Thame bodybuilder takes medal in his debut contest

PAINFULLY intense workouts, relentless hunger, strict eating schedules, tiresome treadmill sessions, topped off with mental exhaustion and a touch of insomnia. This was all in a day’s work for local competitive bodybuilder Ellis Quarterman in his five and a half month preparation for his first bodybuilding show, which took place on Sunday, July 19, in Dartford.

The 20 year-old bodybuilder from Thame was placed second in his class, Junior Bodybuilding at the UKBFF Ultimate Beginners show which is held annually and open to the whole of the UK.

Ellis has been training for just over three years, starting at a bodyweight of only 145lbs. He built his mass with hard, heavy training sessions and a gargantuan seven meals a day and after reaching a bodyweight of over 235lbs started his 24 week preparation to shed the extra fat and reveal the muscle for his debut as a competitive bodybuilder.

While Ellis eats clean food year-round, he eats plenty of it when he wants to add extra muscle size and will let himself have the occasional cheat meal when he wants it. So when it came to preparing for the contest, the first step was to restrict the diet, cutting out all cheat meals and tapering down carbohydrate intake over the 24 weeks. Extra cardiovascular training was also implemented starting at just three 30 minute weekly treadmill sessions and ending with 40 minute sessions, twice a day, five days a week, all on top of the still heavy and intense weight training workouts.

“It gets tough, especially once I passed the 10 week in mark,” said Ellis. “You are literally pushing your body past what it naturally wants to do. Not only are you not eating enough food to fuel your workouts, but you’re adding in extra workouts to burn fat, all while trying to keep the muscle you spent years trying to build in the first place – two completely contradictory goals. But all the hard work became worth it the moment I stepped on stage. Being such a niche sport, not a lot of people understand bodybuilding, but if you want something, you can’t care too much about what other people think; you have to do it for you! So it was an incredible feeling once I was on stage, immersed in the bright stage lights to a crowd of hundreds of cheering people, I felt like that stage was where I belonged.”

Ellis works as a fitness instructor at Racquets Fitness Centre and also offers one-on-one personal training sessions. You can contact him via email at ewquarterman@gmail.com or by text or call on 07815763948.