Flex: Cook's return voyage: it's deja v USA all over again

To go with the Las Vegas setting of the USA Championships, consider this gambling analogy. Imagine methodically going up $200,000 at a poker table, and then, on your next to last hand, you draw a full house but lose $100,000 to a player who pulls out a straight flush. On your last hand, you lay four nines and lose $95,000 to a rival with four tens. Sure, you walk away with five grand, but it seems like a pittance. You can't forget the 195 grand that got away. Was it simply bad luck or did fate bite you in the end because you were almost--but not quite--ready for the high stakes? Now, imagine experiencing the exact same thing a year later.

Chris Cook, at the still youthful age of 27, won the super-heavyweight class of the USA for the second consecutive year, establishing himself as the best amateur over 225 1/4 pounds in America. It's easy to lose sight of this achievement, for, as in poker, success is measured by your final hand and the bounty you bring home; for the second year in a row, Cook failed in the end to nab one of the two pro cards given out at the USA. Again, the crushing sting of defeat all but obliterated the momentary joy of victory. This is the story of Cook's continuing journey, of lessons learned and of faith unwavering.

SATURDAY, JULY 10 | During the Los Angeles Bodybuilding Championships, Cook steps onstage with other USA competitors, shedding street clothes for a preview posedown. He weighs 255. Revealing his massive quads and calves, there are audible gasps. Seated on a folding chair in the second row, Will "World" Harris glowers. Later that evening, Harris wins the Los Angeles contest and qualifies for the USA.

TUESDAY, JULY 13 | Cook and his wife, Denise, leave their suburban Los Angeles home at 4 AM to beat the traffic and heat. Arriving in Las Vegas at 8:30, they check into Embassy Suites Hotel, away from the tension at Alexis Park Resort, where most competitors stay. Cook is at the lowest carbohydrate phase of his diet, ingesting only 100 grams and no sodium. That day, he does two 30-minute cardio sessions and a light workout.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 14 | The carb-up begins. Under the guidance of nutritionist Hany Rambod, Cook eats yams. He hates yams. At 6 AM, he does 30 minutes of cardio. He returns to Gold's Gym a few hours later, knowing I'll be there with Jay Cutler. Cutler, photographer Kevin Horton and I watch Cook pose. He is not perfectly conditioned, but he's close. He looks like the next USA champion.

THURSDAY, JULY 15 | More yams. That night, he has one serving of ketchup to see how the sodium affects him. Within 15 minutes, his muscles fill, veins appear and his skin tightens. Sodium is necessary to help muscles pull glycogen.

FRIDAY, JULY 16 | Cook weighs in at 251, five pounds heavier than he was last year. He continues to carb-up throughout the day. In retrospect, he feels he started his carbs one day too early and should have ingested some sodium throughout. Also, the yams (which he is not accustomed to eating) bloated him. "I also started getting nervous, and nerves affect me quite a bit," Cook admits. When he steps onstage for prejudging, most of the cuts in evidence two days prior are absent, although some reappear the longer he poses. "I was told I was getting better and better, harder and harder every minute I was out there. That tells me that the water that was subcutaneous on me was being drawn to the muscles."

He is good enough to win a weak super-heavyweight class, but he worries about comparisons to the light-heavyweight and heavyweight winners the following day. That night at Blueberry Hill Family Restaurant, Cook tells Rambod he's taking over the program. (Cook says of future contests, "Hany will remain a friend, but I'm in charge now.") To fill up his depleted muscles, Cook eats steak, eggs and three pancakes; he downs Pepsi. He may never eat another yam in his lifetime.

SATURDAY, JULY 17 | Cook chooses not to publicly divulge all of his preparation techniques, but he lost 10 pounds between Friday night and the Saturday evening finals. "I pulled myself down hard that day. It's not easy losing 10 pounds in less than 24 hours, but I learned so much. I took myself to a level that I never had before, and I had to learn that. As time went on, I just got better and better. That's why I was so confident on Saturday night. I thought my size combined with my dryness could not be beat."

He isn't beat in the super-heavyweight class, winning with straight first-place votes. But that isn't why he came to Vegas. That isn't

what fueled his training for 12 months and his diet for three. He wants to win it all, and if he can't win it all, he wants the other pro card. Minutes after his victory in the super-heavyweight class, he stands in comparisons with the other class winners.

"A person is only as hard as the person standing next to him," Cook states. "Was I hard? Yes. But compared to whom? Compared to Mark Dugdale? Hell, no. Standing backstage, I knew how Will [Harris] was. I was way tighter than Will in the glutes and hamstrings on Saturday. He was in worse condition than he was on Friday. But I just couldn't match his muscle maturity and his back. Will is one of those guys who has been around a long time, and we all knew when he finally got it together he was going to be trouble. Everyone said I was toe to toe with him on everything--except for his back. Will's back is better than 90% of the pros, and I just couldn't hang with that this time."

Cook takes the results easier than he did last year. "All the way through that last week I thought I was in the shape of my life, but last night I took it to another level, and yet that still wasn't good enough. So now I know I have to take the conditioning beyond anything I've done before. That was the biggest lesson of the contest. I think the judges want me to have a particular look before they send me on [to the pro level], so maybe it's a saving grace. If they would've let me turn pro, then I would've gone on not knowing what I do now, and I would've got away with something. Getting away with something does me no good when I turn up at the Ironman [Pro Invitational] looking to win. Why send me to the dogs? Let me sit and brew, get better, and then when I do move on, I can rock the house and take top three in a big pro show. It hurts now, but I also think it's all for the best."

He returns to his hotel room with friends and family. He eats pepperoni and pineapple pizza.

MONDAY, JULY 26 | After a week of recuperation and FLEX photo shoots, Cook enters the gym. It is his first of two back days this week. (Back is the only bodypart he trains twice per week, evidence of its new importance in his program.) Later in the week, he'll do cable and machine back movements "to get that refined bumpy look," as he says, but today it's nothing but heavy free-weight basics: deadlifts, bent rows, T-bar rows and dumbbell rows.

The voyage begins anew. As he pulls 500 pounds off the floor, he does not yet know if his next destination is the Nationals in November or next July's USA. Today, it doesn't matter. His focus is not on merely turning pro. As he hoists the weight again and again, Cook comes ever closer to realizing his ultimate goal--to be the best he can be.

BY GREG MERRITT

SENIOR WRITER