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Get To Know JB
An interview with wannabebig.com

By Dr. John M Berardi, Ph.D.
First published at www.wannabebig.com, 2003.

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Whether you’re new to the site or a faithful regular, this portion of an interview done with Maki Riddington of www.wannabebig.com will give you a glimpse into this site’s fearless leader, John M. Berardi.

WBB: How did you get started in this industry?

JB: Pure, dumb luck brought me into this industry. Well, I guess that’s not exactly true. I guess you could say that I happened to meet the right people at the right times in my life such that their mentorship allowed me to move toward where I am today.

You see, I began training seriously back when I was 18 years old. A few buddies and I caught the disease and we would tear up the local gyms, scaring most of the local gym patrons with our loud grunting during lifting and our loud taunts of encouragement. While our training, our attitudes, and our nutritional intake (over 6000kcal per day) were all a bit excessive, I went from benching 135 for a few measly reps to 315 for 10 reps in about a year and a half. And my body weight skyrocketed from 160lbs to about 210lbs. So we were big believers in our methods (especially considering I hadn’t taken any steroids to make these gains). In fact, in my precocious arrogance, I used to tell people I was going to be a pro bodybuilder. I reasoned that if I gained this much this fast, if I trained seriously for another few years and then eventually took steroids, I’d easily be big enough to turn pro. Hey, no snickering - I was 18 and Flex was my source of bodybuilding information!

While we were thrown out of most gyms because of our behavior, one gym owner (a national level bodybuilding competitor) knew that we were just young and stupid and needed a little instruction - so he took me under his wing, giving me a job at the gym and making me his training partner. Up until this time I was cooking for the breakfast and lunch crowd in my dad’s restaurant. I had no real career goals - I just worked and trained. But after taking the training job, and after another year of training myself as well as clients at that local gym, I began competing in bodybuilding contests. I was doing well so I set some goals, seemingly the first of my life, and ultimately worked my way up to and winning the 1995 NABBA Jr. USA Contest. Of course, in addition to giving me a much-needed shot of confidence, this boosted my perceived status as a knowledgeable trainer. I began thinking I was the best trainer around. Again, I still had a lot to learn.

Because of the success I was having with bodybuilding, my confidence was building and I decided to go to university to learn more about physiology and nutrition. Immediately after the USA contest, I began my undergraduate education. Actually, I flew right from the USA contest in Vegas to Pennsylvania in order to start school the very next day! Undergrad was great. The discipline I learned in bodybuilding made me an exceptional student and just a few years later I graduated with a 3.92GPA (out of a 4.00 point scale), having studied Health Science, Philosophy, and Psychology along the way. Throughout this time I would train enough clients each summer to be able to afford to pay my own way through school. Of course, I kept a few clients during the year, but I mostly studied and trained.

After graduating and kicking around for a few years, running a personal training business and doing some modeling down in Miami Beach, running a video game arcade in Ocean City NJ with my brother Steve, and working in a research lab in Pittsburgh, I decided to go back to school to get a masters degree in Exercise Physiology. And that’s when I really made a splash in the industry. Since I was a student at Eastern Michigan University and TC Luoma, editor-in-chief of Testosterone Magazine, had also graduated from EMU, I decided to email him to see if he needed someone to cover the 2000 American College of Sports Medicine meeting, using the alumni angle as leverage. It worked, and the rest, as they say, is history. TC liked my work and over the course of the last 3 years, I’ve published over 100 articles on training, nutrition, and supplementation, over half of them with Testosterone Magazine. So I have TC to thank for the opportunity and his active promotion of my work.

WBB: How long have you been writing, training and coaching for now?

JB: Tracing back to my days as a coaching neophyte, I guess it’s been about 10 years as a coach/trainer, 11 years as a serious weight lifter, and 3 years as a writer. Well, technically 3 years as a published writer with 5 more as a closet writer. Let me explain. That first article I wrote for T-mag wasn’t my first article ever. Actually, I had been closet writing since 1995, crafting articles for magazines and newsletters; articles that I would never send out. You see, I had wanted to be a writer almost as much as I wanted to be a pro bodybuilder. So I started writing articles about topics that I thought were relevant to my friends and myself back in 1995. Most were crap. But the amazing thing was that each one I wrote was better than the last. So eventually, after 5 years, my friends and I noticed that the articles were getting better and I finally decided to send one out. It always amazes me when young guys who haven’t written much more than an exercise program think that they will be able to write a masterpiece first article, one that will bring them fame and recognition in the industry. As many know, you’ve gotta pay your dues before you can make your mark.

