Interview with Andrew "Mezza" Merrifield, The Ultimate Natural

Posted by PredatorAdmin at 15:36 05/01/12

Hi Mez. How did it all start? How did you get into bodybuilding and what was your inspiration to get started?

You may find this strange but my big brother had all the Marvel superhero comics and I would look at these comics every day. The characters had huge muscles, and I wanted muscles too. The guy that gave me the most impact was The Incredible Hulk. Without these characters, I don’t think it would have happened at all. Then, as I grew older, it was the Rocky series. I was very much into the boxing. I went to the boxing club and I knew it was a choice of either boxing or bodybuilding, and I chose bodybuilding. That’s how it started.
I was 14 years old when I first went to the gym. I knew I would never achieve the big muscle look which the big guys had in the magazines, but they gave me a lot of inspiration, as I used to buy a lot of Flex magazines.
I was 22 when I entered my first bodybuilding competition and it happened almost by accident. A guy in the gym was entering a natural bodybuilding competition and I asked him what this was. He said “Basically, it’s a bodybuilding competition where people don’t take drugs to improve their physique.” To cut a long story short I entered that competition as a novice, and won the overall. This was the first time in the history of the competition this had happened (in the ANB). I made history there, which was good!

So were there any guys whose physiques you were particularly inspired by?

In the 80’s, yes.  Personally, both the guys and the girls. The girls actually looked sexy and fit. The physiques they had back then in the late 80’s and early 90’s, I was looking at them thinking, ‘Yeah, it’s possible that, if you work as hard as them’, whereas now it’s like ‘f*****g hell, what’s going on here?’

*Laughs*

There was Rich Gaspari, Lee Labrada, Shawn Ray etc. I think there were around 10 guys who inspired me.

How did you pick up nutrition and training advice?

When I first hit the gym at 14, I met a guy called Alan Guest who was a big competitive bodybuilder. Back then, very high volume training methods were common. People used to train for two hours at a time, crazy training. There was far too much overtraining but it was the advice I got from Alan. Due to the amount of training I was doing, I had developed little muscles in places that other people didn’t have. I wasn’t big. I’m still not big by any means, but I was building little bits of quality all the time, which I think is the reason that I can get on stage today and have muscles in places that a lot of people haven’t.

*Laughs*
 

For those who don’t know, what are your achievements in the sport?

I think my greatest achievement was just standing on stage. It’s not a particular title that I have won. Some people might look at my achievements and say you’ve got the British Title and you’ve got the World Title. If there was a show that was my greatest achievement, I’d say it was my first show. That’s the one that stands out in my memory. I will never forget that day. It was one of the best days of my life. I was aged 22 and I’m 32 now so it was a long time ago but I can’t remember it like it was this morning.
*Laughs*

Are you still competing now?

I haven’t competed since 2008, which was in Canada. I’ve never been that confident competing on stage. It’s more of an act when I’m posing and doing routines. I’d probably say this was the only show, and I’m sticking my neck out here, that while I was backstage I looked at my body and thought ‘Oh my God’. I remember looking around at everyone else thinking, ‘I’m gonna nail them.’ I actually text my sponsors at the time saying ‘You’re going to have a new World Champion here.’ I text my mum saying, ‘I’m going to nail this!’

*Laughs*

Anyway, I was 100%. Even at the start, when I was stood in line all the judges just couldn’t take their eyes off me. They called me out first and put me back, called me out again and put me back. They didn’t bring me out again and left everyone else to it. All the feedback I was getting throughout the day, not from the English people, but from Canadians and Americans, was just unreal. A lot of them were pro naturals as well. I remember getting to the end of the day and ours was the last class overall. They gave me second. I actually went dizzy...I literally went dizzy! I took it on the chin, but that’s bodybuilding for you. I’ve said it before - it’s not like putting a golf ball, scoring a goal or knocking someone out. It is simply someone’s decision. Photos don’t lie. I’ve seen the photos and it’s there plain to see, for me anyway. It’s just one of those things. S**t happens now and again. I mean, I’ve been beaten fair and square in the past, by a better person, but that day is the only show that I will never get over. I’ll never get over it!

