Thread: Teenager Ed Samaan wins Illinois state bodybuilding contest

Neuqua’s Samaan wins state bodybuilding contest

By Brian Miller For Sun-Times Media

Just the other night, Neuqua Valley senior Ed Samaan devoured a giant deli meat sub with all the fixings from Jersey Mike’s — where he works, almost strategically — along with two bags of chips, two brownies and two milk protein shakes. The cost was roughly $18 and just one of three 3,000 calorie meals he consumed that day.

Three weeks before, Samaan was making it through the day on a piece of celery and a carrot, literally.

Such is the life of a competitive bodybuilder, of which the 17-year-old has displayed an immediate propensity.

Samaan won the teen division of the 21st annual Mid-Illinois Bodybuilding & Figure Championship competition in April in Ottawa — his first show — qualifying him for the Illinois State Bodybuilding finals on May 14 in Chicago.

He posed his way to victory there too, earning the title of Mr. Teen Illinois, while opening up a world of national bodybuilding possibilities over the next couple years.

“I thought I was going to get toasted going in,” Samaan said. “I saw the two other guys and they had sweatshirts on. I thought they had good definition from what I saw in their forearms. We started doing our pump-ups and I saw they had the conditioning, but they didn’t have the size. Once we got in the line to go out there, I knew I was going to win.”

Samaan, who normally weighs 196 but dropped to 156 for competition, comes from good stock with his father Charlie being a former bodybuilder. Ed has been in the gym since he was 14, saying he always knew he would be a bodybuilder. Now he spends much of his time at DC Athletic Club in Naperville, lifting and getting mentored on bodybuilding by gym owner Dick Cook, a former bodybuilder as well.

“The kid has always been into training,” said Cook, having known Samaan for several years. “He liked lifting more than anything and felt right at place with us. For a young guy, he’s really been able to take some advanced concepts and display a tremendous amount of maturity and master it. He did a great job on the bulk up phase and then turned it around and came down exactly on schedule.”

Samaan has been bulking up since he was a short, scrawny, 110-pound freshman. “I was tiny. I was a little kid,” he said. “Everyone used to pick on me in middle school, always. I didn’t have any friends. I was a ghost in middle school. High school was scary for me. I got some friends freshman year of football, a few that I’m still friends with now. I started lifting and kept training and didn’t stop. I just kept going, kept putting on weight.”

The life of a bodybuilder might appear to be a little more than that of a cast member from “Jersey Shore,” going to the gym all the time and tanning. In reality, it’s a disciplined regimen of physical activity, nutritional maintenance and perseverance to achieve a goal, one with little to no financial incentive.

“Every day, I’d go to school, come home, train and do my cardio session one, go home and eat and I’d always rest for about a half hour,” said Samaan, who consumed no more than 1,500 calories and five grams of sugar a day during his shedding phase.

“The whole day you’re running on nothing — low sodium, low carbs — it’s like you’re a zombie almost. Right before bed I’d do an hour of cardio. By that time, you have no idea what’s going on. Five egg whites before bed, you’re done. Go to sleep, wake up and do it again.”

Samaan’s 21-week diet to cut 40 pounds and 12 percent body fat came at a high cost during his senior year of high school, but one that was ultimately worth it.

“I threw away everything for this bodybuilding,” he said. “I left my prom actually to do cardio for the Illinois. I didn’t go on my Senior Weekend. I kept three good friends. I didn’t really talk to girls, didn’t talk to anyone, just those friends and my family.”

The win at the Illinois will allow Samaan the ability to compete at the Collegiate Nationals next year, along with the Team Universe competition. If he wins either of those events, he becomes a professional.

“He absolutely has the potential to do that,” Cook said. “He’s the best I’ve seen for his age in a long time. He’s better than me, he’s better than a lot of guys that have come up and done very well. The sky is the limit. It’s really about him really pushing it out there. He has the mental capacity to do it.”

Samaan is already making plans to become a personal trainer to help others, while also heading into premed to become an anesthesiologist.

Just recently, he learned that champion bodybuilder Dave Palumbo will be interviewing him and using him in his Iron Asylum training videos. He reflects on his journey — the long road through high school, giving up football for bodybuilding. The hellish diet he started in December that forced him to eat vegetables on New Year’s Eve when others were, well, not eating vegetables. The grueling, waterless countdown to his shows that left him walking the halls at Neuqua like the living dead.

A question is posed that makes him smile. “Oh yeah, it was worth it,” he answered. “If I hadn’t won, it would have been a total waste.”

Brains and brawn.

From Neuqua

not my type. if he were a sexy long haired viking tied up in a dungeon i may have been tempted.