Powerlifter added bodybuilding to resume
Kyle Day poses with the first place trophy from his first bodybuilding competition. Photos submitted
By Tom Victoria
Kyle Day possesses an amazing physique and he’s helping folks attain their dream bodies, too.
The bodybuilder and powerlifter guides other people through his social media content and one-on-one instruction.
Kyle, 18, of Colorado explained why fitness is important.
“You only have one body for your entire life,” he said. “I believe fitness is the greatest pursuit that you can have for yourself. Sure, there's success with your career, relationships and other things. But if you're not able to take care of yourself, it will in turn make your career, relationships and the rest of your life suffer just because there's the big part of working on yourself isn't fully in tune. It's almost a form of just making sure everything is in check and that you're not mistreating yourself.”
Kyle said it’s easy to not maintain fitness.
“The more you focus on one thing, it gets to where you can't focus on your life in general,” he said. “You see a lot of people who are really career-based, where that's the only thing they do. They have a poor relationship with their family because of that, and then they also have poor health. You need to try to find a balance of how to fit your work, your family and also fitness into it.”
Kyle, who previously competed in in two bodybuilding and two powerlifting competitions, is entered in another bodybuilding contest in August.
The multi-discipline athlete said one isn’t necessarily harder than the other.
“I would say every fitness discipline has different hard and easy parts,” he said.
Kyle also competes in cycling and trail running.
“If I had to put a number to the cycling, I think it's seven races I've done so far,” he said. “The miles will range from my lower end on the races is 26 miles, and then the high end is 118. They get difficult, but I would definitely continue competing as it's something I love to do. I find if I'm in a competitive environment, I push myself 100 percent. Instead of just doing it for fun, I have to be 100 percent into it. If I fail on my training, I'm failing a competition, and that's not something I want to do. It really allows me to push myself.”
Kyle ran over 26 miles (climbing 6,200 feet) for more than 6.5 hours in a trail marathon June 29.
“Was definitely very rough,” he said.
When Kyle initially got into fitness, he wasn’t slotted to enter any competitions.
“When I first started working out, I didn't necessarily have competitions in my mind,” he said. “That came in probably a few months into me actually doing it. I always thought bodybuilding was cool and power seems neat, but it was never a main focus. I was a smaller guy when I started lifting weights. One of the reasons I got into it is I was severely bullied because of my size. I was like, all right, I want to be able to help myself out and gain more self-confidence. So I went in the gym, started working out. I was working out with my dad when I first started, and both of us got healthier at the same time, which was nice.”
Before long, Kyle decided to apply his fitness to competition.
“It was almost three years until I did my first powerlifting meet,” he said. “Then, three-and-a-half for the second one, and then just a little over three-and-a-half for this first bodybuilding show. And then four-and-a-half years for the second, and then I have another one coming up in August, so we'll see how that feels.”
Kyle has won some unique bodybuilding trophies, including an axe fit for Conan the Barbarian.
“The federation I compete in normally has some fun with it where I've seen them have swords and all this other shit,” he said. “Hopefully, they have something cool for the show I'm doing in August.”
Kyle started his fitness journey when he entered his teens.
“I started working out pretty much right when I turned 13,” he said. “But when I started, I was going to a rec center, and they kept kicking me out of the weight room because I don't think I was covered in their liability insurance, so they kept kicking me out. I probably did it for several weeks of them just kicking me out. Then, I found a gym near my house and went to that up until Covid, and then we bought our own equipment for my house. That's how I've been working out since.”
Kyle started hitting the gym to attain size and strength.
“I wanted to look bigger and I wanted to get stronger at the same time,” he said. “I always had a tough time with people just because of my size, so it was easy for people to f*** with me. Once I started to go in the gym, I realized people weren't doing it as much. I got more or less people messing with me as I got more big and more strong as I could actually have muscle on me and move my weight around comfortably instead of just not being able to do much of anything. When I first started lifting weights, I was 80 or 75 pounds, and now I'm almost up to 150. That's in the past five-and-a-half years. It's about 70 pounds.”
Kyle noticed more than just weight gain.
“It took me a while to get to a point where I was satisfied,” he said. “But within the first few years of me training, my confidence skyrocketed. I started feeling good about myself. I started taking care of myself, not in just fitness, but started treating myself better mentally. There's always going to be ups and downs. I don't think I look the greatest right now. Let's look at where you started and see how much you change. I try to work around that. It's like, okay, I've come so far and that's how I've been looking at it.”
Kyle eventually became interested in powerlifting.
“I had a coach that was helping me do some of my training,” he said. “He was mainly powerlifting focused. He said if you want to, you can try it out. I looked for one in my area and just went for it. But leading up to it, I slightly tore my hamstring. But I'm stubborn enough where if I get hurt, I don't stop. I kept training. I probably had a few months of rehab that I did on my hamstring after that, but I did a powerlifting meet nine months after the first one, and my hamstring was perfect then. You can see when I'm on stage, you can see the difference on my right side and my left just where it doesn't connect all the way to my glute. It's just part of the learning process I see, because you're always going to have some sort of injury, and it's just a matter of learning how to work through it.”
