Athlete Profile: Pete Mogan

When watching an animated movie, our minds skip over the fact that the characters on the screen represent hours of putting pencil to paper.  We get wrapped up in the awe and illusion of the finished product and lose sight of what is actually going on behind the scenes.  If we were to follow the process from the beginning, we might have a hard time believing that those carefully inscribed pencil drawings could come to life so effortlessly.

Scrolling through the progress pictures of Pete Morgan in his Precision Nutrition bodybuilding prep log is like looking at a flip book: his transformation appears to occur right before our eyes, as if magical and without effort. It’s when you dig deep into the years and weeks leading up to Pete’s latest contest prep that you find the painstakingly developed pencil drawings. Behind the seamless illusion lie the grueling hours of hard work and determination, and several moments where Pete questioned his belief in the process altogether.

Pete first got into strength training in high school, but began to approach it more seriously after attending rookie football camp. As Pete describes, “I got my ass handed to me on the university football field”.  Thus he found his motivation.

He also found a few advantages. He had a slight head start with his above-average size and athletic build. He had parents who’d instilled in him the ability to focus on and work for what he wanted. He found some training partners who knew more about nutrition than he did and were just as dedicated as he was. With this “team” of physical, mental, and social supports in place, Pete had everything he needed.

Pete and his training partners often approached their body transformations with more enthusiasm than skill. He admits that their training programs and system of pushing each other to the point of physical sickness was somewhat flawed. But it did the job of helping Pete build significant size and build – he added 15 pounds on his 175 lb frame in under a year.  More importantly, it taught him that progression only comes when you consistently push yourself to make each workout better and harder than the one before.

His training experience, his foundation of good nutrition, and the physical size he built for football provided a natural transition into competitive bodybuilding for Pete.  Prior to his most recent competition in Nov 2008, Pete had competed in three events, placing second in two of them and fourth in the third.

But it was not until the fall of 2007, when he started working with Carter Schoffer of PN’s sister entity Body Transformation Inc., that Pete realized how much he didn’t know about bodybuilding, training and nutrition.  For Pete, there’s no doubt now that working with Carter was the best decision he ever made (although he almost bailed out when he first saw his nutrition and training plan!). Based on advanced set-rep manipulations and exercise selections/pairings, his training program was more like that of bodybuilding in the 60s and 70s than anything Pete had ever tried before. He remembers looking it over and thinking:

“How are one legged dumbbell stiff legged deadlifts going to help the hamstrings of someone who can do reps with 405? Why the heck was I going to superset front squats and back squats — I could squat 495 for reps, but no way after front squats! Wouldn’t my leg development suffer? And working a tri set of bent over rows, dumbbell incline press and rear deltoid lateral raises with only 10 seconds rest in between?  I wouldn’t be lifting any weight by the end and would strictly be getting cardio benefit -– slowly becoming a fitness model over time!”

And then there was the diet:

“Vegetables? Why so many? Wouldn’t that take up valuable protein space? And all kinds of seeds and nuts and fiber — again more space that would be better served by consuming rice and oats.”

Despite Pete’s reservations, he was suffering from a myriad of nagging injuries that were making it increasingly difficult to make progress with traditional bodybuilding training. He figured he might as well give Carter’s program a try. At the very least, maybe he might learn something that he could incorporate into “proper” training when he got back to it.

Unlike many who make the mistake of stuffing calories of crappy foods down only to gain fat, or those who try to gain while also trying to stay lean, Pete’s goal was to gain muscle and simply keep his body fat within a reasonable range. To do this, he followed Carter’s training programs closely, kept his nutrition in line with Precision Nutrition habits and ate a heck of a lot of food — around 5000 kcal on training days and 4500 kcal on rest days.

During this time, Pete’s meal plan was pretty much the same as it is now. Whether in competition mode, off season or adding muscle, Pete’s typical meal plan includes plenty of fruit and vegetables, fat from nuts, seeds, and oils, and about 40-60 g of protein per meal from beef, chicken, eggs, fish and supplements. Carbohydrates come from rice and oats when Pete’s in season, but he also adds in the occasional bread, cereal, and Sunday morning pancakes with the family when leaning down is not a priority.  On training days, Pete typically has 4 solid meals, 2 meal replacement shakes, a workout shake, and two post workout shakes: one immediately post training, and one about 20 min later at home. On non-training days, he simply eliminates the workout shakes.

