Big Inspiration in a Small Town

by Charles Peeples

 (IRONMAN,  Feb 2004)

           As the Boomer-Bulge slips into the post-fifties, there’s probably no greater time in our history for the visible triumph of the bodybuilding lifestyle. No longer do you need to look far to find a living, breathing “shut-up” to that fatuous admonitory “what happens to those guys when they get old?”  They’re everywhere now, and in that proximate realness, they offer more convince-clout than the entire Arnold filmography.

          Take Robert Caltabiano, for instance. His Edge Fitness Center in Frazer, Pennsylvania, while not especially large, is a happy mix of those two inimical camps, the bodybuilding gym and the “health club.” It works because Robert, a fifty-five year-old competing NPC Masters Champ, has created in a quietly affable presence (don’t let the hard, beady-eyed expression and shaved head fool you), an atmosphere of possibility and inspiration. He talks to everybody. And though focused on the tasks at hand, people there actually talk to each other- the knob-headed gym-rat types bench-repping in the mid three hundreds and dipping with one hundred fifty pounds hanging from them, the sixty and seventy year-old ladies doing cable-kickbacks, and everyone in between. It’s an odd magic you find only in the best gyms. And that magic doesn’t happen by itself.

         In an office plastered with photos of Ronnie, Dorian and dozens of other legends, plus contest photos of himself, Robert sits back casually in a chopped sweatshirt waiting for a client, a fury of veins lacing around his sinewy forearms. He’s telling me about the mother and son who are training together on the lat machine. She’s 47 and he’s 17. Mary was already working out here and got her son Michael to join her when he was diagnosed with high blood pressure. He was also over-weight. They train five days a week, and he’s since lost twenty pounds and restored his blood pressure. He even works the front desk part-time.

        Now the client arrives, a 26-year-old kid named John Quinn. He’s in a wheelchair. In 1998, a motorcycle accident left him with two broken femurs, a broken wrist, broken jaw, massive head trauma and spinal cord injury. After three major surgeries, John’s still paralyzed from the waist down. But that hasn’t kept him from earning a degree in Network Engineering or becoming a competing bodybuilder who recently took fourth place middleweight in the NPC National Wheelchair Championships and first place middleweight in the NPC Junior National Championships.

         He’s Robert’s special project, and it’s an education to watch the two in action. “We’ve had to come up with some very unique ways to train.” Robert says. “It’s taught me a lot. I’d like to put together a video on this to inspire others in the same condition.”  For nearly every exercise, Robert lifts John out of the wheelchair and straps him to the bench with two lifting belts. Since he can’t use his legs to stabilize himself -and these two are big-time into dumbbell training- they must use dumbbell hooks so John can grab both dumbbells simultaneously. He uses 120-pounders with ease on the flat bench. Triceps press-downs must be done horizontally, strapped to a bench, with Robert’s thigh bracing John’s shoulder to keep him from sliding backward. Everyone’s watching, offering encouragement. One of the sixty-pluses, shaking her head, comments, “Aren’t those two boys something?” 

       “Most of the time I don’t think I’m special at all.” Robert says. “Just another guy earning a living and helping people get fit; I own two gyms with my partner, Joe Giordano. But there are times when I feel appreciated and special. This has come about because of my advice about lifting and nutrition, and because I live the stereotypical image of fitness. I’ve won the Masters NPC over 50 and overall National championship (1999). I compete every year in the Masters. Bodybuilding’s an extension of who I am. I have gotten many people interested in “doing shows” for the first time. The rewards for them -and me- after doing their first show are too abundant to list.

       “Like many bodybuilders I didn’t start out interested in sports or competition. I grew up in an era of  ‘hippies or not.’ I was. I also dabbled with drugs, but nothing heavy. Because the draft board was hounding me I married and had my first daughter Renee immediately, so I wouldn’t be drafted. Two years later I had my second daughter Nina. Although the marriage didn’t last, my relationship with my daughters is and will always be paramount to me. I cherish our open communication about anything –we hold nothing back. They share with me their youth, I share my knowledge and limited wisdom (although at times it seems to be reversed!). I’ve been married and divorced again since, but now I’m engaged to a wonderful woman, Bernadette, who supports my interests in bodybuilding and long hours of personal training.

       “ I did go on to two years of college before realizing that it wasn’t for me. I got a job as an auto technician. I truly loved that job, and worked for the same man for over thirty years. I enjoy working with my hands. I don’t enjoy relaxing -I don’t do it well. So my down-time is spent working around my house. No chore is too big. I keep active until I crash at 8:30 pm, since I get up at 3:30 am, open the gym at 4:45 and start personal training at 5:00.

        “I didn’t start anything physical until I was thirty. Overnight I gave up everything unhealthy or anything that negatively impacted my life. I don’t recall having an epiphany of any kind – I’d just had enough of living my life haphazardly and wantonly. Anyway the hottest activity at the time was racquetball and I turned out to be very competitive. I wasn’t satisfied with just playing –I wanted to compete in leagues, and eventually state championships.  But a funny thing happened on the way to racquetball stardom… I found a weight room. I figured that a stronger player was a better player, so I started playing around in the weight-room while waiting for my match to begin. I saw results quickly, so I started training more and more. But training was leaving me tired for ball, and ball was leaving me too tired to lift. I’m not satisfied being mediocre in two sports; I’d rather be the best in one. Training won out and I’m very glad it did. Weight training, bodybuilding and gyms are my life. It is who I am. I really care about helping people- helping them train, grow… teaching them all I know about this sport. I’m involved on the grass-roots level: I don’t aspire to be a national judge or get sponsored. I just compete. After the show, it’s right back to training and others be the best they can be.

       “I’m a big believer of off-season nutrition, maintaining a body-fat percentage of 7 or 8%. Since I give free seminars and consultations about nutrition, I want to look the part. Clients and members don’t want to see an overweight trainer advising them on what to eat!  And I like to feel and look good year-round. I eat the same way every day- for me, eating isn’t about celebration, it’s about nutrition: ‘Eat to live, don’t live to eat!’ So it’s very few carbs (oatmeal, yams, vegetables) and 200-250 grams of protein every day- perhaps 300 grams pre-contest when my carbs are down to 80 grams. I also take a vitamin and mineral cap, 4-5 grams of glutamine and post-work drinks. And that’s it. A huge perk in eating this way is that I don’t have to do any cardio. Cardio catabolizes muscle, and at my age I work too hard to gain muscle.

        “I train five to six days a week, one body-part each day, trying to reach failure on every exercise -not every set, but on the last or next to last set. Failure in the gym is success, and I will use every method known to man to reach failure: drop sets, supersets, tri-sets, rest-pause, but never light days with more reps. I pyramid the weight to give my old muscles a chance to warm up. Usually it’s ten reps for upper body and at least fifteen for the lower. I like to get a good squeeze in the first two sets- strict form is important in the first sets, but I might get a little sloppy on the last, as I’m going to failure. I always train with a partner, so we can do forced reps and negatives. For upper body, we keep rests between sets to less than a minute. Legs are different- we take longer because we’re in oxygen debt. Squatting’s essential, and I always try to do walking lunges afterward. I never skip meals or workouts. No excuses; if it’s leg day and it’s Christmas, it’s leg day first… then Christmas!”