Dedication knows no bounds for a cut couple who muscled their way into the Alberta bodybuilding championships for the first time this year.
Bow Valley High School graduate Cole Denesiuk, 25, was best known on the motocross circuit in Cochrane until a broken leg and subsequent knee surgery in 2015 took him away from the track for good.
It was during the healing process that Denesiuk said he became pumped up about pumping iron.
“I had numerous injuries from motocross, and that was kind of the last straw for me … it ended my motocross career,” he recalled. “I just had to rehab my leg … I was like, ‘You know what? Maybe I’ll just start lifting some weights, just see what I can do.’ I kind of fell in love with it from there. I just enjoyed lifting weights and seeing results.”
Denesiuk turned up the heat last October and focused his attention on the Alberta Bodybuilding Association’s annual Winter Classic in February. The Calgary event is a qualifier for ABBA’s provincial competition in June.
Preparation was “about four months of punishment,” said Denesiuk, adding family and friends were taken aback by his devotion to dumbbells and dead lifts. “They thought I was kind of crazy … it’s a different lifestyle that a lot of people don’t understand.”
That lifestyle included two to three hours of workouts, six days a week at Cochrane’s Goodlife Fitness – squatting a max of 375 pounds – on top of his full-time job at Northstar Ford.
Most meals consisted of ground chicken or ground beef, rice, steamed broccoli and beans, with breakfasts of oatmeal and – closer to competition – just berries. The Cochranite was able to shed 42 pounds to reach his goal stage weight of about 176 pounds.
“Leading up to the show, it’s still very strict. The night before, you get to go kind of crazy … I actually had a steak and a baked potato,” he said. “(After so long without), your body just uses those carbs and puts it right into your muscles.”
On stage at Grey Eagles Resort in February, Denesiuk went up against rookies and seasoned bodybuilders in the men’s classic physique bodybuilding category.
“The pose routine is probably the most nerve wracking,” he recalled. “You’re on there by yourself and literally the judges’ full attention is all on you and the crowd is all on you. It’s a little intimidating.”
When it was all over, Denesiuk surprised himself with a fifth place finish, a spot at the upcoming ABBA provincials – and the attention of Felicity Ford, a personal trainer and holistic nutritionist who was in the audience that day.
“I had showed up there just to see if it was something that I wanted to do,” recalled Ford. “It was so awesome to see everyone up there and it was super motivational to see … how hard everyone works.”
Ford was inspired to start training for her own first competition, and so she and Denesiuk started dating and hitting the gym together as she prepared for the ABBA Southerns, while Denesiuk powered his way toward his provincials performance.
“It was a huge help,” said Denesiuk of Ford’s support. “When she was feeling down or I was feeling down, we would say, ‘Nope, just think about the goal.’”
“I think finding someone with similar goals makes it so much easier … because we both can train at the same time,” echoed Ford. “It’s kind of like our bonding time. It’s pretty awesome.”
After weeks of dedicated discipline, Ford made her stage debut on June 10. She brought home fourth place in the bikini category – which qualified her for ABBA provincials, too.
Ford said she learned firsthand the fierceness these competitors face in order to maintain such an elite level of physique.
“It really gave me a good idea … of what they go through,” he said. “It totally is a mental battle.”
Since provincials were only a couple of weeks after Southerns, Ford opted to hold her spot until 2018 while supporting Denesiuk through the last leg of his prep, and last weekend – for his second time in his life, against the best bodybuilders in the province – the athlete placed sixth.
“For it being my second show, I felt like everything was a lot smoother. (But) it wasn’t any easier, that’s for sure. It was more intense all around,” he said, adding he will now work on maxxing out his muscles for next season’s competition with a goal of placing third. “Now I get a chance to grow.”
