Stu Mac wouldn’t even let burst veins hold him back from glory.
At 26, Stu Mac was a young math student and soccer player. In Scotland his University team reached top level, but unfortunately Stu suffered two back injuries and soon had to drop out of playing to become a personal trainer. Then one day he picked up a friends copy of FLEX Magazine and was hooked. He decided to pursue bodybuilding.
Stu worked as a receptionist for three years before he could train full-time. And there have been more injuries along the way – one of which was particularly gruesome.
Stu told The Mirror:
“Once, after a leg session, I stepped out of a boiling shower, looked down and all I could see was my bathroom wall been sprayed with what looked like thin red liquid, and to my horror, the vein in my calf had blown, a combination of the leg day swelling, the hot shower, and being vascular in general, was too much.
“After this I had to train careful, keeping my blood pressure down, to avoid it happening again. Fast forward 4 months, I had the operation. Got the entire vein from my groin to ankle removed, I couldn’t train for at least 8 weeks, and legs longer.”
Despite the injury which took almost a year to fully recover from, Stu is now stronger than ever. He trains hard 5-6 days per week and boasts a 200kg deadlift, 170kg bench press, and 170kg squat.
His most recent competitive outing was a few months ago when he took third place out of 30 competitors in the 2017 BodyPower Championships.
In recent years, Stu has enjoyed the perks of being a successful bodybuilder. Having travelled around the world and competed in exclusive events, he won the World Champion WBFF Muscle Model in 2015 and has become friends with some of the idols he saw in FLEX.
Stu attributes his success to a proper combination of training, dieting, and dedication. He also enjoys a sponsorship with USN Products, a company which provides training, nutrition, and supplementation plans along with their products.
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