Farewell, Juggernaut

Tribute to Luke Sandoe

By Ron Harris

Luke, We Hardly Knew Ye

Where to begin? I wish I had known Luke Sandoe longer. I wish I had known him better. I had looked forward to seeing him for so many more years to come, both on and offstage. He is gone long before his time, a young man who in just those brief years made such an indelible impression on both those who knew him personally and those who only knew Luke the Juggernaut, the massive bodybuilder with unlimited potential. Yet thanks to our era of Instagram and YouTube, we also got to know his charm, his wit, and his humility. Even if you never met him in real life, he was able to communicate his unique personality and sense of humor so well in his videos, along with his brutal strength in training, that we all felt like we were his best mates, right there with him.

From Musician to Muscle Man

Luke grew up in the seaside resort town of Bournemouth, on the southern coast of England, and was not an athlete in the least. “A bit of a geek,” as he describes himself, Sandoe was into skateboarding, comics, and music. As a young child, he was mesmerized watching a friend of his mother who played the drums. Mom wasn’t too keen on the idea of hearing percussion reverberate through the house, so it would be years before she consented to drum lessons. Luke would go on to play for over a decade, influenced by drummers like the late John Bonham, Dave Grohl, and Travis Barker of Blink-182, and played drums in a London band for three years whose music he likened in style to Kings of Leon and Muse, “but darker.”

Sandoe was never the stereotypical skinny musician, being a slightly chubby 200 pounds at 5-foot-8, with naturally big arms and calves. “My nickname in college was ‘Brick Shithouse,’ he noted. His band was starting to get a bit of local notoriety, and Luke began to feel self-conscious about his body. “I would be shirtless when we played, not out of vanity, but because I was pouring sweat,” he told us. “And I didn’t want to look fat.”

The band was also doing promotional photo shoots, and Sandoe decided to go on a diet to try to fit in a little better with his fashionably thin bandmates. “I ate mostly canned tuna and carrots for a few weeks and lost the fat – but still kept all the muscle.” That was perhaps the first foreshadowing that Luke had some special physical talents, though he was still unaware of bodybuilding. He did join a local gym to get fit and would work out about twice a week.

Fate intervened, as Luke asked his mother to pick him up a fitness magazine for some workout ideas and inspiration, and she came home instead with a hardcore bodybuilding magazine with Johnnie Jackson on the cover. That was the moment Sandoe decided to become a bodybuilder. “I’d seen physiques like that in the comics and graphic novels that I’d read all those years, but I never knew people could really look like that,” he told us. “I used to watch Arnold in his action movies, but that wasn’t the competition-size Arnold, and these guys here were so much thicker and more massive.”

Luke was also drawn to the Herculean strength displayed by bodybuilders like Jackson, Branch Warren, Ronnie Coleman, and Dorian Yates. “I was drawn to powerlifting-type training myself because I found I was naturally strong,” he explained. I see guys at my gym every day who have been training for years and struggle to pull a 405-pound deadlift. Luke did that the first time he tried the lift! Around this time, the band broke up, and the 22-year-old Sandoe had an epiphany. “I decided I was going to be a pro bodybuilder, even though I had no idea what that entailed or how I would go about doing it.”

The Rise of Luke

Luke was naturally drawn to the same type of blood and guts high-intensity training that fellow countryman Dorian Yates, a huge influence to him, had used to rule the bodybuilding world. He soon found Dante Trudel’s DC Training online and read everything he could about it.

“I thrived on the idea of progressive overload and beating the numbers of your previous workout in a logbook,” he said. Luke trained in DC fashion for four years and continued to base his training on the principle of getting stronger to get bigger. Eventually, he would become one of the strongest bodybuilders alive, with lifts like 500-pound barbell rows, 220-pound dumbbell presses, and a nearly 800-pound deadlift.

With less than a year of training and with no guidance, Luke entered and won his first show as a Junior in 2012. Later that season, he competed in his first British Championships. Having just turned 24 and ineligible to enter the Junior division, he finished second in the Intermediate Over 90kg at 241 pounds, still far off the condition he would compete in later. “I was soft as butter and my posing was shit, but people were telling me I could be really good, as in pro potential, and that gave me confidence,” he said.

