Communication senior Ryan Gaffney lives his life by a strict routine.

He eats healthy homemade meals five times a day and makes sure he goes to the gym five times a week.

Gaffney, 25, has been a bodybuilder for the last five years. Among other things, Gaffney sees lifting weights as a way to continue his athletic career. He plays club hockey at MSU and was a member of the Division III national championship team this season.

“I’ve always wanted to be the biggest guy, but also the most agile, the most athletic,” he said. “But when sports come to an end, there’s something else you still want to do. It’s the competitive nature in me.”

Athletic training senior Stacey Glumm, 21, has always been interested in fitness. In May she will be graduating with degrees in athletic training and exercise physiology. She is also pursuing certification as a strength and conditioning coach.

Glumm was introduced to the competitive bodybuilding via fitness magazines as well as social media, she said.

“I had originally thought that bodybuilding was only about taking steroids and gaining as much body mass as you can, which wasn’t appealing to me,” she said. “However, when I learned more about the five divisions for women. ... I learned that the competitive world accommodates anyone’s health and fitness goals.”

Health effects

Tracy Olrich is a professor at Central Michigan University and a former bodybuilder. Olrich competed intensively for seven years and won the Natural Mr. Michigan for bodybuilding in the 1990s.

Bodybuilding can bring some health problems, Olrich said. Usually this happens when someone adds too much mass too quickly. Getting too big too fast can create an excessive burden on the heart, and in rare cases can even resulted in adult onset diabetes.

“There have been some cases where guys have died of heart attacks and have had nothing else wrong with their system,” Olrich said.

A lot of bodybuilders are in the sport for one of two reasons, according to Olrich. One is that they want to be the biggest they can be. The second reason is that they want to have the best physique possible.

“Being on college campuses for so many years, I’ve noticed that bodybuilding has always had its place on campus,” Olrich said. “Like any sport, its popularity is cyclical. In the ’80s, it was at the height of its popularity with guys like Arnold Schwarzenegger being one of the top box office attractions at that time.”

Olrich also said that bodybuilding on campus is likely popular because of the hypersexualized mentality of a student body.

With students wanting to look attractive, bodybuilding is an activity some students turn to.

Another potential reason is that the absence of sports in a student’s life could turn them on to bodybuilding.

“We’ve seen mostly in men, increasingly in women, but mostly in men, that after high school sports are gone for them,” Olrich said. “With sports becoming such a large part of a person’s identity in high school, they need something to define themselves by in college, and bodybuilding offers one way to do that in sports.”

Strict regimens

One of the trickiest aspects of bodybuilding is determining how much to work out.

It’s important that one works out often enough, but it’s equally important not to overdo it. The general consensus seems to be a workout regimen that includes five trips to the gym.

Glumm said she hired Amy Watson, a figure competitor in the Lansing area, to help her. Glumm did cardio and lifting five times a week.

“I would do cardio in the morning before classes — usually around 6 or 6:30 a.m. — and lift in the evenings after classes and work,” Glumm said.

Gaffney said a lot of the process is about listening to his body.

“I think a lot of people make the mistake of trying to force themselves or put their body in a position to do things that they shouldn’t be doing,” Gaffney said. “I usually try to find a day during the week to recover.”

Working out is just one aspect of bodybuilding. Both Glumm and Gaffney said they agree that a bodybuilder’s diet is equally, if not more important than exercise.

When dieting, Gaffney eliminates all soda, juice, candy and any processed food. The cutting phase can range anywhere from nine to 16 weeks.

“Everything pretty much is homemade,” he said. “The food that you’re eating is almost the same every day, and as those days dwindle toward showtime, things get eliminated.”

Gaffney said his girlfriend, Chelsea Hemenway, is extremely helpful in his endeavors, especially since she helps him meet his diet requirements.

“Every day I prep his food for all of his meals in the morning,” Hemenway said. “The schedule is very important. On days where Ryan doesn’t have morning class he’ll still wake up at the time he normally would, like 9 a.m., and eat breakfast and then go back to bed for an hour or so.”

Through her support for Gaffney, Hemenway has also gained an interest in the sport.

Hemenway said she has also taken up going to the gym so she can help Gaffney with his bodybuilding, as well as spend more time with him. She has also been to all of his shows.

Fitness goals

Glumm has yet to enter her first competition, but Gaffney has participated in three, boasting a third place finish as his best thus far.

The hard work at the gym along with the restrictive diet Gaffney undergoes all build up to competitions. A bodybuilding competition gives Gaffney and other bodybuilders the chance to display the product of their hard work.

Gaffney said it’s an emotional experience because of the hard work put into being disciplined.

“I would say it’s nerve wracking, and it’s exciting,” Gaffney said. “Getting up there and being able to show your hard work is nice.”

Gaffney’s bodybuilding goals include getting his pro card, competing in bigger shows and earning recognition.

“Everybody always says ‘hard work pays off,’ and I want that to show,” he said. “There are so many instances in my own life where hard work hasn’t showed, it hasn’t paid off.”

Glumm said she plans to compete in the National Physique Committee Bikini Competition as a way to gain entrance to the world of competitive bodybuilding.

She said this is because bikini competitions are the easiest place to start since it is scored based on balance and shape as opposed to muscle definition and size.

“After I have a grasp on a good training program and learn more about what my body responds to with diet and exercise, I plan to move into the fitness division,” Glumm said.

Working out a minimum of five days a week along with being a full-time student can be a challenge. On top of that, Gaffney is involved in a club sport and DJs at night.

He said he has learned time management because of all of his different atmospheres.

“I think the biggest thing is that there are a lot of people who say they don’t have time for this or they don’t have time for that, but I beg to differ,” he said. “You make time for things. ... It’s a lot of late nights, but I choose this lifestyle.”