Andrews is one of three local bodybuilders in Somerset, Mass., this weekend for the Massachusetts State Bodybuilding Championship. The event is sponsored by the North American Bodybuilding Federation, the largest drug-tested bodybuilding organization in the United States.

“I guess you could say I was a couch potato before I started this,” said Andrews, a 24-year-old community health education major from Lyman who took to the stage this weekend at an impressively cut 190 pounds. “I was an elementary education major and a beer-drinking minor.”

Andrews and his friend Isaac Ball had been weight-lifters since high school, but working out at the UMF Health and Fitness Center, they decided it might be time to try bodybuilding.

They met Cheryl Davis, a female bodybuilding national champion from Farmington, who agreed to lend her expertise in the sport and help them achieve their dream of becoming competitive bodybuilders.

“They wanted somebody to kind of mentor them and give them guidance on training and diet and posing,” said Davis, who has been in the sport for six-and-a-half years. “They’ve come so far.”

With her inspiration and the support of Kawika Thompson, the health and fitness center’s director, they began a 12-month program that prepared them for this, their first competition, which both say has changed their lives.

“I came in here and met all these people that are really dedicated and that changed me,” said Andrews, who competes in the “novice” and “open” classes.

Test of self-control

“It’s on your mind, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Ball, a 22-year-old Liberty native who recently graduated from UMF with a bachelor’s degree in community health education.

“I think this has helped give all of us some kind of direction,” he added. “It’s given us all something to work towards.”

And they’ve definitely put in the work, according to Thompson.

“Isaac’s been in here at 5:30 in the morning doing cardio and workout sessions and Josh had to come the furthest to get to this point,” he said. “I’m very proud of both of them.”

Rick Drapeau, a Winthrop native and UMF graduate in 2000, is participating in his second show, his first since April, 2000, when he finished fourth in two classes at the Mr. Maine competition.

The wellness and fitness coordinator at the Rangeley Region Health Center, Drapeau first got interested in lifting and bodybuilding as a teenager when he would drive his sister, Lori, to the gym for her workouts.

His interest level increased around 1997, when he started helping a friend train for bodybuilding.

“I’d started dieting with him and decided I might as well do it,” said Drapeau, now 27. “I was real reluctant to do it at first. Just to push your body that much further is tough.”

“The training is no problem. The diet’s the hardest,” he added.

A typical day’s nutrition for Drapeau consists of egg whites, sweet potatos and “a little bit of chicken.”

“Everything’s regimented and weighed out,” he said. “It’s tough, but you just do it and learn not to cheat.”

Dedicating two hours a day to cardiovascular workouts and another couple of hours a day to weights is the easy part, even if it means going to the gym at sun-up and sundown, as Ball often does.

“It’s a mental test. It tests your self-control,” Ball said. “It pretty much consumes your life.”

Mentors help flex their muscles

The trio credits Davis’ expertise and commitment with getting them ready for competition.

“She’s totally dedicated to what she does in here and it kind of rubs off on everyone else,” Drapeau said.

Over the last few weeks, Davis has been working with her pupils on their posing routines, which consist of 14 mandatory poses, though each competitor can do different variations of the poses to emphasize their best features.

Andrews and Ball admit that they went about getting into the sport the hard way, having to deplete their body mass to ideal proportions for competition rather than building up from a smaller base.

“It goes on a lot easier than it comes off,” said Ball, who started training at 260 and will compete at 200 pounds.

As tough as that was, the weeks and days leading up to the competition are the most grueling, physically and mentally, Drapeau said. For example, they had to go three days without water leading up to the competition so that every muscle is at its peak for posing.

“It’s such a challenge mentally, especially the last month before competition because that’s when you start cutting down on food and water,” he said. “It’s mind-altering.”

But competing and doing well can be just as mind-altering, Drapeau added.

“I want to make sure I place, but I want to have fun,” he said. “More than anything else, I want Josh and Isaac to place. It’s their first show, and I want them to experience what it’s like. It’s a rush.”

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