Welsh wheels: new IFBB pro FLEX Lewis isn't used to losing, and his leg routine might just keep you ahead of the pack, too

Muscle & Fitness, May, 2008 by Mark Thorpe

WHEN JAMES "FLEX" LEWIS WON THE OVERALL title at the British Championships in 2007, he called his girlfriend Shina Mitchell to the stage and proposed to her as a new IFBB professional bodybuilder. When he steps onstage in August at the Europa Super Show, he'll bring with him not only the aura of impending marital bliss but an untarnished amateur record of 10-0 (not including overall titles) and the grit and determination that powered him through a youth filled with rugby, track and field, and powerlifting. At the age of 24, he has the time to develop into a seasoned pro, but at a height of 5'5" he knows he has his work cut out for him. One thing's for certain: This is one Welshman who will not go gently into that good night.

M & F: For your pro debut, what do you think you'll weigh?

FLEX: I'm going to do the 202-and-under class at the Europa in August. My contest weight as of last year was 194, but that was because I had to meet a weight-class cutoff, which was 198. In the off-season I sat at 220. If I could gain 4 pounds in the right places, then diet down nice and slow, I would be reasonably happy.

M & F: Who will be your biggest competition in the 202-pound weight class?

FLEX: Myself. I don't focus on anybody else going into the contest; I just make sure I get into the best shape of my life.

M & F: What are your biggest bodypart challenges as a pro?

FLEX: My targeted areas this year are my back and my chest. People used to say in FLEX UK and other bodybuilding magazines that I had great legs, but nobody would say anything about any other bodypart, so last year I hardly ever trained my legs so I could bring my balance up. That was the advice I got from Dorian Yates and some other professionals. It killed me to stay away from leg training, but I knew I had to do it to become a more complete bodybuilder.

M & F: Did it work?

FLEX: From the reports I've read, most people say that it has.

M & F: Why are your legs so developed?

FLEX: I've got a really good mind/muscle connection with my legs; I wish I had it with my chest. I think it comes from athletics. I could get a crazy pump just running track.

M & F: When did you start lifting weights seriously?

FLEX: I saw a Tom Platz book when I was 12, and I had never seen anything like that before. I wanted legs like that guy. I knew that my father had weights in the shed, so I put them under my bed and hid them away, and just before bed I would squat until I dropped. When my dad found out, the weights were taken off me and put back in the shed under lock and key.

M & F: Why did he take the weights?

FLEX: Probably all those scare stories about weights stunting your growth.

M & F: When did you start lifting again?

FLEX: At 15. I went into a local gym and started following what some of the other guys were doing. I fell in love with the calf machine and felt crazy burns. I fell into powerlifting about two years after that. I won a few powerlifting titles, Powerlifting Wales and Powerlifting UK, then crossed over to bodybuilding and never looked back.

M & F: What was the bodybuilding scene like in Wales when you started?

FLEX: When I started working out, the only way you could refer to the gym I trained in was as a hole in the wall. We didn't have glass in the windows; we had bars because the panes were smashed from vandalism. When it was cold outside, it was cold in the gym. Everybody who went there went to train--there were no sandals. There were no women in my gym. Basically, there were no distractions. You went to train.

M & F: What did the gym have in the way of equipment?

FLEX: We had the basics: Smith machine, leg press, benches. But there were a lot of wobbly weights that had been welded on. Lots of bars bent from heavy weight. It was one of those kinds of gyms. You went there to train. You weren't expecting any glitz and glamour. But when I started training, I had no expectation of what a gym should look like.

M & F: Nothing like what you find here?

FLEX: It was the only gym I knew. I thought that was it. We had a good community, though, and we all followed each other. When I did my first show, there were 100 guys in attendance to support me. It was a good place to start off. I learned that you don't have to have glamorous equipment to build a champion.

M & F: How old were you at your first bodybuilding show?

FLEX: I was 19. I won the juniors at the Mr. Wales show, and the First Timers category. I was so nervous. I remember thinking as I walked off the stage, What am I doing here? Then my friend comes running backstage and says, "Flex, you better pull your finger out of your butt because there's a guy who just went onstage with a crazy posing routine." And I said, "What do you mean, that was me!" I had studied all the Mr. Olympia videos, and I loved all that graceful posing, so I went onstage and mimicked a routine.

M & F: How did you learn about dialing in your nutrition?

FLEX: When I started bodybuilding, a local competitive bodybuilder helped me with the training, but told me I had to figure out my own diet. For the first show, I just guessed, really. I used a diet from FLEX magazine. But after my first show, IFBB pro Neil Hill took me under his wing and is still helping me with nutrition to this day. He basically increased my calories tenfold. I was a little bit scared to eat as much as I was eating.