Another Charles Atlas Story.....

Magazine led SHS grad to remake himself through bodybuilding
By ANNA BOOHER AND BRITTANY LIMPER/ VOICE CORRESPONDENTS
STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
Posted Sep 09, 2008 @ 12:58 AM
Last update Sep 09, 2008 @ 06:59 AM
Who knew that a skinny freshman could find the key to transforming himself in a grocery store?

Sam Germann, a Springfield High School graduate and a freshman at the University of Illinois at Chicago, went from being a 100-pound “skinny kid” to a 155-pound bodybuilder over the course of his high-school career. It was a physical as well as emotional transition, he said.

Since that fateful day at the grocery store when Sam picked up a bodybuilding magazine, he has changed his lifestyle. He read through the articles on food, training and competition and began his own training program.

He insists that bodybuilding is much more than big muscles and tan bodies.

“I like the sport of bodybuilding because it’s 99 percent your willpower,” he said. “It’s you versus the weights.”

Sam is his own coach. Though he may have a trainer, he ultimately is the one who has to motivate himself to go to the gym and stick to his diet.

With bodybuilding comes a busy life. Sam has had to follow a regimen involving a strict diet and intense workout sessions, including lots of time on the treadmill.

The goal for bodybuilding, he said, is to lose as much body fat as possible while retaining as much muscle as possible.

“They say bodybuilding is not as much as a sport as an actual lifestyle,” he said. “You pretty much have your life revolve around it.”

Sam said his strict diet, which includes lots of carbs, protein shakes, salads, eggs and other foods with protein, is among the biggest burdens of the sport.

“The diet is definitely a lot harder to do than working out. With working out, you go for an hour, you get it over with, you’re done, you can go home. The diet is 24/7,” he said.

Sam also uses legal supplements to help with training, and said he believes they should be used only if someone is seriously sticking to dieting and working out. Additionally, he uses a weight gainer, a meal-replacement supplement, whey protein, creatine, fish oil and
multivitamins.

When it comes to the use of steroids, however, he has some strong opinions.

“It’s not necessary, because if your diet and training is in check, you’re going to be able to get big and strong without anabolics,” he said.

Though some forms of anabolic steroids are not banned from the sport and some bodybuilders see the usage of steroids as an easy way to gain muscle, Sam doesn’t see it that way. It may take longer to bulk up, but bodybuilders are better off in the long run if they avoid steroids, he said.

“People are just thinking they can use steroids and get their dream bodies and don’t do the research of the negative effects,” he said.

Many bodybuilders do not take supplements, go on diets or work out for fun. Much of their rigorous lifestyle is in preparation for competition.

So far, Sam has participated in one competition, which he learned about from Chad Shaive, a 29-year-old experienced bodybuilder from Springfield who later became Sam’s competition adviser. In January, the two began preparing for the Mid-Illinois Bodybuilding and Figure Championship that took place in early April.

“I don’t ask any of the bodybuilders to do anything that I wouldn’t do myself,” Shaive said.
Sam spent a lot of time in the gym working toward the competition, and said he was in full bodybuilding mode every hour of the day.

In addition to being physically fit, Sam had other aspects of his appearance to worry about. For competition, bodybuilders are expected to give off the bronze glow of a Grecian god.

Two months before the championship, Sam took trips to the tanning salon. Two days before, he began using a tanning spray.

The day of the championship, Sam was coated with six coats of the spray tan, two coats of bronzer, and one coat of cooking spray, “which sucked,” he said, “’cause I was starving while I’m up on stage and I smelled like food.”

The Mid-Illinois Bodybuilding and Figure Championship, which hosted 120 competitors from eight different states on April 5, was almost a blur to Sam. He had to do a series of poses in front of hundreds of people wearing nothing but a Speedo.

In general at competitions, bodybuilders are judged on their size, balance, symmetry, posing, body-fat levels and overall presentation, according to www.learnbodybuilding.com.

Sam headed to the prejudging in the morning, during which he stood on stage with his class of competitors while the judges called out different poses for the bodybuilders to do. After the scoring, the bodybuilders returned to the stage to pose to music.

“I was more worried about not cramping up and falling over than the fact that there were a lot of people watching me. But at the same time I really wanted to win. I was trying to hit all my poses as cleanly as I could,” he said.

Sam won third place in the teen division and came away with a trophy.

Not only does he plan to keep going forward with bodybuilding, he will be majoring in kinesiology, which is the focus of exercise and fitness, at UIC.

Sam said people have not treated him much differently since his third-place win, although they do ask him for help lifting heavy objects. And he’s no longer the “skinny kid.”

“It’s like every time somebody needs some heavy lifting done it’s like ‘Call Sam. He’s strong. He must love moving furniture,’ ” Sam said.

He said his third-place finish keeps him going to reach the top.

“I guess I’m more motivated now because I know I can do better.” he said, “Just knowing I’ve got to come back and take first next time is motivation to keep going.”

Anna Booher is a senior at Lutheran High School and Brittany Limper is a sophomore at Sacred Heart-Griffin High School.