Kelechi Opara

We’ve all heard it: “If you love what you do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” Well, BodySpace member Kelechi Opara—a.k.a. “MadTitan”—has always lived that way. A skinny kid born in the USA, Opara was raised in Nigeria by his mom. He recalls that his dream of being something more started when his mother gave him his first Captain America comic book. He became fascinated with reading comic books. He joined a gym for the first time in 1996; then in 1997 he joined the United States Marine Corps.

Kelechi became part of the elite helicopter expeditionary force “Evil Eyes,” which ultimately found its way to Afghanistan right after 9/11. He often worked out with sandbags, eating nothing but MREs. A shower after a workout—or at all—never happened. These days Kelechi is a specialist in aviation electronics, working primarily in helicopter systems, a job that takes him around the world.

Back to 1996 “MadTitan” couldn’t do even one pullup at the gym. Boot camp cured him of that, and pretty soon lifting in the gym became natural for him. His first real gym training came from a free week with a personal trainer in 1998, and it was then that Kelechi started reading IRON MAN and other bodybuilding publications to learn about diet and get more workout ideas. He attributes much of his current conditioning, which is obviously fantastic, to his reading.

Kelechi’s workouts are different from those of many, perhaps most, of the people I interview. He works out five days per week but builds each day’s routine around heavy compound movements—squats, overhead presses, chinups and the like. He adds work on individual body-parts like biceps around the compound exercises. He also wears a heart rate monitor while working out to keep himself from slacking off, maintaining his heart rate above 85 percent. Kelechi describes his diet as “nonlinear” and eats more carbs on the days he does heavier workouts.

So check out Kelechi Opara on BodySpace over at -BodyBuilding.com. He is that “MadTitan” loving what he does so he never has to work.

—Ian Sitren

Editor’s note: For more BodySpace bodies and info, visit Bodybuilding.com.