Until the IFBB split in the fall of 2017 and more opportunities arose with new pro qualifiers, only one man turned pro in the UK every year. It only took Luke two tries to earn his card, which he did by winning the Super Heavyweight and Overall British Championships in October 2016. His plan had been to rest up from that prep, then embark on a solid six months of heavy off-season training before making his pro debut. As luck would have it, he soon got an invitation to compete at the 2017 Arnold Classic, less than 12 weeks away at that point. He buried any reservations about competing again so soon because as he said, “You don’t turn down an invite to the Arnold, especially as a rookie who hasn’t even done his first pro show yet. It was a genuine honor.”

Luke’s body refused to cooperate with his demands to jump right back into prep and didn’t respond as it should have. Coupled with extreme water retention, he could only manage eighth place. Still, his boundless potential was evident to all of us. This young Brit had a rare blend of dense muscle mass, structure, and shape that foreshadowed greatness to come.

2019: the Year he Served Notice

Though Luke competed in several more contests with placings that ranged from 15^th to third as he struggled to crack the code on conditioning, it was at the 2019 Arnold Classic that the entire bodybuilding world realized how good he really was. His thick, rugged muscle that was built with the same style of beastly heavy training as men like Dorian, Ronnie and Branch was shredded and dry, and that powerful physique allowed him to beat every man on that Columbus stage other than Brandon Curry and William Bonac, who would repeat their fierce battle six months later at the Mr. Olympia. Luke’s goal had been top six, which he vastly exceeded.

In August, needing either a win or enough points to earn his spot at the Mr. Olympia, Luke took to the stage at the final qualifying event of the season, the Tampa Pro. In a 20-man lineup, he beat out every athlete except for Dexter Jackson. The Blade had decided to enter this for fans in his native Florida, and Sandoe was the man who pushed the living legend Dexter hardest for his win. The runner-up finish awarded him sufficient points to punch his ticket for Las Vegas. Things didn’t go as planned once again at his first Mr. Olympia. Luke was still figuring out how to consistently bring both fullness and deep cuts on show day, and there is no doubt in my mind he was close. Even so, he just missed the top 10 at his first Olympia, placing 11^th.

The Luke That Was, the Luke That Could Have Been

Now, like so many incredibly talented people who left this world much too soon, we will always wonder what would have been. Luke’s next contest was set to be the British Grand Prix on May 3, which of course was postponed due to the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK as well as the rest of the world. Luke converted his garage into a makeshift gym to continue blasting heavy iron with his beloved MuscleWorks Gym Orpington shuttered. In spite of the contest season being on hold, he remained active on social media and YouTube, with videos on his own channel, the RedCon1 channel, as well as a popular weekly video/podcast with Fouad Abiad called “Bodybuilding and Bollocks.” More of his wit and quips can be heard on reruns of “The Size Game” podcast, which he co-hosted with his friends Banji DeMayji and James Hollingshead for two years. Of course, none of these will ever take the place of having him here with us as he should have been for many more years.

Luke leaves behind his daughter Louise, his son Leo, friends and family, and millions of fans all over the world who mourn his passing. Luke was one of those blazing comets that only comes around every so often, dazzling us with their brilliance and leaving us wanting more as they streak away into the ether again. We grieve not only for the Luke Sandoe that was, but for the Luke Sandoe that could have been and who we all wanted to follow as he continued his rise in our sport. He had a way of making anyone who met him feel instantly at ease, as if we’d known him all our lives. Wherever he is now, I hope he has found peace, and that he knows how loved and admired he really was. 

Remembering Luke Sandoe

Aaron Singerman

CEO of RedCon1

“Luke was more than just a great athlete and representative of the brand, he was a friend. Luke never complained, loved what he did, and worked his ass off in the gym, at a booth, in front of the camera for an ad. Everyone here at RedCon1 loved him, and he will be missed dearly.”

