Two Brothers Place 1st and 2nd for Bodybuilding Title

For Brad and David Miller, brothers from Placentia, working out together is only half the fun.

The Miller boys recently competed together in the 2011 NLABBA bodybuilding show in St. John’s, where David won first place in his middle weight category, Brad won first in his light heavyweight category and battled for the men’s overall title, which Brad won by one point.

Both men have been working out and building up for a number of years, and now with these wins, are eligible to compete in bodybuilding competitions on the national level.

“It was an amazing experience competing on the same stage with your brother and sharing such an amazing moment, after training very hard together all year round and leading up to the show,” David told The Charter recently.

The 2011 NLABBA Provincial Bodybuilding, Figure and Figure Model Championships, presented by Muscle Insider, took place Nov. 19, 2011 at Holy Heart of Mary in St. John’s.

David, 27, said he got into the sport because of his older brother, Brad, 31, who was always interested in bodybuilding and weights. David used to watch his older brother train in an old garage with buddies in Placentia, but at the time, David was not interested.

“I was only 110 pounds then, a little skinny guy. I had no interest in it and knew nothing about it, but then I had a couple of workouts and got more into it. Brad was always bigger than me and trained longer than me. But basically, he kinda got me into it.”

David said he saw his brother get better at it and getting bigger, but he was always somewhat sporadic about his own training and didn’t really take it too seriously.

“But when Brad started to pick up more knowledge from his buddies about the food intake you need for this, he began to eat more, and found out the right way to train, I basically picked up on what he was doing.”

David started to get more serious about the sport when he was around 15 years old, but it was a while before he would compete on any level.

The first time he entered a competition, it was in 2005, and he did well, placing second in his category, and winning Junior overall. But back then, he said, he still wasn’t exactly sure of what he was doing, or the proper way to eat for events like this.

“I didn’t eat a vegetable back then. I didn’t know anything. I just would go to the gym and do cardio and weights and eat the food that people would tell me to eat when I was preparing for a show. I didn’t know for sure what I was doing. I kind of winged it. But I came in good for someone that was just fooling around,” he laughed.

While he placed in the competition and did quite well for himself, he went through a lot to get there.

“I pushed my body to the limit and got a bit discouraged from the sport after that show. I laid low for about six to eight months. I lost interest because I went through so much. I did everything the hard way.”

But, eventually, David got over his discouragement and began training with his brother again. Both Miller boys trained for a show in 2008 and another in 2010 but were unsuccessful both times for varying reasons.

It took until 2011 for these young men to have a successful run at the title. Now they are setting their sights on the Nationals in August.

“That will be a big deal,” explained David. “I would like to become a pro at this.”

He said a bodybuilder has to compete at the national level to become eligible for professional status, and it is not an easy competition to win.

“You got to be the best in Canada. It is not easy. It’s really a totally different sport. It depends on who shows up that year, and what they are looking for. There are a lot of factors that come into it, and politics, like with everything.”

David said Brad wants to go for the nationals as well, but as he and his partner are expecting a baby in July, and August competition may not fit into his schedule this year, so he may compete in the Nationals in 2013 instead.

“It is something he always wanted to do. It’s just a passion really,” David said of his brother. “I was looking at pictures of myself recently when I was 14 or 15, and was like, ‘oh my god.’ Brad was always picking at the weights but I never did. But it is a good feeling to see how far I’ve come.”

The Placentia area has a couple of other home-grown talents in this field, namely Frank McGrath and Shawn Gambin. McGrath is a professional, and Gambin won the 2010 NLABBA Men’s Bodybuilding Overall championship.

It is a supportive group from Placentia who encourage each other to do their best.

“Frank McGrath is the only pro in Newfoundland. Shawn was always encouraging and we looked up to Frank. He was at the show this year and was backstage with us giving us advice and just talking. It was a good motivator. It was pretty cool,” David said.

But, David noted, it is not an easy sport. In fact, it certainly can take its toll on a body, and a competitor has to have a lot of willpower and strength mentally to get through the training.

“You don’t stop. You got to get up in the morning, and I was working an eight-hour a day job, too, so get up in the morning at about 4:30-5 o’clock, drive to the gym, punch an hour of cardio, leave and go home, make breakfast and all my meals, to put into Tupperware for the whole day, and then work hard all day, on my feet, right up to the day of the show, then after work I would go right to the gym to do weights,” he explained. “After weights, I would do more cardio. Then I would go home again and eat and then go back to the gym or just go for a walk on the road and then eat again. I had to do that every day for 12 weeks. It is not easy. Then there is a lot of stress about all the details, and if you will do well. There are a lot of criteria to meet to compete. You have to strip all the fat off. There is a lot of conditioning to do and it is very hard work.”

Plus, he said, the last four weeks before a competition are even tougher. Then, they are stripping off all fat and eating no carbs, and working out harder than ever.

“It is good to get to such a low body fat but it is not healthy to maintain that. It is just all for that night on the stage.”

But, all that hard work paid off for the Millers this year, and to David, it was a great experience working out and training with his big brother.

“The two of us did it together and it could have gone any way. We looked at the DVD later and there really wasn’t a lot of difference between us, but Brad is a little older and a bit bigger and has a little better definition, bodywise. But my physique and symmetry are a little better, so it was like, close your eyes and pick one,” he said. “It is great that Brad and I get to do this together. I didn’t even care who won really. I just wanted to get off stage and eat!”

After the competition was over, they went out to a restaurant, and he said, after that, he pretty much slept for a week.

“After going through all that, you don’t realize how overdue you are for sleep and food. I had all my junk food picked up two weeks prior to the show, whatever you could possibly imagine, but I was so messed up I couldn’t eat that stuff. My stomach was so upset and not used to food again. You kind of have to train your body back to normal living.”