Mark Twain once said that age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
While this clever remark was likely meant to be a tongue-in-cheek reminder that you are only as old as you feel, every once in a while someone comes along who quite literally personifies that statement. Through sheer force of will, they demonstrate that age has no bearing on what a person can or can’t accomplish.
Todd Danforth is one of those people.
Last month, Todd placed third overall in the Canadian Body Building Federation’s national competition, finishing on the podium among a tough field of contestants from across the country. At 52 years old, it is an incredible achievement that speaks volumes to the type of competitor he is, and the amount of discipline and self-control he exhibits on a daily basis to maintain his impressive physique.
“When I started this, my first show, I was 47 and just did it for fun,” he says. “I’m still doing it for fun.”
But it’s become more than that. It has become a way of life for Todd, a combination of hard work and constant discipline over every aspect of his body, from rigorous exercise to strict meal plans with very little flexibility in the lead-up to a competition.
Todd has come a long way since returning to the gym for the first time in a decade in 2010
The diet itself is intense. Meal preparation for a show begins 17 weeks out, and requires constant contact with his nutritionist and trainer. The closer he gets, the more restrictions are imposed on what he eats. With six weeks to go, he finds himself well under the 100 carbohydrates/day limit (his pre-workout meal is a quarter cup of cream of rice, followed by another quarter cup when he gets home). The carbs are replaced by things like Himalayan rock salt before every meal, to recharge the batteries, increase strength and fill out muscle.
“The magic thing to say is, ‘You have to be depleted to get full’,” he quips. “If I’m not depleted, if I’m not totally miserable, flat, then I can’t go on stage eating carbs to fill the muscle back out. If I’ve got fat or water still stored in me, and then I start eating my carbs, those fat cells get filled as well. I might get bloated, and then I don’t look sharp anymore.
“Eventually your body accepts what you’re giving it, but you can’t afford to slip up. I don’t care if it’s a rice cake [7 carbs, no sugar], you put that in your mouth, its candy. It’s one hundred percent candy and your mind goes crazy and you just want to eat the whole bag.”
The minimalist diet is paired with days that start at 5:00 a.m., when Todd heads to the gym for his hour-and-a-half cardio and ab workout. After a sauna and breakfast, he leaves for work, where he owns a property maintenance business and is often cutting and removing trees, laying stonework and fixing docks. He returns to the gym for another two hours prior to heading home, usually between 8:30-9:00 p.m., in time for a tired meal and some time with his family before going to bed and starting the cycle anew.
The routine is the product of years of hard work dating back to 2010, when, recently divorced, Todd decided to return to the gym after a decade-long hiatus. A lifelong athlete, hockey and lacrosse player, with several black belts in various martial arts disciplines, it didn’t take long for him to get back into an intense workout routine. Jokingly, he made a bet with a few of the other members at the gym to see who could put on the most muscle mass to give them a goal to work towards.
In addition to spending over three hours a day in the gym, Todd credits his day job – running his own property maintenance business – as an important factor in maintaining his physique
Needless to say, he won the wager.
As the months passed and his strength continued to increase, one of the other men suggested to Todd that with a proper diet he could make a serious run at becoming a bodybuilder. Intrigued by the idea, Todd shifted his focus from purely adding muscle mass to fine tuning his overall physique.
“The next thing you know I was getting ready for my first show in 2012,” he recalls. “You never think that you’re good enough, or that you did enough, that you dieted enough. Going in and seeing all the other bodybuilders, you think everybody looks really good.
“I finally found a mirror, and after a couple spray tans were put on I thought, ‘Wow I look really good’. My confidence level went right up. I walked out on stage and took first place.”
The instant success inspired Todd to begin entering bigger and more prestigious competitions, and his second show was the Toronto championships in March 2013. Once again, he took first place, in the process qualifying for the Ontario provincial championships. Competing in two different categories, Masters and Open, Todd experienced his first real setback, finishing 14th and 16th in each division respectively.
Originally from British Columbia, Todd moved to the Huntsville area in 2000
Instead of quitting, or deciding to be content with the progress he had made, Todd instead used the disappointment as added motivation as he began to get more serious about the finer aspects of the sport. He hired a trainer to learn how to pose properly, and increased the intensity of his workouts. A year later, he just missed out on making the podium with a fourth-place finish at the provincial level, in the process earning a berth to attend the national championship in 2015.
Competing at the highest level of his career, Todd finished ninth in the country in the Masters division, an impressive accomplishment considering it came a mere three years after his first competition in a discipline that often takes a decade or more to reach peak physical form.
“I thought, ‘Ninth in Canada? That’s not bad,’” he says. “But I wasn’t satisfied.”
Hiring another trainer, Todd had to re-qualify at the provincial level last year, where he placed second in Ontario as Grand Master and fifth as Master, earning himself another shot to compete at the Canadian Championships this July.
While the goal was to bring home gold, Todd was not upset with his bronze-level performance, and acknowledges he had to overcome a number of obstacles during the show that would have frustrated many of his colleagues.
Bringing a CD with music for his performance, Todd discovered after arriving in Alberta that the organizers instead wanted the competitor’s media in MP3 format. Without his normal repertoire, Todd agreed to use to a different song suggested by the organizers, Dirty Deeds by AC/DC.
“I went back to my room, listened to it and put another routine together,” he recalls. “When I went out on stage – they didn’t play it. I did my routine anyways, and kind of chuckled about it and that was it. It was hilarious.”
After the event, which Todd has yet to decide if it will be his last bodybuilding competition, his trainer told him to go home, chill out, and be happy with what he had accomplished. He had taken a huge step forward, and, if he chose, could compete at the North American Championships next August.
“I’m not saying that I’m done, I’m not saying that was my last show,” he explained. “I’m saying I wouldn’t make a call until at least January or February, and see where I’m at with my off-season. The North America’s would be my only next show, and being in August it works out well. I’ve heard it’s a phenomenal event.”
Despite not officially making a decision about whether he will continue competing, Todd will not be giving up the habits that have gotten him to the shape he is in anytime soon.
“For breakfast I had my eight egg whites and my quarter cup of cream of rice,” he laughed. “I did it because I like it. I packed food to eat like fruit that wasn’t on my schedule before, but I don’t want to train this hard to look this good just to throw it away in a week, or a month.”
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Mick Jagger once said, “You don’t get older, you get better”, although it doesn’t happen by itself