The
Geordie Shore star was in pretty good shape to start with, but in 14 weeks he turned a decent body into a world-beating physique - on top of being a full-time DJ.
Eat your heart out
Calvin Harris.
Joel won the Overall Men's Fitness title at one of Britain's biggest contests, the
Miami Pro, in his very first competition.
And he followed up with victory at
Pure Elite the following weekend.
JOE talked exclusively to the
Optimum Nutrition-sponsored athlete to find out the diet, training and mentality needed to carve out his championship-winning physique.
Who knew you could eat two Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizzas on cheat meal day and have a body like this?
Prep
My prep for the Miami Pro was
14 weeks long. I have always trained since I was 16 but when I decided to do the competition I laid out a prep for 14 weeks.
I had to make a decision to change gyms. I went to the Monster Gym in Cheshunt, which is a proper bodybuilding gym. I was training every single day. It was very intense and the sessions were long - I was doing two to three hour sessions every day.
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I also did
fasted cardio four or five times a week, which means rolling out of bed to do your cardio before breakfast.
I would wake up and do 30 minutes of
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). That’s a one-minute sprint and two-minute walk non-stop for half an hour.
The only thing I would have to stop muscle breakdown is
BCAAs (branch chain amino acids), because you are catabolic in the morning. It’s the most effective time for
fat burning before you’ve had any food.
It does sounds horrible, but it kick starts your metabolism. It’s brutal, but it’s key.
I’m very busy with my DJing – I’m touring all over the country every week. Until this year there was no way I could do a prep successfully – I couldn’t fit it into my schedule. I have still been DJing two or three times a week all through the prep.
I was eating my prepared meals before I was going to do a set in a nightclub – eating tuna backstage. Some nights were just a killer. But I don’t think you can let a prep control your life.
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Mentality
It is hard and it is brutal but we’re talking about winning a competition here. It’s day in, day out for 14 weeks.
People have to realise it’s hardcore to get in that kind of condition. You have to
push it to the extremes to be in that kind of shape.
Some people have that mentality and others don’t. You meet people and they have got the fire. They are hungry for it. If you’ve not got that then you will never be a champion.
For me it’s an
obsession. It’s a drive inside you. I go really hard in the gym. I am a beast – I will train for three hours at a time.
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I have done all my own training plan. I have trained myself for years so I have a pretty good knowledge.
Monday - chest and triceps
Chest is the primary muscle on a Monday. I always do
drop sets and go the extra mile for the burn.
Tuesday – Back and Biceps
Wednesday – Legs
I make sure I do exercises that hit my quads, glutes and hamstring muscles.
Thursday – Arms
I will just go back to back on these. I really go to f*ck them up. I pretty much just
superset the whole thing – it’s the best way to train arms. Rather than having any rest I just go from bicep to tricep.
Friday – shoulders
I always warm my shoulders up before going heavy. I do hammer strength shoulder press to get the blood in them.
Saturday – rest day
Sometimes I will have a day off and have my
cheat meal. But if there’s anything in the week that I felt didn’t go well, I will do it again on Saturdays.
Sunday – legs
I hit legs again on a Sunday. This is the big leg session after the cheat meal.
Diet
I had a prep coach
Jamie Do Rego who is a master of body transformations.
It is essential to have a body prep coach. Don’t do a competition without getting proper prep help.
It is not just their knowledge – it is the support system. I can pick up the phone at any time and ring Jamie if I don’t know whether to eat a certain food.
You need guidance.
I did all my own cooking. I started pretty much on the same diet. I am very lean anyway so I didn’t need to do anything crazy.
I didn’t really need to cut carbs I just cruised in. I was on
seven meals a day. My
carb sources were brown rice, oatmeal, sweet potato and white potato.
I would have oatmeal for breakfast then sweet potato for my second meal then brown rice pre-workout and white potato after I finished working out. I have another lot of fast-acting carbs the meal after that.
You should eat
lower glycemic index carbs (like oatmeal and sweet potato) earlier on in the day and then
higher glycemic index carbs (sweet potato and simple sugars) later after you work out. I have a mixture of protein sources too to get a better amino acid profile.
Meal 1 Oatmeal and Whey Protein
Meal 2 Chicken and sweet potato
Meal 3 Extra lean beef mince and brown rice
Meal 4 (post workout) Whey Protein, GlycoMaize
Meal 5 Chicken and white potato
Meal 6 Tuna and white potato
Meal 7 Whey protein, Greek yoghurt
A cheat meal is very important.
I go to Pizza Hut and eat two large stuffed crust pizzas. I don’t even know how many calories that is. For three or four days after I will be on fire in the gym.
You deplete yourself training but it picks you up mentally. A few weeks before the show I will cut all cheat meals out. The night before I had a cheat meal at
McDonald's so when I walked into the show I was full and vascular.
Keep track of what Joel is up to here.
Photo Credit: Christopher Bailey/ SNH Foto
