Michael Kingsnorth

Mike Kingsnorth has been in the habit of pumping iron since the tender age of 18. Now at 35 years Mike has had many physical and emotional highs and lows in his competitive career...including a couple of last placings but didn't deter him from going for his goal of winning his class and the Overall Title. A dream which finally came true at the 2006 NZFBB National Champs Mike won the Overall Physique Men's title.

 

 

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Iron Mike, Finally Super Overall Mike Kingsnorth has been in the habit of pumping iron since the tender age of 18. Now at 35 years Mike has had many physical and emotional highs and lows in his competitive career...including a couple of last placings but didn't deter him from going for his goal of winning his class and the Overall Title. A dream which finally came true at the 2006 NZFBB National Champs Mike won the Overall Physique Men's title. Through his 17 years of grinding away at the gym he's transformed himself from a 65kg knobbled knee teenager to a 95kg Super Man. In this profile we find out how he did and his thoughts of finally reaching one of his 'holy grails'.

 

Age: 35 Occupation: Manager at Elite Fitness
Family: Son, Connor 9. I'm the youngest of 3, we all live pretty close to each other and make good babysitters.
My girlfriend Charlie who took the pics and suffered living with me, and then graced my posing routine with voiceovers- how many others get triple number 1 selling platinum artists doing their routines personalised voiceovers.

Height: 179cm (5'11") Off season weight: 92kg when not training. 95-97kg when training

Contest weight: 87.5 (at last nationals weigh in, onstage was 85.35)

How many years have you been training? 17 Where do you train? Just Workout

What weight were you when you started BBing? 65kg, same height (my grand mother has a photo of me where my knees are bigger than my thighs age 17)

How many years have you been competing? 16 years

Your achievements?
1994 Wellington/ Pan Pacific/Nationals u80kg Novice champ (aged 22)
1995 Novice open weight category Champ
2003 North Island Over 80 and Overall Champ
2005 Under 85kg National Champ
2006 u90 and Overall National Champ.

What's the highlight of your sporting career?
1. Winning the overalls this year
2. Winning North Island and my Son getting to see me win after 4 dead lasts
3. Australasians (the lone Kiwi against 7 Aussies (including Peter Savadis who won the Australias that year)
4. Standing next to Joe Ulberg and being competitive.

Mike (in green trunks) winning the Open u90kg and Overall Title at NZFBB Nationals 06

How did you feel winning your class and the Overall title after so many years in the sport? Overwhelmed, after bad injuries and bad diets (98-02) it finally came together, nothing beats the generous support so many friends in the crowd offered that day. For a guy who is half deaf in one ear, I heard everyone of you and my appreciation is not enough...you all kept me going against those monsters beside me.

What is your ultimate goal in bodybuilding? Just got it at the nationals.... a pro card would be the cherry on top.

When's your next contest ? No idea, this year is about business and family, I usually have a couple of months off after a show, then we'll see.

Has there been someone who's had a big influence on your bodybuilding career? And how have they helped you? Several; Dean Geddes my nutritionalist, I was going to quit in 2002 after constantly losing, but gave it one more try (in the 4 shows since we have never missed the mark we set to achieve...the man can't fail at getting people into shape) Tom Terry, always being honest when i looked good and when I didn't. Mark Stewart for even recognising me when I was a novice and taking me to Aus. Phillip Hope once told a friend of mine "Mike will be the greatest Light Heavyweight NZ has ever had when he puts it together, I don't know if he's right, (Steve Jones at the 93 Pan Pacifics is the best I've seen), but that level of belief Phil and others have had in me goes a long way to striving for my goals Moe for telling me to scarifice 1%, to come in fuller and not go under 85!

Do you have a training philosophy? and what is it?
Heavy week/light week. Hit muscles at different angles every workout (ie flat flyes, incline or decline, never follow flat with flat/ wide chins, close grip pull downs etc) I believe this has helped create my muscle shape that gives the illusion of my size.

Always be concious of training for symmetry, never let a strong muscle group dominate... and punish the living crap out of the weak ones.

Now that you're not aiming for show, have you been good or bad with your eating plan. What have you been eating? I eat very little after a show (I had breakfast at 12;30 today) and am quite the cake baker now, I just got the meanest bbq for christmas so that will be getting punished over the holiday season.

How do you keep check of your weight?
I don't let myself get too fat anymore, above 16%, it is too hard to get into shape from there, weight is not relevant. My next goal is 100kg at 10%. I get my bodyfat and diet monitored by Dean monthly when off season leading up to a show and weekly during my diet.