One of his favourite meals is chicken baked with garlic and Frank’s Red Hot sauce, often added to brown rice.  He eats it almost every day and doesn’t think he’ll get sick of it anytime soon!  Another meal that Pete relies on daily to fill up on nutrient dense foods is the “Big Salad”.  He varies it by changing the protein and nuts, but the premise of this meal stays the same:

200 g turkey breast
4 cups of spinach
2 tbsp (20g) pumpkin seeds (kernels)
15 walnuts
Handful of baby carrots
Handful of cherry tomatoes
1 apple
1 tbsp olive oil

After a few months of training and sticking with the new nutritional plan, it became clear that taking a chance on Carter’s apparently unconventional route was paying off. Starting in the low 240s and about 15% body fat, Carter worked with Pete to add muscle mass and lean out. He got to 260 at 12-13% fat briefly, and felt “lighter, faster and more athletic than he did at 240”.

Sixteen weeks out

By the summer of 2008, Carter and Pete had their sights set on a November bodybuilding competition. At the end of July, sixteen weeks out from his show, Pete was 254, just over 12% fat (let me do the math for you: that’s over 220 lbs of LBM!) with a goal of coming in as lean and hard as possible on competition day.  Pete felt that if he could hit 198.5 lbs that he could potentially “do some real damage” in the light heavyweight category but he knew it would be a tough road to get there.

On the way

Over the course of his contest prep, Pete’s log described the process of dropping over 40 lbs and fine-tuning his diet and training to get competition-ready. Pete and Carter implemented a few tricks to keep Pete’s energy and focus high while allowing him to get results. These included:

• A gradual decrease in calories, keeping nutrient density high. Utilizing nutrient timing principles and incorporating plenty of nutrient-dense foods allowed Pete to avoid “starvation mode” and keep his progress steady.
• Planned overfeeds vs. cheat meals to keep his metabolism high. Staying away from gluten, dairy, unhealthy fats and high fructose corn syrup, Pete incorporated higher kcal/carb days of over 5100 calories, where proteins and healthy fats were also bumped up along with clean carbohydrate sources.
• Reversed nutrient timing/loading. Due to Pete’s ability to recover well and hold on to his leg mass, Carter paired higher calorie days with upper body training days and kept intake lower on the days he trained legs. This allowed Pete to preserve as much back thickness and width as possible, and balance out his lower and upper body mass for an improved overall look.
• Added supplements:
  • Glucorell (Alpha lipoic acid) to help control insulin levels — control insulin, and you control fat
  • Neurogenex to help with focus as the body wears down
  • Beta alanine to keep energy up during training
  • Creatine ethyl ester to help maintain muscle mass during dieting
• Incorporated functional abdominal training. Planks, rollouts, cable chops, leg raises, and mountain climbers instead of a traditional routine of crunches and leg raises resulted in Pete’s abs being stronger and more defined than ever before.
• Full trial run with skip loading.  Feeling competition-ready 2-3 weeks prior to the official date, Pete was able to do a trial run of his cutting strategy. In the process, he gained some critical information about what needed to be adjusted for the day of the show, and it also gave him a tremendous mental boost to get through the final weeks.

In the final week, minor adjustments to Pete’s vegetable selection, fat and carb sources, and water intake had a major impact.  Pete brought his best physique yet to the competition stage and earned a fourth place finish in a competitive group of heayweights.

The contest

Pete's wife and daughter

Along with the support of Carter and his sponsor, The AF Store, Pete is grateful for the encouragement and advice of the many Precision Nutrition members who followed his journey.  But most of all, Pete knows that without the support of his wife and daughter, all of this never would have been possible. Being able to look out to see his daughter wearing a tiny tee that said “My daddy’s ripped” made it all worthwhile.

Pete’s competition experience only solidified his determination for the future.  Without hesitation, Pete committed to working with Carter to bring an even bigger physique to the stage in 2010. Because of his structure, joints, and overall body type, Carter’s approach is to bring Pete in just as sharp but with a more developed 230+ lb physique for Pete to be truly competitive. And Pete knows that the only way to get to the next level of muscularity is to eat his way there — to push his body beyond what’s comfortable. But just like when he digs in to grind out one more set, Pete believes that getting uncomfortable is part of the process.

He’s now convinced that the nutritional and training principles Carter introduced him to over the past year are indeed the best way for him to build a competitive physique. Not only has he improved his body composition drastically, he has been able to do this while training completely injury free. Pete no longer questions Carter’s process.  Knowing what was behind Pete’s transformation only has us more in awe of what he’s achieved. We think there’s nothing stopping him from that bigger and better body in 2010.

Pete invites you to follow along in his off-season log where he will continue to detail his nutrition and training, as well as add a little more about lifestyle of what the life of one amateur bodybuilder is like.