TRAINING TALK

THE NEW LOOK ALEX EDWARDS WON THE UK’S FIRST MALE PHYSIQUE CONTEST AND WILL BE AMONG THE FAVOURITES AT NEXT MONTH’S INAUGURAL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Men’s physique has exploded  in popularity since it crossed the Atlantic and made its UK debut a few months ago. The class, in which competitors wear board shorts, appeals to guys wanting a less extreme alternative to bodybuilding. Ryan Terry, Rob Riches and Leon Williams have emerged as the early stars but the distinction of winning the first ever competition in the UK actually belongs to Alex Edwards. Edwards has not competed since  but he will return to the stage at the inaugural men’s physique British Championships in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, next month. “I’m expecting a lot of competition,  in fact, I’m hoping for it,” he says. “I’m going there to win, but even to place  in the finals would be a big deal because I’m going to be up against  the best of the best.” MUSCLE&FITNESS: What got you into competing? ALEX EDWARDS: A friend of mine was competing and he said I should give it a go. I didn’t think it was for me but he said men’s physique was new and wasn’t like normal bodybuilding. I looked into it online and decided to try it out. Obviously I went to win but it was still quite a surprise because I didn’t know what to expect. M&F: Why is men’s physique so popular? AE: It’s a much better representation of what people aspire to look like. Obviously the heavyweight bodybuilders look impressive but I don’t think people generally want to look like that. Hopefully it’ll help change the common view of bodybuilding from mass monsters to people trying to develop their physiques as best they can. M&F: What’s the most important  thing for a physique competitor  looking to do well? AE: Men’s physique is about the ideal male shape so you’re looking for that V-taper. You want wide shoulders going down into a small waist, with good arms and a good chest. It’s about the whole package, but I think having a good chest is the jewel of your physique. Luckily for me that’s my strongest point! M&F: How do you train? AE: I train more for feeling rather than according to a set routine. So for example, if I find I’m tiring by my 15th pull-up I’ll move on to something like bent-over rows with high reps to improve my endurance. I’ll probably train four or five times a week. Sometimes I’ll do split training. For instance, one month I might do chest and triceps. Then, I might do a month of full- body workouts. I usually do anywhere between  eight and 16 reps and anything up to  20 sets. Some people might say that’s overtraining but if your conditioning is good you can cope. M&F: How have you made your chest your best feature? AE: On chest day, I’ll probably do  a lot more than usual because I really struggle to feel it. I’ll probably do up to seven exercises because it’s hard to feel it in every area with any one exercise. If I’m flat benching I might feel it too much in my front delts and not enough in my upper pecs, so I’ll do incline bench presses next. Of course with that I won’t feel it in my triceps or lower chest so I’ll then do dips. I’ll follow that with pec flyes to target the centre of my chest. If I really want to burn out  I’ll finish off with plyo push-ups just  for a different feeling. The gym is my playground! M&F: How heavy do you lift? AE: I normally lift with 60-70% of my maximum and keep doing that until it isn’t working for me any more. Then I’ll do a month of strength training at 80-90%  of my maximum until I can increase the weight I use for my volume training. M&F: What about cardio? AE: All my cardio is high-intensity interval training. I like the way it develops your body. It’s also more relative to lifting weights where your sets last 40 seconds to a minute. When you’re doing HIIT training you’re getting used to working at 90% of your max for a minute so it helps with your weight training. I’ll do sprints on the treadmill, 30 seconds on an incline then a minute walking. Sometimes I’ll do kettlebells as my cardio, so I’ll do maybe 100 kettlebell swings. I might even do very low-weight clean and presses non-stop for a minute, CrossFit-style. M&F: What’s your diet like? AE: It’s consistently clean. My diet is varied; I just stay away from processed foods. I don’t eat a lot of carbs but when  I do it’s usually sweet potatoes or rice.  In terms of protein, I eat a lot of eggs but not too much meat. I might have one meat meal a day, if that. I also try to eat raw food as much as possible so I just cook my meat and eggs but eat everything else raw. I have a lot of raw oats with berries and seeds. I don’t eat a huge amount really, I probably only have 2-3,000 calories a day. People talk about macros and ratios but I don’t care for that.