MC: What was your first introduction to lifting
weights?
SA: At four years old I started doing gymnastics
and it turned into exercise and fitness, although
it wasn’t bodybuilding. I was on a youth profes-
sional soccer team. When I moved here I realized
that soccer was not as popular as it is in other
countries, so I got into football. I played football in
high school, and that’s when I started getting into
weightlifting. So it was between 12 and 16 years
old. I played football for four years at Westlake High
School. We went to the CIF championships twice
and won state once. It was in college when I really
got the nutrition part down and kept things very
healthy. I used to be very husky.
“The camera can make
you look bigger, but
it can’t make you look
smaller or leaner,
so I have to struggle
and stay as lean as
I can be.”
MC: How much did you weigh at your
heaviest?
SA: My heaviest was 275 pounds. I was 275
and probably around 20 percent body fat. I
was still pretty athletic, but I did not look the
way I do now. When I stopped playing foot-
ball after college, I really picked up my nutri-
tion and exercising, and I trimmed down a lot.
My face structure totally changed. Everything
about me changed. I look completely differ-
ent now than I do in those photos. I dropped
down to 200 pounds and three to four per-
cent body fat. I built back up to about 220
over the next year.
MC: What kind of size and shape is best
for your career?
SA: I was on the muscular size, but now I
have trimmed down a little bit and I’m more
of a relevant size so I can play a variety of
roles. In movies and in print work, the screen
is wider, so you appear 15 to 20 pounds big-
ger on camera. On camera you look wider, so
I try to stay lean. The camera can make you
look bigger, but it can’t make you look smaller
or leaner, so I have to struggle and stay as
lean as I can be.
50 APRIL 2017 | ironmanmagazine.com