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James Ellis
| Hometown | LA |
| Height | 5'10" |
| Weight | 195lbs |
| Class | Fitness Model World Champion |
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Biography
Growing up I was always a hard gainer. I ate everything in sight, from pastas to fast food, and never gained a pound. People were blown away by how much I could eat as I would often have multiple breakfast meals and was always going for seconds at lunch and dinner. All that eating and I still just couldn’t seem to gain weight or strength.
Looking back I’m guessing that part of the reason I had trouble gaining weight was because I was a cross-country runner from third grade all the way up through high school. It wasn’t uncommon to see me running along side the country roads or in local parks because I was running up to 80 miles a week in the summertime.
My cross country coach introduced me to weight lifting in the sixth grade as he had the whole team lifting light weights 2-3 days a week in the summer time and early in the season. He felt that as runners it was important to have descent upper body strength and some good leg strength as well. But as I said before, I never seemed to make any progress in gaining weight and my strength didn’t change a whole lot either. I always had the ‘bulldog’ work ethic, but just didn’t seem mature enough to get great results. Looking back I know that was exactly why I wasn’t really getting those physical ‘outward’ results. Junior high is just a little bit too young to be hitting the gym for those bulking results.
Fast forward to my senior year (1999), when I signed up to be in the weight lifting class at my school. When I started the 18 week class I was about 5’8” & 130lbs. For the first month it was the usual as I was still only benching & squatting a measly 135lbs as that just seemed to be my weak bodies plateau and it was quite embarrassing. Not only was I scrawny, but I was a weakling too.
All of this scrawny/weakling stuff began to change when I was introduced to supplements. I started taking protein powders and creatine and as a result noticed a significant difference in both my size and strength within weeks. Every class I was reaching a new max on bench and squat. I was also noticing that my arms were getting bigger, my chest was starting to grow/form, and my abs were getting bulkier and more defined as well. I continued to stack these products throughout the weight training course and by the end of the 18 weeks I was weighing 145lbs, benching 265lbs, and was squatting 275lbs. These gains were mind blowing and I was so pleased with the results of my strength, weight, and build.
After graduating high school I went off to college (Indiana State University) and got even more serious about weight training. I was training 5-6 days a week and running 2-3 miles about 3 days a week. I continued to take my protein, cycling on and off of the creatine, and was still experiencing all the amazing results along with some great recovery too. Within the first few years of college my dedication to the gym went up to 6-7 days a week and my weight training program turned into more of bodybuilding program. I was so pleased as I had reached my maximum height of 5’11” and was weighing 170lbs. At that point in time my max on bench press was 305lbs, and I was squatting 325lbs.
My final two years of college I got even more serious about weight training and to be honest I had become an addict as I was so thrilled with all the positive results. I dedicated to training my legs harder, increased my protein intake and was still taking creatine as well. It was in that time that I introduced glutamine to my supplementation list too. By my senior year (2005) my weight was up to 185lbs, my max on bench was 335lbs, I was squatting 405lbs 4-6 reps, and leg pressing 945lbs.
Toward the end of my senior year I was made aware of some local bodybuilding shows, the Mr. Indiana State University & the Mr. Wabash Bodybuilding shows. I figured with all this hard work I had already put in I may as well take it to another level and so I joined these shows. For these shows I experienced competition dieting for my first time and had also depleted my carbohydrates & water to help bring out the cuts and vascularity. This took me from that high weight of 185lbs down to my competition weight of 162lbs. All that dieting paid off because it taught me discipline and I ended up being blessed with a win in both of the competitions.
Winning those competitions is what ended up bringing me out to California in pursuit of a full time career as a fitness model. To compete with these big dogs I really had to step up my game in the gym and treat it like the job it had now become. I was still taking protein and cycling creatine/glutamine and things got to a whole new level when I started taking NO supplements. My pumps and vascularity had reached a level that I never thought possible. It was in that time (2007-2009) that I really started to show up in a majority of the fitness magazines all the time and I began to land fitness magazine covers too, which was a dream come true. I was also filming a lot of infomercials and working on several shoots with bodybuilding.com.
Each accomplishment encouraged me to work even harder in the gym and develop that “No Pain, No Gain” training attitude. As a result of my go get-er attitude I ended up meeting and working with Jay Cutler (4-time Mr. Olympia). We started working on our FitnessVTC website (www.fitnessvtc.com) where we virtually personal train people and give them tips on dieting. I am also the virtual host on that website. Since I was spending a lot of time with him I began picking his brain to learn some of his little weight training/dieting secrets. He gave me some great tips and also gave me an honest evaluation of my build and really critiqued me too.
As a result, 2010 had become an incredible year for both my physical results and fitness modeling exposure. I landed covers of eight fitness magazines and the most exciting one for me was REPS magazine. Landing that cover was a big deal to me because you have to be closer to a bodybuilding look to land that cover. I was the first model ever and only model to date to land the covers of both Robert Kennedy Publications, Maximum Fitness & REPS!, and I landed them both in the same year. Not to mention I was also excited to consistently be featured in a majority of the fitness magazines on the shelves every month. To top it off I ended the year by becoming one of the main spokesmodels for Jay Cutler’s clothing line and I signed a supplement contract with Schiek fitness gear.
I worked off of the momentum from 2010 to make 2011 my best year in the fitness industry. I landed the covers of four different fitness magazines and have three more covers coming out before the end of the year. I accomplished my goal of becoming the top fitness model in the world by winning the 2011 WBFF ‘Pro Male Fitness Model’ World Championship, which took place in Canada in late August.
Blog: James Ellis
Photos: James Ellis
Videos: James Ellis
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Training: James Ellis
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