| Christian Duque: Please tell our readers your full name, age, also be include the following stats: height, contest and regular bodyweight, and your hometown. Shawn Boisacq: My name is Shawn Michael Boisacq. I am 38 years old. I am 6’o”. My off season weight is around 225-230 and I usually compete somewhere between 195-204. I was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska and live here still. Christian Duque: Weight seems to be a big issue in the sport of bodybuilding, but fewer guys like are ballooning out 40-60lbs from their "contest" weight in the "off season," like Lee Priest used to do (he no longer does this). Do you stay essentially lean year-round or do you still do the mass/bulking cycles (thoughts?). Also, what was is your contest and regular weight? Shawn Boisacq: I am usually about 20-30 lbs heavier in the off-season than my competition weight. I have a hard time gaining quality weight in the off-season. I usually hang out around 8-12% in the off- season and compete around 4%. My wife and I had another baby a year and a half ago and I put on quite a bit of weight during the pregnancy. Last summer I ballooned up to 248, the heaviest I have ever been. I was able to put on some good muscle however I also put on some new fat. I had never been at such a high body fat percent. I got up to around 16%. This did help me put on some quality mass which allowed me to come in this last year a little heavier on stage. I never liked to get too “fat” in the off- |
| season, but I think sometimes you need to let your body get to a “new” weight so it can feel what it is like and have something to work with in the off-season. This off-season I think I will try to go up again but not as high as I did last time. I had always been in the Light Heavy weight class bordering on the Heavy Weight class. I need to be a Heavy Weight because of my height of six feet tall. |
I came in shredded and a bit skinny. I didn’t place in the Light Heavy weight class but learned a lot and had a great time. The next time I competed in the E-Cup was in 2000 I took fourth Place in the Heavyweight class. I had barely made the heavy weight class. When I weighed in I weighed 190 lbs. I asked if this was Okay to be 8 lbs under and still compete in the Heavy weight class. The guy at the weigh ins shrugged his shoulders and said “I don’t know nobody ever tries to be in a heavier weight class.” He checked with somebody who knew and they said that I had to weigh 198 ¼ or more to compete in the Heavies. I drank a gallon of water and wet down my hair and my socks and got back on the scale, 198 ¼ lbs just barely made it. The next time I competed in the E-Cup was 2004. I placed 2nd in the Heavy weight class and barely made weight again, but this time instead of water I ate a bunch of food before weigh ins, which helped with my look, I was not as smooth as in 2000. In 2011 I finally took 1st in the Heavy Weights. Three weeks before the Emerald Cup I was weighing 215 and thought that this was the year I would be a legitimate Heavy Weight. I was just above 4% and started losing pounds each day up to the competition. I wanted to keep my size but did not want to lose my conditioning so I kept doing what Ihad been doing and came in at 202 dry at weigh ins. I knew my wife Laura Boisacq would take her Light Weight class and would win the over-all because she looked AMAZING! I knew we would win the Mixed Pairs division as well, which we did; but I still wasn’t sure how I would do even though I looked my best ever. After prejudging the feedback I heard was that it was between me, or one other in my weight class for first place. In my experience, if your friends and loved ones say this, it means you took second. At the night show when they announced my name as first place was the first time I thought that I could win the Overall. I had a surge of adrenalin and went out for Overall comparisons and let it all hang out. After they announced the Overall winner and it wasn’t me I was still super excited and happy with the first place in the Heavy weights. Although it would have been really cool for my wife and me to win the Overalls and Mixed Pairs. My wife Laura Boisacq is my workout partner and trainer and I am hers as well. |
| We do not work with anyone else. We keep each other motivated and on track with dieting and training and posing. We have five kids; the youngest is 18 months old, a four year old, a ten year old, a fourteen year old and a sixteen year old. We are super busy all of the time and are both vital partners in EVERYTHING, from cooking, cleaning, running kids to activities, helping them with homework to packing lunches and making dinner. I wouldn’t be able to do this with such success without her. Christian Duque: From lookiing at your contest record, I see you've competed at the USA's as a light heavyweight and the Team Universe as a heavyweight. Does this class win at the EC qualify you for a nat'l level pro qualifier, and if so... are you planning on more shows for 2011? Shawn Boisacq: My wife and I are going to compete in November at Nationals. We are shooting for getting her Pro card at Nationals. My goal is to be very competitive at Nationals this year. In 2004 at the Team Universe I took 10th place in the Heavy weight class (Kai Green took first in this class). This was the last show we did on a long three show run that was spread over a period of nine months of dieting non-stop. I was burned out and my body wasn’t changing like I wanted it to at this point. In 2008 we did the USA’s, and I came in right at the border of Light Heavy weight and Heavy weight. I weighed 200 lbs dry. At weigh ins I was a bit intimidated by the size and the depth of the Heavy weight class and I thought it would be better to come in at the top of my weight class rather than the bottom of the Heavies. I went outside in the 108 degree weather did a few jumping jacks and push- ups and dropped 2 lbs to make the Light Heavy weight class. I didn’t place in the Light Heavy weight class at this show. Shawn Ray’s comment on a MD forum about my physique was “he’s taaaaaaall”. After this I definitely knew with |
