July 1, 2007

How I Trained Chantal Dicaire to Win the World Qualifier in 12 Days – Part One: The Challenge

I don’t consider myself a personal trainer, since I don’t have a roster of clients and I don’t hand out exercise and diet programs the way a trainer would. As well, I don’t work with people who just want to get into shape. Instead, I’m solely interested in physique competition preparation – figure, fitness and bodybuilding – and I focus on helping a select number of competitors. Furthermore, I look at all aspects of preparation, not just exercises and eating – there’s much, much more to preparing for physique-type events than only these basic things. Therefore, I consider myself more of a coach than a trainer, and I’m the kind of person who likes a challenge. Obviously, coaching these people for this purpose gives me that.

As a result, I’ve had good success over the last number of years, coaching men and women in all disciplines. There’s Stéphane Bussière, a three-time national-level bodybuilding champion who weighs over 200 pounds. He’s working on his fourth national-level win right now, and after that he hopes to compete at the IFBB World Bodybuilding Championships. Then there’s Natalie Waples, a fitness model who now focuses on competitive figure. Natalie won two figure titles with just three months of preparation, and, more recently, she won the Overall figure title at the CBBF National World Qualifier, making her a national-level figure champion after being in the game for less than two years. Finally, there’s fitness star Chantal Dicaire, the first person I ever coached. Chantal won national fitness titles in 2003, 2004, and 2005, and last month she won the Overall fitness title at the Qualifier. Now, she’s a four-time national champion. This year, though, Chantal and I approached things much differently than before with results that not only impressed the judging panel, but us as well. That’s what this series of articles will focus on – plus, there’s an interesting story to tell.

After 2005, Chantal and I went our separate ways. As they say, all good things must come to an end, at least for a while. Besides, it seemed as good a time as any with three back-to-back fitness titles under her belt. Therefore, I hadn’t coached her in almost two years. In June of 2007, I ran into Chantal at the OPA National Capital Classic, which is a local-level bodybuilding, figure, and fitness event. I was helping to organize the show, and she was one the guest performers there. Chantal and I spoke for a while, so I asked her what her competitive plans were. At the time, she had none. In fact, she was thinking of taking the whole year off from competing – the first time in nine years!

But, knowing Chantal as well as I do, I knew that deep down she really wanted to compete, and I knew that she really wanted to enter the CBBF National World Qualifier, Canada’s qualifying event for the IFBB World Championships. It’s one of the most prestigious competitions in Canada, and it’s drug-tested to IOC standards. The problem was, however, that the Qualifier was only two weeks away, and although Chantal was in good enough shape to be a guest performer, she certainly wasn’t in competition shape.

However, as I talked to her, a crazy notion popped into my mind. I wanted to know how much we could achieve in two weeks’ time. Could we re-create the Chantal of 2005, or at least get close? I kept thinking about it until I finally said, "I’d like to try to get you into shape for the Qualifier." She looked a little surprised, and I suspect she thought that I was talking about the competition in 2008. As a result, she was even more surprised when I said, "And we’ll start Monday. I’d like to see what we can achieve in 12 days." She went from surprised to startled when she realized that I was talking about her competing in a show that was that close. Her only words at that time were, "Do you really think I can be in shape?" I said, "We’ll try."

As soon as I made the offer and she accepted, I knew it would be tough to do, but possible. Furthermore, I thought this would be a good opportunity to test the limits of what could be done naturally, and safely, to take a high-level fitness athlete back to the top in a short amount of time. As I said, I’m the kind of person who likes a challenge, and this was a good one. As well, Chantal’s up to the task – when she puts her mind to it, she can out-train most people in her gym.

Therefore, with just 12 days to transform Chantal back into a national-level champion, we had our work cut out for us. From the Monday when we started until the Saturday of the following week when she would have to compete, every day had to count. As a result, we needed a plan that would leave absolutely no room for error.

So, next time I’ll start telling you about the plan that transformed Chantal’s physique such that she not only won her class at the CBBF National World Qualifier, something that exceeded our expectations, but the Overall title too, which is something we never expected her to do. In fact, the results we achieved were so good and so fast, it’s caused me to re-think the typical approaches many use for competition preparation.

Stay tuned for what’s to come – you might be surprised!

...Doug Schneider
das@seriousaboutfitness.com

• Go Back