This week photographer Sarah Blais sat down with a few of Toronto’s finest male models — but they’re not your typical models. This edition of the Uniform project? Fitness Models.
Over at Body + Soul fitness Sarah met with 27-year-old personal trainer Eddie Franjic. He’s been active his whole life and at a gym since he was 15, but didn’t start the fitness modeling until a couple years ago. Eddie said at the shows they’re looking for symmetry, stage presence, confidence, balance, conditioning, posing, marketability – so you need to be sporting an outfit that showcases what you’ve got, and make sure you’re super tanned (the lights at the show will wash you out otherwise).
His daily uniform is shorts and a tee (the pants are too hot), it’s super important to be comfortable, and non to be restricted (my denim shirt and oxfords wouldn’t cut it). He shops mainly at Sports Chek, Foot Locker, Nike, and Champs for his gym-wear. His shoes are Reebok Flex, his shirt is Nike, the watch is from Wal-Mart, and the shorts from a shop in the states. When he’s not at the gym, Eddie rocks Echo jeans and affliction tees.
The next stop was Extreme Fitness at Pape & Danforth where Sarah met an old friend from her high school days who has worked his way up from being super tiny, to super-jacked.
Joseph Ng is a 22-year-old hydronics technician, and part time fitness model. Since last May, Joe has been measuring every single meal he eats for calories, and doesn’t remember the last time he had ice cream (what!?). It took him four years to put on 30 pounds of muscle. The last meal he cooked was a core pork tenderloin grilled with asparagus (yummy).
For his work-out uniform? Track pants & a tank top from Wal-Mart or Urban Behaviour. When he isn’t working out Joe will rock fitted tees like Jack & Jones, and True Religion or Buffalo jeans (H&M doesn’t fit his thighs anymore).
On their show days, fitness models actually don’t drink water in order to make their skin tight. When Joseph was in Vegas for the Model America championships, he forgot to re-hydrate before going out for the night. He said he didn’t get back to his hotel room until 9AM and was pretty totaled. On top of that he had to check out by 11AM and spent the next 18 hours in an airport (brutal!). Check out Joe’s youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Josephngfitness?feature=watch.
Twenty six-year-old Personal Trainer and Fuel Foods owner Nick McNaught went through a bit of a different show experience then Joseph. He actually gained 50 pounds in under 5 days! He suffered from Rhabdomyolsis, which means your muscle proteins die and flake off, ultimately clogging and failing your kidneys. He was in the hospital for it and said his ankles swelled up big time.
Nick now works out of Yonge Street Fitness Club as a trainer, while also running his company. He said he usually has a huge bag of clothes in the car for training, casual, business etc. (all the different hats he wears in one day) but his ideal uniform is Lululemons or sweatpants with a hoody. When working out Nick prefers a funny graphic tee with a tank underneath, but for the shows he’ll rock the tighter shorts and be topless. The way he puts it is drink some wine, put on a big smile and act like you can’t wait to be half naked on a stage. Nick tends to shop at the Nike store, Winners, H&M, Guess, Serpantine, and Holt Renfrew. His favorite meal ever is a massive salad bowl filled with Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruit Loops, and a lot of 3.25% milk (!).
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Sarah Blais shoots Toronto Standard’s Uniform Project. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahblais_.
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