Catch us live on BlogTalkRadio every



Tuesday & Thursday at 6pm P.S.T.




Monday, November 22, 2010

Canada, Bulging biker biceps

OFF THE WIRE
BY: Cary Castagna
Source: edmontonsun.com
Manitobamuscle (www.bodybuilding.ca)
Theres no longer any doubt as to whos the muscle in the Manitoba chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
Its Danny Lawson.
The Mohawk-wearing, Harley-riding, full-patch member of the HA packs 220 pounds of sinewy brawn on his five-foot-seven frame.
Forget the beer-bellied biker stereotype.
Lawson, a resident of Oakbank, Man., just east of Winnipeg, has a helluva physique especially for a guy in his late 40s.
I was a skinny kid. I used to pole vault, he admits in an exclusive interview with yours truly, noting that he was on the Canadian track team in high school.
Once I got out of that, I got right into bodybuilding (at 18 years of age). And I just kept getting bigger.
With his now bulging biker biceps all these years later, the former Los Brovos member has found success in an unlikely arena on the posing dais.
In the spring of 2009 in Winnipeg, the tattooed muscle man won the middleweight class of the Manitoba novice bodybuilding championships.
Lawson who doesnt know of any other Canadian outlaw bikers involved in competitive bodybuilding dieted down to a chiseled 178 pounds and walked away with his weight division.
That physique show, however, wasnt his first. He competed in the novice contest more than 20 years ago, garnering a second-place finish in the lightweight class.
I was only about 155 pounds then, he recalled, adding that he never thought he`d compete again until he met his trainer a national-level bodybuilder who shall remain nameless a few years ago in a Winnipeg gym.
The 2009 spring bodybuilding contest wasn`t his last, either.
Lawson won the middleweight class at the 2010 Manitoba provincial bodybuilding championships this past May in Winnipeg.
The father of five including twins is now qualified for nationals. He doesn`t intend to hang up his posing trunks until after his 50th birthday. But the last time I spoke to him, Lawson hadn`t committed to competing nationally.
I don`t want to set any high goals because I`m getting pretty old, he said. My bones and that aren`t as strong as they used to be.
Here’s a look at Lawson’s six-days-a-week workout breakdown:
Sundays Hamstrings (20 sets of exercises such as lying leg curls, seated leg curls, lunges and stiff-legged deadlifts)
Mondays Thighs, calves (leg extensions, leg presses, hack squats, reverse hack squats)
“We do a thing with the leg press where we start off at two plates a side and we do 20 reps. Then we add a plate (a side) and do 30 reps. Then we add another plate and go 40 reps. Every time we add a plate, we go up 10 more reps. By the time you’re finished it, you can barely walk.”
Tuesdays Chest (about 25 sets)
“The exercises every week change. We’re always changing everything. So the workouts are never the same twice.”
Wednesdays Back
Thursdays Shoulders
Fridays Arms
Saturdays Day off
Visit the Manitoba Amateur Bodybuilding Association site at www.bodybuilding.ca.