Singh prepares for body building competition
Senior Anthony Singh ready for his competition.
February 21, 2014
For some the gym is a place to get healthy and run on the treadmill, but for Tracy High senior Anthony Singh it is a place to train for the Northern California Natural Bodybuilding Competition in San Francisco on March 22.
Body building is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop muscles. Singh spends over 20 hours a week in the gym based on this principle. He has been lifting for three years, but been serious about training for only the past year. His minimum and maximum lifts have gone up from only 135 pounds on the bench press once, to 275 pounds . His squat increased from 225 pounds one repetition to 455 pounds also once.
“I’m always tired when lifting in the gym because I do it throughout the whole week,” Singh said. “It takes extreme dedication to body build.”
In competitive amateur and professional bodybuilding, bodybuilders appear in lineups doing specified poses, and later perform individual posing routines for a panel of judges. The judges rank competitors based on criteria such as symmetry, muscularity, and conditioning.
Singh will prepare for the competition through a combination of dehydration, fat loss, oils, and tanning which makes their muscular definition more distinct.
“Dieting is easier said than done,” Singh said. “It is a constant mental strain to stay focused.”
Singh set a goal for himself to win his class and then compete for the overall competition title.
“First and foremost, I will most certainly win my teen division ,” Singh said. “Then I will compete with guys twice my age and see how I’ll do.”
Singh hopes to also compete in the Natural Olympia Body Building Competition later this year with teens from around the world, where he can be called a professional. To become professional in bodybuilding you have to get a “pro card” by winning an entire competition.
“I look at body building as a hobby,” Singh said. “There is not enough money in it for me to stay a professional.”
Singh is on a strict meal plan of cycling carbs to stay in and out of Ketosis; where the body burns fat as fuel instead of carbs. He usually takes in 50g of fat, 30g of carbs, and 300g of protein. Singh makes all of his food. The one thing that Singh misses the most to eat is bread. The carbohydrates in bread would mess up his Ketosis, so he can’t eat it anymore.
“It would never be possible to stay on this meal plan without my mom,” Singh said. “She keeps me on top of the diet.”
Singh also had words of encouragement for people thinking of going to the gym or into body building.
“Start today! People often fear ridicule and that keeps them out of the gym,” Singh said. “I respect people who even make it to the gym, it shows their effort. Physical fitness takes can’t be bought; it shows had work and dedication. For the lifters, eat your food and push some heavy weight!”
