While most people are asleep, Adam Piper is methodically crafting his rock-hard frame.
Back at home, whether on a work day or weekend, his mum Kerryn is in the kitchen cooking up two kilos of lean meat to fuel a maximum-protein diet.
Piper (pictured) has been lifting weights since he was 13.
What started as a way to learn how to stop schoolyard bullies soon morphed into an obsession. At 19, the larger-than-life Werribee bodybuilder has long since programmed his mind to control his body.
But before snaring a statewide title at the Australasian National Bodybuilding Championships last month in Bundoora, this self-discipline switched to overdrive.
A rundown of Piper’s diet and training regimen is enough to send shivers, particularly alongside his day job as a milkman.
“I was eating six to nine meals a day, nearly every two hours,” Piper says. “I was eating mostly chicken and broccoli, depriving myself of carbs, having just enough carbs for me to get by, sacrificing all my dairy products.
“Waking up at 2am and going to work at 5 was a bit of a juggling act. I was doing roughly 2-3 hours in the gym, doing cardio sessions and doing a weights session, working on my weak points every day.”
In a world of punishing workouts and painstaking diets, Piper isn’t alone in his love of the intense nature of the sport and, now with a taste of victory, the pressure he piles on his bulging shoulders.
Piper is proud of his size and muscles but laments his comparatively modest legs.
“I just want to go to the top. I want to be the best. I’m thinking about taking a year off. My legs are a weak point, maybe I’ll come back when they’ve really developed and shock everyone.”
