mostly stick to chicken instead of
eggs and shakes because eggs started to make me a bit queasy. One thing
I’ve discovered is that bodybuilding, for those of us with average to below
average genetics, is really just a battle of the mind. Each day is a battle of
staying on the diet, not cheating, and only eating what you’re supposed to. It’s
a battle that is fought every single second of the day from the time you come
into work where donuts are offered to lunch where there are vending machines
filled with junk to going to games where the smell of hot dogs and pretzels are
in the air. The training is actually easier than powerlifting. The cardio sucks,
but it’s easy to grind through. The battle is the temptations that are around
you all day long. Thank God for the empty headed idiots on the forums. My only
goal is to humiliate every single hater on there, one stringy long-haired sissy
in particular. So it’s easy for me to keep my eye on the prize. Revenge is a
great motivator.
I will say this. This will be my last year competing in bodybuilding. It’s
just not worth the effort anymore. I’m glad I decided to give it one last shot,
but this time it’s totally out of my system for good. I’m looking forward to it
being over and going back to a somewhat normal existence. I’m six weeks out
(seven from being totally finished) and the end can’t come fast enough.
This will be the last of my series before the shows. I’ll post an article
after it’s over and provide the results as well as the final overview of the
entire process. I’m hoping Jim Wendler will post pictures over the next couple
of weeks so that you can see where I am and what I look like. Six more weeks and
then here comes the return of the fat man! I can’t wait!
Billy Mimnaugh has been lifting for 25 years and competing for 20 years.
He has won state and regional titles in both bodybuilding and powerlifting
including the AAU Maine State Bodybuilding Championships, NPC New England
Bodybuilding Masters Championship, APF Maine State, USPF Connecticut State, and
the WNPF Region 1. He is a three time runner up in the APF Senior Nationals in
the 308-lb class and a two time runner up in the IPA Nationals. He also placed
third in the IPA Seniors and won two APF junior nationals titles. He has been in
50 bodybuilding and powerlifting events and has never placed out of the top
three in any event (except for three bombouts). His best total is 2303 lbs at
super, 2232 lbs at 308 lbs, and 2120 lbs at 275 lbs.
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