Muscular Development – July 2019

July 2019 musculardevelopment.com MD 71

the ladder, he sent photos of that contest to
prep coach Kash Guidry. “I introduced myself
and told him I wanted to be a champion, and
he immediately believed in me,” Logan tells
us. The NPC Nationals were only four weeks
aft er that initial event, and Logan fi gured he
would give that one a shot. “I had no idea
it was the toughest amateur show in the
country,” he says. “I knew so litt le about the
sport that I had no idea Jeremy Buendia had
just won his fi rst Olympia title the month
before.”
Logan’s Nationals prep should have been
a simple matt er of merely staying on his
diet another four weeks, but his family had
booked a weeklong cruise at three weeks out.
“I was eating the pizza, the ice cream cones,
I had a good old time,” he laughs. In addition
to the cruise ship buff et, another challenge
was gett ing to the Nationals. “I was fl at
broke,” Franklin says. “The Army doesn’t
pay much, and I had nothing when I got out,”
he explains. “If my mom hadn’t helped me

out with the fl ight and the entry fees, I never

would have been able to do that show.”

His D class had 60 men in it, but Logan

emerged the winner. He then went on to

beat out fellow future stars Andre Ferguson,

Chase Savoie and Jeremy Potvin to win the

overall, meaning he had come out on top of

roughly 350 of the best MPD amateurs in

the United States on his fi rst try. “My coach

asked me, do you realize what you just did?

And really, I didn’t.”

MEN’S PHYSIQUE: SHOULD I STAY

OR SHOULD I GO?

Logan wasted no time, jumping into four

pro events the very next season. A falling-out

with his coach and having to do the fi rst two

without any guidance hurt his condition at the

fi rst two, but he rallied and scored a runner-

up by one point at the Governor’s Cup before

taking third at the Dallas Pro. Over the next

couple of years, he consistently fi nished in

the top spots, but something was troubling

him. “I felt I had improved, and they looked

the same, but somehow I was never able to

beat those guys I beat for the overall at the

Nationals once we were all competing in the

pro shows.”

It was his fans on social media who gave

Logan his fi rst encouragement to try Classic

back in its premiere season of 2016. “I didn’t

see it for me at the time,” he concedes. “Even

though I did have good legs, I didn’t feel I

had the back thickness and overall muscle

density and maturity to make the transition.”

But the idea of moving to Classic continued to

percolate in his mind. “One thing that always

bothered me about Men’s Physique was that I

always felt my muscles looked bett er moving

and in poses rather than just standing there

like a statue,” he explains. “When I would

send progress pics to my coach AJ Sims, they

would be bodybuilding poses to show the

true condition I was in.”

Logan was ready to make the change aft er

taking fourth at the 2018 Arnold Classic, but

Last August,

I watched

Logan beat

out a stage

full of 39

MPD pros

to win the

Tampa Pro,

yet all I kept

thinking was,

“this guy is

a little too

big for Men’s

Physique.

I bet he

would do

pretty well

in Classic.”

Logan had

been thinking

the same

thing for

quite some

time.