May of 2013 at the New York Pro I announced my retirement from professional competitive bodybuilding.
I walked off stage for the last in my career in the worst condition of my life. Needles to say it was an emotional time. Retiring, and not ending it at my best.
For a while it ate at me that I left the sport unhappy, but I tried to rationalize the fact that I was 46 years old and my better days were behind me, and that it was time to move on.
I had been an endorsed athlete with Universal Nutrition since 1996, and for 18 years I got a chance to work the “CAGE” at the Arnold Classic Expo where I had the privilege to meet some of the best powerlifters in the world. Powerlifting was always fascinating to me, as the training, in my opinion was more disciplined than bodybuilding.
I never counted a calorie nor kept a training log in my own training, so powerlifting was something that I watched as a spectator and never thought in a million years I’d be able to ever do it.
After a year of retirement the competitive bug was bitting. I was getting antsy and needed an out lit.
I contacted Hanri Skiba who’s based out of Carteret NJ where he runs a hard core powerlifting club. I told him I wanted to train for a powerlifting meet, and I’ll do what ever it took!
Every Sunday I drove an hour to SKIBAS to train alongside some of the best powerlifters in the NJ Philly area. These guys took me in with open arms. I was taught the technical end of lifting heavy weight. I threw out the window everything I knew about bodybuilding training, and only followed what ever Skiba told me to do.
5-3-1 to a deload was all new to me. Holding your breath as you went DEEP while squatting was all foreign to me, but I applied it all, and it actually came relatively easy for me. I was actually enjoying following an actual plan, something I never did as a bodybuilder.
Bodybuilding was easy for me, I just trained, I went with feel, nothing ever planned out.
I competed in my first meet and loved the comradely. I ended up with a little over a 900 total and winning the over 45 raw division.
Everything was going good, training was on point, my nutrition was on point, and my personal training business was going well. However, I still felt that I left competitive bodybuilding on bad terms personally as I was in the worst shape of my life…it was eating at me. All these good things were happening, but at the same time I was unease with my self feeling like I needed a 2nd chance.
One day in early December of 2014 I was training chest, while I was flat dumbbell pressing my right shoulder just ripped and popped. It felt like a zipper, even my training partner heard it.
I immediately called one of my clients that is a radiologist for Dr Andrew Willis who is one of the top shoulder surgeons in NJ.
2 hours later I am at his office waiting for results to come back from an MRI.
I tore the entire rotator cuff. I ended up having surgery on New Year’s Eve 2014/2015 Dr Willis needed to use 9 anchors to repair the shoulder. Talk about a setback, this put me out of the gym for about 8 months as I needed the anchors to settle and do it’s job.
Around September I was starting to get back to some light training, and by January 1st I was starting to actually “train” again.
Lighting striking twice!!!!!
Just as I was getting into a good training routine, I felt the same zipper like feeling in my left shoulder. Finding my self back in Dr. Willis office to hear the news that I had a mirror image of the same injury as the right shoulder.
Having surgery in February of 2016 and another 8 months of being set back to let 5 anchors heel.
By the time September of 2016 rolled around, I was pretty depressed, and had no outlet to let out the frustrations. I was starting to think that I’d never get the chance of ever competing in a Pro Bodybuilding contest ever again.
I slowly started to get out of my own state of self doubt, and slowly started to get back into a training routine, but I kept hitting road blocks. I couldn’t do what I used to, but I thought if I just kept at it, eventually things would fall into place.
By January of 2017 I started to adapt to new training methods and started to apply some of the things I learned from training at Skibas. I realized I was focused of what I couldn’t do anymore, and instead I focused on what I could do.
It was a learning curve for me as I was trying to get back into shape with new training methods. I started applying TIME UNDER TENSION.
I started seeing some great results, and my body was responding well.
The competitive bug was starting to bite once again, and I decided to train for the Masters Baltimore Pro in October 2017.
I gave it 100% but I ended up in dead last. Not exactly the “comeback” I was hoping for, but I went home and re-evaluated everything I was doing, and I came up with the idea that I just needed more time in the gym, and I’ll do Baltimore again in 2018.
2018 Masters Baltimore wasn’t any better. Maybe my better days were really behind me, maybe I should give this up as I placed dead last once again. This comeback wasn’t what I expected, and mentally it got to me. I had a pitty party for my self for about a month and then picked my self up and decided that I’m going to figure out what needed to be done in order for me to win again.
With 14 anchors throughout my shoulders I found that time under tension really worked well, however I was training too light. I started focusing on sets of 8 reps, but each set would be heavier. I was doing 5 sets per exercise. I would increase the weight on each set over the first 4 sets until it was a struggle to get 8 reps on that 4th set, then on the 5 set….it was a balls out set to failure.
Drop set after drop set, but never breaking the form of time under tension.
The first 4 sets I call, acclamation sets. Getting ready for the 1 set to failure where I am really going to failure.
This program is for someone that has patience, if you don’t have patience to find the weights that work for you, and have the patience to use the time under tension principle, then you’ll be very frustrated, and won’t give it 100%.
I really believed in what I was doing, I believed I was on to something, and I believed that if I give it one more shot, I’d finally have a great comeback.
I set my sights on the 2019 Pittsburgh Masters pro. Besides having my new training program set in place, I also decided to have a different mindset going into the contest.
I decided to not focus on winning, the focus was set towards being in the best condition ever. I was going to prove that my better days were not behind me. I had no control over anything but the effort I put forth. Before I turned pro in 2018, my amateur days saw me in great condition between 195lbs and 198lbs as a light heavyweight.
I trained as if I were an amateur once again, I trained as if I needed to make the 198 1/4lb weight class that was required for the light heavyweight class.
My 4 year journey had finally paid off. I entered and won both the Over 50 and Over 40 Pittsburgh Masters Pro, and also 1st place in the Over 50 Hurricane Masters Pro and 3rd place in the Over 40 Hurricane Masters Pro.
Many times over the 4 years, I doubted my self, and many times I wanted to give up. I feel that fighting those thoughts is when we become stronger individuals….never give up on your dreams, and never up on your self.
Vinny Galanti
