Preparing for Saturday’s NPC Physique Competition over the last two months has been like a second job for Mike Miller and Tanner Balazs. The Warsaw 19-year-olds changed their workouts and eating habits; kept track of their carbohydrates, fats and protein intake; and did it all on their own without a personal trainer, nutritionist or cook. The 2015 Midwestern States Bodybuilding, Physique, Figure and Bikini Championships Saturday is the first time the two men have participated in such a competition. It is a National Physique Committee national qualifier and will be at the Performing Arts Theatre (Arts United Center), 303 E. Main St., Fort Wayne, with registration at 8 a.m. “A lot of people get the impression of bodybuilding from guys like Arnold Schwarzenegger back in the day. And it all originated from that, but what physique is, it’s a much more relaxed type of way to display your body,” Balazs explained. Competitors wear board shorts and pose for judges in a very relaxed manner, he continued. “You want to have rhythm when you’re posing and you want it to look real smooth. They judge you on things like symmetry, proportion, your overall style ... just kind of your total package, how you present yourself on stage,” he said. Another factor competitors are judged on is conditioning, Balazs said, “which is pretty much like your percentage of body fat, how lean you are, how tight your physique is when it’s presented.” Miller said former Anytime Fitness trainer Domingo Brito presented the idea to them. After thinking about it awhile, Miller said they decided to do it. Balazs said they both played sports all their lives and were into fitness, but once their high school athletic careers ended, weightlifting became their “thing.” “The more we became familiar with it, the more we saw stuff on social media, kind of like your fitness model type of people, the professional athletes of this sport. We saw some of them and things they did and just became interested as well,” Balazs said. In the back of their minds, they thought about one day competing, but didn’t think it would be this soon. “When we found out there was a show in Fort Wayne, we figured why not,” Balazs recalled. “We kind of just made it as a challenge to ourselves to just see if we could get ready for it. We prepped for it for about seven weeks.” All competitors have to be members of the NPC to participate, which Miller said they will buy the day of. Cost is $100 each. They also have to fork over an $80 entry for each division they go into. Miller and Balazs are only entering the men’s physique contest. “We’ll be competing with guys anywhere from 19 to 39. Once you hit 40, you’re considered a masters and in a separate division,” Balazs said. There is a teenagers competition, but they decided to forego that and enter with adults. Seven or eight weeks ago when they decided to do this, Miller said they learned a lot about dieting and nutrition. “Six or seven weeks ago, that’s when we really started watching what we ate. We’re getting closer now. I think we’re consistently losing weight, cutting fat all the time,” he said. Balazs added, “A lot of the people in the industry say it’s the hardest thing to do because you’re trying to lose fat but you’re trying to maintain and gain muscle at the same time. So your diet is extremely, extremely tedious and everything you put in your mouth matters. It comes down to that.” For the physique competitions, participants have to get extremely lean. “So a lot of guys will prep for these shows 12, 14, 16 weeks, and we prepped for this one for about seven weeks,” Balazs said. “The closer you get to the competition, your numbers keep dropping. They call them your macro-nutrients, and that is your fats, your carbohydrates and your protein. And those are the big three key nutritional numbers that you watch in order to shape your body how you want it to be.” As they got closer to this Saturday’s show, Balazs said their carbohydrates dropped and they tried to keep their healthy fats and protein numbers high. “We tried to hit about 280 grams of protein a day for about seven weeks straight,” Balazs said. Their carbohydrates dropped from 250 grams seven weeks ago to about 180 two weeks in. In this final phase this week, they’re down to 80 grams or less of carbohydrates per day while still keeping their fats and protein high. Everything they eat they keep track of on a fitness app called MyFitnessPal. It lets them scan all food items and keep track of their intake. This week is called “peak week,” the final tweaking period before getting on stage. They watch their sodium and water intake. They drink about 2 gallons of water a day, but will lower that amount before Saturday’s competition. “So pretty much everything we eat matters,” Miller said. “We’re eating a lot of fish, we’ve got to watch the sodium in that. A lot of ground beef – it can have fat in it. We need fat, a lot of protein, stuff like that.” “Constantly looking at labels on every little thing you eat,” Balazs said. “It’s tough to do,” Miller said. “And there’s no room for error,” Balazs added. “It’s a full-time job. A lot of people have the impression that the gym is the hard part. But the hard part is in the kitchen and we’re not sponsored by a food company or anything like that, so we’re making all of our meals. We spend hours a week cooking food.” Miller said, “We’ve got no coach, we’re doing this on our own pretty much, just him and I. We’ve got nobody training us in here (Anytime Fitness). Nobody cooking our meals. No nutrition coaches, nothing, so it’s pretty much what we’ve learned.” Doing it all on their own, Balazs said they’re learning something new every day. “When we look back eight weeks, it’s awesome to see how far we’ve come, not only with our bodies physically, but also with what we’ve learned nutritionally, with supplements and things like that,” Balazs said. “It’s kind of a big reward,” Miller said. “We’re doing something really hard – training and dieting – and right now we’re seeing that this is what we get for it and we’re pretty happy with what we’re getting.” Regardless of how well they do Saturday, whether they qualify for nationals or not, the two men said they’ll be happy to get feedback from the NPC judges to work on their weak spots and improve their overall health and fitness. “We just want to have fun, really,” Miller said. “It’s like a sport for us, and we’re all about the health and fitness. The competing is just a self-satisfying thing, almost a challenge to ourselves to see if we can get our bodies into peak condition,” Balazs said. “It’s extremely tough and it’s just a challenge I guess. It’s a goal you set.”
