Extended Effort

It is nearing 11 PM on Saturday, July 29 at the 2006 NPC USA Bodybuilding Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Mike Ergas stands before a crowded auditorium, listening intently. On this night, 5'6" 218-pound Ergas is one of seven men — along with Omar Deckard, Randy Chaney II, Gregory Peeples, Perry McRae, Alex Azarian and Fernando Abaco — hoping to hear his name called and, in the process, earn his way into the professional bodybuilding ranks. It is a moment for which he has waited five years — since the first time he set foot onstage at the USA in 2001. None of those five years, however, have been tougher than the past eight months. Now — head bowed, eyes closed, breath held in anticipation — Ergas has to wait just a little bit longer.

BY ALLAN DONNELLY, PHOTOGRAPHY BYIAN SPANIER
"I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN DO THIS" It had been a tough year. As Ergas would later recall, one of the toughest of his lifetime. It started in late October, when, during his preparations for the 2005 NPC nationals, Ergas' mother, Norma Creety, was diagnosed with oral cancer. With her blessing, Ergas still prepared for that show, so thoroughly in fact that he took the stage on November 19 in what he, and many others, considered to be the best shape of his life. On that night in Atlanta, Georgia, the heavyweight title and a pro card seemed all but his for the taking. Unfortunately, he would win neither. He finished second to Jonathan Rowe in the heavyweight division, denied yet one more time. Ergas was left wondering whether he would ever compete again. It wasn't only the fact that he came so close, or the fact that after the prejudging so many people told him that the contest was his to lose. It was the fact that his biggest fan made it to the show, and that, with his mother in attendance, there seemed no better time to fulfil his dreams.

"It was emotional," Ergas remembers. "There was this build-up, and then this huge letdown. I was like, 'I don't know if I can do this any more.'" ONE MORE SHOT The letdown led Ergas to seriously contemplate retirement for several weeks after the Nationals. Fortunately, when Ergas was down, there were people there to pick him up.

LEG PRESSES
Leg presses are where Ergas will put up the most weight. As always, he'll start slow, beginning with a few warm-up sets before he gets going. "I'll do three, four, five plates to warm up," he says. "Then I'll go with seven plates and increase it by two until I fill the whole thing up." At Gold's Venice, that means 14 plates on a side, with a couple more on top for good measure. "When I go as heavy as I can, I'll do at least two heavy sets of about 10-15, depending on how I feel. Sometimes I'll then cut that in half to six or seven plates and do two sets of 30."

IFBB pro Branch Warren, nutritionist/trainer Charles Glass and a host of others were there to offer their support and to try to dissuade Ergas from calling it a career — to try to convince him it was not yet time to stop beating on the door. One call in particular struck a chord with Ergas — a call from a man who knew what it was like to come oh-so-close time and time again, a call from Jay Cutler.

"I had never really talked to Jay before," Ergas says. "I had only met him a few times at different shows. He got my number from someone and just called me out of the blue and made a nice concerned effort to give me a pep talk. I figured out what I needed to do, and that was to give it one more shot and see what happened."

MOMENT OF TRUTH
What happened on July 29 was that Ergas won the heavyweight division and was one of two competitors — along with superheavyweight champ Deckard — to earn pro cards. When the waiting was finally over, the dam broke and the tears flowed. But Ergas wasn't too overcome with emotion to make a phone call to Atlanta. "It was the first phone call I made," says Ergas, whose mother was unable to travel to Las Vegas due to a surgical procedure she underwent days before the contest. "She was going nuts; I knew how badly she wanted to be there. So it was a combination of everything — this weight being lifted off, my mum knowing that she was there to talk to me, and everything else. It was a huge weight off my shoulders. It was something for which I'd been waiting for such a long period of time. Then, when it actually happens, you don't believe it actually has."

MOVING FORWARDS
On this particular Tuesday afternoon, sitting at the Firehouse restaurant after training legs at Gold's Gym, Venice, Ergas is in a reflective mood, looking back on how, a year ago, he was close to walking away from bodybuilding. And yes — to all those who haven't had the chance to ask the question he's been asked most frequently since earning his pro card in July — he's happy he didn't. "I guess it's like everything bad that happens to you in your life," Ergas says. "You always draw off that to try and get through things.

THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN FULL IN OUR FEBRUARY 2007 ISSUE.

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