Getting in shape isn’t easy.
Especially when you’ve got a busy life, a stressful job, kids to look after or you’ve just started the Game of Thrones box set.
For 21-year-old student Aidan Broddell, getting shredded isn’t easy either – but he doesn’t let excuses get in the way.
Aidan is a full-time student, but he also has Type 1 diabetes to contend with.
But the former rugby player hasn’t let any of this stand in his way to forging an incredible body that saw him become UKBFF Junior Men’s Physique Champion 2015.
Aidan has to manage his condition, balance his studies, sacrifice going out and train three times a day to get in championship-winning shape.
JOE chatted with Aidan to see just how he does it and what advice he has for the rest of us trying to lean up for summer.
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How you did you get into training?
I’ve always trained. I played rugby at a reasonable level when I was young. I got dragged into the high levels of rugby like the first team aged 17, so I always felt like I had to put a bit of size on, if I’m going to go against 25 to 30-year-old blokes. Especially when you’re playing outside centre where you’re supposed to have a bit of size on you.
So I started taking the gym seriously when I went on a rugby tour to Australia with my school. Then around 18 or 19, I was thinking I’d rather be more aesthetic – not from a vain point of view – I just though it as more healthy and attainable, and more marketable.
I did my first ever cut before a lads holiday and it worked wonders. It wasn’t like I do for comp prep, it was just I dieted for the first time and I lost all this weight and realised I could get an eight-pack.
I went to Ibiza with the lads and got a load of comments saying ‘you’ve got a great shape and great physique’ so I thought ‘I’m going to train a bit harder here.’
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But then I got told a few things by doctors with regards to diabetes. I always wanted to be a paratrooper or be in the Royal Marines. But I didn’t realise you couldn’t actually do that if you’re diabetic.
Being on the front line, if you’ve got low blood sugar and collapse, you’re just going to get shot.
That dampened my enthusiasm, but I’ve always wanted to do something a bit different. So when I realised that there were a few things holding me back, I wanted to prove a bit of a point to people.
I’m going to do something in fitness. While I’m at university I’ve been trying to live as healthy as possible, promoting fitness and trying to help others.
I get four or five type 1 diabetics messaging me on Instagram every week asking for advice and I always offer it.
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How has diabetes impacted your lifestyle, the way you train and how you prepare?
In the off-season it doesn’t really affect how I train or even how I train on comp prep. The only issue I have is more of a mental thing. With competition prep you obviously have to lower your carbs and there’s a lot more cardio and that can cause your body to be susceptible to low blood sugars – hypo-glycemic blood sugar.
What you have to do to rectify that is have some Lucozade or some glucose tablets. Obviously there’s no competition plan or prep that includes those two things. Having to have those is kind of a mental battle – because you think ‘I need these for my health’ in the worst case scenario of having a hypo-glycemic blood sugar. But then you think you’re failing on your prep if you have it.
In reality if you have the glucose tablets it’s not the best option because it then has to be broken down in your stomach.
But if you have Lucozade, because it’s liquid sugar and liquid carbs it’s not going to make any difference, because it’s not going to take any time to pass through.
It’s not going to be broken down and turned into fat stores or fat cells. But it’s a mental battle. You think you’re cheating on your prep, even though you’re not. And at the end if the day your health should be more important.
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Is your diet the same as many people competing in the UKBFF men’s physique?
Yes it is. I’ve got a coach now. I prepped for the British on my own. But this time round I’ve gone with a trainer.
He is doing my diet the same as he would any other physique athlete – tailored to my weight, my height, my age and my metabolic rate.
The thing with diabetics, it can have an adverse affect on your stage appearance. Diabetics are susceptible to hold more water because they’ve not naturally got stored carbohydrates.
They’ve not got insulin floating around the body like normal people have. That means water can be transported from your muscles to your blood a lot easier than what it can for me.
There are things you can do.Things need tweaking very finely, but it’s pretty much the same.
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What does your daily meal plan look like?
It changes pretty much every four or five days. Going up to a comp you’re lowering both proteins and carbs.
In my peak week before the comp, my carbs are extremely low. So I am depleting myself. Proteins will gradually drop as well which helps you lose water.
Then the last few days you carb up, so refill your muscles and dry yourselves out and hopefully be stage ready.
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What’s the difference in calories between off season and on-season?
I don’t really do it on calories, it’s more grams of carbohydrates. Whether it’s white potato, sweet potato or rice. There’s nothing specific because with a coach he’s always going to have an eye on you to see if he feels you’re too flat or you’re coming in too fast – you will keep it a bit higher. But if you’re not coming on fast enough he’s going to drop it to deplete you more.
Alternatively the other option if you’re not coming in fast enough is to up your carbs , to shock your metabolism, give you a kick start and then drop them subsequently in a few days.
