Roy Johns

“…if there’s one thing I’ve learned, you can always work harder and take your training to a whole new level, no matter what.”

Big Back User Profile Interview: Roy Johns

Roy Johns is a Big Back Grips user from Modesto, CA. We met when he started posting about Big Back Grips on our Facebook page. We love feedback from users and we started talking.

Roy Johns has always looked up to bodybuilders, he told us. “I had probably watched “Pumping Iron” 100 times over with my dad,” he says, and he became very interested in bodybuilding. “When I saw Franco Colombo I was blown away. I remember having posters on my wall when I was 8 years old of Franco and Arnold.” In elementary school, he claims, he “wasn’t the most popular kid around,” and he had a hard time. He got into football as a release from school and really enjoyed the game. As he got older and reached junior high, he started going to his local gym. “I still remember putting dimes on the barbell and benching 65 pounds and struggling.” Now those early struggles just sound funny to him. And indeed he has come a very long way.

BBG: Let’s start with where you’re from and how old you are. And how old you were back at those first workouts?  What was your physique like in the very beginning? What were you hoping to get out of it at that age?

ROY: I was Born and raised in Modesto, California, and I’m 17 years old. When I was 12, my dad signed me up at Gold’s Gym in Modest to get me ready for the upcoming football season. I was a good athlete then, fast and agile, but I was very skinny. At the time I was hoping to gain some size and strength for football. Football was my life then.

BBG: What were those first workouts like?  What sort of gym was it – a big boy gym?  A “Health Club”?    Did you train alone?

ROY: When my dad first took me into Gold’s, we focused on the basics. I wasn’t a strong kid, but I trained hard with as much weight as I could handle. I remember doing a lot of bench press, bent over rows, preacher curls, leg extensions, and dumbbell flies. It was a classic Gold’s, lots of dedicated big guys. I never went alone at that age because I didn’t have a ton of knowledge in the gym. My dad has always been my trainer and I relied on his guidance.

BBG: Was it intimidating to work out among what had to be much bigger guys?

ROY: It’s actually funny. I looked up to those guys so much that they never really intimidated me. I’ve always been very impressed with people who are dedicated to the gym and change their bodies. It was also a plus to have my father there. He was friends with most of the guys, and I never felt out of place or I didn’t belong. I felt very comfortable there.

BBG: How long before you actually started to see noticeable changes?  Did people react – school buddies and family members?

ROY: I started to notice big changes in my body about six months into training. One day I woke up, and went to brush my teeth. I looked in the mirror and noticed I was a lot bigger than I used to be. I definitely got some compliments – the handful of friends I had at school told me that I wasn’t as much of a twig now. I didn’t get to much recognition from my family. My dad was probably the only one that really noticed the change in my physique. We got a lot closer as son and father because of workouts at the gym. My mom would occasionally say, ‘Looking good son!”

BBG: So you played football in school. And the weights must have helped. How big were you by then? What other sports were you involved in?

ROY: Going into high school I was 15 and I weighed 150 pounds. Training with my dad up until high school helped me get some size, along with naturally getting older and growing up. After football season was over I joined the wrestling team, and long-jumped for the track team. My sister was a big time athlete at my high school, and there was a lot of pressure on me to live up to her. I’ve always been very competitive, so I decided to play sports year around.

BBG: So how did your high school wrestling career go?  Were you still playing football too?

ROY: I wasn’t the greatest wrestler. I was good and won some matches, but nothing special. My biggest problem was that I thought I could just muscle my way through everyone. I thought if I was strong enough I could beat anyone. I quickly learned that wasn’t the case. Most matches that I stayed close in were because of my strength. Wrestling is a sport where technique is 80 percent of the battle, and as I said before, I wasn’t the greatest wrestler. I was still playing football, as well as track, even though we were having a very bumpy year.

BBG: Now we know your sophomore year was a rough year, football-wise, but the beginnings of some good times, bodybuilding-wise. Can you fill us in how one led to another?

ROY: Yeah, it was a tough time in sports for me. It was the most frustrating year of sports I ever participated in. My sophomore wrestling season had just ended. We had a disappointing football season, which I’d put in a lot of work into, and it took a toll on my mindset. Just like every year, my dad told me it was time to start training for football again. But football was the last word I wanted to hear at that point. My dad and I got back to hitting the iron right away, and the workouts were very intense. I didn’t think I could work any harder than I did the previous year, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, you can always work harder and take your training to a whole new level, no matter what.

I remember my dad saying things like “Let’s get serious!” and “Let’s go Roy, this is nothing!” It was Game On and I was more focused than ever. One day my dad was working over-time, so I was training arms alone. I had a friend named Josh, and he introduced me to Rick Torres. I definitely could tell Rick knew a lot about training and diet, just by looking at his physique. He told me I had a ton of potential, and that I could do very well in the sport. He motivated me to put bodybuilding in the front seat of my life. From that day on, I was training to be a bodybuilder, and I took it very seriously.

BBG: How did your life change when you started pursuing bodybuilding more aggressively? How did you educate yourself?  Did it impact your school work at all?

