The Pembina Valley continues to produce some of Canada's best bodybuilders.

A number of local competitors placed at the latest MABBA Provincial Championships in Winnipeg, including relative newcomer Kevin Friesen.

Friesen placed first in his class at qualifiers in April, and took second in the Masters 40+ Men's Bodybuilding class and third in the Heavyweight category at Provincials last weekend.

He notes the competition is fierce; many athletes who enjoy the support of sponsors and train full time.

For Friesen the challenge is training is more of a hobby that fits around his work schedule and budget.

Friesen says it can be nervewracking, being inspected by seven judges on stage

Others are half his age, and have also been training longer (Friesen started seriously training four years ago).

Despite the uphill battle, Friesen has qualified to compete at Nationals for the next two years. His plan is to bulk up for next year's country-wide competition.

His dream is to earn his professional designation to compete world wide.

"One day," he says.

Meanwhile, Morden's Matt Mcleod took home first place in the Men's Physique Class 'C' this past weekend.

Photos supplied by Matt Mcleod

"My number was fifty-five and one of the other guys I was competing against was fifty-four. For my category, when they got to second place they were saying 'For second place number...fifty...'. Then my mind goes through a hundred different things, like oh my goodness I only got second, after all this work," Mcleod says. "They said fifty-four and then they said fifty-five, Matt Mcleod was first place. It seemed so surreal and kind of hard to take in at first."

"I even turned the wrong way after they were trying to get a photo of me. They asked for me to do a quarter turn to the right, and I thought they wanted to see my right side of my body, so I turned to the left and they said 'or the left'," adds Mcleod, who says he was in shock after winning first.

Mcleod explained he originally started training for these competitions because he tore his ACL back in high school and was in an car accident a couple of years ago, which broke his foot and ruined almost all the cartilage in one of his knee's. This injury didn't allow him to continue doing cross fit and Olympic style weight lifting any more as leg needed time to heal, which is where the thought of competitive body building came into the picture.

Up next for Mcleod is preparing for the World's competition next year, which he qualified for after finishing first place this past weekend.

While Friesen says he's perfect symmetry on his frame, his plan going into next year's Nationals is to add muscle, proportionally.

"It's like an artwork, you're sculpting a piece of stone... you see something lacking you have to concentrate on it."

Friesen attributes his success to trainers at Freak Fitness in Winnipeg, "those guys are the best, they just need one look at you once and pick out what you need to change," he says.