Lifting weights and staying healthy can be more than just a hobby. For some Texas Tech students, it is a lifestyle.
Bodybuilding, exercising to increase muscle size and and strength, is more than just lifting weights day and night. For serious body builders, it is a juggling act between training, school, dieting and trying to have a social life.
According to Richard Choueiri, a bodybuilding expert on About.com, the sport has experienced a small boom in the last few years. He said due to the expansion of competition classes offered in gyms across the country, as well as growing popularity among women, more attention has been drawn to the sport.
Photo provided by Justin Treadwell.
Justin Treadwell, a junior business finance major, said he has been serious about competitive bodybuilding since he was a senior in high school. He said his parents were fitness instructors, which helped lead him to the path of bodybuilding.
Jasmyn Treadwell, a junior marketing major and Justin’s twin sister, said she got into competitive bodybuilding after Justin competed in his first show.
“I could never keep up with Justin,” Jasmyn said. “Now that I have gotten a little stronger I can hold my own weight.”
Jasmyn and Justin TwinFit is a YouTube channel The Treadwells started. Jasmyn hopes bodybuilding will help her spread the word of how fitness in her family impacted her life, and TwinFit is a good start to doing that.
Justin plans to keep bodybuilding as a part of his life after college, and hopes to one day work in the fitness industry.
“I want to cause an influence amongst families and communities to get people more fitness oriented and health oriented,” Justin said. “That way from a young age to when they grow up, everyone in the family will have a good idea of fitness.”
Photo provided by Jasmyn Treadwell.
Jasmyn said the twins get a lot of attention at competitions. She said when they are on stage together, people think it is really cute. Their mom loves it, too.
Dieting is Jasmyn’s favorite part of the bodybuilding process. She said she has a bit of a sweet tooth, so it was hard for her to stay away from them. But once she did, she was amazed by how quickly a healthy diet produced physical results.
There are three to four different phases in her diet, Jasmyn said. The least amount of time she she spends on one phase of her diet is two weeks, and then she checks how much body fat she has cut. No matter what phase she is on, she diets year round.
Justin and Jasmyn both said they spend about an hour every Sunday preparing meals for the week. Jasmyn said one of her favorite healthy dishes to prepare is salmon. She also cooks a lot of chicken and rice, and never uses butter or fattening oils.
Vegetables are a big part of Jasmyn’s diet as well; she said she even drinks vegetable smoothies. She said the smoothies are one of the few things that can be hard to put down at times.
“I like to eat my vegetables raw,” Jasmyn said. “Just so I can get all the nutrients from them.”
Pizza, hamburgers and anything fried are some of Jasmyn’s cheat meals, she said. She eats one of these meals about every two weeks. The repercussions of eating food like this all the time is not worth it for Jasmyn, which is why she said she does not miss eating unhealthy foods.
Justin said he is currently on a bulking diet, to put on weight to prepare for summer competitions. He said he will start cutting weight when the competition date nears.
When an athlete is preparing to be on stage, they want to start their diet three to four months in advance to cut down on weight, Justin said. He said even when not dieting for a competition, he is dieting in some way all year long.
Protien and carbohydrates are a main piece of Justins diet, he said. He likes to keep his diet pretty plant based, so he eats sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice, greens, carrots and squash for his carbohydrates. For protein, Justin eats a lot of chicken and fish, as well as drink smoothies.
Justin said one of his hobbies is to cook. He said he makes his food so where he enjoys the taste of it, even though it is healthy. He also said he enjoys a cheat meal once every week or two.
“I kind of change it up depending on how I’m feeling,” Justin said. “Sometimes it’s The Caniac from Raising Canes, sometimes I’m feeling the burger and fries and sometimes I’ll have a sweet tooth and get something like that.”
You can be into bodybuilding and make time for friends and a social life, Justin said. He encouraged his friends and roommates to train as well, creating a fitness community.
“I started training my roommates, and even put them on their own meal prep,” Justin said. “It helps when you have like-minded people involved, and have them share your interest.”
On the weekdays Justin said he typically spends more time to himself, because of his dieting and training. He said if he is hanging with friends on a weekday he is probably playing video games or studying.
On the weekends Justin said he lets loose a little bit more. He said he likes to play basketball, and go to the mall during the day. At night he sometimes likes to go to a house party and stay up a little past midnight.
