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Q/ When did you first get into bodybuilding and why? As a teenager I was skinny, I weighed about 9 stone. I was always getting into fights and never able to defend myself so I always looked up to role models like Spiderman, Superman and Bruce Lee. I wanted to be strong like them.
In 1985, how ever, it all changed. I was 15 and I had seen Rocky IV, it gave me the inspiration to want a physique like Sylvester Stallone. So I brought a set of Joe Weider weights from Argos and started training at home. Within a very short time, I began to see changes and my peers at school acknowledged this. It encouraged me to keep at it. I gained more confidence in myself. My parents thought that it a waste of effort. That I could be using this effort in running the family business (they owned the Italian continental store here in Aylesbury for 35 years till June 2006. Which at the time I didn’t enjoy doing) they were a bit concerned about all the supplements I was taking! They thought I was some sort of a junkie! But it gave me more confidence in myself & taught me discipline.
Q/ What are/were your inspirations and did you always feel you would reach the very top?
My parants have been a big inspiration for me as they come to this country with just a suitcase, opened a shop selling some fruit & became a successful business which last 35 years till June 2006.In Oct 1995 I had a serious head on collision in my car, which broke my leg in three places! So I was in bed at home for a few months twiddling my thumbs! So then despite a lot of negative feedback, I decided to open my own gym. (With backing from my parents) It started with 15 pieces of equipment! And after a year I got a bigger place, then after another year I opened another floor. Then after about 6 months I converted the basement to part of the gym. Now I’m ready for another place, its just finding the right location & price. The first 8 years I did all the hours (11 hrs a day) But in Jan 2003 my daughter was born so I didn’t want to miss her growing so I’m doing a lot fewer hours now! Its 12 years I’ve been open in Oct! Before all this I was a bricklayer for about 5 years.
Well after 6 months of my gym opening in 1995, one of my clients and now friend, Dean Spain had just done his first competition and said I should compete. He thought I’d do really well. I decided to go for it as I thought the knowledge would be beneficial for my gym. I’d also always wanted to see myself in condition (abs visible) but never had a goal to keep me to the diet. I came 3rd in the novice A.N.B Central England Championships in august 1997. Then I got the bug. I wanted to better myself and win my class so in July 1998, I won the West of England Championships in the under 70kg class and simultaneously qualified for the British Championships in November. In which I came 4th. Then the goal was to win the nationals, which took me seven years back to back, which I finally won in 2003. When I begun I believed I could win it but never knew it would take so long. I certainly didn’t believe I would be a World Champion!
I will keep up my training as long as possible as I would like to still look good when I'm an old man. My child hood hero Sylvester Stallone, who at 60 is still in trim & has showed everyone that you, can still look good at any age! That’s what its all about!
Q/ Describe the sort of diet and training you would do in the build up for a competition and for how long?
I also learnt the hard way, low carbohydrates, low calories etc. In the end I just had a good balanced diet of 230g of carbohydrates & Protein a day & 30-40 g of good fats. Say a hand full of each on a plate & vegetables. I was on 2300/2400 calories a day & just trained 3 x a week hitting back & biceps on Monday, legs & calves on Wednesday & chest, shoulders, triceps & abs on Friday with a 20 walk a day. I hardly lost weight every week but I could see it coming off in the mirror. You don't need to complicate things. I had to lose about 2 stone believe it or not! That’s probably a normal healthy persons weight but the judges want to see condition, balance & off course muscle. This took about 9 months of dieting
Q/ Does this impact on your personal life?
Oh boy, well when I started this game I was a single man & it was far easier until I had my own family. After that it wasn’t so easy, the diet is very demanding as you only have enough energy to train. Anything else to that can be a choire. Not unless you are on the diet can you understand this. The diet can change your personality too but at the time you cannot see how different you are to people. If you are impatient, sensitive, moody, it can make you even worse! I was a lot worse in the past when I was on low calories but last year the diet was far easier on me. So if I were to take the family out I would have to think ahead & prepare my meals so I wouldn’t go wrong. Then being Italian makes it even harder, if the family were eating out or eating at relatives I would prefer to stay at home as it drove me insane to eat what I had to eat & watch them indulge in the Italian cuisine. Mind games were an understatement! But this was another thing that annoyed my wife, if I wasn’t working, I was cooking & if I wasn’t cooking I was practicing my routines etc for what I have to do on stage.
Q/ Fitness and men's health is an increasingly important issue, how important is it for a man to look after himself and keep fit.
