麻豆视频

Carlyle is now home to a national champion as Adam Swanson, 19, captured the top title at the CBBF Canadian Bodybuilding Federation National (CBBF) Junior Men's Bodybuilding qualifier in Winnipeg on August 9.

Swanson's road to victory has been a long and disciplined one. Speaking to The Observer during a well-earned holiday in Kelowna, B.C., less than a week after his win, Swanson says," I'm just hanging out with some friends, letting my body rest from all that training and dieting. I took the whole year off to focus on this competition. I haven't had a summer, or been to the lake, or seen my friends."

However, even during his vacation, training is never far from Swanson's mind. "I didn't take a whole week off from the gym," he says. "I get a bit of summer, but I was back in the gym three or four days after [the competition in Winnipeg]."

Swanson, the son of Troy and Carla Swanson of Carlyle, has trained at Carlyle's Built 4 Life Health and Fitness since he was 14. "I started working out when I was 12, when my Dad bought a home gym. I went to my first competition in 2011 and I won a provincial (Junior Men's Bodybuilding) in 2012."

"I progressively got more serious. I started lifting a few weights here and there. I got my first trainer when I was 14. I always talked about it. I didn't know there were competitions for younger guys. I thought that maybe I'd compete when I was 25."

"Colin and Leigh Keess from Estevan (now Saskatoon) were my first trainers. In 2012, George Farah became my trainer. He lives in New York and he's trained Ty Green, who came second in the Mr. Olympia competition, which is like the Super Bowl of bodybuilding."

"I've only met [George Farah] once, in Vegas. He travels around the world, training a lot of pros. I've gotten hold of him in Egypt, New York City, Australia. We keep in touch by texting, e-mailing, progress pictures, and I send him my weight. Progress pictures aren't necessary with a local trainer," Swanson adds. "But every Monday, I send [Farah] photos and records of my weights and we change the diet every single week."

Swanson says that bodybuilding is an exacting sport that requires discipline, tenacity and almost-constant vigilance when it comes to training, diet, and mindset.

"This is a sport just like any sport," he says. "But more so than a lot of other sports. Every day, you've got to bring 120 per cent. You can't slack off. If you get off your diet or slack off on your training, it's going to show on stage, the slightest thing. It's all up to you, everything."

"As for diet, ask my friends and family," says Swanson. "I'm pretty much 'on' 24/7, but I'm only human. I eat six meals a day and two snacks. I have one cheat meal every week in the off-season, but most of the time, even those are beneficial to me. Instead of ice cream or chips, I'll have two or three big burgers. Even with those, I'm balancing out my carbs and protein, but it varies. Those cheat meals can be healthy for the system once in a while, as a kind of a shock to the system."

During competition at the national level, mental discipline is equally important, says Swanson. "I've never worked for something so hard in my life. I couldn't have done anything else coming up to the competition. The last four months, it's come down to this. If I happened to not do well, is that a waste?"

"It can really mess with your head. That's why mental discipline is so important," he says. "When you're up on stage there are posing factors. You have to be able to pose yourself; you're flexing every single muscle in your body. You're sweating; you're shaking. But you have to say to yourself, "I might be nervous, but I try not to show it.'"

"Before the competition, everybody's backstage, pumping up," he says. "I just put my headphones on and just do posing practice. You're kind of in your own world. I listen to (motivational speaker) Eric Thomas and my iPod is filled with bodybuilding videos from YouTube."

Swanson says the competition in Winnipeg was literally an all-day affair. "The pre-judging is in the morning. There's just the judges and a few family members there. There's just a small crowd. Eliminating people is what pre-judging is, usually."

"The night show is more of a fun time for the audience. There's music, there's tons of people there and in my case, tons of people came from Carlyle to support me," he says.

"But you can't relax," adds Swanson. "Even though most of the decisions are made in the [morning's] pre-judging, it's not a done deal. In a few hours, your body can change."

Swanson says that during the afternoon of competition day, he looked at his body, to see if he needed rest, or something to eat. "You're still not hydrated and after the pre-judging, you're really drained. I had a few hours' sleep and another meal before the final event. You do have to think about things and keep up the discipline right until the very end."

In spite of achieving national championship status, Swanson says that he doesn't consider this win his personal best. "I was very disappointed with the package that I got in," he says. "I reached my goal, but it was a water problem. I cut water out too early and I came in flat. About two weeks before the show, I probably looked 100 per cent better than I did on the stage. I dehydrated a bit too early...It was just a little [training] miscommunication, but if I was judging myself, I'd give myself 70 per cent."

Swanson's national title has given him the opportunity to represent Canada for the next two years at the IBBF (International Bodybuilding Federation) World Junior Championships beginning in Morelia, Mexico, in October of this year. He has also been accepted to enter the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, where he plans to study business administration.

Whatever his future holds, Swanson says that the support of his family and friends is invaluable. "They saw the whole journey. It was my goal and they knew my goal. I wanted to be a junior men's champion and a national champion. I did it. They were pumped for me; I was pumped for me. To have a goal and actually do it is amazing."