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Tristan Van Der Bijl's Pro debut experience in Portugal

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I got the chance to have a chat with Mens Physique Pro bodybuilder Tristan Van Der Bijl after made his Pro debut in Portugal over last weekend. 





The bodybuilding industry in South Africa is thriving and is producing bodybuilding talents with world class potential. No cap! This new wave of SA bodybuilders is without doubt on par with their international counterparts and we can expect Olympians in the not so distant future. Someone who has just bullied his way to the front of the line is Tristan Van Der Bijl. 











BODYBUILDING HISTORY

Tristan has been a bodybuilder for many years now having been a Pro under the WBBF since 2018. That organization though global lacks the competition and reputation that the IFBB Pro league has and for someone with aspirations of being the best in the world the switch had to be made.

October 2021 is when made the decision to move over from competing in the WBFF to play with the big boys in NPC. 










PRO CARD

The Pro card was won at Muscle Mulisha after he placed top of his class then won the Mens Physique Overall. Things could have been very different though with his coach Hyacine Nasser revealing that they only decided to jump into the show on the Thursday 2 days out.

He by no means waltzed it and was made to sweat in what was the toughest division in the show - Stacked with talent! In the end he beat off stiff competition from fellow class winners Siya Molefe and Tristan Marais to take the coveted purple card home.

















PRO DEBUT IN PORTUGAL

Less than two months after turning Pro, VDB decided to get right into the thick of things and jump right into competing at the Portugal PRO. No messing about!
It doesn't matter how many times you do something, your first will always be vivid in your memory.


The experience was very beautiful. Portugal was awesome, competing there was not really a challenge because  they had everything I needed, people were really friendly and it was just a nice place to do my debut. It was calm and chilled being by the sea.


Of all the recent S.A. Pro graduates SA Tristan is the only one that hasn't taken a long offseason. The idea was simple: instead of playing the game in your head - step on stage get compared to the best and then go home and make the necessary adjustments.


It's was great to dip my toe in the water and see how I fared. You never know how good you are till you stand on stage and get compared. The pro debut was incredible it was amazing to stand on such a big stage, it was a major highlight. 



Final posing video in Portugal Pro













 

PORTUGAL PRO PERFORMANCE

Bodybuilding is all judged the same, the judges will write the number next to the athlete's name according to where they think that athlete should place (1 for 1st place, 8 for 8th place).
In men's physique however they only place 15 bodybuilders. So in lineups with more than 15 athletes they hold an elimination round with only 15 making it through to the finals.


I know what "Definitely fuller packages placed high…however the winners where dry and conditioned.









Tristans overall view of how things went on was positive.

The top 3 were in incredible shape! The look that my coach and I might feel is the best package might be completely different in then eyes of the judges. We were dry, very shredded and hard. I think I could have been a little but fuller and perhaps I wasn't as round as I was two weeks ago. Could that have given me a better placing? Perhaps. But i feel like the best me will be in a year's time.


Dude is a mountain standing at 6ft4 which means he'll need to fill out his frame even more to stand out next to these shorter guys, a point which he echoes in his sentiments.


I need more size bottom line. Think I’m terms of me personally I was at my best balance of condition and fullness so to have sacrificed some condition to bump up a few placings is not the game. You come in perfectly peaked and that means I need more size šŸ‘ŒšŸ»










GAME PLAN GOING FORWARD

There are two main areas he which the bodybuilder will be working on improving this off season.

Upper chest and back, I need size on that package. I need to add a little bit of muscle tissue and then come back in 6 months or so. My coach Hyacine Nasser: his goal is to put muscle on for 6 months, compete again then we will see where we fare. Within a year we want to be on the Olympia stage fighting for top spot. That is our goal.








Only those who dare to dream big end up achieving.

As Quavo sings in that song with Pop Smoke: "Shoot for the stars, aim for the moon".






(Left) Brandon Curry               (right) Terrance Ruffin


WHATS NEXT FOR TRISTAN


Hiring an international coach was the single best decision he could have made for his career, someone who's been then and done it for many athletes at this level. When you're coached by the same guy that coaches 2x time Arnold Classic champion Terrance Ruffin you can focus on the work down knowing the game plan is sound. 

He said he expect to compete again in 6 months so from now till then the only thing that matters is putting in the work in gym and finishing the year off strongly!


As a growing brand I also look forward to seeing him working on campaigns with big brands promoting a healthy lifestyle and growing the sport.

I also enjoy stealing workouts from the Youtube training content he posts and using it on some of my clientsšŸ˜….. 

Subscribe to his channel & learn more about training here:  https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCL1XLmPLUTWkUc8xHn2TEPw