I think as a child were not brought up to realise how food affects us & only recently were now seeing programmes about this. I think diet is the main cause to many of the diseases of today. Schools should teach this so when that child becomes an adult they can bring their children up even healthier. Men of today have definitely got more pressure to look good underneath their clothes as well as facially. And with this pressure a lot of guys haven’t got the patience it takes to build some muscle so they do it by other means: steroids. Most people are naive & are unaware of the detrimental side effects they have. They see these guys in the bodybuilding magazines & want to look like them but are unaware they are heavily on steroids etc. The most frustrating thing is that a lot of these people beginning haven’t got the patience & take them blindly or think that they won’t harm them. If I were to have done it I’d be defeating the object of doing this sport to be healthy! Plus there was no way I could enter a needle into my body! In 1994 when I started working in a gym, a new guy had joined & he was asking me how he could achieve a physique like mine! I hadn’t seen him for a while & one day he came in and he was bigger than me! Well need I say more! It was very frustrating as what I achieved in several years he did in a few months. In that gym it was available like red bull & everyone was doing it. At the end of the day if you surround yourself with positive people then this will make you positive. And the opposite is true so I was undecided about taking it until I read about the serious damage it could do. So most of my clients no my thoughts & adhere to it, I even have Junior British champions now, so I’m doing something right to keep them on the straight & narrow and proud of it. I’m very proud to have stayed natural & if I ever got some sort of illness I know it weren’t cause I put any chemicals in my body!
Q/ Would you be able to recommend a diet and basic training programme that your everyday man could use to keep in shape?
There is no secret except people go wrong when they don’t think ahead. It just means that all my meals are prepared before hand other wise if a meal isn’t, you will eat rubbish. And a lot of people are unaware what’s good & what’s bad. Basically if it’s in a packet, a tin stay away. Go for natural foods like fruit, vegetables, fresh organic meat & fish. Find out how many calories sustain your weight & then if you want to lose weight do some exercise & then you should slowly lose weight. When most people diet, they think they have to stop eating & this is where most go wrong. You have to be patient. The other thing I did is once a week on the same day I would have a cheat meal & eat what ever I fancied. This kept me sane for another week. As for training & diet, I do personal training for individuals so I can’t really say what to do as everyone has different needs so I construct one to one programmes for individual needs & goals.
Q/ What's next for Mr Montalbano?
Well I have won the British Nationals twice now (2003 & 2006) & the Worlds in 2006. Maybe do that again to prove it wasn’t a fluke! Ha ha, no kidding, well I have learnt never to say never so I won’t say I won’t do it again but I definitely want to win the masters when I’m old enough. For now concentrate on my family & gym business. I’m getting a DVD made which should be out in the summer & will show the inns & outs of getting in shape.
Q/ Anything else you want to add that I haven't touched on?
I just want to thank my parents for helping me begin my business in 1995 & do what I really wanted to do. Not many people have that opportunity to work in something their passionate about. It started with only 15 pieces of equipment in a small premises & through time has really evolved. It’s been eleven years now & I still enjoy my work, long hours but it’s great seeing people transform & better their health. I want to also thank them for their support over the years as I really appreciate it; they never missed one final in 7 years. It would never of been the same without them there for me. I wanted them to be there when I did win, lucky for me they were. You see after the first year of competing my Dad said I should give up as he felt I'd never beat the top guys This just made me more determined as nothing ever made my Dad proud of me & I wanted to prove him wrong, even if it took seven years. I suppose like most parents he hated seeing me torture myself year after year.
When I was finally crowned the British lightweight title in Oct 2003, that day he was certainly proud & that’s what made it more special. It was emotional my Dad came back stage with tears in his eyes, it was the first time he showed he was proud of me in my life. The last show I did was in Nov 2003, the U.I.B.B.N Worlds in Belgium with the British team & I got 2nd. I was well happy with that, this was the highest I placed in three previous Worlds. My father was really upset as he really thought I deserved to win, it was funny as I was real happy getting 2nd. Not till I saw the video I could see where he was coming from. I think caring parents are the most important thing in a Childs up bringing & can make a big difference in how a person grows to be an adult. And I’m not talking about what they give materialistically bur from the heart. So my last words are if you want to achieve something in life ‘Make it happen’, don’t let anyone get in your way or tell you any different. You just got to believe in yourself, believe me I took my knocks but I prevailed in the end. 
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