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About Me:

My name is Jordan Chabinsky, I am a life-time drug-free WNBF Pro bodybuilder. I am currently 30 years old. I have degrees in Physics & Astronomy, and a Masters degree in Systems Engineering. I still work as an engineer, but I also run a successful personal training business; Element Fitness, which also offers Stage Photography services, as well as contest prep coaching. I also work as a published fitness model. www.element-fit.com. I live in the Northeast with my fiancé Judy, who is my training partner and helps me run my company. I am also the media director for The Diet Doc, which is the parent company to Perfect Peaking, an extremely successful contest prep business run by Dr. Joe Klemczewski. www.perfectpeaking.com www.midamericaproam.com. I have competed since 2004, and won my WNBF card in 2007 at the INBF Naturalmania Nationals. I am 5’8″ tall, my contest weight ranges in the mid to high 150′s, and my off-season weight is currently 175, but will likely get up to about 180-185. With any luck, the next time I step on stage I will be in the low to mid 160′s.

My Story:

I never thought that I would ever want to get involved in bodybuilding as a sport. Even though I had admired the celebrity extreme physiques of those like Arnold, Dolph Lundgren, and Stallone growing up, getting involved in the actual sport of bodybuilding seemed weird to me. Yet here I am today, a WNBF Pro Natural Bodybuilder more passionate about this sport than I am just about anything else in my life. I had been active in sports for as long as I can remember, playing football, and Rugy, wrestling, and running track all throughout junior high and high school, while making it to compete on the national level in some cases as well. I had loosely incorporated weight training during this time using a universal gym that I had purchased along with some free-weights that I had accrued as hand-me-downs from my two older brothers. Then it was off to college where training and organized sports to a back seat to my studies, and more recreational activities. I did not stagnate physically during this time, I did regularly find my way to the quad were I would take part in pick up games of football, ultimate Frisbee and sand volleyball, but the gym didn’t find its way back into my daily schedule until my senior year. I had accepted an internship for the summer before my final year of college in a new town to me. I knew no one there, and so after work I had nothing going on. That coupled with the fact that I had recently broken up with my girlfriend, and found myself back on the “dating scene”, made me realize that I needed to get into the gym. It was great, it satisfied multiple needs of mine; it gave me something to do in a place I was unfamiliar, it helped me regain my focus that was dwindling post breakup, and it helped me get my physique back so I could hit that dating scene. I also made some high quality friends there, who would ultimately serve as the catalyst that would lead me to the world of competitive natural bodybuilding, and a new direction in my life.

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It was my new friend Steve, who would become one of my best friends, who convinced me to sign up for my first ever competition. Steve himself had decided to get into the competitive realm. We had been training together daily now for about 1.5 years, I had been training steadily for 2 years at this point, when Steve announced to me that he was going to enter a regional competition. I had always discounted the possibility of competing when asked by others in the past, but now, with Steve’s announcement on the table, I found myself seriously considering the option. We agreed that it would be a bad idea if we both entered the same show, as we wanted to be able to help each other, so without much convincing, I decided to compete in a show taking place 4 weeks after his. And I was glad that I did, because after attending Steve’s show (my first exposure to the sport), I found myself loving every part of it. That day Steve competed in three different classes, he took top 5 in each one, it was an awesome day. Four weeks later, I took the stage at my first ever bodybuilding competition. It was the 2004 INBF Northeast Classic, one of the oldest, and most competitive INBF shows in their schedule. Surprisingly I was not all that nervous backstage. I had always been someone that had difficulty getting up in front of a crowd, but not this time. I knew that I had given my contest prep every last bit of my effort, so this was my best, and there was nothing else I could do, if I didn’t fair well on stage it wasn’t for a lack of effort, so there was no reason to be nervous. When the night show came around, I had proven to myself that I did in fact give this every last bit of my effort, as I was awarded the 1st place trophy for the Novice class, which was a deep line up of 13 competitors with a 30 lb variance in weight. Never before in my life had I felt such pride, not when I received my college degree, my masters degree, my eagle scout award, nothing, this was my moment, and definitely my calling. I was hooked from this point on. I continue to compete to this day, I have started my own personal training and stage photography business, as well as becoming an integral part of a benchmark contest prep company www.perfectpeaking.com along side Dr. Joe Klemczewski. I stay involved during the off season by judging shows, talking at training seminars, and I am now helping to promote a show; www.midamericaproam.com. It is fair to say that this is the life for me, and I will continue to give back and expand my involvement in this sport for as long as possible.

