BRYAN JONES: THE LORD OF CLASSIC RETURNS!

It seems like a decade has passed since the pandemic began in 2020. That was a chaotic year for all of us. MD sent me to Atlanta to cover the Chicago Pro, because restrictions in Illinois made it impossible to hold Tim Gardner's annual extravaganza there. The athletes still showed up in force to compete, and the Classic Physique division alone featured 30 men. When they came out to be adjudicated, one man stood out in a flash as the one to beat. I had never heard of Bryan Jones until that point aside from a vague recollection that he'd won the USA a couple of years before. With his braided and colored hair piled on top of his head in a gathered bun with the ends appearing to be some type of bizarre plant, I dubbed him "The Kai Greene of Classic." That didn't stick, thankfully, because Bryan "Lord" Jones is a unique athlete in his own right. I knew I was looking at a man who was going to make waves in that division. A few months later he did just that, placing fifth in his first Olympia appearance. But we only saw him twice more after that, at the Arnold Classic and once again at the Olympia at the end of 2021. Since then, Jones has been working hard to build the additional size needed to successfully transition to the Open category. I spoke with him about his brief but notable time in Classic, and how he plans to make a big splash in Open.

- RON HARRIS

Bryan, I see that you grew up in Hayward, California near Oakland and that you have been athletic all your life. Which sports did you play? 

I started off in gymnastics when I was only 5 years old, and went on to play football, basketball, and track. It all gave me a good base of muscularity, which made it easier for me to transition into bodybuilding later on. I was familiar with the weight room from those other sports, even though it was a different type of training geared toward improving your performance.

What made you decide to become a bodybuilder?

It was a couple of things. I was at Arizona State University, and I had roommates, four of us in a one-bedroom apartment. I needed a way to stay out of the apartment between classes, just to kill time really. We had a great gym on campus that was included in the tuition, so I decided to take advantage of it. The other thing was stumbling across "Pumping Iron" on Netflix one night. I was familiar with Arnold from his movies. "Total Recall" and "The Running Man" are two of my favorites.  I'd never seen him as a bodybuilder before. This was the young Arnold, and I got to see his real personality more. I liked his cockiness and his physique. I thought, maybe I could do this bodybuilding thing too. The very next day, I looked online and found out what he did for his workouts, and I did that for about a year.

You followed Arnold's routine as your first bodybuilding routine? I think it was working out twice every day, six days a week. How did that work for you?

It worked very well. Then I realized there were other ways to train too. I started mixing it up with different exercises and techniques.

Once you started following the modern sport, who were the bodybuilders you admired or looked up to?