- Class
- III up to 90 kg
- Stage weight
- 86.5 kg
- First season
- 38 years old
- Overall win
- 7:0 vote
BilalBaki
Bodybuilding with an engineer's mind. Honest, measurable, injury-free. No motivational fluff.
Bodybuilder and engineer
Cyber security by day, iron by night. One explains pretty well how I do the other.
I'm Bilal, 38, from Stuttgart, Senior Consultant Cyber Security at a Big4 firm. Since my contest prep I measure instead of guessing: bodyweight and skinfolds, all in a tracking sheet. The whole prep ran alongside my full-time job.
- Discipline
- Bodybuilding, Class III up to 90 kg
- Stage weight
- 86.5 kg
- Training experience
- about 12 years, with breaks
- Gym
- Powerhouse Ludwigsburg
- Coach
- Erich Beihl, IFBB World Championship runner-up, Int. German Champion 1999 and 2003, now an IFBB judge
Results
Int. South German Championship
Hofheim · Men's Bodybuilding over 80 kg, 17 athletes · class win and overall title 7:0
Int. German Newcomer Championship
Hofheim · Bodybuilding Newcomer over 80 kg, 26 athletes · very first competition
Int. Baden-Württemberg Championship
Plüderhausen · Men's Bodybuilding Class III up to 90 kg
Int. German Championship
Wiesloch · season goal, if qualified
Coming back
Four ACL tears, several herniated discs, emergency surgery, and still on stage for the first time at 38.
It started with a knee
First ACL tear at 17. That was the reason I went to the gym in the first place. After that, full throttle until my mid-twenties. At 25 I was in the best shape I'd had up to then.
Four ACL tears
Left knee three times, right knee once, and once both at the same time. From 2010 on, herniated discs kept piling on top.
The big one
After several herniated discs since 2010 came the worst one: foot drop, emergency surgery. After that, nothing worked anymore.
The hardest years
Right after my bachelor's and the surgery I fell deeper than ever before. Relationship gone, friends gone, no job, no university. For years I was almost entirely on my own. Nobody could have pulled me out of that. Only I could.
In the middle of Covid
Everything was closed, everything was going under, and that's exactly when I hit the gas. I started again, on my own. I could always train like a beast. I just didn't take food seriously yet.
First season
Five years of quietly putting in the work on my own. At my first session at Powerhouse, Erich saw straight away what was there and pointed me towards the stage. That's when nutrition came in: around 3,200 kcal, fat down, muscle up. First competition: 2nd place. The next day: South German Champion.
Same road, different angle
After lower secondary school, straight to the assembly line. That was the plan other people had for me. I kept going, one qualification after the next, at the same time as the knees, the discs and the rehab. Between my bachelor's and my master's there were years when nothing worked. I did the master's anyway, and landed the job too.
- HauptschuleLower secondary, where others said it would end
- RealschuleSecondary school
- GymnasiumUniversity entrance
- BachelorB.Eng.
- MasterM.A., caught up after the crisis
- TodaySenior Consultant, Big4
Happiness isn't a question of more. It's a question of balance. Mind, body and soul carry each other. Neglect one and the whole thing tips over, no matter how strong the rest is. That's why I don't do anything mindlessly, in the gym or anywhere else in life.
Know your body
What is my body capable of? Only practice, patience and consistency over years can show that. I'm still learning every day, and I ask people who know more than I do. Real results come late. But they're worth it.
Master one exercise
In martial arts you throw a punch a thousand times before it really lands. That's how I train: I'd rather truly master one exercise than try five new ones every week. Only once I've got a machine under control does exactly the right muscle do the work. Light or heavy, slow or quick: what counts is that every rep is clean.
Trust, not ego
185 kg on the bench, even during prep. Not because someone tells me to or because my friends can do it, but because I know my body and trust it. The weight only goes on when it's ready.
Injury-free through technique
Four ACL tears and several herniated discs taught me one thing: stability comes before weight. In the gym I see most people already struggle with the basics: setting up the machine, clean execution, breathing right. That's exactly where I start. The details come in my training plans.
Push
Chest and triceps
Pull
Back and biceps
Legs
A day of its own, just legs
Shoulders
Shoulders and weak points
A short message is enough. As soon as the plans are out, I'll let you know.
Diet food that tastes good
Erich put me on oats with milk and whey. I had zero appetite for that, so I turned it into waffles. Since then I cook and bake my diet so that I actually enjoy eating it. That's going to become a cookbook.
For brands
Honest content from someone who actually lives it. I only show products I eat or use myself. In German and in English.
