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Scott Abel Official Web site:
www.scottabel.com
Scott Abel Bio
Well to start I was born August 13th 1961. (you do the math). From a very young age I can remember being encouraged to do two things: play sports, and study hard and do well in school. I seemed to really enjoy both. As I grew up like any other Canadian kid I played hockey. I loved hockey. I also got involved in any and all other sports. I ran the gamut. In hockey I was goalie, and managed to play Triple A hockey for the traveling team in London. There were lots of cities, lots of tournaments, and it was all a lot of fun and excitement. I even ended up with a job at the rink which I also just loved. I started as a “Cruiser” for public skating hours and then ended up doing “front end” work, booking the ice etc. By high school, I would often book the ice under an assumed name for late at night, and then show it to be cancelled and my friends and I would don the skates and play hockey all night long. Yes, typical Canadian upbringing, right down to stopping for donuts at Tim’s in the wee hours after shooting pucks most of the night.
But by high school, I got involved with all sports. I played volleyball, basketball,
hockey, football, lacrosse, all of it. I wasn’t necessarily that good at it, but I tried it
all and I picked up most skills quite quickly. Also during high school I was getting a
bit of a bad reputation. Although I would never say I was a “troublemaker” trouble sure seemed to find me. (Funny how that works!) Most of it was just your typical adolescent angst and hijinx. But as a crew, my friends and I pulled some wild stunts, a few of which would get me either suspended or expelled from school: Starting food fights in the cafeteria with pie plates and whipped cream on them from all corners of the room; Locking the exit doors with padlocks at assembly so no one could get in or out; Opening doors to class while they were on, and releasing live mice into the room; Mooning teacher’s cars at night, etc. These were a few of the more playful pranks we pulled in high school. I even had one of my friends, a real popular guy in the school, dress up in drag and we went to the Prom together. High school was a real riot for me. Back then we got away with stuff (most of the time) you could never get away with these days!!!
But while I enjoyed the shenanigans of high school I also did very well academically, and more than a few teachers encouraged me to stop being such a “rabble-rouser” and get my head straight and take my life more seriously and go to University. I certainly had the grades for it. As a matter of fact, academia came quite easily to me in high school. I considered getting A’s more of a way to piss off the teachers than I did as any serious future leaping point. But being able to get A’s without much effort certainly gave me the confidence to go ahead to University. By grade 12 or so, I was also lifting weights quite seriously. Although I would stop and start often over the next little while, it was definitely getting into my blood, so to speak. But back then it was often difficult to get motivated to train since most gyms were an after thought, maybe placed next to the furnace room and good equipment was pretty much non-existent.
But off I went to University. Being on my own was indeed intimidating first year and I’m sure that is still the case with the youth of our generation. I grew up a great deal. I found as my education advanced so did my interest in it. Not for any academic pat on the back but because it was opening up a whole new world to me. My education combined with living away from home was giving me some much needed worldliness. Soon my interests changed. Whatever chip I may have had on my shoulder was disappearing. My academic interests grew and my academic performance reflected it. For example, for the first time in the history of this course I received a 100% on a Social Psychology exam. My fourth year thesis was completed by Christmas, while most people were taking long past April to get it done. I received an exemplary grade of 85%, and still keep the letter that came with it from my Academic Advisor. By this time I was also teaching courses, for both the Sociology Department as well as exercise and weight training classes for the Phys Ed department. During this time my interest in Bodybuilding also continued to grow. Although I wasn’t overly good at it, I liked the individual rise or fall on your own doing, nature of it. It was very different back then. I graduated from my Honors degree with top Honors and even won a very special scholarship for intellectual proficiency which I hold dear to this day. It meant a great deal to me.
After Graduation I set out for a career in Social Work. I did several jobs with youths, but none were really all that gratifying. After a couple of years I decided to go back to school and pursue a Master’s Degree. After applying for entry I was amazed at the amount of money in scholarships my previous academic performance could garner and it made me feel kind of special. It was the first time I really acknowledged my intellectual abilities. Doing my Master’s degree continued to open up new avenues for me in my heart and in my mind. At this level of education I was interacting with some pretty “smart cookies” You couldn’t fake intelligence at this level (like you can in bodybuilding). I also very much enjoyed teaching undergraduate courses as a TA and marking term papers, exams and essays. I enjoyed seeing how other people thought, and wrote, and argued their thesis. At the time I was getting more and more into Bodybuilding as well, but I was never really part of the “bodybuilding world”... I was an academic. I didn’t know many other bodybuilders or interact with many other bodybuilders either. I would only see them really at contest time.
