Bodybuilding saved Drew Malhmood’s life.
He was 13 when doctors told him that he needed to change his lifestyle or probably not make it past 25.
Now 22, Malhmood looks like a future “my grandpa could beat up your grandpa” favorite.
He owns his own gym, Illete Fitness, is pursuing an exercise science degree at Fort Lewis College and competed in the 2013 National Physique Committee GNC Natural Colorado Open on Oct. 12 in Denver along with his fiancee Stephanie Walker and friends Patrick Riegel, Chloe Roberts and Matt Welbourn.
Malhmood and Walker previously competed at Fitness New Mexico 2012, but they wanted to involve more people in competitions.
Riegel used to be a “big partier” before he got into fitness, but the discipline he learned in weightlifting has helped him stay sober for five years.
The group already worked out together; it was just a matter of Malhmood convincing them to train for the competition.
They began training seven months out.
“We like to say that you can accomplish your goals in 12 weeks, but really we’ve been working at it all year,” Malhmood said. “It’s 24/7; you don’t take time off. It’s like an Olympic athlete training for the Olympics.”
The early part of that training focuses on bulking up, adding size and adding muscle. Bodybuilders eat more than 5,000 calories a day while lifting intense, back-to-back super sets of high weight.
“We’d go to Zia’s (Taqueria) and eat three-pound burritos every day,” Riegel said.
As the event nears, competitors increase their cardio while increasing the number of repetitions and lowering the weight, which tones the muscles.
Their diet changes to less protein and more carbs. Riegel ate boiled chicken, potatoes and cucumber five times a day for three weeks leading into the competition.
The group drove up to Denver and registered Oct. 11 before receiving a spray tan coat at 11 p.m. They woke up at 6:30 a.m. for another tan coat before the actual competition.
Malhmood, Riegel and Welbourn competed in the men’s physique event, where contestants stand and do a series of poses, after which judges determine who has the best physique.
Form, hand placement and muscle definition all factor into the decision.
“It’s a lot of work to just sit there and flex every part of your body in one position,” Riegel said.
Riegel came in third place in the Men’s Drug Free For Life Heavyweight division, while Malhmood took fourth in the Men’s Open Welterweight.
Welbourn was the only competitor in the Men’s Drug Free For Life Middleweight division.
Roberts and Walker competed in the Women’s Fitness event, in which participants complete a two-minute routine that includes strength moves as well as dancing and tumbling elements.
Judges want to see flexibility and strength in addition to complexity and form in strength moves.
Roberts took fourth in fitness, while Walker finished first in the category.
“I used to be a gymnast; I can’t compete in gymnastics anymore because I’m too old,” Walker said. “Now that I have this bodybuilding, these fitness competitions, it’s something that I can compete in and still do something that I love. I include a lot of tumbling and a lot of my gymnastics that I do in my routines.”
Even with the competitions, Malhmood, Riegel and Walker all insisted that the community they built and individual goals are more important than who takes the first-place trophy.
“In a way, it’s like you want to do it for yourself, but in a competitive sense you want to beat your friends; it’s healthy competition,” Walker said.
That probably will be the group’s last competition this year, as the season only runs through December, but Malhmood wants to go to “three or four shows in the Southwest region” next spring.
Until then, they will keep working out and trying to convince more people to give their sport a chance.
“I think that people see this as a very strange thing to do,” Walker said.
They all have to battle the stereotypical meathead bodybuilder image: someone who takes steroids, weighs 300 pounds and is obsessed with protein shakes.
“If you look at half the people to go to these competitions, with street clothes on they look like everybody else,” Malhmood said. “When they get on the stage is when they look completely different.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