ROY: Everything about my life changed. I took my diet much more seriously and watched every little thing that I ate. I went to bed at earlier, and my training was harder than ever. It even made me excel in school. I wanted to do everything in my life with 100 percent effort. I believe if you’re gonna take bodybuilding seriously, you should read up on it. I have read a number of bodybuilding books including Arnold’s Education of a Bodybuilder, Franco Columbo’s Winning Bodybuilding, and the Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. I also have a subscription to Muscular Development and read it every month. I miss football to this day, but bodybuilding’s my passion, and I love it. I feel like I’m at home when I’m in the gym, and everything makes sense to me there. I stopped playing high school sports to pursue bodybuilding. It’s the only sport I’m involved in.

BBG: We’re curious about who you look up to in bodybuilding. But we’re also interested in why.  What really makes the people you respect in the sport standout from the crowd?

ROY: I’ve always looked up to Cody Lewis. I met him when I first got a gym membership as a young kid. I remember the first time I saw him – he walked up the stairs and turned the corner and my jaw dropped. I was only 13, and to me he looked like Superman. I always watched him workout and I used to tell my dad that one day I wanted to be like Cody. He was around 17 at the time and was very focused. I don’t think he ever really paid attention to how much I looked up to him. I don’t blame him – he’s there to work out. Part of the reason I respected him so much was because of his drive and determination. I’ve been to one of his shows and was of course, very impressed. He’s definitely going to do great things in bodybuilding, and I hope to have the honor of hitting the stage with him one day. I also look up to a guy named Alex Cosentini. He’s a mass monster from Sacramento, and i met him through bodybuilding. I look up to him because of the way he treats the people who look up to him. He didn’t even know me, and he answered any questions I had about training, diet, and competing. He really gets to know his fans, and isn’t all about himself. He has great potential and a great physique, and he stays down to earth, and I respect him for that. And if there’s one pro bodybuilder that I really look up to and enjoy, it’s Franco Colombo.

BBG: Who has mentored you the most? Who gets the biggest shout-outs in your life?

ROY: My father, by a long shot. If it weren’t for my dad, I would have never had a great mentor, Friend, and father. He’s the best man I’ve ever met, and I enjoy every minute I spend with him. He supports me with all the food, tubs of whey protein and cases of water. He makes sure I have everything I need to be successful. I truly respect his ability to put his family before himself, and his ability to help me follow the straight and narrow. If I ever need advice, he’s the first one I ask. I have nothing but good things to say about my dad, and I hope he’s in my corner throughout my whole bodybuilding career.

BBG: So you’ve come a long way in the gym, and you’re not that little kid from junior high for sure. What are stats now?

ROY: I’m currently 5″10″, and I weigh 209 pounds.

BBG: What about your bodybuilding goals from here? Is this a hobby? A lifestyle?  Do you have professional goals in bodybuilding or are you thinking about other careers entirely?

ROY: My whole life is centered on bodybuilding. My biggest goal is to become an IFBB pro. As far as short term goes, I hope to compete in the Teen Nationals when I turn 19. When I graduate high school, I plan to continue my training while I go to school to be a firefighter. I will be competing in the NPC Central Valley Championships in August of this year.

BBG: What has bodybuilding taught you that applies to other goals and other parts of your life?

ROY: Bodybuilding has taught me that giving up is never an option. It’s taught me to believe in myself, and my dreams no matter what anyone thinks or says. It has helped me live a more successful and more satisfying life. Everything I do in the gym, I apply to life. When that set gets hard, and you don’t think you can do three more reps, go the extra mile, and be a champion. When life gets tough, push on and push hard. Don’t let anything or anyone kick you when you’re down. Get up and fight back.

BBG: Now, about Roy and Big Back Grips, how did you come across BBGs and why did incorporate them into your workout? What did you use before BBGs?

ROY: I love Big Back Grips. I came across them when I was training with my friend Jake. He had them and I asked them what they were. He told me about them and let me have his old pair. I had really rough hands, and my calluses used to get so big they pinched my hands when i trained my back. Ever since I started using Big Back Grips, there’s less wear and tear on my hands, and my calluses have gotten smaller. I used to use straps and I hated them. They hurt my wrists, and made me feel like I wasn’t using my grip when i would near the end of a set. Now I feel that I have full control of the weight, and I get a much better pump in my back.

BBG: Do you use them for everything, or just back? Fill us in. What do you do for back?

ROY: I haven’t tried using them for anything else yet, but I will give it a go! I used them once to help my dad move furniture.

BBG: What about your diet?

ROY: My diet is the usual. A lot of chicken, flounder, brown rice, potatoes, green beans and bananas. And steak if I’m lucky!

BBG: What is your favorite body part to work out? Can tell us what you include for that?

ROY: Most of the guys at my gym are chest and arm addicts, but I enjoy training my back the most. Our back routine is always intense, we go as heavy as possible, with good form, making sure were getting 8-12 repetitions. My favorite back movements and the ones I use the most are:

• Bent over dumbbell rows
• Barbell rows
• Cable rows
• Lat pull downs
• Dead lifts

BBG: And your workout routine in general? What’s that like?

ROY: I typically like intense workouts, 8-12 reps with the heaviest weights I can handle. I like to do a lot of super sets as well. We also have our heavy days of course – I believe in constantly changing it up, so my body doesn’t get used to anything. I like to train instinctively, but if I had a split this would be it:

• Monday:  Chest and calves
• Tuesday: Back and traps
• Wednesday: Shoulders and arms
• Thursday: Quads and hams.
• Friday: Chest and calves.
• Every day: Abs
• Three times a week:  Cardio, usually on the Stairmaster