Your body gets used to dieting, so that’s what a cheat meal is for. I actually haven’t had a cheat meal in 10 weeks on this prep.
I’m dying inside at the moment.
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You did a cut when you went on holiday back when you were 18, how attainable is that?
Just for a holiday body, not a competition prep, if you put the work in it is easily attainable by anyone.
You have got to diet religiously and do yourself a bit of cardio. But then if you step it up a level to do competition prep then you have to manipulate your carbs and protein, your water, salts and fats then up your cardio massively.
At one point I was on two hours of cardio a day with my weight sessions as well, so you’re spending like three and a half hours at the gym every day.
Right now I’m on an hour or cardio in the morning, which is a fasted HIIT session, then 10 minutes of abs, and half an hour small body part workout/burnout just to deplete yourself.
That’s all before my first meal. Then I have to go back in the evening and do my weights session and another half an hour of incline walking which is steady-state cardio.
I am allowed one rest day a week. I train twice a day six days a week, then I have my rest day.
My training is segregated. So I do chest, back, shoulders. I’m not training legs for the last three weeks because of inflammation of your waist, for physique purposes.
Obviously if it was bodybuilding I would be training legs and I do train legs off season and at the beginning of my prep.
It’s all split. I concentrate on one specific thing. I will throw biceps or triceps in with either chest or back. But I’m holding off on biceps at the moment, because I’m quite bicep dominant.
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What are the best methods for burning off fat that have worked for you?
Cardio, obviously. But for me it’s HIIT (high intensity interval training) cardio and also fasted cardio. Some food groups as well can help. I don’t recommend any supplements really. I don’t take fat burners or anything like that.
You need your BCAAs and your glutamine. With BCAAs it’s good to have both powder and tablets. Tablets after each meal if you’re dieting hard, then the powder as you’re working out and mixed with water.
It’s just hard work and graft. You get other competitors that do fat burners and steroids, and that’s going to help you massively, but with the competition I’m doing it’s natural so you’ve just got to put a lot of hard work and graft in.
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Are you in shape all year round?
Yes to an extent. I never lose my abs. But obviously if you want to put some size on, you do have to consume a calorie surplus. You eat the carbs and then in turn put weight on.
But I’m always in shape and I’m always training. I do throw cardio sessions in during my off season, but not to the extent when I’m in prep.
With physique, if you do well, you have offers of photoshoots so you never want to be too far out from being ready for those.
Last year I did seven or eight months prep without a break from April to the British in October, so it wore me down quite a bit and then I only had until January off. Then I was back on prep so I don’t feel I’ve had a long time to work on things or work on any weaknesses.
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How does all this training and dieting sit with student life?
That’s a hard thing obviously, always seeing your friends going out. You do want to join in, but on prep it’s just not an option at all.
The worst thing was not being able to have a slice of my birthday cake on my 21st.
But I still went out with my friends the Saturday after.
I rarely drink alcohol – I’m not really big alcohol drinker anyways. I’m not a beer drinker – If I do drink, I’ll have G&T or vodka. They’re not as bad for your physique, but it’s just the day after trying to get up and train.
I’m fine with it, I can do that. But a lot of people can’t and all they want to do is eat crap when they’re hung over. It can throw you off prep or lose sight of your target, so it’s sometimes best to avoid it.
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What are the most important things you’ve learned about training and dieting with diabetes?
I have learned that there are definitely ways around it. You don’t have to inject yourself all the time. If you go on a keto diet (ketogenic diet) you can get your energy from fats.
Fats like salmon, steaks etc. Then obviously if you can run on those. Almond nuts are great for things for that. Theoretically then you don’t have to inject any kind of fast-acting insulin to compensate for the carbohydrate then. So it’s like not having diabetes in a way. But eventually your cravings kick in and you do feel you need to break from that. But to lead a healthy lifestyle and keep your blood sugars in check, balanced and consistent, there are definitely ways around it.
For anyone else, dieting to the extent I have for competitions, you realise how important food is – not only for energy levels, but for mental health. Especially if you don’t have cheat meals.
If you’re dieting to get fit or lose yourself some weight, just throw a cheat meal in there to kick start your metabolism or to keep yourself mentally sound because it is hard and it does depress you. But when you’ve got an end goal like mine where you’re competing, you push on and want to continue.
But if you’re just looking to lose a few pounds by such-and-such, you maybe don’t have that same level of motivation or determination. So not have cheat meals or enjoying yourself once in a while can lead you to think ‘Oh I’m just going to pack it in, or just going to give up’. So to give yourself that continuous motivation it’s sometimes the best thing to do.
Aidan Broddell is the 2015 UKBFF Junior men’s physique British champion and Multipower Sports Nutrition Ambassador