To be honest, that show wasn’t even planned. I had released my DVD that year and I was thinking I could do some guest posing. Then when I thought of the Predator routine and because I was in pretty good shape, a friend of mine at the time called Gemma Williams said ‘you should come and do this show.’ Then Kris Gethin mentioned it a few times as well. That’s how that show came about really, but I got some good photos and I’m glad I did it.  

 
Can you give us some more details on the DVD?

The DVD took 8 months to complete and get bang on. I’m a perfectionist you see, and trying to achieve perfection can be very hard, particularly when you are relying on other people. I was relying on the team to put what I wanted together because I didn’t have the tools to do it myself. I don’t think they realised what they were getting into actually. I think they thought they were going to complete it in a week. In reality, well Levi was 8 weeks old. He’s actually in the DVD. I’m pushing him through the supermarket, doing some shopping and getting stressed.

*Laughs*

He was just over 8 months old when we finished. Lots of stress went into that. It was difficult to get the editing bang on. They sent me the DVD when they thought it was finished, but it wasn’t finished by any means. As it was rolling, I had more and more ideas but ultimately the result was a DVD that at the time, I genuinely thought was the best DVD out there- it sold that much. It’s something that I’m really proud of. It did cost me a lot of money because of the amount of time it took but I’d rather it did cost the amount of money and be bang on, than it cost less, be done in a week and just be thrown together. I saw a gap in the market, certainly in England. At the time in the DVDs that were out there, the guys didn’t look great or pumped and they didn’t give much information. They do more now, but certainly on the natural front there was a massive gap in the market and I nailed it. I basically go through everything I know regarding all sorts of training philosophies, different types of training styles, why I am doing it, why not to do it a certain way etc. Even though it is an instructional DVD, it is just me full on, hardcore natural bodybuilding with no rehearsals. It’s me just being myself. There are some pretty funny moments in there as well, some crazy moments too and people love it. There’s nutrition on there for the day and off season. I don’t talk about contest prep as it’s not a contest prep DVD. I was thinking about doing a contest prep DVD - me ripped to the bone, but it’s just no fun getting in that type of shape.

*Laughs*

Even down to the packaging, it’s first class. It covers all the supplementation I was taking, loads of posing, loads of routines, backstage footage and as much as I could get on three discs.
 

How has your training changed over the years?

The reason I over-trained when I was younger was that I wanted it so badly. My dream was to live in California and be a professional bodybuilder. From the age of 14 until about 19, I used to think that if I trained harder than anyone else then I would get a better body than anyone else. That’s ultimately why I was doing so much; loads of drop sets, loads of forced reps, loads of giant sets etc. I was so sore. I was still at school at the time and I would train my legs on a Thursday. I can remember walking to school on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and not being able to do sports and PE because my legs were so sore that they felt like they’d been hit with a bat. As I’ve got older, you get smarter and I’ve realised over the past couple of years that I don’t need to train as hard and the results are the same. I don’t need to come out of the gym feeling like I have been hit by a bus. I still train hard but not over as long a period of time, for instance I have cut down the volume. Instead of doing every exercise I could think of for that muscle group, I have cut it right down. Arms have always been a stubborn muscle group for me and I would say my arms have grown and become more full this year than they had previously. I have also been doing high reps. I’ve been doing 60 rep sets for standing dumbbell curls and also fast explosive reps. I think this is pumping more blood into my muscles. Heavy weights don’t seem to work for my arms at all so that has certainly changed. My shoulder training has changed so I’m doing a rest of about 10 seconds in between each set, keeping the same weight, and again it’s keeping more blood in the muscle cell. I’m getting into all this blood volume stuff as I’ve been reading about it a little bit. I’m not that technical when it comes to training. I’m more of hands-on, train hard, no frills, no rea

l science behind it kind of guy. Some people get too backed up by science and some of these people haven’t got physiques that back up their knowledge. I’m like the Rocky story of bodybuilding.

