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How did you get started with bodybuilding?

I started to work out around the age of 14-15, but it was towards my sport, not really for any competition results. I played volleyball for over 9 years so being fit was a necessity and trainings in gym improved my jumps, swings or basically everything involved in my sport. My dad was a bodybuilder back in home country of Slovakia so I inherit the genes and love for this sport from him. We had a hardcore home gym at my house so I spend my first years at his little place. There were no numbers of how heavy the plates were, it was all iron, like Arnold or Dorian Yates used to train. At the age of 23 after I got my Masters Degree and I moved to California I slowly started to pay more attention to gym and my body development than my sport.

For the past 5 years I have been training really hard, attending sport’s modeling competitions and shooting for all major fitness magazines.

What is your diet like?

My diet is pretty strict, I eat almost the same foods everyday, consists of high protein and medium carbs. I eat a lot of meat and also whole milk is part of my everyday diet. I mix my protein shakes in milk so I can get a bit extra of protein. I try to use the lean Whey protein Isolate especially when I am in my cutting phase. I don’t really count calories only the grams of protein for my day. My body weight is usually between 200 – 220 lbs, depends in what phase of my training I am in. I try to consume around 250 – 270 g of protein a day. Everyday for lunch I have a big chicken breasts ( grilled on bbq ) with rice. No veggies or other side dishes. After my workout I drink 30 oz of protein shake and bbq a steak, or fish. Sometimes I replace it with low sodium cottage cheese. I try to keep my diet smart & simple, if I accidentally have a cheat meal it’s on Saturday or Sunday, my off gym days.

Where does your motivation come from?

My motivation comes within myself, I have a strong discipline to train hard and always improve myself. I used to play volleyball on competitive level so I think part of my motivation boost comes from that experience. Also my competition is a strong motivation for me, their success and achievements makes me train stronger and diet harder so I can been them at the competitions or at magazine appearances. It’s always a big honor to grace a cover of a popular fitness publication and I think it’s a hidden competition among the fitness models ( guys & girls ) who can be on more of them. It also is a fantastic exposure many times leading to bigger projects. Having a strong motivation is the key and major element in everyone’s training program, athletes who are motivated the most wins the Olympic games, Mr.Olympia’s or World championship’s , that’s why I am having clear goals and am focused to achieve them with fighting all the hurdles in between

When trying to cut down do you prefer to use HIIT or just normal cardio?

I don’t really apply much cardio in my workout system. Even when I am in my bulking phase, I train/lift over 2 hrs, sometimes even 2 and half and my training is heavy and intense so I would say I burn a significant amount of calories even without doing cardio. I usually train 2 body parts plus abs in one session. I am a fan of high sets so for example on my chest day I do on average 31 sets for chest, which is followed by 16 sets of biceps and another 16 sets of abs. Of course when I am getting ready for a competition or a cover photo shoot, the 3 weeks out I ad some cardio into my system, but I do around 20 min of Eliptical twice a week so I wouldn’t count it much, it’s more for my mind to make me not guilty completely avoiding it.

So far this system is working for me well, we’ll see with age how my body will respond, maybe I would have to change my routine a bit.

What is your supplementation like?

I am a big fan of supplements, been taking stuff since I was 15, although that was mostly protein, creatine, glutamine and vitamins with minerals. 15 years ago in Slovakia the selection was far smaller than what it is now, especially in USA where you can buy anything you want.

So as I describe before I stick with the basics as protein, depending on my goals it’s a gainer ( with lot’s of carbs ) or a lean whey protein isolate a pure no carb meal replacement with almost zero carbs, I like to take that when I am in my cutting phase. I am also a sponsored athlete with iFORCE Nutrition company and their supplements are the best I ever took. It’s a whole scale of scientifically designed products which boosts your strength, endurance power, lean mass gains, basically everything a fitness models wants & needs. They are coming with several new products in 2010 so I am very excited about that. Of course when I am in my shredding phase I like to ad fat burners into my supplementation, including ephedra which is the real deal. The last week or two before the day, I start with water depletion pills such as Dandelion root, Uva Ursi, Diurex, Potassium so my final looks is paper thin skin and ripped.

Plans for the future?

I don’t really have any distant future plans at the moment, the key for me is to be healthy, train hard and move my name few rankings up in the World’s best and leanest fitness model. Last year was very good to me, got some great international exposure in magazines, hopefully I will be able to increase it even more this year. Also I wish for some commercial and movie projects, even in a smaller scale but would like to get my name out even in that industry.

Key is to stay focused and follow the plan which I think I am pretty good at, so hard work in the gym, smart diet and supplementation, networking with the right people and support from my sponsors should be the right tools on my journey.

Bodyspace: http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/MatusV/
Website: www.matusvalent.com

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