James Metzger - Everything I ever needed to know about business I learned on the sports field » Loading His Bodybuilding Guns For Competition

Loading His Bodybuilding Guns For Competition
Apr 01, 2021Posted by james

Joe Tolve always is chasing his next meal. Food is fuel according to this Ossining (Westchester County) police sergeant who is a firearms instructor and SWAT team member.

Joe has been an amateur bodybuilder since his teens. As with all his achievements, bodybuilding has required full-time discipline. Training is five days a week at 90-minute intervals.

As for food, Joe gobbles 2,200-3,200 calories daily. He said the science of bodybuilding is 70 percent diet. That might mean 40 ounces of chicken each day along with whey protein, avocados, peanut butter, oatmeal, walnuts and sweet potatoes. Proper diet is crucial, according to Joe. He said at least 10 friends have tried bodybuilding. The diet not the workout was their downfall.

Joe indicated that a bodybuilder cannot find a shortcut to success. There isn’t any negotiation with the body. Positive results push a person to the next level.

As a teen, Joe competed in local shows in the Hudson Valley. Then, he won the Mr. Teen Long Island competition. From 1991 to 2014, however, a period that included four years in the Air Force, Joe did not step onto a bodybuilding stage. A few years ago, determined to return to competition, he focused on a regimen for seven weeks. When the National Physique Committee (NPC), the largest amateur bodybuilding organization in the United States, introduced its Classic Bodybuilding division, Joe’s dimensions were perfect and he returned to the stage.

Joe won the Men’s Masters Classic Physique overall at the NPC Powerhouse Classic in Connecticut a few years ago. He then rolled right into the Team Universe competition and placed second among the over-40 men, third in the over-35s, and eighth overall in the open class of 26 competitors. His goal is to become a professional bodybuilder.

Joe is a wonderful story about discipline, focus and hard work. What I like most, though, is that the sport that is the foundation for Joe’s success is lacrosse.

In looking back at how he got to this point in his life, Joe said he had been a “scrawny” 15-year-old Ossining High School lacrosse player. His stepfather decided that lifting weights would help Joe bulk up. That led to the competitions mentioned above and many others since, his honorable military service and his success on the Ossining Police Department.