Cover

Toby's Back!
by Ryan Richardson

Subversive
Christianity
by Stephen Barkley

Interview:
Staple
by Justin Taylor

Book Review:
Generation Ex
by Ryan Richardson

Book Review:
Not By Chance
by Colin Michael

Health & Fitness
by Jeff Consiglio

The Addiction
part ii
by David Chipp-Smith

God's Promises
Part III
by Colin Michael

It's Not About
the Body
by John Siembida



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It's not about the body

By John Siembida

Ten years to turn professional; it seemed like a reasonable and realistic amount of time to set to turn pro in a sport like bodybuilding considering the size of those guys at the top and the fact that I was going to do it steroid free. The fact that I even set such a goal was amazing because when I used to go into department stores and see pictures of the top pro bodybuilders on boxes of Weider exercise equipment I would always exclaim how gross that looked and that I would NEVER want to look like that. I remember explaining my game plan to my friend as we trudged through the snow to the gym on that cold winter day back in February 1983; I was just going to get a 16 inch arm and then cut my arm workouts down to once a week just to maintain, because I didn't want to get any bigger than that. Back then your arm size was what determined whether you were big or not; I mean everyone was impressed by a good arm and the rest of the body didn't seem to matter.

After a month of training things started to change. Not only my physique, but my thinking as well. I had dropped ten pounds and was starting to look pretty good. I had a good physique before going to the gym because I pumped cement (plastic weights) at home and did a lot of different kinds of push-ups, but losing ten pounds brought out the detail and I was getting noticed in the gym. People were suggesting that I should compete in bodybuilding, that I looked as good if not better then another guy in our gym who was getting ready for an upcoming contest. It was that guy that coaxed me to come out to the gym; we played on the same broomball team together. After going to see him compete at the Mr. Northern Ontario bodybuilding contest in Sudbury, my goals had changed, and little did I know it at the time, but that weekend in Sudbury changed the course of my life as well.

The choice was made. I wanted to be a competitive bodybuilder, and I was serious about it! I seemed tailor made for the sport. I had pretty decent genetics, my body responded quickly, I could train hard and recover quickly, I caught on to the training fast, and most of all, I just had the headspace for it.

It was the summer of 1983 that changed the direction of my life. Up to that point I was still considering joining the army, because after high school and a Christmas graduation from college (I went home for Christmas in my first term of college and stayed), I just didn't know what to do with my life and I'd had enough of school, so I was thinking army. But that Sudbury trip changed everything. I was going to be a professional bodybuilder and I didn't have a Plan B! I set my short, mid-term, and long-term goals. My short-term goal was to win the Novice Ontario Championships after one year of training. My mid-term was to win Mr. Canada after four years of training and I wanted to be professional by ten years. There was what I considered to be one major obstacle. Something that always seemed to hinder my exercise efforts in the past. I had a BAD weekend drug and alcohol habit, which began when I was twelve years old. But this time something seemed different, and time would prove me right.

The summer of 1983 was not without its challenges to my dream. Shortly after telling my dream to my friend and training partner, he fell to the wayside. Maybe he just lost interest or maybe he just thought I was totally out to lunch. I did keep going to the gym on my own and really began to enjoy training without a partner. The biggest challenge was August of that summer because my friend was off work on compensation and we went on a month long binge of drinking and drugs seven days a week for the whole month. But I still kept up my training and it was during this month that I changed my long-term goal. While at a party, totally intoxicated, I started sharing my dream with one of the party scene regulars and told him how I'd set my goal to become a professional bodybuilder in ten years, he replied, "Not you John, you're going to do it seven years!" "You think so" I replied. "Yeah, you're going to do it in seven!" "Okay man, seven years it is" I said, and when I woke up the next day they weren't just drunken words that I brushed off; I totally believed that I was going to turn pro in seven years and that became my new goal which I stuck with. Now I don't know if GOD shows up at drunken parties, but He did speak through a donkey so I'm sure He could speak through a drunk, even though the words might come out a bit slurred. The future would shed an interesting light on that night.

As that summer drew to a close, I had gained an unflattering designation in the bar scene of being a real burnout and people saying that I wasn't going to amount to anything, let alone a professional bodybuilder. I'm sure if I could have stepped outside of myself and saw what they saw I would have agreed, but I knew deep down inside that there was so much more than what it looked like on the outside. I did realize that I'd have to make a change if I was going to fulfill my dream and so that fall I decided to leave Timmins for Cambridge (one hour outside of Toronto), where I had family. My friends thought I wouldn't last more than a few months and then I'd be back home, but when I got off the train in Toronto on October 4th, 1983, I was determined never to move back to Timmins again. I don't know what GOD has in mind for my future, but it's been over 21 years later and I haven't moved back yet.

Moving to Cambridge... - PAGE 2 --->