Scott Goble

I got into weight training and more specifically bodybuilding at an early age, 14 to be precise.

I'd always had a fascination with it though. I remember going to see the Harlem Globe Trotters when I was much younger, maybe 8 years old and I got the program and I'd never seen such muscular definition before and I thought it looked cool.

I remember after that going home and flexing my arm and seeing if I had any of those lines in my arms. Upon realizing I didn't I decided to lift up the heavy dictionary (that thing had to weigh 2kg's, it was massive) over my head fifty times, then I laid flat on the floor and pressed it another 50 times.

I went to the mirror and flexed again, still didn't look like a Harlem Globe Trotter! After that I got a little side tracked (at 8 my attention span and patience wasn't quite what it is today).

Later when I was 10 or 11 my dad hurt his back and mum and I went to a local gym equipment store to buy some ankle weights for his rehab. They had posters on the walls of Arnold Schwarzenegger and some other old time bodybuilders, I can't remember if I commented to my mum or she saw me gawking at them but she told me they looked disgusting, at that age you generally agree with your mum but in this instance I wasn't quite so sure, I thought they looked pretty good!

I played every sport growing up and was pretty good at most of them but a star at none of them. I'm clearly not psychologically equipped to play team sports, I couldn't have given a stuff if we won the game by 80points or runs or whatever if I didn't play well. It also really annoyed me when I played well and other people let the team down with their retardedness.

At 14 I started messing around with some mates doing martial arts, mostly we just tried to flying side kick each other in the head, but to augment these burdgeoning skills we all started weight training (we surmised we could kick each other harder this way).

First I trained with a mates bench press, we had a bar and two 5kg weight plates and every night we would do one set to failure of bench press, shoulder press and bicep curls. Pretty soon we were benching for sixty plus reps and shoulder pressing and curling thirty or forty reps.

Soon I got my own weight bench and weights, luckily some heavier ones and I kept training every night and started incorporating a variety of movements.

When I finally joined a gym the first thing me and the three or four guys I trained with would do is walk in and do a one rep max on the bench press, no warm up, just load the bar with about 5kgs more than the last time and go for it, ahhhh good times!

Luckily we learned a bit and moved onto a better program before we hurt ourselves.

Funnily enough of the four guys I trained with back in those early days three of them competed, out of all of us I was the last to get onstage.

I always kept weight training but through uni (I studied Human Movement) I got more into fitness, partying and girls. Once uni was finished I kept up the partying and girls and let the fitness slide, but I was always in the gym four or five times a week pushing around some iron.

Eventually at age 28 when the lifestyle had settled down a little I decided to compete. Basically I did it because other people told me I should and I figured I had trained for so long I may as well have something to show for it, even if that something was just a few pictures of me in shape.

So the first show I did was the 2004 Nabba Southern Hemisphere in the novice division. It was a qualifier to the Nabba World Championships held on the Gold Coast and it was to this day probably the best show I have ever seen.

I came second in a pretty good novice class and got a lot of good feedback. Neil Gardner said "You've got genuine heavyweight legs, pity you have a middle weights upper body" gotta love Neil! So despite the fact that I planned on doing it as a one off show, I loved it and was hooked! With the exception of 2005 when I tore my transverse abdominal I have competed every year since.

My motivation has changed a lot these days.

Back when i started training it was all about self improvement, now it's about winning and beating specific people!

I know everyone harps on about the fact that bodybuilding is all about you and you can only control yourself, but dammit I want to win!

It's a competition after all and of all the comps I have attended I pretty much remember only the winners or the horrendously out of shape competitors. I want to be remembered, and not for being crap!

So my inspiration comes from chasing Justin Wessel's conditioning, Luke Schembri's thickness, Lucky Hatzipantelis's presentation and shape etc.

When i get onstage I want to win and I want no one to dispute that win, I want to be the biggest, hardest, most symmetrical and best presented bodybuilder on that stage.

I don't think I've achieved this goal yet but I figure it's good to aim high.

I love the competition aspect of bodybuilding, the actual comparisons, I like to know who I am going up against and think about how I can beat them. My most satisfying win was the 2010 CCI championship because I beat one of Australia's best bodybuilders in Luke Schembri.

I knew for months leading up to the show I would be up against him, I knew there was no way I would out size him, I knew he was very balanced and the only chance I had was to out condition him. I competed lighter than I had for the previous two years but I caught him slightly off his best and snuck a win and boy was it satisfying!

I had never felt so deprived and suffered so much leading up to a comp. I remember being so drained that I would lay on the couch and not move an inch until I felt my legs and feet would go to sleep, I wouldn't fidget, twitch, anything because everything was effort, and eventually I would think 'I can't feel my legs anymore' but I still didn't move because I couldn't be stuffed, until I had to eat a meager meal or go train or something.

The last few weeks were totally and utterly miserable and I questioned why the hell I was doing this too myself all the time, the only thing that kept me going that hard on so few calories was the thought of winning. When I looked in the mirror and started seeing details I'd never seen before it pushed me to keep going, I also loved the thought that very few people would be willing to do to themselves what I was willing to do, I hated everything, I didn't laugh, I almost cried when I dropped a meal on the floor, I was completely and utterly miserable. Luckily that was all temporary and that win still gives me pleasure to this day.

So I guess that's why I compete, because the rewards out weigh the suffering. When I hear people bitch and moan about their diets or the fact that they are tired I think 'don't do it then' if it's not worth it why bother, if it is worth it why complain. We have all chosen to do this, no one has a gun to our heads forcing us to compete, so either suck it up and do what needs to be done, or don't.

It's all about choices and if I am going to choose to compete I am going to choose to do the hard yards to get in shape, I will choose to do hours of posing practice so I can go through ten comparisons straight if I have to and I will choose to climb those god awful stairs that I hope my fellow competitors aren't willing to climb. Having said all that, Justin Wessels has still kicked my ass four times in the last three years, but he's not competing this year wahoooo!

Comp History

2004 Nabba Southern Hemisphere Novice 2nd

2006 IFBB Vics Novice 1st
2006 IFBB Australias Novice 2nd

2007 IFBB Vics O90's 1st
2007 IFBB Australias O100's 4th

2008 CCI Open Division 2nd
2008 Nabba Vics Class 1 1st
2008 Nabba Australias Class 1 1st

2009 IFBB Vics O100's 1st
2009 IFBB Australias O100's 1st
2009 UBC 3rd

2010 CCI Open Division 1st
2010 IFBB Salt Water Classic Elite Division 2nd
2010 IFBB Vics O100's 1st
2010 IFBB Australia's O100's 1st

I've been lucky enough to gain some support along the way and have to thanks my sponsors.

BodyScience have been supplying me with all my supplement needs for years now and I haven't used a rival protein powder since they came on board back in 2007.

Activewear Online have kitted me out in some awesome clothing and I can't say enough good stuff about the quality of the workout gear they stock (I never train legs in anything other than my Better Bodies Board Shorts) and recently PKE has started supplying me with all my tanning products, which is just as well because I've only used Contest Colour and Shimmer for years!

Photos © www.charleslowthian.com