Local bodybuilder medals at Western Michigan Championships

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — In order for mind to trump matter, it sometimes has to resort to trickery.

“I’m 5-foot-6,” Zach Robbins said. “I never was a big guy in high school. In order to be a lean 195 pounds, I have to trick my body. At my height, my body doesn’t want to be this big.”

The 31-year-old Charles City native decided to restart his bodybuilding aspirations after more or less a five-year hiatus.

During that span, Robbins wasn’t fooling anyone — including his body, which began to show the consequences that come from a laissez-faire lifestyle.

“If you had seen me three years ago,” Robbins has said, “you probably wouldn’t recognize me now.”

Especially if you caught a glimpse of Robbins at the National Physique Committee Western Michigan Championships held Nov. 4 in Grand Rapids.

By way of placing in the Top 5 in his division, Robbins earned medalist standards.

“I thought maybe I should have placed higher,” Robbins said. “Things are arbitrary whenever judges are involved, but I was happy that I got a medal.”

Once he decided to get back in, Robbins went “all-in” as he dedicated more than a full year in getting ready for Grand Rapids.

“The area I really needed to work on were my legs,” he said.

He also needed to trim some body fat.

Robbins does lend credence to the common heavyset-man boast and/or claim of there being solid muscle below an ample layer of celluloid.

“But you don’t know how much muscle is under there until you strip away the fat,” Robbins said. “Some guys start stripping it away and then find out they don’t have much muscle.”

Now being able to count the numeral percentage of his body fat on one hand, Robbins plans to trick his body even more by adding 10 or more pounds of muscle for his next show.

“I won’t do any shows for at least eight months,” he said. “I want to work on getting bigger.”

Robbins plans on doing two shows in 2018 while focusing on the ultimate goal of reaching the professional level.

“I believe I can reach my peak during my late 30s or even later,” Robbins said. “But in the 1970s in the days of Arnold Schwarzenegger, most bodybuilders peaked in their late 20s. Now, you’ve got guys turning pro in their 40s.”

Robbins maintains a strict diet, even during the few days after the championships. Though when he does slip up and, say, order a hamburger, he tries to take advantage of the rare treat.

“Whenever I eat something like a steak, I go out and put all that protein to use … like work on my back muscles,” Robbins said. “You don’t want to eat it and let it go to waste.”

Even as a United States Marine who has served two tours in Iraq, Robbins says that being a competitive bodybuilding has been the hardest and most challenging thing he has ever put himself through.

“It’s about pushing beyond failure,” he said. “You’ve got to force the muscle beyond its limits. You’ve got to break it down to build it up.”