DECATUR - Those who know him say Brent Swansen has the ability to lift people up - in several ways. Swansen, 23, got into weightlifting and natural bodybuilding at the age of 16 and competed in his first show at 19.

On Saturday, Swansen competed in the professional division of the Universe Natural Bodybuilding Championships and Fitness Universe competition in Los Angeles.

Natural bodybuilding competitions are serious business, Swansen said, requiring competitors to take drug and lie-detector tests to rule out the possibility of performance-enhancing drugs.

Seven years ago, 2 inches shorter and weighing in at 125 pounds, Swansen started making changes to his physique. Lifting weights, a very specific diet and nutritional supplements have helped him sculpt himself into the 230-pound, muscle-bound man he is today. Now, he makes shrugging 700 pounds look like putting on a backpack.

"I was a little guy, but I just really wanted to do it for sports when I started to do it," he said of the lifting regimen.

Pleased with the individual changes he had made, Swansen soon started personal training others at the Decatur Family YMCA, and four years ago, he started working as a trainer at Cindy Peyton's Unique Physique in Mount Zion. He trains everyone from elite college athletes to stay-at-home moms.

Swansen said he works to motivate his clients but is often inspired by them. A big fan of Swansen's training style is Linda Babcock, 48, who has lost more than 120 pounds on her own and with his help.

"I can't do something halfway," she said. "I want to do it all the way."

The two have been training together since February, and Babcock described his training techniques as complete - focusing on her body, mind and soul.

Babcock's husband died a little more than a year ago. After years of taking care of everyone in her family, she found herself weighing 295 pounds and decided to do something about it. She made a conscious decision not to gain another pound, transforming herself through eating right and exercising.

"Linda is a star pupil of mine," Swansen said.

She was timid and didn't have a fitness background when they started working together, he said, but in the time they have known each other, she has become much stronger.

"Yesterday when I was there, I did 50 push-ups on my toes - the man way - with two breaks," Babcock said. "Whoa buddy!"

Swansen has faced his own challenges. Diagnosed with type-I diabetes at the age of 4, he wears an insulin pump. Swansen said he has had to train harder and longer to stay at a competitive level.

"With disease and obstacles, you can either look down and bury your head in the sand, or you can say, 'How can I rise above it? How can I defeat it? How can I stay as healthy as I possibly can?' " he said.

To control his diabetes rather than letting it control him, Swansen works closely with his endocrinologist to make sure he is training in a safe manner.

Dieting correctly is not about starving oneself, he said, adding that people have a lot of misconceptions about lifting weights and dieting.

"You are what you eat," said Swansen, who undergoes 18 weeks of super-strict dieting to achieve his competition physique.

When he lifts, he thinks about the muscle group he is working on at the time.

"If you really think about what your muscle's doing, the contraction, you get a lot better results that way," he said. "You're making sure you hit the muscles that you really want to hit."

Individual effort is a substantial part of the battle, Swansen said. But having the support of friends and family helps him in his endeavors.

It also helps to have a significant other who knows what training is like. Swansen and his girlfriend, Autumn Edwards, 25, met at a competition in Kentucky.

"I approached her," Swansen said. "And we just hit it off, and here we are two years later."

Edwards, who does fitness competitions herself, recently moved to Decatur so the two could be together. She helps Swansen with his training and backstage at some competitions.

When a person commits to fitness, his or her quality of life improves drastically, said Swansen, who has goals of becoming the world's top natural bodybuilder.

"Once you start taking care of your body and eating the right things and stuff, you just feel so much better," he said.

agetsinger@herald-review.com|421-6968