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Miracle grow: Mike "Mouse" Mills embarked on a massive muscle-building mission from God

Men's Fitness, Oct, 2004 by Sean Hyson

Mike Mills could have waited for God to answer his prayers, but realizing that God is busy, the modest Roman Catholic from Motown set out to answer them himself--with heavy-duty workouts and extreme eating.

"I was more than just a skinny kid," says Mills of his childhood frame. "Looking back, I don't think I ever saw anyone skinnier than me." In his freshman year in high school, Mills was skin and bones--standing 5'3" and weighing a twiggy 100 pounds. While his peers began to develop with puberty, Mills' glands were stuck in neutral. "I had a very high-pitched voice," says Mills. "When I was a senior, even the freshmen would call me 'Mouse' because I sounded squeaky."

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Mills remembers a time when he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, "and a kid followed behind me, pulling the hood over my head again and again. Finally, I got so angry that I turned around and punched him right in the neck, but he just laughed."

Ashamed of his body and unable to defend himself, Mills adopted the Dick Cheney strategy of survival: Lay low. "Even when I was picked on," he recalls, "I didn't talk back or do anything because I didn't want to draw any attention to myself. None at all."

Those rare times when Mills did get sympathy, it stung. "Some kids asked me one time if there was something wrong with me that made me so skinny," he says. "They wanted to know if I was sick." But Mills didn't suffer from any disease--it was just a case of a high metabolism.

A lifelong basketball fan, Mills uncharacteristically summoned the courage to try out for his high school team. He was summarily rejected. "The coach told me, 'God has not blessed you with the height and weight to do this.'" So Mike decided to bless himself.

In his senior year, his dad bought him a weight set, which he set up in the basement. Mills began working out in a wholehearted (albeit hardheaded) effort to pack on pounds of muscle. He also started chowing down on junk food in hopes that it would help him add weight. "I thought that, because candy and chips were high in calories, they would help me gain weight, but I couldn't gain a pound. I didn't know what I was doing. I graduated high school at 6'1", 138 pounds."

MOUSE FINDS A MENTOR

Mills still dreamed of playing competitive b-ball when he started college at Detroit's Madonna University, but his chances of making the team were, well, like a prayer. Then fate stepped in. During a campus pickup game, a guy on the court told him about Luther "Big Lu" Campbell, one of Detroit's most sought-after and respected trainers. Campbell's elite clientele included a string of professional athletes, and he seemed like the only man with the chops to turn Mills around. "I was told that, if I was really serious about getting big enough for basketball," says Mills, "I needed to get with this guy Lu."

Campbell had the physical presence and confidence that Mills always wanted. Even in his mid-50s the 6'6", 280-pounder was loud, intimidating, and known for demanding the most from his clients. He was also busy. After nearly a year of not returning messages, Campbell finally responded to Mills in January 2000. Campbell was impressed by Mills' persistence, but only agreed to take him on if Mills committed to a minimum of three days' training per week. As Mills recalls, "He told me, 'Any less than three, and I can't do nothing with you.'"

SMALL-BONED, BIG-HEARTED

Recently, Campbell admitted to Mills that he had had his doubts. "He told me he asked God why I had been sent to him," says Mills. "What reason could there be to send him a skinny boy with no hope for getting better?" Nevertheless, Big Lu set to work at reconstructing Mills' physique. Campbell even believed he could get Mills playing pro basketball. The first step was cleaning up the 20-year-old's diet. The junk food was replaced with plain chicken breasts, sweet potatoes, tofu, and vegetables, spread over five meals.

The transition wasn't easy. "I started that diet on a weekend," recalls Mills, "cutting out all the bad food cold turkey. I had headaches and felt sick because my body wasn't used to the blandness." In the gym, Campbell told Mills he was "as weak as two dead roaches," citing his max bench of a measly 95 pounds. "I had no strength and no definition," says Mills. "But I had a lot of heart, and I was willing to go through with it." Big Lu's unorthodox and often brutal regimen had Mills lifting weights for 20-30 reps on every exercise. "He taught me that you can't just lift heavy--you have to condition your muscles first. If I started loafing, he would scream, 'You're not in your basement anymore!'"

In large group-training sessions, Mills worked out with the likes of former Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman Larry Fitzpatrick and Cleveland Cavaliers forward Ira Newble. Those guys provided all the inspiration Mills would need. "Just seeing what great athletes they are and what they can put their bodies through was very encouraging."

Miracle grow: Mike "Mouse" Mills embarked on a massive muscle-building mission from God

Men's Fitness, Oct, 2004 by Sean Hyson

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