“Whatever your job is, how can you not stop by the gym and workout for an hour a day, how can that not be possible? Are you telling me you need to sit in the corner for 8 hours and not work?”
-Cedric McMillan
What is it about competitive bodybuilding that breeds extreme dedication and focus, but at the same time breeds incredible laziness? I write this on the eve of the 2013 Arnold Classic and can’t help but think that the vast majority of competitors in the lineup rely solely on competition earnings, media contracts, and supplement deals to finance their careers and day-to-day lives. How many of these men actually have a retirement plan? How many own a home? How many struggle just to pay their bills? But how can you feel sympathy when a large chunk of these athletes refuse to hold down day jobs?
I remember hearing stories from my grandpa when I was a young boy about the athletes of his time. “Pop” as we called him, played semi-pro football in the mid-west back in the 1930’s. He played against the Green Bay Packers long before Vince Lombardi ever guarded over the frozen tundra at Lambeau Field. Back then, the money for football players was so little that every player, even the star quarterback, had to find work to put food on the table for their families. This “working athlete” concept lasted in professional football well into the 1970’s before the mega contracts hit the NFL in the 80’s and 90’s – and well before reigning Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco inked a new 6 year 120 million dollar deal making him the highest paid football player in league history.
Yet here we are today, 2013, barely out of the recession and there are even amateur bodybuilders who seem to think that in order to compete at the highest level possible they can’t work a regular job. The odds of making a 6-figure annual salary from bodybuilding are slim to none. Sure it’s worked out for Jay, Ronnie, and a handful of others, but talk about a risky game of Chance. Had Kai Greene not placed well at the 2008 Arnold Classic that would likely have been the last we would have seen from The Predator. Look at Victor Martinez—he’s been on top of the world financially, only to lose his Muscle Maker Grill while incarcerated, to breaking his arm a few months later. If not for his immense talent and loyal sponsors he could have been financially ruined by the events that took place in 2012. But most guys aren’t as fortunate as Kai and Victor. The reality is most top amateurs and pro’s end up like Trey Brewer; out of bodybuilding, with little to fall back on.
I can’t help but go back to the interview with Cedric McMillan on last week’s Heavy Muscle Radio. He said, “Back in 2007, when I first got serious about bodybuilding, guess what was sponsoring my bodybuilding? My paycheck. After my family was in a car accident and I lost my contracts, guess what was sponsoring my bodybuilding? My paycheck.”
It’s not incredible that Cedric is able to hold down an extremely demanding job in the United States Army all the while walking around at 290lb with single digit body fat. That’s not incredible. As he argued, the body has an innate ability to adjust to its environment. Just like in the gym, if we put 300lb on the bar and squat it 15 times, then the next week we put 315lb on the bar and squat it 15 times, and so on. Our body has only one adaptive response which is to rebuild, grow, and get stronger. If Cedric is out working a 12 hour shift and isn’t eating on a Dave Pulcinella like pre-contest schedule, guess what? He will adapt and so can you.
Somehow in our bodybuilder OCD brains that we all have, it became gospel to think if you aren’t eating, breathing, sleeping, and shitting bodybuilding 24/7 then you can’t survive in the game. Ronnie Coleman won Mr. Olympia working on the police force. We all remember the video of him eating his chicken and rice in the patrol car. John Meadows had worked most of his adult life in the banking industry and he still has plenty of time to compete. It can be done. As much as I admire Kai Greene’s physique, you can’t help but to stop and wonder how he was living before his breakout success at the ’08 Arnold.
I made one Trey Brewer reference earlier and I’d be remiss if I didn’t put Dallas McCarver in the same sentence. The similarities are stunning. Both ex-football players, both country boys – one from Tennessee and the other from Georgia, both sponsored by BSN and MD, and both with oodles of potential, but the only difference…Dallas actually went out and won his pro card unlike Trey. What does that pro card give Dallas? In reality, just a little bit more time than Trey got. He still has to go out and perform on stage otherwise it will be over as quickly as it came.
My advice to bodybuilders, especially the young, is the same advice they give college athletes who have a shot at going pro: Have a Plan B. Eventually it’s all going to be over. All it takes is one big injury or a few bad placing’s. No more contracts, no more fitness groupies, no more glory…no more relevancy. The world already has enough personal trainers.
As always, I’m on Twitter @MattMeinrod and for archives check me out at www.MattMeinrod.com 