When I went back to Social Work, I was also getting more and more into the bodybuilding training and enjoying it. There weren’t many avenues to pursue back then. But in 1989, I was the only Canadian selected from applicants from over 24 countries to be a camp counselor at the Weider Muscle Camp in Las Angeles. Back then, this was a really big deal. All the top minds and athletes in the sport would be attending, and lecturing. I thought this would be a major learning opportunity for me, and it was on many different levels.
I initially went there expecting to be blown away by the knowledge I would gain. In that sense I was disappointed. Back then all most experts did was a “review of the literature” and well, being a University Graduate with several scholarships myself I had already done that several times over. Soon most of the people including the Pro Athletes were coming to me for advice. I found it strange but very exhilarating as well. It gave me the confidence when I came back home to Canada to help competitors at home as well. I began to do so, and all I asked them back then was to please have the MC say that I helped them for the show. Well it wasn’t long before these athletes were winning every show everywhere. The reputation spread and then, Abel Bodies was born and was an official business for me. You must remember at the time there really wasn’t anyone else doing this on a similar scale, especially in Canada. At one point, I entered a bunch of people in a big show in my home town of London.It was a combined level 1 and level 2 show. My clients won every single weight class in both levels, both guys and girls, and some classes they even finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd to each other. From that point on right till now, I have never ever had to solicit business. My clients and athletes all had a look that just “stood out from the rest” I was getting calls from all over
Canada. Soon, I also received lots of media press, and then the calls started coming in from all over North America and beyond. This was a fun but hectic time. It was also my first exposure to the “real hardcore bodybuilding world”. I wanted to make a difference and I still separated training these bodybuilders into making them into “real athletes” or at least real athletes by my definition of the term. To this day I think that is what still separates me from all the others.
As well, I was getting pretty big on the seminar circuit. I enjoyed this immensely at first as it reminded me of being back teaching University. I really enjoyed and missed the intellectual interactions and exchanges. To this day one of my favorite presentations was at Michigan State University. It was a blast. As my name grew in terms of expertise so did the opportunities. Most of these I turned down, and still do to this day. More than a few of them were financially quite profitable but for me it meant a change of lifestyle, and I really loved my life just the way it was.
However, more than a few supplement companies wanted me to work with them in an advisory, research, writing, and/or endorsement role. I worked with a few and got even more media exposure doing so. I also got involved with the pre-season strength testing and assessment of top NHL draft picks, in and around the times of the draft. I quite enjoyed that as well. This is not to say I didn’t experience growing pains throughout my life because I did, especially in my personal relationships, with friends and with significant others. But in and around the change of the millennium I was awakened spiritually. Till then I had always been spiritually curious and somewhat spiritually aware but at this point like a lightening bolt, I was struck with a real sense of spiritual awareness and spiritual reality. This is when the phrase “seeing is believing gets turned right side up to “believing is seeing”. As a believer, a whole new world was opening up to me and I was seeing the world around me in a whole new way, and with gratitude and awe. It’s no coincidence at this time that Annie came in to my life. It was kind of a synchronicity with my spiritual awakening. Annie became my everything, and again, a new world opened up to me. Everything became easier. Life was and is amazing. And I have stayed on this path ever since.
In 2004 I retired from my own physical pursuits. I had done enough. I had been to the top, Guest Posing with Pros, and at Pro shows as well. It was enough of an accomplishment for me personally. It was time to move on. I am now at a point where I want to take Abel Bodies to a whole new level. Real good and quality coaching is needed more now than ever. With the Internet and Marketing Geniuses out there, anyone can call themselves anything and get away with it. I want to put some sanity back into the coaching business of regular people and athletes alike. I want to educate people that they don’t have to sell their souls to the devil to reach their physical goals. I want to teach them that training is more rewarding than is the finished product.
Long ago, a study revealed that ‘over achievers” make the best coaches. I have been a proven over achiever pretty much my whole life. I know that is one quality that also makes me a proven coach. To this day I meet and have met people better than me at all kinds of tasks. But once the task is upon me, no one works harder at achieving it. No one. That is the one unique quality that defines me that I teach and deliver to my clientele and athletes alike. To sum it up in one word, Scott Abel is all about one thing. INTENSITY !!!!!! This is the one defining element that lends to someone not only reaching a goal but surpassing it. All other elements of performance personality such as commitment, diligence, integrity, grit, work ethic, etc, these all fall under the umbrella of intensity. This is me.
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