Last month I shared how success in bodybuilding must start with the top of your body, your head.  I touched on using your mind and listening to your emotions as signals to guide you to success.  This month I want to expand more on the intangibles as tools.  Not emotions like fear and angst, but the intangible traits that seem to accompany many of those who have experienced success in their chosen sport or passion.

Faith is one of those intangibles that can be the kryptonite against the angst or fear that comes with trying to succeed.  Simply having faith that everything will work out for the best is almost a “pack horse” or “mule” for all of the mind games that go along with success in this sport.  Those negative emotions, they’re like a big bag of bricks that we carry around with us every minute of every day, just weighing us down.  Why are we carrying around this bag?  Can we really control the outcome of our fears?  Can we control who shows up to our bodybuilding competitions?  Can we control how many competitors there are in our class?  The answer is no, we can’t, so take that bag of bricks and cast it on the back of the mule called faith.  Put it on faith’s back and let it go.

Now that is not to say that I am recommending you just sit back, relax, do nothing, and expect faith to take care of the rest.  That would be nice, but at the same time it just would not be right.  Can we really get something for nothing?  No, our society is just not built that way and it shouldn’t be that way.  Likewise, if you bust your butt in the gym, diet for months and months, practice your posing and prepare for your day, no one can take that away from you, but I digress.  You must prepare for your day on stage by giving 100% of your heart, soul, ability, knowledge and effort.  You must use the angst and your emotions (as I talked about in my last article) as signals to work on your weaknesses.  Do this for your entire preparation and only then can you cast your remaining fear on faith’s back, knowing that everything is going to turn out for the best.  You might win, you might not, but like I said, you cannot control who shows up and how many competitors there will be.  Be prepared though and when the final days come, let faith take care of your fears and it will all work out.

Once again, let me present my own experiences as an example of the kind of faith I am speaking of.  In 2008 I was preparing for the INBF Capital City Naturals.  I prepared for months and months and had a fantastic season.  I had won my pro card with the INBA in June, and I was ready to win my WNBF Pro card at the Cap City.  Although I did very well, I did not win my pro card at that show.  That honor was bestowed on my fellow 3DMJ team mate Alberto Nunez, but again I digress.  I don’t want to get into the details of my journey to the Washington State Naturals, but that story on how I became RKC and WNBF Pro in the same week makes for some interesting reading.

So there I sat, in my gym the week after I lost to Alberto for my coveted pro card.  I had the opportunity to go to Washington for a second shot at it, but how was I going to prepare?  I was already 3% body fat, so how was I going to diet?  I had this grueling RKC course to take that most could not pass and complete at 100%, so how was I going to pass it dieting, super lean, and prime for an injury?  Worrying about it was not going to do me any good, so I just set it on faith’s back, and started focusing on the matter at hand.  I made daily menus that I would follow including refeed days.  I made a special menu with increased macros for the weekend of the RKC.  Finally, I had my good friend Ron take charge of our training and what ever he did, I did.  Was it going to work?  All the worrying in the world was only going to cause me more distress so I just let it all go and executed the plan right up to the day of the show.  I never worried about any detail of any part of the process and each step of the way, it just worked out.  The weekend of the RKC I was taking in as much as 72g of fat per day and 230g of carbs.  I did not worry about it, I just ate the meals I had prepared, took the course and cast the worry on faith’s back.  I passed the course with flying colors and low and behold when I returned home I had gained weight and callipered at 2.8% body fat.  That week I packed my food, color, clothes etc. for the trip and did not worry about traveling or who would apply my color.  I threw on a coat of Jan Tana the morning of the show that looked like hell, but believe it or not, there was a Jan Tana crew at the Venue who charged me a mere $35 to touch it all up and apply a glaze at both the morning and night show.  This was the biggest show I had ever done, with 7 excellent body builders in my class.  I had never tried so hard to hold my poses and I flexed my quads until they cramped.  Low and behold I would win the class and move on to the overall.  There, I faced a 200lb monster by the name of Luke Ehlis along with 2 other fantastic body builders.  I was scared to death when the head judge moved me all the way to the end of the line just before the pose down.  I went down fighting, jumping right into the middle of the melee during the pose down and in the end I won my pro card.  Each step of the way I was faced with adversity and each step of the way I made a plan, put out 100% effort, cast my fears on faith’s back, and it all worked out. 

Brad Loomis (center) facing Luke Ehlis (far left) back in 2008 at the INBF Washington

This brings me to another intangible quality one must possess if success is to be obtained: courage.  I’m not talking about the kind of courage it takes to lay your life on the line for your country, but the kind of courage it takes to face adversity when it stares you in the face.  As you can tell, the road to pro status in 2008 was daunting.  It was a daunting task knowing full well that I would be facing Alberto at the Cap City for the overall, and possibly the class if we fell into the same weight class.  It took a certain amount of courage to put out 100% effort as I prepared for that show and followed through by getting on stage with him.  With all the uncertainty of doing the Washington show, I deliberated for at least 2 days before I decided to take on the task.  It took a certain amount of courage on my part to man up, face that adversity, and overcome it.  All the while having the faith to know it would all work out for the best.  In the end, it did all work out as I accomplished my goal and won my pro card.  However, there are literally dozens of examples of when it seems that things don’t work out, or at least they have not YET.  You may be one who starts with your head, uses your mind and emotions as signals to succeed and possesses the qualities of faith and courage.  You may have had tremendous success and have come close so many times to success, yet you still have fallen short by inches.  This is when your resolve, faith and courage must be even stronger.  As the old proverb says, “All things come in Gods time, not in ours.”  Because there is yet another intangible quality among those that succeed and that is persistence.  However that is a story for another time.