| my height I needed to be in the heavy Weight class. I hope to come in at the 2011 Nationals at 215-220 dry and take top five. Christian Duque: Who is you current favorite IFBB Bodybuilder, and why? Also, to add a twist to the aforementioned question, who is your favorite (current) NPC bodybuilder? What is about their physiques that you admire? Shawn Boisacq: Currently, I do not really have a favorite IFBB professional bodybuilder. I tend to have a preference on the more aesthetic builds vs. the freakish massive look. I can appreciate this new look because I know what it takes to get there but I really like the pros from the late eighties and 9o’s. I do not have a lot of time to follow many current NPC amateurs, but like I said before I like the more aesthetic builds that display classical posing with lines and symmetry. Christian Duque: You're married to a competitor yourself, and you both run a successful business. Could you please tell us about that? Shawn Boisacq: My wife Laura Boisacq and I are both Personal trainers out of Powerhouse gym in Anchorage, Alaska. She is my everything! We train together and help each other out in every aspect of the sport. We know what we need to do as individuals, but we always run our plans by each other for validation and any tweaking or adjustments that we may need to make. Our favorite thing is that we do this together. We love doing mixed pairs and are sad that many shows do not include this division in their shows. We wish the IFBB would have mixed pairs at the professional level. When she turns Pro, and if I do we would like to do guest posings as mixed pairs since we will not be able to compete at any amateur shows any more as mixed pairs. Christian Duque: As far as training goes, what's your homegym and what does your weekly workout split look like? Are you a HVT, HIIT, or HIT man yourself? Do you ever employ alternative strategies: bands, kettlebells, and/or ropes? |
| Shawn Boisacq: As far as training goes we try to go as heavy as possible and keep the reps up high around 15. We pyramid sets using heavier weights each set but try to get the same number of reps with the heavier weights. We always try to squeeze the muscle under tension and keep it in the muscle. If we start to break form or start feeling it in the joint we will lighten the load. We do a five day split dividing all the muscles and take two days off each week. We train for under an hour so that out young kids do not have to be in day care for more than an hour. When we train it is balls to the wall, no BS, serious training. We truly believe in Quality vs. Quantity. We do about 3-5 days of cardio in the off season 20 -30 minutes. During contest prep we up the cardio to 5 days a week starting at 30 minutes and add 5 minute to each session almost every week up to the show, making it 60 minute cardio sessions. We keep our training pretty simple no bands or balls or kettle bells, we are kind of old-school that way. Christian Duque: what are some of your favorite supplements on the market right now, and please include your favorite protein powder on the market and why you like it so much. Shawn Boisacq: We really like Max Pro protein powder. We love the taste and the quality of the product. We find this Protein gives us what we need without any GI discomfort that other proteins do. We use basic Vitamin and Mineral supplements Parrillo are my favorite, and love Parrillo bars! They are the best and only bar that I will eat on a contest diet. We don’t use many other supplements due to having to feed five children and ourselves, it gets expensive. We try to get the most out of our food as possible Christian Duque: Thanks for doing this interview. If there's anything you'd like to say to the readers (e.g. what you'll be up to in 2011 and/or how they can keep up with you), please do so. Again, congrats on your recent win. :) |
Shawn Boisacq: Keep an eye out for our progress in the upcoming National show in November. We will be aiming for our best looks ever and are ready to take it to the next level! |
| Christian Duque: You recently won your class at the 2011 Emerald Cup, please tell us about the show, how you thought it was run & judged, and just how deep the lineup was in your group? Did you feel any particular competitors in the class really made you work for your win? If so, which? Shawn Boisacq: I just recently won my weight class at the 2011 Emerald Cup as a Heavy Weight. Coming into this competition I knew I looked the best I have ever looked and was very confident that I would do well. You never know who is going to show up at any contest so I really just try to be concerned with “my” look and be the best I can be. My goal for every show is to beat my last look from the previous show. This is a subjective sport and you never know how the judges will place your look against everybody else. I thought the show was run very well. There were 11 in my weight class and they all looked very competitive. I wasn’t sure how I would place once I saw my competition but like every show you put on your game face and compete to the best of your abilities and the rest is up to the judges. Christian Duque: It seems you have quite a history with this show, placing 4th in the heavies in 2000 and 2nd place in 2004. What did you do this time around, that perhaps you didn't do in years past? Who did you work with for this show, and how badly do you want an overall win at this contest in the future? Shawn Boisacq: My first experience competing out of state was in 1998 at the emerald cup it was held in down town Seattle at the Paramount. Not many Alaskans competed out of state during this time so it was a big deal to me. |
| Shawn Boisacq 2011 NPC Emerald Cup, Heavyweight Champion |