For Amherstburg’s Bryce Dougan, hard work and the discipline that goes with it certainly has its rewards.
Approaching his 24th birthday, he recently won the Canadian Physique Association sanctioned Stephanie Worsfold Classic in London.
Dougan competed in the junior men’s body building division and has been actively pursuing his goals seriously since he was in high school.
“I grew up playing travel hockey. My biggest inspiration was my mom, she was always at the gym,” said Dougan.
His mother, retired Windsor Police Inspector Tanya Fryer helped him get started by leading by example.
“I took me a while to get into it. I didn’t think I would like it, I was self-consensus.”
It was the summer between Grades 11 and 12 when Dougan started to get serious about bodybuilding and admits that between those two years at General Amherst High School, he lost nearly 100 pounds.
“I went to the gym with my mom and started to pay attention to what I was eating.”
After he did his first competition in 2018, Dougan was hooked on the sport and started going to the gym at 5 a.m.
The show in London was his fourth, and he says that he started preparing back in September when he tipped the scales at 262 pounds. Working with his coach, changing his diet and sticking to a strict regime, Dougan trimmed down to 211.
Advice given to him by the judges at that show was to tighten up even more which he said could be a tough task.
When he heads to Toronto for the national championship on August 3, he will be competing in the senior division and hopes to do well enough to earn his pro card in body-building which will allow him to compete globally.
To fair well Dougan will have to continue his weekday routine which begins at 4 a.m when he heads down into the basement for up to 45 minutes of cardio, 20 minutes of an ab workout and 30 minutes of stretching.
He will have two meals before heading out the door to his day job working as a carpenter. Dougan also puts in a few hours working at the local Movati gym on the weekends. After work he heads to the gym for two hours of training.
A post workout meal is followed by one final meal before heading to bed around 9 p.m. Dougan emphasizes that eating the proper food is more important than the training itself.
And what advice can he offer to up and comers who are interested in body-building?
“My biggest suggestion is to trust the process and to bulk up as long as you can.”
Local bodybuilder prepping for national event
By Fred Groves
Comments