2009 Top Bods On Campus – WADE RICE

Faith & Fitness Magazine: What physical qualities do you think your friends feel best qualify you as a top bod on your campus?

Wade Rice: Well it is definitely not my arms because I could do bicep and triceps workouts everyday and my arms would still remain small. I guess it would have to be my chest. My friends and I always joke about how I don’t put on muscle very easily anywhere but my chest. It seems that I can do calf raises and my chest gets bigger.

F&F: How did you first get interested in exercise and living a fit lifestyle?

WR: I have always been an avid sports competitor so my desire to lift weights is a direct result from that. Growing up I saw how beneficial lifting weights was for my brother’s athletic career, and it was that success that lured me to the weight room. My older brother set the standards very high in the Rice household in every facet of life. I knew that if I was even considering having the success in athletics that he had then I would have to work really hard on my athleticism.

F&F: Tell us about your workout routine. What are your goals and how are you working toward them? What are your favorite exercises and why?

WR: My workout routine changes every month along with my goals. Last year I changed my workout every month but remained lifting in a way that would allow me to achieve my goal of benching twice my body weight. Once that goal was accomplished I changed my goal to increasing my arms by 1 inch. I continue to change my workout every month but remain lifting in a way that promotes hypertrophy in the arms in hopes of one day getting rid of my small arms. I lift five times a week and either concentrate on one or two muscle groups a day. Right now I am doing chest and triceps on Monday and Thursday, back and biceps on Tuesday and Friday, and I do legs and shoulders on Wednesday. Next month I will concentrate on one muscle group a day. My favorite exercises are probably bench press, shoulder press, and upright row. I think the aforementioned exercises are my favorite because I can go decently heavy with them. It is always satisfying when you are performing an exercise and you are able to use a lot of weight.

F&F: Describe the fitness culture on your campus.

WR: Cedarville definitely promotes health and exercise avidly. Every freshman is required to take a class called Physical Activity and Christian Living (PACL). The objective of the class is to promote health and fitness along with our Christian walk. I would say that once the student is finished with PACL that he or she remains fairly consistent with exercising.

F&F: How do you feel living a healthy life and being active impacts both your academic success and your relationship with God?

WR: Being healthy and being active has allowed me to appreciate the way God created us. The human body is an amazing thing and I do not understand how some people think these complex systems just happened by random chance. I am grateful everyday I can enjoy my health and exercise. We only get one body on earth and I feel that one of our spiritual acts of worship is to take care of our earthly body with the best of our ability.

F&F: What is on the horizon for your career? How do you feel you will balance your career and your commitment to fitness in the future? Will it be more difficult to maintain your fitness regimen?

WR: My future plans are going to physical therapy school and working with athletes in a rehabilitation clinic. Everything is coming together very nicely and the whole transition from college to graduate school seems to be happening very smoothly. The application process has been time consuming and tedious but it is not as bad as I expected it to be. Physical therapy school will be very time consuming but I feel like not matter how swamped I am with my clinicals or my studies that I will always be able to find 45 minutes to go to the gym and work out. If it comes down to it I’ll just sleep less, I mean you can sleep when you are dead right?

F&F: Do you workout with friends? If so, tell us about that and how it is different from when you workout alone.

WR: I definitely enjoy working out with friends over working out by myself. In my opinion it is much more exciting and stimulating to exercise with people than alone. When I lift by myself I feel like I do not get as good of a pump because there is nobody there to push me and to compete with me. Another reason I enjoy lifting with friends is because I enjoy having a spot on all my exercises so I can go to failure on every lift.

F&F: How do you keep active? Why do you like doing these things to keep active?

WR: I keep active through sports. I played basketball and tennis in high school and I came to Cedarville to play basketball. I blew my knee out during an open gym between my freshman and sophomore year of college and then I ruptured my hamstring my first practice my junior year. After my second injury I decided to stop playing basketball at the collegiate level and just play intramural sports. So now I play a lot of tennis and a lot of flag football. I love where I am right now in my athletic career because there is no pressure and it is all for fun.

F&F: Why did you decide to go to this university? What were your expectations when you first started and how has the school and campus life measured up to them?

WR: My overall decision to go to Cedarville was because of their basketball program. I grew up watching Cedarville games and I always wanted to play for them. I am not sure that had I been warned ahead of time that I would sustain two season ending injuries and that I would only play my freshman year that I would have gone to Cedarville. There were a few other schools that I really liked but the basketball program was ultimately the deciding factor. My expectations of Cedarville were nothing fabulous. I figured I would go there, meet some new people, make life long friends, and leave engaged or married; the typical expectations of anyone going to a Christian college.

F&F: What are some of the spiritual discoveries you have made while at college? How is that shaping the way you live and interact with others?

WR: The one discovery I made at college is that there is more to life than basketball. All throughout middle school and high school I had this false notion that basketball was all there was to life and the only identity I had was through basketball. After I injured myself in college and was no longer able to play basketball I realized that my identity was not through basketball but it was in Christ. I am not a child of basketball but I am a child of God and I need to live my life that way. I was extremely upset about walking away from the game I love so much, but I find much greater joy in pursuing things that matter. While I’m here on earth I need to live for the other side. I have a tattoo on my back. It is a simple message in Greek: “The Lord is my light”.

F&F: Any plans to compete in athletics or in fitness or bodybuilding competitions? If so, tell us about it.

WR: I compete regularly in basketball, tennis, and flag football leagues around the area. But as far as bodybuilding is concerned, it is not going to happen. I am not big enough to compete for that, nor do I want to become big enough to compete for that. I have seen aspiring body builders workout and it seems much too strenuous and too time consuming for me.

F&F: What do you do for fun? Tell us what makes it fun for you.

WR: I can find enjoyment is a lot of things; however, I find competition extremely fun. I compete with my family and my friends in sports and other recreational games (card games mostly) on a regular basis. My mother and father taught us a lot of life lessons through sports and competition so I imagine the love of competition was instilled in me at a young age and will continue to be with me for quite a while.

2009 Top Bods on Campus
Brad Needler	David Pat	Elisabeth Bloom	Evan Sharpley	Shelby Gordon	Wade Rice