James Hollingshead

Friend and Training Partner

“Luke never knew what a bright light he was in this world. He never showed confidence behind the scenes. I would tell him bro, you’re fucking incredible, you’re one in a million. There’s just something about you that shines brighter than the rest, whether it’s your physique or your personality. He was so supportive and encouraging of me and everyone else he knew. When I was around him, I felt like I was in the presence of a superstar, someone that was destined to be above the rest. Every now and then you get someone born into this world who has that star potential. He had a heart so pure and full of love, so friendly but with a bluntness and truth about him that allowed him to speak his mind. He was always genuine and honest. Whatever had been going on in his mind had been going on for a long time. I think he just got burnt out and needed to rest. I consider myself one of the luckiest people on the planet to be able to call him one of my best mates.”

Ben Chow

Friend and Training Partner

“I was privileged and lucky to have known Luke. I knew two Lukes. The fans and supporters only saw one side, not the inner man. I met him right after he’d taken sixth at the British finals, and he was disheartened. We didn’t like each other at first. Then our girlfriends at the time made us train together, and the rest is history as they say. We had some wild times and some surreal times. Luke was one of the most generous people I ever met in my life. At eight weeks out from his pro debut at the 2017 Arnold Classic, my car broke down and he drove three hours every day so I could train with him. I wish Luke had been as generous to himself. He was blunt but honest. Not always appropriate, but always honest. He was just an incredible guy who had the world at his feet. I wish he’d been able to see even a fraction of what we saw in him. I remember being at his house one time and a RedCon1 video with him in it had just gotten 40,000 views in a short time. He looked at me because he didn’t understand, why me? He never understood why he was so loved and admired. It speaks to how humble he was. He came across as being larger than life and so confident. I wish that had been the case. Luke will always be my best friend, and I will always try to do my best by him and his children.”

Contest History

2012 UKBFF British South Coast

Junior Winner

2012 British Championships

Second, Intermediate Over 90kg

2015 British Championships

6^th Place Super Heavyweight

2016 UKBFF Welsh Championships

Super Heavyweight and Overall

2016 British Championships

Super Heavyweight and Overall

2017 Arnold Classic

Eighth Place

2017 Vancouver Pro

13^th Place

2018 Arnold Classic Australia

Sixth Place

2018 California Pro

15^th Place

2018 Indy Pro

Third Place

2019 Arnold Classic

Third Place

2019 Arnold Classic Australia

Fifth Place

2019 Indy Pro

Fourth Place

2019 Tampa Pro

Second Place

2019 Mr. Olympia

11^th Place

Luke Sandoe, the Juggernaut

Tribute by Giles Thomas

May the 7^th, 2020 was a day I’ll not ever forget. That was the day we lost someone truly special. Luke Sandoe was unique, Luke was a frikkin’ force of nature – but instead of crying over how he died (something I have certainly done), why don’t we celebrate how he lived? And man, did he make his mark not just in bodybuilding, but also to so many people’s lives as I – and others – have learned since his tragic passing.

I’ll go back to the start when I first met Luke. It was at the UKBFF South Coast qualifier in Portsmouth in 2012. Luke was a Junior, and I was there attending and on the lookout for new talent for my then MD column, the Euro-Muscle Scene. I knew of Luke and he knew of me (I can’t actually recall how precisely), we walked past each other, looking sideways, unsure of each other. “Does Luke like me?” I remember thinking to myself, Luke quite possibly thinking likewise.

A few years later, we (sort of) met on a popular UK podcast called “The Size Game,” hosted by three guys, one of them Luke. I was to be, upon occasion (and several more times), a stand-in for one of the absent hosts. Luke and I instantly connected through our love and interest of Batman, Star Wars and comic books. At times the show would go off on a complete tangent, myself and Luke debating our points of view such as “Who was the best Batman?” and other just-as-geeky subjects, as the other somewhat perturbed (and now redundant) hosts would take the sidelines for several minutes as we got right into it.

I followed Luke’s bodybuilding career avidly, first seeing his potential at the 2015 UKBFF British finals when just in his mid-20s he was cracking the top five super-heavyweights, with many saying how this young guy had all the potential in the world once he really got his condition nailed. One year later, Luke did just that. I even recall my skepticism when he said on the podcast how he was going to come back to the 2016 British finals and WIN the supers and overall to turn pro. He did it, stepped up his physique tremendously, won there clearly and was now an IFBB pro. Amazing, and he for sure proved me wrong.