*Laughs*

A good story for you, I tore both quads badly about 11 weeks ago while I was squatting in the gym. I hadn’t been squatting for a couple of years because I have had a bad back, but my back is alright now so I had three 20’s a side. The first problem was that I didn’t warm up enough. The second problem was that I did my first set then put an extra 35kg on each side. I took it off the rack and it felt like a bus on my back, but there was a fit bird standing at the side of me. So what am I going to do? Am I going to put it back or am I going to squat? I’m going to squat!

*Laughs*

On the fourth rep on the way back up, you can imagine what a dry t-shirt sounds like when it tears. That happened under my skin. Both quads ripped and obviously I screamed. The bar hit the back of my head as I chucked it off. Luckily in that squat rack in particular, you can do shrugs off it as well so there were two metal bars coming from the bottom of the rack. As I went down, the bars caught the weight so thankfully it didn’t crush me. To cut a long story short, I went to hospital and got wheelchaired in by my mum as I couldn’t walk. She said I was actually lucky because if those bars hadn’t been there, it would have torn off the bone and then you would have had real problems. My legs went black and blue and I received some great advice from a couple of posts on Facebook actually. Someone called Lesley, who had studied in this area for about 20 years, gave me more advice than all the specialists put together. I haven’t trained my legs for 11 weeks now apart from a few leg extensions last week. The ironic thing is that I trained in my shorts for the first time in years, and my legs were bigger then than they have ever been. I have only been ticking over for a couple of years, so back to what I was saying, less is more! It is a lesson learned on my part. I didn’t warm up, training with a fit bird, three weeks back into it, me thinking I was He-Man...

*Laughs*

He inspired me as well when I was a kid actually!
 

Is ‘less is more’ the best advice you could give to an aspiring bodybuilder or gym goer? What’s the most common mistake you see?

There are loads of mistakes. The first thing is that people go into the gym and think that if they train pretty hard three or four times a week, then the muscles are going to repair and grow that little bit bigger each week. The reality is that they don’t, and it takes a very long time to see results. The second classic mistake is nutrition. It’s a bit like building a house. You can have all your bricks, all your windows and all your roof ready, but if all those foundations are not there before you build the house then it will fall straight back down. It’s the same with training. You can go gym and you can smash the gym up, but if your food is not in place then you’re not going to get very far.

What’s your favourite supplement and why?

Flapjacks. The good thing about flapjacks is you can take them anywhere, and they have good nutritional value if you choose wisely. There are plenty of good ones out there but Reflex are probably my favourite.
 

In terms of protein, what do you go for and why?

I used to almost live my life around the number of grams of protein I consumed each meal. I’d be measuring out my protein and I’d be timing myself the whole time. I was obsessed! I don’t think about it anymore though. Now, I eat before I get hungry. I have no idea of the exact amount of protein I have each day but it’ll be around 300-350 grams. I have a lot of whey powder drinks but personally I think my body prefers food. If there was a time of the day that I’d say to have your protein, it would be first thing in the morning. Even in the night, if you wake up and go to the loo then have a glass of protein at your side and you can feed your body while you are sleeping. Depending on your work schedule, if you train around 5ish and you have a solid meal, like steak or chicken, then by the time you get to the gym and you’ve had your pre workout it is still undigested. I like to have a shaker, filled with water, oats and protein. There are plenty about and at the top level they are all about as good as each other. I would say that if you choose any of the top of the range stuff then you will get the same results. Once you have finished your training, fire your protein in.

What I do at the moment is have Xtend about 15 minutes before the gym and I use my own pre-workout drink that I have about 30 minutes before the gym. I use one sachet of that as two servings would blow your head off and you might struggle to get to sleep at night. I have 4 scoops of Xtend during training and I use Xtend immediately after training and sometimes a protein shake with some carbs around 20 minutes after that. I have read some research that if you have your protein shake after your workout along with your carbs then the blood gets taken away from your muscle and pushed towards your stomach to help digest the protein shake. I want the blood kept in the muscle for as long as possible so I give it around 20 minutes and then I have my protein shake and fast acting carbs.

