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Martin Luther King Addo - The Ashanti Warrior
He has won several U.S. competitions but Addo is a far cry from the image of a muscle-bound bodybuilder common in magazines and television spoofs. At 175 pounds he is considered small for a bodybuilder. But his physique is big and strong for a natural bodybuilder and he is at the top of the ranks in the sport. He also realizes his physique is more marketable in a mainstream market then a bodybuilder that decides to use drugs. He sets his sights on reaching worldwide recognition for the talent that he undoubtedly possesses. Luther’s training philosophy is everyone needs to exercise. He recommends that people should make exercise a part of their regular activity, just like they have to go to work. There are so many ways of exercising and he believes in power talking at least 25 to 30 minutes and you can burn 200 to 300 calories. Even if this is all some people decide to do they can stay fit to some degree. Stretching and resistance training are essential too. He doesn’t believe in long sessions at the gym and if people are taught what to do they will not have to spend too much time and will never get bored. Luther’s workouts are about an hour including aerobics. The majority of his workouts are with dumbbells because when he started working out that was the only equipment available and it worked for him. He believes in intense workouts with more repetitions and working bigger muscles in the body first - like the legs, chest, shoulders, and back.
Day One: Legs
Squats - 5 sets Day Two: Chest Flys - 3 sets Day Three: Back and Triceps
Pull Ups - 5 sets Day Four: Shoulders and Biceps
Seated Dumbbell Presses - 5 sets Luther grew up in the countryside before moving to the Capitol City of Accra, Ghana. Although he has never used steroids, Addo has built an incredible physique due to his unusual native diet and unique approach to training.
Tonics are popular and made from leaves and roots of bark from certain trees in the forest and are washed and hammered and then boiled in a big pot for the whole family. Some are used as sleeping aids, other to treat infections and diseases. Tonics are normally taken with a meal but for the purgative (which acts as a laxative, because Ghanaians feel that illness in the body need to be cleaned from the digestive tract immediately, you take on an empty stomach. For lunch, they would eat plantains, cassava (tapioca), or yams. They normally ate this with kntomire soup, which is boiled greens similar to collard greens, mustard greens, or turnip greens.
They also liked different soups with atogum (millet), fish, or roots. Rarely did they use chicken. Ghanaians love rice and consume a lot of it. Beans are also an important part of the diet, especially black-eyed peas. The oils they used were palm and coconut. They drink a lot of water every day because it is very hot. There are many lakes and lagoons so there is very clean water and they also drink coconut milk because coconuts are everywhere. The same is true for papaya, mango, pineapple, and orange juices, all natural and fresh since they are just plucked from the trees. They also drink a lot of tea. Ironically, although Ghana is a large producer of cocoa and coffee, the people hardly consume it. Since moving to the U.S. Addo drinks protein shakes with soymilk in the morning and then hard-boiled eggwhites. He also has oatmeal, grits, buckwheat pancakes for breakfast. Then he makes big pots of food, especially stews with lots of vegetables, carrots, sweet potatoes, cabbage, onions and fresh tomatoes. He eats a lot of fish with steamed vegetables served over rice. He eats baked potatoes, plain without seasoning. His advice is for people to eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. He also recommends that every two to three hours people should eat something with a balanced diet. And they should listen to what their bodies tell them. Don’t continue eating after being satiated. In the U.S. when people are full they continue to eat, Addo would never do that. Martin Luther King Addo won his Open Men weight class in Musclemania Atlantic three years in a row! Martin Luther King Addo Pics - Photos - Gallery
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He does weight training three to four times a week to build. On weight days he spends the first ten to fifteen minutes doing an aerobic exercise then stretching for another 20 minutes the actual weight training takes about 45 minutes.
When he was a child he ate the Ashanti diet, which is high in carbohydrates and less in protein. It was very easy to get carbs from the crops that grew there. They ate three meals a day. For breakfast they usually began with a local fruit called agsuwa and it is very sweet. Then they had a porridge made from maize (corn) eaten plain and drank a bitter herb-flavored tonic for general health.
In the evening they normally prepared a big family meal like fufu. Fufu is made of cassava and plantain, boiled and well-cooked then mashed and eaten with kontomire soup. Separately they put snails, crabs, fish, bush meat, and once in a while goat meat together in a big bowl with ground peanuts. This steamed for 25 minutes and corn meals rolled into balls are added.
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