German native Urs Kalecinski is determined to bring a bigger and better physique to the 2023 Mr. Olympia stage. In a recent HD Muscle Podcast, Kalecinski discussed the game plan for his next appearance in November and life at 275 pounds.
“It would be cool – the first Classic guy at 300 pounds just for like clickbait reasons. It’s crazy, I don’t remember the last time when I wasn’t hungry,” shared Urs Kalecinski.
Kalecinski, one of the sport’s fastest-rising stars, continues to make strides as a competitor in the Classic Physique division. Fans quickly took note of his tight waist, symmetry, and lower body detail, which are weapons he’s already used to find success in the IFBB Pro League.
In 2021, Kalecinski won the 2021 Tampa Pro, and that victory paved the way for his first Olympia appearance. He was awarded fourth in his debut, something many took as a promising sign of his future. A year later, the 25-year-old earned third at the Arnold Classic, trailing behind two-time winner Terrence Ruffin and his rival, Ramon Queiroz.
Undeterred by that showing, he won the Boston Pro to earn a 2022 Olympia invite. Again, Urs set his sights on Brazilian powerhouse Queiroz and Chris Bumstead. While he brought an impressive physique to last year’s Olympia (2022), Kalecinski finished third. Kalecinski had another shot at taking down Queiroz in Columbus, Ohio, but was unable to claim Arnold Classic gold. With time to prepare for the year’s biggest event, Kalecinski sat down to discuss progress and preparations.
Urs Kalecinski Talks Struggles of Preps, Rivalry with Ramon Queiroz, & Diet Plan for 2023 Olympia
Kalecinski said his prep for 2022 Olympia was one of his easiest but encountered problems turning around two months later for the 2023 Arnold Classic. He mentioned that a bout of food poisoning affected his performance in Ohio.
“This prep [2022 Mr. Olympia] for the Olympia was so easy. You know those preps which doesn’t feel like prepping at all. I had energy till peak week. I was feeling bad because I’m not suffering so hard. I had cheat meals every four days because my metabolism was fire and no problem at all going to the weight limit. And then, what fuc**d up my whole life was the Olympia to the Arnold.
Because it was back-to-back I would say. It was only six or seven weeks. And I can’t do any breaks between it, so I had to keep continuing. My hunger and everything went skyrocketing. Then, imagine, you work your ass off and you don’t have a social life during prep, that’s normal, but then not only the social life but also feeling like dog shit every day. I didn’t have that in my whole life before. When you work so hard and then at the very end, you get fuc**ng food poisoning from chicken when I was flying,” said Urs Kalecinski.
After going to the hospital for blood work, Kalecinski said his coach warned him that a few markers were off. However, the problem was ultimately resolved.
“I went to the hospital, and did my blood work because my coach luckily he has a medical background and he’s very very good with those health things and he knows exactly how to handle this and he says, ‘Okay, some points are not good, like of course, your liver enzymes are not good and your cholesterol is not that good at the end of your prep.
The magnesium and other minerals are not in a good range then we need to stop this.’ Then, I prayed to God, ‘Please let it don’t be like this.’ At the end, it was good. We nailed it perfectly to the weight limit and then to filling back up. I had like three days with 1,000 grams of carbs for the carb-up. And I still wasn’t full at the prejudging.”
To combat Ramon Queiroz and Cbum on stage in November, Kalecinski shared that he bulked up to 275 pounds and looks forward to another meeting.
“It’s so crazy in Classic. It’s all about this one day or one two or three hours. Also in bodybuilding but I think in Classic it’s – it’s a bit harder,” said Urs Kalecinski. “My weight, yeah it’s 275 [pounds].”
“I can battle him [Ramon] and that’s what I’m pumped for this year. The fans and the people are going to see some good battle between us and that’s what I’m shooting for. Getting bigger and better. We’ve made some good improvements and also here – got some motivation back.”
Eventually, Kalecinski plans to cut his diet of 3,500 calories to only 1,800.
“Officially 16 weeks out but I tried to bring my weight down right now because where I want to go,” said Urs. “It’s crazy. I’m always hungry. I’m fuc**ng – yeah it’s crazy [I go from 3,500 calories] to 1,800.”
“That’s like a Bikini girl diet,” replied Antoine Vaillant.
According to Kalecinski, bodybuilders who want to make improvements sometimes need to ‘look like a bag of shit’ in the off-season.
“That’s like I said, that’s always what the people say, [switch to the Open] I swear to God, eight or 10 weeks, you’re going to see it everywhere, Urs is too shredded to be ready on stage. That’s what I like about the old days. Dorian Yates didn’t give a fuc*. I get tons of messages, ‘What happened to your fuc**ng face it’s blown up.’
I’m like, ‘Bro, back in the day everybody looked like this. Come on. It’s just Instagram where you see all the influencers being shredded all year-round but they don’t make improvements. To make improvements you need to look like a bag of shit in my opinion. Not the body, but when your face blows up,” said Kalecinski.
In a recent Olympia TV edition of Prime Time Muscle, esteemed Olympia judge Terrick El Guindy talked about the rivalry between German standouts Kalecinski and Mike Sommerfield. El Guindy went as far as to say that Urs wants to ‘beat the hell out of’ Mike when they meet again on stage.
There’s no denying ‘The Miracle Bear’s’ popularity in the IFBB Pro League. With a new and improved 275-pound physique, fans are curious how Kalecinski will compare to Ramon Queiroz and Classic Physique Olympia king Chris Bumstead later this year.
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