What have you been doing since competing? I hear you have plans to launch your own supplement line? Can you tell us any more about that and what you are trying to achieve?

I have achieved many of my goals I have set out to achieve. I have been featured in Flex magazine, I have won a few shows but one of goals I haven’t achieved yet is to bring out my own product range. I can’t afford to have a massive product range and I don’t want a white label product range which a lot of people seem to be doing, using someone else’s formula with their own label on. The pre-workout drink that I have had formulated has been reformulated about seven or eight times. The first one had such high concentrations of ingredients that there was no business sense in it. It was too expensive, so we kept the same ingredients but the amounts have changed now, otherwise it would have never come out at all. My pre-workout is something that I am really proud of. It is a blend of creatine monohydrate, kre-alkalyn, some BCAA’s, citrulline malate and a lot of stimulants in there. A lot of work has gone into it and I wouldn’t put my name to it if I didn’t believe in it. It’s taken a long time to get as good as I want it, and again it very nearly didn’t happen because the first one they sent wasn’t good enough. They were sending me stuff that I wouldn’t put my name to. The

packaging was a big problem because the appearance is a big thing for me. It’s what people look at first and a lot of the tubs in the UK aren’t good enough in my opinion. I have gone with a carton so there’s lots of space for graphics, information and artwork. It’s something I’m proud of and it’s something I will use. My second product might be another pre-workout drink with a totally different formula. It will probably take another 8 months to perfect then I could maybe look at bringing a protein product out.
 

Have you thought of a name for the line?

 
I had a few different name ideas but I’m going with Mezza Products. The logo has been registered and copyrighted and I have got the name of the product registered as well so nobody can pinch it.

*Laughs*

We will have a lot of aspiring bodybuilders reading this and they will definitely be interested in your contest day regime. Can you tell us a bit more about this?

I’m usually more nervous than anyone else actually. From about six weeks out, I would be getting no sleep. I would get up at around 4 in the morning, start doing cardio around half 5 and it’ll be on my mind every minute of every day. It was all I thought about so my advice regarding show day would be to make sure you plan your journey. Make sure you are on time, make sure you’ve got enough food and make sure you take enough carbohydrates. Go for simple sugars if you’re not getting pumped back stage, sip your water and don’t do anything drastic. Try to keep your mind as focused as possible. A lot of people tend to talk a lot on show day but personally I like to keep myself to myself. I don’t want to get into any conversations. That’s just me personally and everyone’s different but most of all, aim to be professional and treat others with respect and try to enjoy yourself! Remember you are there to show off your body in the best possible way. My mum used to say “When you’re on stage don’t relax, even when you are back in line.”  
 

You mentioned your supplement line and you’ve got your own shop too. Do you have any other future plans?

The shop is doing really well. I’ve been there but 10 years now and it took me about 6 years to get established. I’d say it’s more of a service that I provide. About 8 out of 10 people come in and ask for our advice. I would like to get on stage again actually. A couple of years ago I got nice pair of posing trunks made. I’m not going to give away the details because someone will pinch my idea, but they are pretty cool and they haven’t been worn yet. I’ve achieved as much as I can really. It’s crazy to think that people want to see me get on stage and do what I do. It seems they want to see me compete more now than ever before. I think it’s because of the increasing popularity of sites like Facebook. People can get hold of you now and you are more accessible. Perhaps I may do a guest posing routine or something. It would be good channel to spread the word about my new product, but never say never!
 

Finally, if you have 1 tip for any aspiring bodybuilder, what’s the one most important thing you would pass on?

Keep your feet on the ground and remember that for 95% of people, this is just a hobby! It’s a hobby that can get out of control and take over your entire existence. Don’t let it do that to you. Make sure you have other things in life. Don’t just become a bodybuilder, but have more to you and just enjoy it.
 

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