Justin said there have been times when he has had to skip out on hanging out with friends, because of his dieting or because he was too tired from training. He said even though he has had to skip out on some time with friends, it has not been too strenuous on any of his relationships.
Jasmyn said she does not go out much anymore, because she has made her health her top priority. She said she tries to make time for her friends when she can. During competition season, she focuses on her daily routine, and when the day ends she gets ready for the next one.
After all the dieting, training and school work from the day, Jasmyn said she has about an hour to spend with her friends each day. On the weekdays she said, they will either be watching movies, studying or cooking.
On the weekends Jasmyn said she likes to spend her time outdoors, staying physical. She and her friends will go on hikes at parks like Palo Duro Canyon, or go enjoy some time at Buffalo Springs Lake. Jasmyn’s friends know how time consuming her dieting and training can be. She said they know if they needed her or she needed them, they would be there for each other.
On family vactions, Jasmyn said her training and dieting do not stop. She said sometimes this can be a little strenuous on the family, because they want to spend all the time they can together on vacation. Having such a fitness oriented family, helps everyone be understanding though she said.
Photo Provided by Justin Treadwell.
David Marlin, a junior marketing and management major, said he began focusing on fitness when he was a senior in high school.
Marlin said he has done one competitive show, and ended up winning the competition. He plans to continue his life of fitness after college, and said that bodybuilding has become a part of him now.
“Whether it was football, soccer or basketball, I always needed some type of competition to challenge me,” Marlin said. “I needed something physical, not just intellectual like school, to apply myself to, and bodybuilding did that phenomenally for me.”
It was difficult at first figuring out how to balance all of the responsibilities of life and body building, Marlin said. As he got older and more wise he realized he had to cut back on some of his commitments to help relieve some stress. He said to do this he quit one of his two jobs, and no longer goes out and parties as much.
“It is really easy for bodybuilding to consume you,” Marlin said. “Myself included, it was a new fixation for me. I was fascinated by the whole culture, and was grinding seven days a week with no days off.”
Marlin said in college you can only really focus on three different things and do them all well. He said between studying, training, friends, working and partying, something has to take a backseat.
Photo provided by David Marlin.
Marlin said he likes to have a scheduled workout routine, but over time he has learned to listen to his body. He said he got sick for about a month with multiple illnesses, due to over work.
As he learned to scale back the intensity of his workouts and lifestyle, Marlin said he likes to remember he still is a college student and that people currently training should still enjoy themselves at a young age when they have a good metabolism.
For Marlin, it was surprising to find out how prevelent steriod use was in body building. Going into the sport he said he gave people the benefit of the doubt, thinking they were buff because of hard work and good genetics. He said after getting deeper into the sport he learned of dozens of people using illegal body enhancers.
Marlin said it is not just steroids people are taking to get bigger, but they also take human growth hormones as well. He said he does not have a problem with people taking these drugs, but would like to see two different leagues for body builders who are natural and ones who use enhancers.
Jasmyn Treadwell said she believes steroid use is more prevalent in the men’s division of bodybuilding. In the competitions she competes in, Jasmyn said they test before allowing you to compete, and her plan is to stay away from steroids all together. Justin Treadwell agreed, and said they also test for steroids during most of his competitions.
According to Steroid.com, the use of anabolic steroids without viable medical purpose was outlawed by the U.S. congress in 1990. Later, Congress passed the Steroid Act of 2004, which made regulations on steroids even stricter.
Devin*, a Texas Tech student bodybuilder who wished to remain anonymous because of competition implications, said in order to get around the legality of steroid laws, the producers of these drugs will change the chemical make-up of the product to make selling it legal.
Devin said he was made aware of growth hormones his freshman year of college, when his buddy told him about his experience taking them. A few weeks after that, Devin decided he wanted to try growth hormones, but started taking them before he understood all the effects the hormones he was taking would have. Hear more of Devin’s story in this video interview.
According to The Guardian, synthetically produced human growth hormones like Kigtropin, are used to replace naturally produced hormones in the pituitary gland. The article says the pituitary glad slows down as people mature, producing less bulk-enhancing hormone. According to the article, 99 percent those who use hormones do so incorrectly and irresponsibly.
“It took a long time to feel back to normal after taking hormones,” Devin said. “Besides all the physical stuff, mentally it is hard as well.”
Editor’s Note: * indicates a name change
About Billy Ingle