Kyle savored the weightlifting sport.
“The environment is pretty fun,” he said. “The competition itself, because it's really supportive and at the same time it's really competitive. I enjoyed the competition aspect as well as just the idea of push myself to my absolute limit. I've trained for an x amount of time to get to this point.”
Kyle already was intrigued by bodybuilding.
“The bodybuilding I've been interested in for a big majority of my life,” he said. “I always loved Arnold Schwarzenegger when I was younger, where there's the movie Pumping Iron. I thought it's cool. It's them prepping for the Olympia. As I started gaining muscle myself, I was like I could probably do something here. I just threw myself into it, started learning how to pose, changing my training up. It's more for gaining muscle and just seeing how far I can kind of push myself into it.”
Young Kyle works out at the gym.
Unlike some people pondering a go at the bodybuilding stage, Kyle didn’t have major reservations.
“I wouldn't say so just because I knew it was something I wanted to do,” he said. “There's always going to be doubts, no matter on what you do. It's going to be scary, but it's okay. I've trained for this amount of time. I've came so far. Why not show it? I know what I'm doing. I'm proud of where I've came, and I want to be able to get it where I achieve one of the goals I set for myself so many years ago of being on stage.”
However, Kyle did have to deal with the butterflies that come before performing on a stage.
“It's nerve-wracking being behind stage and then having your name called to get into it,” he said. “It can really kind of twist you up a little bit just like what if I don't perform as well as X, Y and Z. The first time was super nerve-wracking. And then when I got onto stage, I was no longer nervous. Okay, it's time to perform. My mind completely switched from being nervous to being confident. Just do what you practice. The second time, I felt that a lot more. I felt a lot more confident. Even behind stage, too, I wasn't as nervous.”
Others began to notice Kyle’s physical transformation.
“A lot of people were starting to notice, oh, you've gained a lot of size, what are you doing? How can I do what you're doing? When I first started posting, it was pretty much like my first few weeks of lifting, too,” he said. “I have pretty much a training diary all the way from when I first started training, which I'm happy that I did. A lot of people would notice and they'd ask me how do you do this? That's when I started realizing what I'm doing is helping other people. Even if it's just motivation, that's all that matters to me.”
For bodybuilding, Kyle must ensure he’s not developing some parts of the body to the detriment of others.
“There's a symmetry which you need,” he said. “Each division of bodybuilding has different things that they're looking for, but there definitely needs to be a symmetry to everything. Because the way bodybuilding is, it's about your conditioning, so how lean you are, your symmetry, and then also how much size you have at the same time. If you're really symmetrical and you're really conditioned, that doesn't really mean much. But if you have size and you're really conditioned and you're symmetrical, you're going to really stand out on stage as compared to someone that just has size and symmetry. Conditioning is probably one of the most important parts of bodybuilding.”
However, not every panel of judges is looking for the same thing.
“It also depends on the federation you go to,” he said. “The most recent competition that I did, they called me too lean. I was like, all right, it's a bodybuilding competition. That's kind of the point, right?”
Kyle never fretted about maintaining a strict diet.
“I'm somewhat neurotic when it comes to tracking things, so it wasn't difficult,” he said. “You have to suffer. It's not going to be easy. You have to push through.”
Kyle said the particular diet regimen depends on the current need.
“It varies,” he said. “There's times where you need everything to be dialed in. You need this, this and this. There's no cheating. There's other times it's okay to have what you want to eat, but you still have to hit these certain numbers. The way I have it set is let's try to have 60 percent to 80 percent of my foods to be the healthier foods, and then the rest, 40 to 30, can be whatever I want. It comes down to competition prep. There should be no cheating. And if there is cheating, there's a specific day for it, and then you're done. All the other days should be 100 percent to the set program. It just varies on what you need.”
Kyle noted how his strength increase impacted his daily life outside the gym.
“I'm a commercial laundry delivery driver, so I'll be delivering upwards of 8,000 pounds of laundry a day,” he said. “It can get rough, but I know my strength really helps me out on that sometimes. I'll bring help with me. Most of the time I don't, but I'll be able to outperform the people helping me out either by being faster or just being stronger and moving things around. Also hunting. That's where I found it, packing elk out. I found I'm a lot stronger on doing that now and it's a lot easier for me.”
“Fitness has really allowed me to push myself not just physically, but mentally. The grit you obtain through pushing yourself physically can be applied to every aspect of your life.”
Kyle said fitness impacted other areas of his life.
“Fitness has really allowed me to push myself not just physically, but mentally,” he said. “The grit you obtain through pushing yourself physically can be applied to every aspect of your life.”
