The Brooklyn Beast Game Plan
Muscular Development|April 2022
COVID Knocked Akim Williams Down, But He's Back Up!
By Ron Harris
The Brooklyn Beast Game Plan

SIDELINED BY THE 'RONA

The 2021 season had gone swimmingly for Akim Williams. In Puerto Rico, he had picked up his third career win on the way to a top-five finish at the Arnold Classic and his third time in the top 10 at the Mr. Olympia. As the year wound its way to a close, The Brooklyn Beast was a couple of weeks into his prep for the 2022 Arnold Classic and very satisfied with what he was seeing in the mirror. Then, just a few days after Christmas, he came down with the unmistakable symptoms of this godforsaken virus that's crippled our world for over two years now: shortness of breath, crippling fatigue, loss of his sense of taste, and zero appetite. He spent two weeks in utter misery, unable to manage more than a few bites of food at a time. Weight training and cardio were out of the question. As he recovered and gradually made his way back to “normal, he had two choices. “I could either keep pushing my body and do the Arnold as planned or take a step back and recover properly before I start hitting it hard again. But there was a chance I would have ended up in the hospital or permanently injured my lungs, as so many people unfortunately have with COVID. I truly wanted to compete in the Arnold Classic, but health always needs to come first.

REBUILDING THE BROOKLYN BEAST

Akim had started his prep at the off-season weight he feels most comfortable at, 295-300 pounds. After about three weeks of dieting, he was 285 pounds. “I really liked the look there, and could project how I would look on stage, he tells us. He feels his best stage weight is right around 270, best exemplified by his 2020 Mr. Olympia appearance where he landed in the elite top six.

This story is from the April 2022 edition of Muscular Development.

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This story is from the April 2022 edition of Muscular Development.

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