Competitive Body Building - First Impressions
Doug Austin, Spartacus Athletic Club

April 14/02 - Vancouver - I just got back from my first Body Building competition. My partner in Mixed Pairs, Tracy Holly placed third in her women's masters class, together we placed first in Mixed Pairs and I did not place in my men's masters category.
You can find some pictures in the gallery.

My first impressions are forthcoming.

From Best of Vancouver Issue 09/19/02
Best Neighbourhood Gym

When Doug Austin and Herb DaSilva moved to Vancouver from Toronto seven years ago, both were looking for a place to invest and a change of career. After some searching, they bought Spartacus Gym. Despite its venerable status, Spartacus had fewer than 200 paid members and a deserved reputation as a grotty hole. Four years later, Spartacus is a friendly, unpretentious neighbourhood gym with more than 1,000 members.
The differences were as subtle as keeping the place clean, abolishing heavy-metal music, and requiring respectful behaviour. Women began coming to Spartacus, attracted by the new aerobics machines and fitness classes, many of them led by DaSilva (a certified personal trainer). DaSilva and Austin have been embraced by the community and have embraced The Drive in turn. They live in a house down the street from their business, host a Christmas Party at the gym, and price their services at realistic East Side levels. Membership is $26 a month; drop-in is five bucks, which is unbelievably cheap.

Body Building - Kicking Some Evolutionary Butt
Doug Austin, Spartacus Athletic Club

April 8/02 - Vancouver - It's Day 4 of a stretch of days where I haven't eaten much but animal protein, egg whites and pills. I went to the gym tonight to get in my second training session and my second tan. I did not get around to either.

A good friend of mine stopped me as I was about to enter the tanning bed. "You've got to stay away from that booth", he said sternly. The time was paid for and everything - but I won't be tanning tonight.

Doug Austin and Tracy Holly
Mixed Pairs Body Builders

I'm already darkly tanned - so when is enough enough. I didn't even work out because too many people are stopping me and asking if I am all right. I happen to own the gym where I train and I have forged some friendships and close acquaintances there. It's excessive behavior, not really tolerated too much these days, but it is common to many competitive sports.

This will be my first body building competition and I'm 45 years old. It's a challenge I wised to take for no doubt a variety of reasons, many of which I may never be aware of. So far I would give the "Eat Lots and Lots and Lots of Good Food, Train Heavy, Get Big", two enthusiastic thumbs way up. The second phase, the "Slow Down on the Carbs Big Guy and Pay Close Attention to What You Eat, Train Hard, Keep What You Got" phase an excellent way to model my training and diet after this is over.

The final phase sucks. My body is freaking out and I'm not convinced that I should be laughing in the face of famine like this. My physical side doesn't know what's going on and is carrying around some old programming - older and still more reliable than Windows 3.1. This programming was written around when we were just crawling out the sea, growing legs and beating any other moving object with big sticks.

After 4 days without carbs, programming says hit it hard and eat it immediately.

My intellectual side overrides the system and forces my physical side to continue pretending its a famine like no other. So there's a fight going on. No wonder I think I'm schizophrenic.

At what point do you pull back and decide when lean is lean enough. I made a point to write this before I started to load carbs into me like a starving cave man who just found a better, more potent stick.

At this point I'm coming down on these few days because in my heart I know that there shouldn't be pressure from typical body building competitions and from those who pay to watch this level of extreme behavior. The world loves a good freak show - history can attest to that. I didn't make the rules but they got made. So who wrote them? Many other men and women who I will meet during the process of THE SHOW are following them just like I am. We're all collectively poking fun at basic instinct, using our scientific knowledge and ability to remember and communicate claim victory.

Is that a bad thing? It's a competition, it's a spectacle and there are winners. It fits a million formulas, and this time I'm caught up in it.

When Victory comes, I'll get back to you on how that feels. I'm thinking that phase will have a couple of thumbs in the air. I'll work it into a front double bicep curl!

Doug Austin
Owner, Spartacus Athletic Club
Vancouver BC Canada