Training Style During Contest Prep:

My training style during contest prep doesn’t differ all that much from the off-season, at least not until I get quite close to the show, and I can feel my strength starting to wane a bit. Even then, the over all style doesn’t change, I might just take a risky lift out of the workout or not work so deep into failure. At such extreme low levels of body fat, you are at a getter risk to injury, specifically in regards to your joint health, additionally, you don’t have the necessary calorie surplus to maintain the level of anabolism that is required to fully recover from working into deep failure. I am not saying that my contest workouts are easy, far from it, but you have to maintain a level of realism and awareness when you are putting your body through such extreme conditions. I subscribe largely to an NLP style of training, both on and off-season. NLP stands for Non-Linear-Periodization, and is a style to achieve maximum strength gains as well as maximum hypertrophy gains. I will alternate my workout styles from week to week. Week one will incorporate core lifts with low volume in an effort to achieve an all out maximal lift to increase strength: lifts like heavy squat, dead lift, decline bench, overhead press are incorporated during this week. During week two, I will switch lifting styles to include much more volume, via giant sets, drop sets, forced reps etc. It is the second week that is the tougher of the two. If it is executed properly, you will feel an overwhelming urge to vomit on these weeks. The key however to either week is intensity; this should always be the goal of any workout.

Short/Long Term Goals:

As I mentioned earlier, I have become a part of the premiere contest prep company around. Working with Dr. Joe Klemczewski and the rest of The Perfect Peaking team is an absolute honor for me ( www.perfectpeaking.com ). One of my near term goals is to assist in the growth of that company. We are growing our site currently to become a mega-site complete with scientific articles, articles on featured athletes, contest coverage, an unparalleled forum community, and a plethora of other resources for the extreme physique athlete. Additionally, I am working to help grow a new show in the INBF/WNBF schedule to be the biggest and best show in the country. The 2009 Mid-America Pro-Am, will be more than just a bodybuilding competition ( www.midamericaproam.com ). This year we have added a power lifting portion to the meet, a 5K road race, and an all day Health Expo, we will also be running community outreach events in conjunction to the show. Our intent is to spread good health and nutrition, as well as to increase the exposure to the sport of natural bodybuilding.

I am also continuing to promote and grow my own business,

Element Fitness (www.element-fit.com ), where I offer personal training, contest prep, and stage & physique photography. Element Fitness is my company which umbrellas more than just the services that I offer. I also advertise myself here as a fitness model, I have appeared in multiple fitness publications, calendars, and supplement labels. I have a goal to continue along this path and ultimately land a cover of a mainstream fitness magazine. In the competitive realm, I have already achieved so much. I’ve won my pro card in the premiere natural bodybuilding federation on the planet, the WNBF, and placed top 3, winning money in my debut as a pro. I do however still have more to achieve here. From a competitive bodybuilding sense, my goal is to win a major title, and I will. I am currently taking an extended off-season in order to help achieve this goal, which is proving difficult, because I desperately want to get back on stage. I just enjoy it so much. In the very long term, my goals are centered on health, I obviously want to stay healthy and injury free so that I may maintain an active lifestyle. Additionally, I want to continue to help further the sport of natural bodybuilding by increasing its exposure as well as that of the athletes that compete here and put so much of there blood and sweat into it with integrity and character. To me, there is no greater sport than that of natural bodybuilding, it is more than just a sport, it is a lifestyle.

What Keeps Me Motivated:

This is easy…competition. There is no better motivator in my mind than competition, good and healthy competition, not cutthroat competition. I know that when it comes to stepping on stage, especially now that I am a pro, there is no room for error, and that is a pretty big motivator. What some people may not realize is that a bodybuilding competition victory starts years in advance. You can’t expect to get serious about a show 2-3 months out and be the victor. As such the motivation of competition extends deep into the off-season when you are going after those big gains. It continues and perhaps amplifies once the contest diet begins (even though the off season diet should be controlled as well), and crescendos all the way up to the day of the show. It is not uncommon for me to think about a competitor whose physique I admire as I am getting ready to perform a big lift. Thinking that they are likely doing the same thing or perhaps more tends to light a fire under my ass, if I don’t push myself outside of my comfort zone, then I know with certainty that I will be disappointed come the day of the show. It is mandatory for me to leave zero doubt in my mind that there was anything else I could have done to prepare better for a competition. At times the competitor that drives me under that bar is a familiar one. I am my own toughest critic; I am constantly striving for some level of improvement in the gym and with my physique. So when getting under that squat bar, or strapping in and preparing for a big deadlift, I will often times take a long look at myself and commit to something more than I had done on the previous lift.

Life is about striving for improvement, pushing yourself past that point where you feel comfortable, and achieving something that you may have thought was unattainable, and doing so without any doubt of success. That notion itself can be a pretty powerful motivator.

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