WBB: What are you currently involved in right now?

JB: Right now, I’ve just finished collecting data for my PhD dissertation and am in the process of writing up this data for publication. In about a month or so, I’ll be slapping this research together in a binder and trying to trick some professors to give me a PhD for Christmas. So I hope to be finished my educational odyssey this fall/winter. For those interested, my dissertation has focused on quantifying recovery from intense cycling exercise (by measuring a number of blood markers of muscle damage, a bunch of hormones, numerous energy substrates, fuel oxidation, and subsequent performance) and using different macronutrient strategies to maximize this recovery. I originally wanted to do similar work in strength athletes but the measures available to us weren’t sensitive enough to expect any treatment effects. So I stuck with cycling.

Beyond education, my businesses, Science Link, Inc and johnberardi.com, have been taking off, especially with respect to client consultation. Within the last few weeks, clients of ours have recorded major successes. Allow me to brag a little?

One of our cyclists just won the US Masters National Championship. We also have helped to send a Michigan State Linebacker to camp in the best shape of his life in this, his draft year (lookout NFL). We’ve helped an IFBB figure athlete get ready for the Jan Tana pro contest and we have a number of male bodybuilders entering different level Canadian contests including the Canadian National Championships. More than that, we’ve helped about 20+ exceptional, everyday weight lifters get in their best shapes ever. One client just emailed me recently, noting the he’s recorded a 1% drop in body fat each week for the last 5 weeks. Another client is headed to Hawaii he’s going to arrive on the island at 5% bodyfat, down from 20% earlier this year.

Like with any good team, I have to thank my staff (Carter Schoffer and Phil Caravaggio) for their tireless efforts in making all this success happen.

WBB: Do you have any mentors?

JB: My first mentor and the most impactful one was the gym owner I mentioned earlier. His name is Craig Bach and when I met him, at the tender age of 18 years; he was a successful entrepreneur, an excellent bodybuilder, and a man wise beyond his years. Without his encouragement and counsel, I might still be cooking home fries (not that there is anything at all wrong with that, Dad).

After Craig, Jim Dolan, my University Exercise Physiology instructor also made a big impact. This guy was a no-nonsense educator who always challenged me to do more and to learn more. Every time I responded to his challenges, he gave me more. On top of that, he was just a cool guy, riding his Harley to school in the spring and taking a sabbatical every few years to drive his VW bus across the US.

Two other guys that have made a big impact on me have been Dr Tim Ziegenfuss and Dr Lonnie Lowery. While these two are more like nerdy frat brothers, they have both made meaningful contributions to my work and view of this industry.

WBB: What’s next for JB?

JB: When I was younger, I was a huge advocate of the work of guys like Tony Robbins, Zig Ziegler, and Steven Covey. As a result, I was all about the “5-year plan”. Lately, however, I don’t especially use this strategy. Because of my work and the industry’s growing awareness of my presence, I have more opportunities presented me every day that I would have ever imagined I’d get in a year. Rather than adhere rigidly to a 5-year plan, nowadays, I simply evaluate the potential of new opportunities (in terms of financial reward and how much enjoyment I’d get from getting involved) as they come along. This way, I won’t miss out on some of the great things presented me because I’m too focused on a specific end. Therefore, I can’t say specifically what’s next for me. However, I will say that myself, Phil, and Carter have a lot of unfinished business to take care of with Science Link. There’s still a lot of misinformation out there in terms of general health discussion and discussions of sports nutrition. It’s our goal to share our knowledge with the greatest audience possible, by whatever means necessary. This includes, television appearances, DVD/VHS and live seminars, books, articles, and audio series – whatever it takes to get the word out. People have questions and we have answers. That’s how we fill the need.