In 2017, Luke called me to share some exciting news. “Giles, I’ve got the invite for the Arnold Classic for my pro debut mate!” he told me excitedly. The Arnold Classic! For his pro debut? Wow, OK, well that’s the second-biggest pro show in the world and 18 months previously, you were just cracking top five in the super heavyweights for the first time in the UK Amateur Nationals. Luke took eighth place; not bad, but he knew there were serious improvements he needed to make. More shows followed, more improvements, but nothing as drastic as we’d seen in previous outings.

Then came the 2019 Arnold Classic; again I felt he was lucky to secure his invite from the organizational committee, some feeling that fellow UK pro Sasan Heirati should have received the invite instead. Add that to the fact that Luke was yet to win a pro show, and it was news that some were not feeling happy about. It was felt that there was no point inviting a pro that was really yet to prove himself by at least winning a single smaller pro show or two – but here was Luke yet again getting the nod to come and try his luck against the absolute “A” listers like Roelly Winklaar, Steve Kuclo and even Cedric McMillan. These guys were no joke. “He’s going to get chewed up and spat out” I thought quietly to myself, many others I believe thinking the exact same.

Out in Columbus, Ohio covering that Arnold Classic for MD, I was working as part of the team to provide coverage. At the “meet the athletes” on Thursday night downstairs in the Hilton hotel, this was our first chance to grab as many video interviews as we could for the fans. The mission was always the same: “just interview the MAIN guys!” which we were told every time at both the Arnold and Mr. Olympia. The year before (2018) at this same evening, I’d earned a free pass to go “off-piste” (as it were) from my insistence upon interviewing relative unknown Kamal Elgargni, the new pro that had zero people queueing up to interview him. I did. I knew how good he was – and could be. Kamal won the 212 in his pro debut. One year later, here I was insisting we give Luke Sandoe his five minutes to interview him.

“I’m going to make top six, Giles,” he replied when I asked him what the goal was.

“In a lineup THIS tough, mate?” I replied. Luke nodded, brimming with confidence. I’ll admit, I was a little speechless.

A couple of days later, Luke did even better than top six – he got top THREE, beating Cedric, taking out Roelly and defeating an all-time best 280-pound shredded Steve Kuclo. In the shape of his life, ALL of the bodybuilding world turned their attention to Luke Sandoe, the new Brit to storm the pro ranks and someday really challenge for the Mr. Olympia title. A five-year contract with his sponsor, RedCon1 followed, waking up the day after his incredible third place with 50,000 new followers on his Instagram – and him telling me in the hotel that following morning: “Giles, I can now call myself an actual pro bodybuilder that can earn a living from just doing this.” He was on cloud nine, and many were now considering Luke to really be a potential Mr. Olympia someday, even his competitors. And all at under 30 years old, barely two years into his pro career.

Luke wasn’t just a pro bodybuilder with huge potential with a fierce work ethic, however. He was one of the sport’s most sought-after online personalities. Search the Internet now for his name and you will have access to huge amounts of entertaining content; not just hardcore training footage, but behind-the-scenes videos of him with his little dog Wicket (a Yorkshire Terrier), goofing around with his friends such as fellow pro James Hollingshead, or his training partner and best friend of many years, Ben Chow. Luke was accessible, Luke was hilarious and Luke was compassionate to all. No ego, no attitude, just an instantly likeable guy just feeling fortunate to be doing what he loved – bodybuilding and living large. Very, very large. 

Brutal Muscle

By Luke Sandoe

Editor’s note: Luke passed away tragically on May 7 at the age of 30. We at MD truly loved working with Luke and appreciated his intelligence and wit. He will be dearly missed both as a person and for the tremendous bodybuilder he was. Here is Luke’s last column, submitted to MD before his passing.

“Arms-mageddon” – Arm Talk

Should arms have their own day? I get conflicting answers on this from different people. Some say it’s ridiculous to have a whole day for arms when you can just train them after a larger body part.

