Interview with Johnny The Mutant Kidd Doull

In bodybuilding, the old-school approach is the blue-collar approach; you’re pretty much on your own, your gym is small and bare and unmotivating, but you do what it takes to get the job done. And to be able to do that successfully makes you cool as hell. We can easily respect the guy who does that because we can’t imagine how he does it—training, working, meal prep, and whatever sleep he can get. It’s that focused old-school approach that breeds the guy you just can’t help but like.

When I contacted Johnny Doull, he was up in Saskatchewan for the winter. Now, as if Prince Edward Island isn’t cold enough, why would anyone, let alone a bodybuilder, voluntarily travel to Saskatchewan to spend the winter?
“Other than freeze, what do you do up there?” I asked.
“I build air seeders and tillage equipment for farming. For huge farms. It’s the biggest farm equipment made.”
I had to ask him the obvious question. “Why?”
Johnny laughed. “I never compete in winter. I travel up here because … well, the money is good, and I’m isolated and can focus. I make the most progress up here. The company I work for pays for everything except food. They pay my rent, fly me home, fly me back. I come out here in the winter just to train and work where l can make the most progress.”

That’s respectable. Working a legit blue-collar job that leaves him enough time to train. A testament to the fact that there are alternatives to the seedy shit struggling young bodybuilders find themselves doing.
“Where do you train?” I asked.
There’s a gym right up the road from my house,” he said. “It’s a tiny little gym, not at my level, but I manage to get it done in there.”
“How do you push yourself in such an environment?”
Johnny took a breath, like this wasn’t the first time anyone had ever asked him this question. “My family was always hardworking. We weren’t poor, but we worked for everything we got. I wouldn’t be able to push myself in the gym if I hadn’t grown up with that work ethic.”
“Your day is pretty full?”
“It is,” Johnny said. “By the time I get done training, food shopping, prep all my meals, get back from work, shower, eat and get ready for bed, it’s about 3:00 a.m. I only get about six or six-and-a-half hours sleep a night.”
When you consider the very physical job he works 10 hours a day and his training intensity, that’s not much sleep at all. Such a mentality coupled with his National-level physique makes Johnny a very likeable and approachable guy to have rep your company.

Apparently Mutant agrees. “What’s it like being a Mutant?”
“I can’t say enough about the company,” Johnny replied. I’ve been to all the major expos, and I know a lot of the guys repping companies. We all talk. And all of them are jealous of me working for Mutant. They treat their athletes like gold. And it goes both ways. I promote the shit out of their products because they work. I really love them, and I use them every day. There’s no doubt that my progress has been helped by the supplements I take.”

Johnny is relatively young for this sport at 24, yet he looks very impressive. All other factors aside, his training has to be killer. “Rather than just give us sets and reps, let’s talk about your training in general.” I said. “Your method.”
“Okay… right now I’m in my off-season, so I train heavier with lower reps. I have more food on board, so I can handle the higher weight. Pre contest, I lower the weights and train very smart. You have to listen to your body, not your mind. An injury is the number one worst thing that can happen to a bodybuilder. I blew out the disk between L-5 and S-1 in my low back doing squats with 690. I couldn’t put the bar on my back for six months. It just wouldn’t get better. I spent 10 grand on it trying to treat it. I was scared it would never heal itself. I was spending money I didn’t have on my back, and it was hindering my gains.”
I did the math in my head. “That means you trained all the way up to the Nationals with a blown disk?”
“Yup. I had no choice. I did the best I could and got fourth.”

Can you imagine when this kid is 100 percent? “So, is it healed now? Are you back to squatting?”
“Yes, I’m back up to a four-plate squat. I’m not jumping up until I can get 4 or 5 sets of 10. I’m being really careful—good form, slow, perfect reps, and rest! The only way this injury has been healing was by me finally backing off and taking more rest days. Rest was the cure. Giving my body the break it needed. It’s on its way to being 100 percent.”

“What about upper body?” I asked. “How do you train the other body parts?”
“I warm up my shoulders every day, I make sure there is blood flow into my shoulders. Everyone who has shoulder problems has them because they don’t warm them up properly. You use your shoulders for every upper body movement, and they should be thoroughly warmed up before you do anything else.”

This right here is evidence of the training intelligence of TMK. Once you learn how badly an injury can set you back, the more attention you pay to your own preservation. Weight ego does nothing positive.

“Nothing at all,” he agreed. “After my shoulders are warm, I still do two warm-up sets of every exercise before the working sets—perfect form, full range of motion, I try to get blood flow to every part of the muscle group.”
“You pyramid up? And down?”
“Yes, I work my way up and then work my way down. Seven, eight sets of eight, 12 reps. I always do heavy free weights first, or dumbbells, then move to unilateral stuff, cables, machines, things that are easy to adjust to do drop sets.”
“Do you really go to failure every work set? “I asked.
“I’m always trying to find failure, bro. Especially during drop sets. I never stop an exercise when I can still do another rep. Every working set is to failure, where I can’t possibly do another rep.”

Put it all together—isolation, focus, sacrifice, perfect diet, supplementation and careful training intensity. That, my friends, is how a mutant is built.

SIDE BAR – TMK SUPPLEMENT STACK

Now that I’m traveling more, doing appearances and guest posings, I can’t get fat in the off-season. I need to train hard and be as big as possible and still be in shape enough to do appearances. These are the supplements I’m taking now to stay big and lean:

Pre-workout:
2 scoops of Mutant Mayhem
5 g creatine
1 scoop BCAA in a shake.
I sip that on my way to the gym and finish it right before I start training. Then:
8 caps of Mutant Pump right before I train. It’s my favourite product! It brings more blood flow and water to the muscle. I get better pumps, more teardown—more micro tears stimulates hypertrophy, and that equals more progress.

During training:
I actually use Mutant Rehab during my workout. I know it’s for recovery, but I find it keeps me full and I hold my pump longer while I’m training, especially toward the end of my workout. In that same shake I take another 5 grams of creatine.

Post-workout:
2 scoops of Mutant chocolate whey
7 caps of Mutant Test throughout the day

Before bed:
1 scoop Mutant Micellar (casein protein)

SIDE BAR - TMK TRAINING SPLIT
I have to build my training schedule around my job. My work is physical, and if I’m so sore I can’t move, then work is more difficult. I try to do legs on Fridays because legs make me so sore 48 hours later I can’t bend over. Saturday I’m not too sore, but by Sunday I can’t move. I never work on Sunday, so I save my most painful day for my day off. Depending on what other day I might take off, or my travel schedule, legs are on day three (Friday) of the split. I train one body part a day following this split:

Training Day 1: Chest
Training Day 2: Back
Training Day 3: Legs
Training Day 4: Shoulders
Training Day 5: Arms

Depending on how I feel or if I’m out of town I usually stick another rest day in there, but always rest Sunday.