Do you do much cardio now you don't 'have' to? NONE

What was the main difference between your off season and pre contest eating ? Clean foods when dieting (I never stray from the diet) and actually more food during diet, up to 1.5kg chicken a day

How long is your dieting phase and generally what do you eat? 10 weeks
Breakfast Oats with shake (Leppin Pro 4) made in water, 3 Chicken and brown rice meals a day (George Forman grilled chicken), 1.5 cups steamed veges a day, 3 other shakes (Leppin Pro4)

What was a typical day in your pre-contest diet and training programme? AM: Get Connor to school. Breakfast, at work (I had very understanding staff), work just like everyone else but a bit more tired...and lazy. Half hour before training at 6 had a Creatine in 100gms of carbs drink (I think this helped my fullness this year)

Monday: Quads- Warm Up, stretch.
Leg Ext 3x 25 reps
Squats (3 weeks on, 2 weeks of Leg Pressing to rest the knees) 7x 4-10 reps on heavy day (got back up to 200kg this year after a number of years not getting near it...thanks Paul/ training partner)
Calves: 4 sets 10 reps Very Heavy
Half hour bike

Tues: Chest + Biceps 2 set crossovers to warm up
5-6 sets or low incline DB press 6-10reps
3 sets of steep incline flyes or dips 8-12 reps
Bis: 4 sets of Preachers 7-10 reps,
3 sets of DB Cross Body Hammer curls

Wed: Hams
Lying DB Leg Curls 5 sets, 6-10reps,
Standing Leg Curls 3 Sets of 8-10 (Stiff legged Deads on weeks with no squats)

Thurs: Delts
Delts, Straight arm Post delt extensions (Gofigure out what that is, then you'll have a gem for rear delts) 4 sets 8-10,
Lat Raises 3sets 8-10,
Shrugs 3 sets 12-15
Sometimes Presses 2 sets of 7-10 (Paul Nelson Novice under 70 competitors delts were too strong in development for the rest of his body so we didn't do a lot of presses as I wanted to try and balance out his chest.

Friday: Back + Calves
Chins 4sets (totalling 40+ reps- up to 25kg hanging off chinning belt)
Bent rows or 3/4 deadlifts if Monday following does not have squats) 4 sets of 6-10
Lat Pulldowns 2 sets of 10
Standing Calf Raises 5x 30 reps, put the weight up by 2 plates every set. If I fail after 15 count out how ever many reps I have remaining then keep going, if I fail before 15 drop two plates and keep going til I finish or get over 15 and fail again, thenrest pause

Sat: Triceps
Tris: Pushdowns 2 sets of 20
Close Grip benches 5 sets of 7-10
Over head DB extensions 3 sets of 10

* I think my Tris are crap, can't believe they used my side tri shot on the Aucklands poster!

Cardio: 45min max after workouts

Abs: many different suppersets of upper lower core using all sorts of equipment. But always including Decline bench leg/hip raises for 10 reps. Half hour cardio, chasing Connor around the park on his bike.

Supplements you live by? Leppin Pro4, a little creatine before training.

Have you had a role model who's inspired you? BJ Johns for showing all Kiwi bodybuilders how to dream big. Joe Ulberg for being the most awe inspiring bodybuilder I've seen, it scared the S%*T out of me to pump up next to him. What was your favourite part about competing? Seeing the freaky transformation in the gym, and being onstage battling it out, I have such awe and respect for the other open competitors that it still amazes me to stand next to them and be competitve.

Darren Brown was an animal during the Overall giving it everything he had -awesome to be right next to, you gotta love going against guys giving it their best. and hearing guys like Rainbow and Moe cheering out, how much better can it get than guys like that encouraging you?

And the worst? The 4th week of diet, you don't look hard enough, and you've lost all your fullness...basiclly look like crap, and you just want pizza, plus doing cardio for 45 minutes after a leg session, after a long hard days work.

What advice/tips would you give to some of the young men starting out on their bodybuilding journey? Set small and medium goals, train everything hard, have structure to your training routine and stick with it. Seek out the advice of good bodybuilders who have competed even if you have to pay them or wash their car (every part of NZ has them) because most of the trainers/pt's in the gym haven't a clue about how hard you have to work, what it takes to train hard or even how to do it... nobody knows better than someone who has done it.