Fringe soccer player flexes muscles

Date: 13-10-2010 Posted by: Anabolic Info TeamAustralia

PLAYING soccer at the top level was not for Neil Stallbaum.

The now-Victorian state champion bodybuilder played soccer professionally in Japan and Australia, with stints with Melbourne Knights and South Melbourne in the now-defunct National Soccer League, although as a fringe player.

But he turned his back on the sport he had loved in his youth and found a new passion.

Stallbaum, a nutritionist who works at Live Well at Watergardens, started to follow bodybuilding.

He went to shows and became fascinated with the science of creating the perfect physique.

“I love the lifestyle that comes with it and all the preparation,” Stallbaum said. “And it is not even the competing that gets me really excited, it is the science of it. I know it sounds nerdy but I love the dieting and doing certain things and watching the results.”

Stallbaum said the full-on nature of bodybuilding had drawn him to the sport, having been a fringe player in his elite soccer teams.

” I guess when you are training day-to-day and not getting a lot of game time, it gets frustrating,” he said.

“I suppose that is what separates the best from the rest of us, those guys would wait for their time whereas it got to the point where I just wanted a change.”

He started competing last year and immediately posted strong results, highlighted by a fourth placing at the Asia Pacific Championships.

Last Sunday, he posted his best result winning his weight category, under-90kg, and the overall title at the Victorian championships at La Trobe University in Bundoora.

Stallbaum will now compete in the Australasian Natural Bodybuilding Australian Natural Physique Championships at Club Marconi in Sydney this weekend.

He said he would not be going to make up the numbers.

“I think everyone in this sport is there to win it,” he said.

“It is not like other sports where you can go ‘well I came third, that is a pretty good effort’, if you know what I mean.

“I guess because of all the work and sacrifices you have to make, it hurts a lot more when you don’t win.”

Stallbaum said preparation before a show was intense.

He will start the day about 6.30am with a cardio session before he switches his focus to his diet.

Stallbaum can eat up to 10 times a day at three-to-four hour intervals, with his breakfast including egg whites, while the majority of his other meals are chicken or fish “and plenty of greens” - salads or vegetables.

He then has an afternoon gym session and finishes the day about 11.30pm with a cardio session.

The results, he said, made it all worthwhile.