Years ago
I was asked to track down the winners of the original EAS Physique Transformation Challenge.
While the Phillips brothers had long since moved on and EAS faded into mass market purgatory, the contest itself might ring a bell — the winners were featured in the original Body of Work movie.
There were 10 contestants as I recall, and I was able to get a hold of 8 or 9 of them in a weekend. It wasn’t even that hard (thank you Google) though most were surprised that after 10 years there was still any interest. Can’t say I blame them.
The gist of my piece was “where are they now,” but the bro in me was more interested in how some of the guys actually dieted and trained. Was it different from what was featured in Muscle Media? Was there a massive cover up? Were they spiking their Phosphagen with Dianabol?
I came away disappointed.
Most stuck to their stories. Except one guy, who had arguably the most dramatic “transformation” of them all.
I’ll keep his name out of it as he’d asked me to, and I believe in the bro-code. And it turns out, this guy was a bro.
His story was that he drank a lot of Myoplex meal replacement shakes — at least 3 a day — for six months, along with other products. He told EAS that too, and even submitted receipts to verify his purchases.
As a result EAS made him one of their most featured spokespeople, and they would’ve been crazy not to, considering his physique transformation.
But now, years later, I guess it was water under the bridge. So he told what he really did.
Right after entering the contest, he hired a top bodybuilding nutritionist, Keith Klein, who put him on a basic bodybuilding diet — chicken, egg whites, brown rice, and discipline.
As for the supplements? He used quite a few MRP’s the first month, but went down to one a day once he started working with Keith. But he kept ordering lots of product throughout his transformation to keep up appearances, most of which he sold on eBay.
And before you cry foul, EAS management had no idea what he was up to. They just thought he was a really good customer.
I bring this up as I recently linked up with Keith Klein on Facebook. He’s been working with bodybuilders at his clinic for 35 years, his most famous client being Lee Labrada (yeah that Lee Labrada). And he’s still at it, prepping guys and girls to look their absolute best.
And he still diets competitors the old fashioned way. It hasn’t changed. No cutting carbs, no fasting, no pretending to be a caveman, and no voodoo — just chicken and egg whites, rice and potato, oats and veggies. And lots of water.
If there’s one “secret” it’s that he keeps fat calories at about 20% for most, while Labrada happened to thrive at only 10% fat. Certainly not putting fucking butter in coffee or only eating carbs on days of the week starting with the letter ‘T’.
Stuff gets more complicated when he peaks athletes, but that’s a small part of a very long process — like 5%. The other 95% is basic and boring.
Stuff you already know. Stuff that works.
Yet people keep falling for bullshit.
For fads. They follow “diets” that have them drinking 4 or 5 protein shakes a day and wonder why they only have a bowel movement every third Wednesday. And why all the fat flies back on when they’re done with the diet.
They cut entire macronutrients while overeating others. They fall for shoddy science, shameless marketing, and confuse complexity with efficacy.
Or they follow douchenozzles who parrot other coaches on social media but get no results themselves. Especially not with themselves.
I admit, the old bros did a lot of dumb shit. I sure did. Probably still do. But at least, when you added it all up, we got results.
So If you’re not getting results, maybe track down a bro and ask him.
We’re not hard to find.