Mr Charles Olayele Ajayi was born on 10 November 1962 in Ondo town of the eponymous state in South-West Nigeria. He is a certified exercise physiologist, health counsellor, an ‘8th degree black belter’ in Chung-do-kwon taekwondo, and most especially an advocate of hardcore, ‘blood and guts’ bodybuilding training, although advancing age has meant he has had to slow down in recent years. “I still train, but not so heavy anymore…in fact, I should say I exercise nowadays, not train anymore, lol!” Nowadays, he focuses more on being in shape and maintaining a good level of cardiovascular health.
Mr Ajayi’s bodybuilding sojourn, like most of his contemporaries in the Nigerian game, began with a foray into an alternate sport: martial arts. “I consider myself an avid fan of Bruce Lee,” he begins. “I had gotten to know about him and was in awe of his physique. So, around 1980 or 1981, I proceeded to undertake the exercises that he did with the aim of achieving a body similar to his.” Some of those exercises included 50 straight knuckle push-ups on hard stony ground, 30 (effortless) single fingertip push-ups, 10-15 two-finger push-ups, as well as one-arm knuckle and fingertip push-ups. By the mid-eighties, Mr Ajayi had achieved his goal of carving out the Chinese movie star’s famed ‘V-taper’ for himself, but was just about to get his introduction to another legend, this time in a far more physically demanding sports discipline. “I stumbled upon a bodybuilding course by Charles Atlas titled ‘Dynamic Tension’, which prescribes the use of your own weight as well as the pushing of walls in order to build your body. The man himself had a physique that fascinated me-he had a bigger chest, biceps, lats, legs, etc. I was still practicing my martial arts at that point, but then, all of a sudden, the ‘Bruce Lee body’ didn't appeal to me anymore-now I wanted a bigger body and the beast in me was unleashed!” Mr Ajayi became an ‘Atlas devotee’, religiously implementing the recommendations of the course. “I followed everything to the letter!”, he recollects. His new and improved routine now included dipping between chairs, pushing against immovable walls, and a significant increase in the number of push-ups. “I wanted a Charles Atlas chest and I went crazy with my push-ups in those days…any opportunity I got during the day, I was doing press-ups; between 30 and 50 reps on any one occasion. Most times, I would find that, by the time I was going to bed at night, I had completed 250 reps!!!” This figure subsequently became a daily benchmark, and it was exceeded on occasion, with the new convert reaching numbers as high as 300, 350, sometimes reaching even as high as 500 reps a day, but this was by no means the peak for the young man. “I got a relatively impressive chest to the detriment of other body parts,” he says, “but then I saw an advert in a ‘Spiderman’ comic book of a skinny guy who used an apparatus called a ‘bull worker’ and a chest expander to build the biggest body I had ever seen in my life. I then stumbled on courses from Joe Weider using this same apparatus with weights, and I came across pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, Sergio Oliva, etc. Omo (The Nigerian slang equivalent of ‘boy’!), I was hooked!” Subsequently, he began buying bodybuilding magazines and soaking up the knowledge therein, but as at this point he was still a largely raw and self-trained athlete. “I had no coach and naturally I made mistakes,” he recollects, “but in 1986, when I travelled to the United States, I bought books on bodybuilding in order to acquire more knowledge, and I learned over time that the training programs I had read on in those magazines had been for ‘pre-contest’ and the refining of already-acquired mass, not necessarily for building. I realized that all the while, I had been following the ‘pros’ workout programs and been guilty of ‘overtraining’, and it was a huge learning curve for me.”
Back then, having a professional career in the sport was not something Mr Ajayi contemplated, although he did go on stage a few times. “I didn't really go in for major competitions, but I went for a few ‘Macho’ contests when I was a student at the University of Ibadan. I was the ‘Mr Macho’ of the SIGMA club a few times but lost twice-once to someone I mentored, whom I defeated the following year when he returned to defend his title, while the second loss was to a very close friend and training partner. I never got the chance to revenge because he never competed again, lol!” However, despite the fact that Mr Ajayi didn’t really compete, he was very ‘hardcore’ with his training, earning the nickname of ‘Animalistic Charlie’ from his gym buddies at the time. “My training was very heavy and brutal. I believed in using the heaviest weights possible but with proper form,” he reminisces. “I trained each body part once a week so as to recover from the brutal work outs, employing bodybuilding techniques like rest pause, stripping, etc. I trained like a competitive bodybuilder, even though I didn't compete. I would bulk up to as high as 125kg, then diet down to 105kg, sometimes as low as 102kg. Mind you, I didn't go into the sport out of insecurity or something, I just loved the concept of transformation of the body through progressive resistance of the muscles via training as well as the effect of dieting.” Mr Ajayi kept up this impressive routine as the years rolled by, but stopped hardcore training temporarily in the year 2018, making a decision to focus on keeping fit. Briefly resuming his previous intensity during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period, he finally stopped training by the end of 2020. “I had to mellow down and not beat my body up training anymore, but simply exercise, keep fit and retain good cardiovascular health levels. I adjusted my diet too, and lost some mass. I currently hover between 98-103kg now.” Mr Ajayi has remained very active in taekwondo though, taking on a number of challenges ranging from training the former governor of Lagos State, Mr Akinwumi Ambode, and his family to teaching the art of self-defence to pupils of the School for the deaf. Even though bodybuilding has been relegated to second place, Mr Ajayi has found a way to take it up again, though at significantly lower levels of intensity. “Back then, a typical workout week comprised of chest and biceps on Mondays, legs on Tuesdays, shoulders and triceps on Thursdays and back on Fridays, while Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays were rest days. Nowadays I do chest and biceps on Mondays, legs on Thursdays and shoulders and triceps on Sundays, followed by two consecutive days of rest, and so on. I am much older now, and I need more time for recovery between weight training workouts, even though I go relatively lighter these days.”
We salute you, Mr Charles Ajayi! You are a Naija Masters bodybuilder!
The NBD
*Mr Ajayi holds a Master’s degree in Physiology of exercise from the University of Ibadan. He previously owned a gym called ‘Charlie's Planet Health and Fitness’ in the Ojodu Berger area of Lagos but has ceased operations therein due to circumstances beyond his control. These days, he is more of a consultant to schools, companies, the military, banks, the police, customs, as well as established fitness centres. He can be contacted by sending an email to ajayicharles23@yahoo.com . He is also reachable on Facebook and Instagram.
