Dusty Hanshaw believes that what and when you eat is more important than the gym schedule you adopt.
“It’s everything,” admitted the 30-year-old, who will be on hand to offer help and guidance at this weekend’s Bodypower Expo in Birmingham.

“In fact, it’s more important than the training. Training, I would say, is 30%, and 70% is the food. And year round is the big thing.

“A lot of bodybuilders slack when they’re not getting ready for a show. They miss meals, they eat the wrong foods, and that’s why they don’t advance as well. The ones who live the lifestyle year-round are the ones who make it.”

The supplement industry is an ever-increasing market, especially in Europe and the UK, where Predator Nutrition are the leading distributor of sports nutrition products and bodybuilding supplements.

Hanshaw thinks that advances in nutrition resources and awareness about how best to fuel the body are helping modern-day bodybuilders make great progress in comparison to their predecessors.

He said: “I think with supplements, you’re always going to see advancements.

“Guys were getting in shape and everything long before nutritional supplements were around. But I think the best way to explain it is; look at the 1970s and the way bodybuilders were back then, and look at them now.
“We’ve advanced in every way and it’s because we have more knowledge of food, more knowledge of supplements, so we can push the envelope further. Supplements are a must if you want to make it to the top, that’s for sure.”

A typical day’s nutrition for Hanshaw offers a fascinating insight into the lifestyle of a professional bodybuilder.
He revealed: “I work out in the mornings, so I wake up and have a couple of scoops of protein powder, two cups of oatmeal, two cups of full-fat yoghurt, then I have my pre-workout MAXIMIZE – gotta have that!

“Then after I’ve trained I’ll have another two scoops of protein and about 100g of some sort of carb drink. The next three meals after that are 10 ounces of chicken and two cups of rice. The following meal is 16 ounces of steak and potato, and then one more chicken and rice. It’s pretty basic, but it works well for me.”

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However, the more important aspect of this is not that what would have been an interesting competition was interrupted before it could get started but that this may set a precedent for future bodybuilding contests. Will the anti-doping officials on a crusade to clean up everything from baseball clubhouses to the vitamin store shelves, it seems to be only a matter of time before professional bodybuilding is in their cross hairs.

What would be the result if doping officials showed up backstage at the Arnold Classic or Mr. Olympia? It would send shockwaves through the entire industry and change it forever – for good and bad. In the eyes of anyone not directly associated with the sport, it would seem to be a step in the right direction and the first hurdle in cleaning up one of the “tainted” areas of athletics.

But the other side of the argument would be that it would destroy bodybuilding as we know it and in effect take down a multi-billion dollar supplement industry in the long run. Over regulating by the multi agencies has been the case of late and they have been going after every facet of the fitness world – and not just illegal substances such as anabolic steroids.

That is what makes this Dutch “raid” such a farce. What exactly were they looking to prove? It wasn’t as if they solved the crime of the century by having bodybuilders choose to not submit to a drug screening.

I hope they were happy with themselves.