Kyle was always active.
“I've mountain biked off and on throughout my life,” he said. “I realized I was on the road more than I was on the trails as I wasn't good on the trails. I remember there was a time where I was 20 miles on a trail. I might have crashed 50 times. It was miserable, so I don't like the trail that much anymore. I got a road bike and pretty much fell in love with road biking right when I started. The first month I had my road bike, I put almost 1,000 miles onto it and just kind of went from there and started figuring out how to balance lifting weights and cycling and then running. I'm not a big fan of running, but that's why I do it, because it's something that challenges me mentally. If you always are doing something that you want to do, you're never going to be comfortable doing the hard things.”
In addition to strength, Kyle also has combat skills in multiple disciplines.
“I have a martial arts background, too, because I did that for most of my life,” he said. “I mainly know Muay Thai and karate. I got into it as I was a smaller guy and I wanted to learn how to defend myself. I was 7, 8 years old, and then tried other martial arts: kickboxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.”
Kyle always wanted to inspire others.
“It was always a big thing for me when I first started is wanting to inspire people through my own progress,” he said. “I realized I'm starting to understand all the basic concepts and I've already helped some people that have asked me questions here and there. It's like, okay, how can I help as many people as I can? So I started posting more educational content, then I started offering coaching services and I've helped a lot of people for that. It's just a good feeling being able to help other people reach their fitness goals, because there's a lot of people out there who will just get overwhelmed with the amount of information there is out there.”
Kyle also hopes to dispel misleading information.
“There's a lot of misinformation out there as well, especially in regards to fitness,” he said. “There's a lot of you need to take all these supplements. You don't need to really do any of that. A good diet, and then you're okay. It's trying to help guide people to get where they want to be and also get it where what they want to be is realistic, too, because you always hear some people like, oh, I want to get to this in two weeks. You're not going to lose 30 pounds in two weeks. I don't care what you do. That's not going to happen. It's helping people be realistic and then keeping them accountable to it.”
Kyle is receptive to making fitness a career.
“Ideally, if I can do the coaching full-time, that'd be cool,” he said. “But if that's not possible, I'm fine working two jobs right now. I enjoy doing it. I have enough time for it right now. I'm also going to college at the same time, so I'm kind of all over the place when it comes to things.”
Kyle is working toward a business administration degree and can see himself becoming an entrepreneur.
“Because there's stuff you learn through that,” he said. “There's stuff I've learned through my family as well as my family has two successful businesses. I've been able to learn a lot through just watching them build that throughout my life.”
Kyle relies on discipline to train.
“I have disciplined myself where I need to do it, no matter what,” he said. “There are times where I'd be working 12- to 15-hour shifts and I went over 10 to 15 miles on my shift, just walking around. But I would still go home, I'd eat a meal real quick, and then I'd go work out because it's a matter of something I need to do. The more excuses that I give myself, the worse I'm going to feel about it. You're not going to feel bad if you work out that day even if you don't want to. You're going to feel good that you did it and you're going to be happy. You prove it to yourself that you can push through again.”
Kyle dispensed advice to those wanting to improve their fitness.
“For working out, I would say start small,” he said. “It doesn't matter if you're only going two times a week. Start trying to find or do exercises with the best form that you can. As you start getting better with the exercises that you are getting a little stronger, that's when you can start pushing the intensity higher. I suggest having good form over everything else. One little tweak and you can tear something or you can mess yourself up. What I would say for someone that's just starting is find the lowest amount of days that you can go, just so you develop the habit, get good technique and just stay consistent. As you start feeling better, start upping the days and just working through that. There's a lot of free resources online that can help anyone that wants to start. You can even go to people that coach other people on it as well.”
Kyle advised prospective powerlifters to seek help first.
“Get a coach for that because there's a lot of technical stuff on powerlifting, especially within just having the best force production with your leverages,” he said. “Get someone that's already knowledgeable on it. Have them help you out as best as they can with your technique and your execution on everything that you're doing. A taper program is what they typically do. It's where you start small and you work up high and there's like a deload. Then you do that several times over. For the power up and meet, you taper off into the power up to meet. Once you're in the power of the meet, you're at 100 percent strength, you're not tired from training or anything else. You're ready to dominate.”
Kyle said neophyte bodybuilders also need guidance.
“That's kind of hard to do just by yourself,” he said. “You should have someone else be able to look at your physique, look at what you're doing for your diet, look at your training. I suggest looking for someone that's knowledgeable already, and then they should be able to help you pose. They should have everything on your nutrition figured out, and they should also have a training program for you as well. Learn how to pose. That's probably one of the most important parts. Learn what's the strong points and the weak points of your physique and figure out how to emphasize your strong points and hide your weak points. But that doesn't mean you don't train your weak points. That means you work extra hard on your weak points to bring them up.”
Kyle’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kyle_daybodybuilding/
Kyle’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/KDBB