👋 Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
Hi, my name is Caleb Blanchard. I am originally from Lafayette, Louisiana and now living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I will be 33 years old this Jan 22nd.
I am married with three beautiful children, one boy and two girls! I am a personal trainer and typical stay at home dad. I spend most afternoons doing homework and house work. My wife works full time in the medical field.
Being athletic but undersized was what initiated my weight lifting/bodybuilding career. I played roller hockey as a teen and tried out for football once but needed more strength and mass to play with the same degree of physicality as the other elite players. Once achieving that, I began to focus more on the weight room and a long term goal of being an Olympian.
I am currently sponsored by Muscle Club Apparel, online fitness clothing company where I was an original model from its inception.
Feed the Beast LA which takes care of prepping my meat (10 lbs per week) to lighten my load when it comes to meal prepping.
MountainpureCBD is another great health and wellness sponsor. From muscle/joint rubs for pain relief to multivitamin. Their products rock!
The thing I enjoy most about bodybuilding are the connections. Bodybuilding has brought joy to my life on a lot of levels.
⏱ Describe a typical day of training
Cardio is now a very consistent staple in my routine.
A typical day for me starts at 5:30 am – I get up and fix my trust your gut probiotic and BCAA Vascular mix and run to Golds, which is roughly five minutes away.
I train my first round of clients and I am on stairmill by 7 am. 30 minutes on stairs, 15 minutes on incline treadmill, then I am running back home. I pack and eat breakfast/pre workout (chicken, green beans, big bowl of cream of rice, berries and whey protein).
I take my MountainPure vitamins fish oils and Vascular Pre workout with breakfast and run go to Golds for my weight lifting session. I vary my training splits to target certain areas and rest one.
Mostly in the off season, I have two or three days of rest in a week. Focusing on more pushing pulling leg splits. When in competition season, I’m training six days a week in similar fashion but with less rest days. I often offset this rotation with a singular arm day to mix it up.
Cardio is now a very consistent staple in my routine. I prefer to do fasted cardio, but do use post workout cardio when that’s not an option. Post workout is usually shrimp rice and green beans.
Midday is reversed for my mom squad. I have a boot camp that I teach at 1:30 pm for home school moms. They come kick butt in the weight room I built in my garage!
Afternoons are reserved for fatherly duties and getting in those last four meals in, which consist of lean meat, rice and veggies.
👊 How do you keep going and push harder?
I like to verbally commit to goals, which simply means speaking my goals out loud to myself and my peers. That often plants the seed so to speak. Motivation can be fleeting when going through long preps for multiple contests.
So having made verbal commitments then put you in a position of accountability. My most challenging obstacle thus far has been balance. I have prepped myself in since 2013 and now prep others for contest as well.
Couple that with raising three children, and training clients its very hard to NOT be spread thin.
🏆 How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
As of right now, I am in somewhat of a transitional stage. My goals short term are to improve stability and fluidity for the coming years so that when I do decide to prep again, there will be no shortcomings.
I don’t foresee a five year lay off, but there area some gains to be made in my business model as well as family life. Once these goals have been reached, I will make my return to the competition stage. I am very interested in seeing the world and will more then likely attempt a show in Europe perhaps.
🤕 How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
Rest is certainly important for growth, during that phase of my programming there are times where I nap (1 hour or so) midday if my day allows it. This only occurs once or twice a week but can be very energizing.
When prepping, rest is fleeting due to the typical discomforts of being very lean. Avoiding injuries can be as simple as never abandoning good form and listening to your body.
The discomforts of being very lean are being very irritable to hunger pains, and having low energy levels/slower recovery rates.
I’ve had injuries when everything is feeling great, and I have had injuries when I didn’t feel great and knew I shouldn’t push harder. Just leave the ego at the door and live to lift another day.
When traveling, it’s usually planned, so I always have food prepped and frozen to travel with. Much of my life is planned in advance to keep variance in my diet minimal.
🍎 How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
My diet is very similar in food types when both bulking and cutting. Mostly lean chicken, turkey, beef or shrimp, jasmine rice or cream of rice, and vegetables (Normandy blend and green beans) – Bulking does incorporate cheat food more often, about three times per week.
My diet is whole food, I only supplement with liquid protein (Vascular whey protein) if I absolutely have to. Most cheat food for me must have some type of cheese in it.
I’m also a fan of sweets (cake, pie, ice cream), but as we all know those have to be in moderation.
I’ve been using Vascular Nutrition for pre workout and BCAAs. My vitamins come from MoutainpureCBD, which covers all my herbal supplementation. I’m very religious about the upkeep of my body.
👍 What has inspired and motivated you?
I was motivated to be more muscular from a pretty early age. At that time, it was still cool to be tough and athletic. Arnold was at the height of his career. I learned that being defenseless was not an option.
I often listen to the bible app.. but I also use Joe Rogan, some old Ronnie Coleman, Kevin Leverone and a few others when looking for that extra boost.
Best advice, “Good meat ain’t cheap, and cheap meat ain’t good,” Grandfather. I spent several summers working his farm before he died from cancer, hardest working man I had ever met.
“You can only meet others as deeply as you’ve met yourself,” Unknown.
If I could give any advice, self care and self preservation isn’t being selfish, take care of your mind, body and spirituality.
✏️ Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
If I were new to the fitness industry, I would learn about branding and marketing. These days to survive in the “fitness industry” you must have influence. I was behind the curve on this, being the boom of social media and access to all of these insights.
It’s as simple as copycatting what you see others doing, and it’s overwhelmingly trendy now. That’s what it has evolved into.
You know longer need any real credentials, many of the most successful figures have pathetic competition records now. Most people don’t train with enough intensity to garnish results. Just put the effort in, that’s whats great. You get out of it what you put in.
People pay a membership for Planet Fitness just to go and eat free pizza, that’s the dumbest thing I have seen anyone do in a gym.
🤝 Are you taking on clients right now?
So I am currently taking on clients both over the internet and in person. I have had success with both, I can be reached at [email protected] for inquiry.
I prefer to be somewhat of a teacher and work closely with clients so they have a better understanding of the processes the human body goes through.
We are in fact manipulating our bodies. By manipulating variables such as hormones, nutrient profiles, and activity level we thus change our physical appearances.
I typically only take on clients who show initiative and are prompt in their actions. So those who aren’t seriously up for the lifestyle change weed themselves out.
📝 Where can we learn more about you?
Bodybuildingbyctrainllc.com is my website where I offer a cookbook, training protocols and gear all available for purchase.
Social media platforms:
Instagram: @cblanchardofficial
Facebook: @caleb.blanchard.9
