By Catherine Meidell

May 6, 2009 | After 10 weeks of a diet and a workout routine six days a week, USU engineer Corey Staley is glad to be able to revert back to his pre-competition lifestyle.

"I was hungry all the time and it really got old," Staley said as he munched on a piece of Easter candy.

On April 4, Staley was ready to flex his muscles in front of the judges at his first bodybuilding competition in Kaysville at Davis High School. He stood on a stage in front of a large crowd in his posing trunks. Staley said, "All the lights were focused on me. It was a crazy experience."

He dehydrated himself 24 hours before the competition to get the veiny effect and had a friend paint him bronze with a tanning spray. Staley said the spray can be compared to a wood stain for the skin.

The competition consisted of two shows. The first show started at 10 a.m., where all the competitors lines up and showed the judges the mandatory poses. There was teenage, 48 and over, novice and open division in which bodybuilders could participate. At 7 p.m. Staley greased up for the second show with Pam cooking spray and did a one-minute routine to Simple Man, by Deftones. In the end, Staley did not place, but said the reason is because his leg muscles were not as defined as they needed to be.

To prepare for this event Staley had a strength and cardio workout every day but Sunday. The days Staley trained started with a 30-minute cardio workout on an inclined treadmill, he said. After school he went to the gym and focused on one muscle group a day and then did another 30-minute cardio afterwards. He said the only muscles that he worked every day were his abdominals and calves. On top of all the exercising, Staley cut out all junk food and ate a lot of vegetables. He said that the carbohydrates he consumed consisted of plain oatmeal, yams and brown rice. It was good to eat egg whites and lean meat like chicken and turkey.

Staley lost 30 pounds in this ten week period. "I just cut off the fat," he said. "Two weeks before the competition it sucked the most because I started to panic. I didn't know if I was lean enough. I cut down more and more and was hungry all the time."

Right when the competition ended, Staley said he downed five pieces of pizza, half a cake and then went to Applebee's to order a huge burger with fries. Although he was sick, he thoroughly enjoyed it, he said.

All of Staley's hard work paid off though because everyone started to notice his appearance changing. Staley's friend Steve Sellers said, "It was crazy, when he chewed, I would watch his jaw and the muscles would pop out."

Though Staley didn't place he said he is happy about the experience all around. In fact, he plans on doing another bodybuilding competition in October and this time he will start preparing earlier. This way he can lose another ten pounds which drops him into the lightweight division and gives him a better chance at winning, he said. He will continue to stay in shape until he needs to start training for his next competition. "I did all that work so I want to stay in shape, especially for the summer," Staley said.

He said he realized that the root of being a great bodybuilder, amidst all of the theories, is to simply be well conditioned. More than anything else, Staley said he learned to be well disciplined.

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