For some reason ‘arm day’ has become a taboo subject, as if arm day isn’t needed or even allowed. I’m at a level now where every body part has to be given equal attention, and some more than others. The way I see it, arms are limbs just like my legs. If I give legs their own day, I’m going to have an arm day too. They’re important in every pose. My arms used to be a massive weakness, and a lot of that had to do with how I was positioning them in my training. I tried many splits that combined multiple body parts in each session, like push/pull/legs, upper/lower body, and so on. I found that if I had already done a full session for my chest and shoulders, the little bit I had left for triceps just wasn’t enough--same thing for back and biceps. I am the first to admit arm day can be boring. It’s not super intense. There’s no mega heavy lifting and screaming. But it’s necessary as a bodybuilder. Arm day isn’t nearly as rewarding as a nice heavy back or leg day, but you do get rewarded on stage when you’re competing, and you have good arms. Proper arm training is all about accuracy and isolation. It’s a lot of mind-muscle connection and blood volume, things I’m not especially known for. One thing I am known for is having pretty good arms. There’s a big difference between doing what you want to do in the gym and what you need to do. Honestly, I hate training arms. It’s the most boring session of the week for me, not enjoyable or exciting in the least. But when I hit a ‘front double biceps’, it’s one of my best poses because of my arms.

What led you to your current arm training philosophy?

One of my biggest inspirations for the way I train arms now was Justin Compton. Everyone knows he had some of the biggest, freakiest arms of recent times. I watched his training videos, and it struck me that he treated arms very differently from other body parts.  It wasn’t heavy weights and ballistic reps, but much more specific and accurate. That changed my whole perspective. If you’ve watched my training videos, you know I can handle some decent weights. I can barbell row five to six plates a side, do T-bar rows with 10 plates, do dumbbell rows and presses with 220-pound dumbbells, and press 500 pounds on the incline barbell. That means that I do plenty of heavy loading for my arms indirectly in my workouts for chest, back, and shoulders. That’s why you won’t see me doing things like very heavy close-grip bench presses, dips, and curls. That would just be giving my biceps and triceps more of the same type of stimulation they are already getting. Instead, I aim for a full range of motion, the best possible contractions, and a nice pump and burn. Once I shifted my training away from heavier weights on arm day, I saw a real difference in their development. I think we bodybuilders get it stuck in our heads that we always need to be using more weight. More weight does not always lead to putting on more muscle mass. That’s bull. There’s only so much weight you can handle on an isolation exercise like curls before you’re cheating and taking tension away from the target muscle. We’ve all been told to adhere to the progressive overload principle, which would dictate that we must continuously strive to get stronger. Progressive overload doesn’t have to mean using more weight. You could use the same weight for four weeks in a row and improve on your execution and feeling in the muscle every week. By the fourth week, you’re getting far more out of that same weight than you were before. Stop thinking about progression as being purely a matter of upping the resistance, because that’s only one form of it.

I have terrible elbow pain, which has had a negative impact on my triceps training. All types of extensions are painful once the weight gets challenging. Any ideas?

Yes, I do. Take a weight you were normally able to do for 20 reps before your elbows got to this point, and fail at 10-12 reps. How do you do that? Make the exercise as hard as possible by emphasizing both the squeeze and the stretch components of the rep. Pause at both the contraction and the stretch. Slow the reps down. Do anything you can to make it harder to get those reps. That’s the best way to take pressure off your elbow joints.

What’s the best way to bring up my arms?

Get bigger! I get this question all the time from young guys, and that’s my best answer. If you’re only 180 pounds, you’re not going to have 22-inch arms. You will have to add muscle mass overall and push your bodyweight up over time. We have this idea that it’s possible to gain muscle mass in one specific area, but in reality; it doesn’t work quite that way. As you train all the major muscle groups hard and gain overall body mass, your arms will grow along with everything else. Most of the guys who ask me this don’t have weak arms; they just need more size in general. If you focus on getting a bigger chest, back, shoulders, and legs, you can be sure that your arms will also get bigger.

Luke Sandoe’s Redcon1 Stack
Grunt Essential Amino Acids (EAAs)
Big Noise Pump Formula
Tango Creatine Recovery Solution
Cluster Bomb Intra/Post-workout Carbs
Mental Trigger Focus Formula
 
For more information, visit redcon1.com

IG: lukesandoe

YouTube: Luke Sandoe

Farewell Luke, Rest In Peace