Don’t Call It A Comeback!

Resurgence

During his nine-year break from competitive bodybuilding, Frank's focus outside of the gym had been on marriage and career. In the gym, he slowly added muscle onto his new light-heavyweight build. He now plans to bring up his calves and traps before looking for the next areas required for ongoing construction.

Frank works from 8:30 until 5:00pm as a Sales Rep for AT&T-Midwest in the Small Business Sales department. His co-workers respect his bodybuilding goals and the job fits in well with his needs.

After work, he returns home, gets something to eat or drinks a shake, and makes it to the gym around 7:15. After work, Frank trains at Pep Wahl's Body Builders Inc in Akron, Ohio. Body Builders Inc is one of the country's best (and most under-rated) gyms. Need to chalk your hands? No worry about having to clean up after yourself. Chalk boxes are positioned throughout the gym. Body Builders' has an uncommon “men only” rule. What might seem like an outdated rule insisted upon by the landlord 35 years ago, does have its benefit for those that train there. Lack of the fairer sex removes the need for gym clothes that match. You don't see men in custom-designed athletic footwear, $60 gym hoodies, or matching lifting belt-and-shoe combos. Heck, even a hairstyle flattened by the pillow is not uncommon here. The vomit buckets get used and hard work is typical, with powerlifters, bodybuilders and non-competition gym meatheads all training hard and driven by their own purpose...whatever it might be.

Frank trains solo and likes to hit each body part twice a week. His training takes between 90 minutes to two hours, so he is home by around 9:00. This gives him just an hour to relax with his wife, Jennifer, before wrapping up his day.

Frank's approach in the gym doesn't change much pre- or post-contest. As the contest approaches, he does go a bit lighter, slightly reduces the rest periods, and does high rep burnout sets (with maybe 15-20 reps). For example, his chest training may involve a heavy pressing movement followed by higher reps pec deck or flyes.

Why does Frank not make big changes to his training as a contest approaches? “I don't let my body composition get out of control.” Like other smart and dedicated lifters, his off-season condition does not become sloppy with some type of “bulking” strategy. “At the recent NPC Natural Northern USA, I came down from around 212-213 and competed around 180.” This contest (promoted by Dave Liberman) is one of the largest regional drug-free contests in the country so Frank's overall wins in both the Open Class and Masters Class show that he properly filled out his now light-heavy frame. This made his return to the stage a success: