Samir Troudi
Professional Bodybuilder
Samir Troudi is an IFBB Pro competitor originally from Sweden. An avid soccer player in his youth, Samir has taken full advantage of his sporting background to craft an awesome physique after he switched over to bodybuilding. Along the way, he’s also won a Pro Card, after winning the 2016 Amateur Olympia in Spain.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing for Samir. When he was younger, he wanted to become a musician, playing in a band with a couple of friends. However, his dreams came to a standstill after the band fell apart, leading him to find solace in lifting weights, which has since become his life.
This is Samir’s story:
Athlete Statistics
Weight 205 - 215lbs (88.5 - 93.0kg) Height 5'5" (165cm) Age 41 Date of Birth December 1, 1983 Nationality Swedish Profession Professional Bodybuilder Era 2010, 2000
Accomplishments
- Decembercupen 2005 Champion -70kg jr class and senior class
- Winner of Luciapokalen 2005 -70kg jr class
- Winner of Luciapokalen 2007 -70kg senior class
- Swedish Nationals 2009 6th place in -90kg class
- Norway Open 2010 3rd place in -80kg class
- Swedish Nationals 2010 2nd place in -80kg class
- Winner of Battle of Scandinavia 2012 – 91kg class
- Loaded Cup Denmark 2012 2nd place – 90kg class
- Loaded Cup Denmark 2013 2nd place -90kg class
- BMR Grand Prix 2013 2nd place -90kg class
- Oslo Grand Prix 2013, 1st place 90kg class and 2nd place overall
- Amateur Olympia Spain -90kg class 3rd place
- Ajman Championship, UAE 2015 1st place
- Fujeirah Championship 2015 1st place
- Tyngre Classic III, Sweden 1st place
- Amateur Olympia Kuwait 2016 -90kg class 1st place
- Amateur Olympia Spain 2016 -85kg class 1st place
- Arnold Classic 212 Pro show 2018, Columbus, Ohio – 3rd place
- Prague Pro Men’s 212, 2018, 3rd place
- 2018 Olympia 212, 15th place
- 2018 Arnold Classic 212, 3rd place
Biography
From a Soccer Player to Musician
Samir Troudi has been an athlete since his childhood. Born and raised in Uddevalla, Sweden, he played many sports including swimming and karate. However, his favorite activity by far was soccer.
He played the sport for many years, and then, his passions slowly started to change – his new interest became music. Eventually, Samir gave up soccer in order to play as a musician in a band.
Finding a New Hobby – Weightlifting
Samir kept playing music for three years, after which his band split up. With nothing else to do, Samir started going to the gym and soon started packing on some muscle.
After seeing other big guys in his gym, Samir noticed they were all competitive bodybuilders. Motivated by his own progress, Samir decided to become a bodybuilder just like these people.
“I have always liked challenges and competitions of all kind and always hated to lose, so when I started to enjoy the training more and more I also started to buy bodybuilding magazines and my interest grew bigger and bigger. “
First Shows
Here’s Samir talking about his first bodybuilding shows: “I competed in bodybuilding category and won my first two shows in 2005, competing in the -70kg class.”
With such an impressive debut, it was clear Samir had found his sport. He now wanted to see how far he could go.
Samir Troudi in his early bodybuilding days.
Into the IFBB
In 2012, Samir set a new challenge for himself – to become a professional bodybuilder. However, in order to do this, he had to win the Pro Card first.
4 years later, after countless training sessions, strict dieting, and posing practices, he brought his best version at the 2016 Amateur Olympia Spain to claim his long-awaited IFBB Pro Card.
Samir Troudi Nowadays
Nowadays, Samir works on making his name in the IFBB Pro circuit, just as he did as an amateur athlete.
With his impressive physique and awesome posing, there’s no doubt he’ll continue to set new milestones in his trophy-laden career as a bodybuilder.
Training
Samir doesn’t follow a typical weekly training routine, in a sense that weekdays are his training days, and weekends are dedicated to rest. “I just keep it rolling and rest when I feel tired. No matter what name of the day it is,” he says.
In terms of exercises, Samir doesn’t change them often. He sticks to the same routine as long as it gives him results. He’ll do 2-3 sets per exercise, and 4 exercises per body part in every workout.
Samir is also a big fan of training hard. Not in terms of heavy weights and few reps, but hard as in training until failure. Samir believes there’s no such thing as overtraining as long as his rest and diet are in check.
In addition to his rigorous training methods, Samir also tries to use perfect form with every exercise, making each rep count.
Samir’s Training Split
Although Samir is known for his well-rounded physique, he’s found that his back lags behind other body parts. That’s why he loves to train his back 2 times per week.
His full training split:
- Back – width, rear delts & biceps
- Hamstrings and calves
- Rest
- Chest and shoulders
- Back-thickness & biceps
- Rest
- Quads & triceps
- Rest
“There just is no such thing as the best split. People are different, peoples bodies are different and the genetics are different. There might be a perfect split for you. But that one is surely not the perfect one for me.”
Nutrition
Pre-Contest Dieting
After trying countless diets, Samir has found that his body responds best when he follows a simple 3-phase meal plan before a contest. It looks like this:
- 1st Phase – Calorie intake is high at around 4000kcal. This is where Samir is just getting into the contest preparations.
- 2nd Phase – His calories are dropped to 3200kcal per day. At this point, Samir adapts his body to gradually losing fat.
- 3rd Phase – The final stage before a show, where Samir eats 2700kcal, sometimes even lower, in order to achieve a shredded physique.
Off-Season Diet
During the off-season, Samir eats about 4500-5000kcal per day. He keeps the protein very high at around 500g per day. By contrast, his fats are kept between 60-100g a day.
As for carbs, he changes their amount depending on how intense he trains. For example, if he has a leg day, he’ll eat more carbs that day to fill his muscles with glycogen and energy.
Samir’s favorite muscle-building foods include:
- Chicken
- Rice
- Couscous
- Bananas
- Low-fat minced beef
- Raisins
- Milk
- Protein powder
- Carbs supplement
- Eggs
- Mixed nuts
Supplements Samir Troudi Takes
The supplements Samir uses vary depending on his goals and how his body feels. But these are generally the ones he takes year-round:
- Omega 3
- Multivitamin
- Magnesium
- Potassium
- Amino Acids
- Caffeine
- Pre-workout products
- Protein powders
What we can learn from Samir Troudi
Samir Troudi has shown us that in order to excel in whatever you do, you should put all your focus into that activity, even if that means sacrificing other things.
In order to become an IFBB Pro, Samir had to go through a long journey of ups and downs, and countless sacrifices. But for him, everything was worth it – because he now reaps the rewards of his labor.
The lesson Samir Troudi has taught us is quite simple – the more effort you put into something, the better results you’ll have in the end.
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