Staying Fit While Fighting

Who are you and where are you from?

My name is Andrew Malcolm. I’m originally from Queens, New York, but joined the U.S. Army in 2002, and I’ve lived both in the U.S. and overseas since. I currently reside in El Paso, Texas

What’s your fitness background?

I’m a certified personal trainer, nutritionist, natural NPC bodybuilder, fitness model, and published fitness author.

What is your job in the Army and have you been overseas?

I am an attack helicopter pilot. Yes, I’ve deployed five times total: three tours to Iraq and two tours to Afghanistan, totaling four years and seven months of combat time.

Are you able to still bodybuild while deployed?

Yes, my passion for bodybuilding started on my first deployment to Afghanistan in 2004. When soldiers are deployed, we’re very limited in what we can do. Our daily schedule usually consists of executing the mission and lifting weights. Because of the lack of options on deployed military bases, we typically use this time away from home to build our bodies and clear our minds. Soldiers typically return home in much better shape than when they first arrived.

What’s a typical day for you when in the U.S.?

A typical day for me when home is that I am up around 7 a.m., meal prep for the day, and go off to work. On my lunch break from 11:30 to 1 p.m. is when I train at the fitness center on base. I usually get home around 5:30 in the afternoon. Then I spend an hour or so with my wife and kids, then lock myself in my room, working on assignments for my Masters degree.

What’s a typical day for you when deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan? The time of day changes when I sleep and do missions. For example, I may be on a night schedule where I wake up around 4 p.m. then go to sleep at 7 a.m. or a day schedule in which am I up at 4 a.m. then bed down around 7 p.m. Regardless of the shift I’m on, I usually wake up, eat, train, then go to work. The gyms on deployed military bases are usually 24 hours, so I can train prior to missions. I personally prefer to train as close to waking up as possible. Many times, we will do missions that include eight hours of flight time and an additional four to five hours of briefings before and after the mission, so I’m usually drained at the conclusion of these missions.

What motivates you to push so hard?

My motivation comes from raw passion of bodybuilding and the enjoyment of seeing my physique grow. A second reason is the movie Black Hawk Down (based on the Battle of Mogadishu) in which US helicopters were shot down in combat. This is a reality for me. My aircraft is a very crash-worthy aircraft, and I would hate to have survived a crash and then be captured because I wasn’t physically fit enough to evade the enemy. This is what keeps me up when I’m deployed; this is what pushes me in the gym.

How does your diet differ on deployments from when at home?

My diet doesn’t differ significantly when deployed. My last tour to Iraq was last year, and I was fortunate enough to be on a base that had a large dining facility. The base offered chicken breast for every meal. It also offered egg whites and oatmeal for breakfast. So the staple foods for a bodybuilder were available. However, the challenging part is flying an eight-hour mission. I was the annoying guy in the dining facility line that held up the line because I requested two or three “to-go trays.” I will usually have two of these “to-go trays” in the cockpit with me, and when we reach an area in the flight that doesn’t require my immediate attention, I will transfer flight controls to my co-pilot and chow down my meal as fast as I can.

You seem to have a very busy life with your military career, fitness, social media, parenting, and college. How do you balance it all, and what advice would you give someone who is facing many obligations?

The honest truth is that you can never be perfect at every obligation. Prioritization, balance, and a strong support system at home have always been the key to my success. There are times where I lack in one area (social media, work, or college) while other areas (fitness, parenting, marriage) are going great or vice versa. As soon as one area starts to lack, then I transition to investing more time in that particular area for improvement. It all comes down to prioritization and balance. This same concept can be applied to bodybuilding as well. As soon as a weak muscle becomes strong because of how much emphasis was given to it, you will realize that muscle is now overpowering the muscles next to it.

What will you tell someone just starting a fitness journey?

Be patient; fitness is a marathon. It takes years upon years to build a strong physique. There is no such thing as a “secret trick”; the only thing that works is hard work and consistency. In addition to hard work and consistency, research is extremely important. When I first started bodybuilding in 2004, I went years in which I was consistent. I did the same exercises over and over and very rarely changed my diet. Once I conducted research and combined it with hard work and consistency, then the true gains came.