Berry De Mey is a retired IFBB Pro bodybuilder from Holland. He competed in the 1980s era of bodybuilding and was a prodigy who burst onto the scene with a bang in the early ’80s. With Hollywood looks and stage charisma to spare, De Mey was a strong presence in competition and magazines throughout the decade.
His appeal prompted writer Terry Leahy to comment in the November 1987 issue of FLEX, “Looking at him, you’d swear Berry De Mey was just a gimmick thought up by Joe Weider to decorate the Mr. Olympia stage.”
De Mey is one of the most prominent bodybuilders of his era and this article explores his complete profile, biography, competition history, workout routine, and diet.
Berry De Mey
Born: February 23, 1962
Birthplace: Rotterdam, HOLLAND
Residence: Rotterdam, HOLLAND
Nickname: The Flexing Dutchman
Height: 6′ 0″ (183 cm)
Competition Weight: 226 lbs (103 kg)
Arms: 19,5″ (50 cm)
Calves: 19,5″ (50 cm)
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Berry De Mey Biography
Early Life
Berry De Mey was born on February 23, 1962, in Rotterdam, Holland. While growing up, he was an active kid who participated in activities like swimming, running, martial arts, and boxing. However, he was not content with it and was in a perpetual search for something that would force him to push the limits.
“I was actually looking for a sport, looking for anything in my life that would be tough – like exhausting and the most extreme thing I was looking for.”
De Mey had ADHD but did not realize it until later in life. He attributes his desire to do challenging things to this condition. But none of the sports he was involved in could challenge his mental and physical abilities to the extent he wanted them to.
The Dutchman found something that matched his requirements when he decided to join special forces. He admits that he chose it because it would be extremely difficult and protecting his country was not the primary reason.
“For that reason, I went to a gym, like a weight training gym. Not really conscious about bodybuilding really yet. But I hated bodybuilding. I didn’t like it at all. I always thought bodybuilders were like blown-up shiny frogs.”
But on his first day in the gym, De Mey came across a poster of Arnold Schwarzenegger and his perspective towards the sport took a 180-degree turn. He realized that bodybuilding did not have to be about getting massive. It could be a beautiful thing to do and Berry De Mey started taking his first steps into the sport.
De Mey went home and told his mother he no longer wanted to join the armed forces. He took it upon himself to become a world-champion bodybuilder and started working toward his goal from that moment onward.
Career
Berry De Mey earned his first competitive victory at the 1980 Mr. Ironman in Holland, where the 17-year-old took the under-190-pound title. He put together his posing routine by arranging still photos from magazines and improvising from one pose to the next.
In May 1982, De Mey won the heavyweight class of the European Championships in Zurich, Switzerland, and in November, he and onstage partner Erica Mes won the inaugural European Mixed Pairs competition in London.
He was able to visit the United States for the first time in 1983, staying and training for two months; that year, he also traveled to Singapore, where he placed second among heavyweights at the IFBB World Amateur Championships, a placing he repeated in 1984.
Finally, at the World Games in 1985, he won the heavyweight and overall title, securing a pro card and a spot in the Mr. Olympia. He wasted no time, announcing his presence in the IFBB ranks by taking a very respectable sixth.
From 1986 through 1990, De Mey competed in the IFBB and made three more appearances at the Olympia, where his best placing was third in 1988. This high mark capped off his most successful year as a pro, with seven top-three finishes overall and one fourth-place trophy.
In 1991, De Mey defected to Vince McMahon’s World Bodybuilding Federation, an organization that folded after just two events. De Mey rejoined the IFBB for two more contests, the 1993 Night of Champions (where he took 10th) and the 1994 Arnold Classic (where he slipped to 15th). At 32, after many worthy accomplishments, the “Flexing Dutchman” called it a bodybuilding career.
Today De Mey is a well-established photographer and as well has also helped to promote prominent athletes in the sport of bodybuilding. He also runs the Berry De Mey Nutrition and he is launching the new Monster Supplements Online.
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Competition History
- 1980 Holland Ironman Junior – NPBO, Junior, 2nd place
- 1980 Holland Hercules – NPBO, Junior, 1st place
- 1980 Holland Iron Man – NPBO, Junior, 1st place
- 1981 European Championships – WABBA, Junior, 3rd place
- 1981 Mr. Holland – BBBN, Junior – 1st place
- 1982 European Amateur Championships – IFBB, Heavyweight – 1st place
- 1982 European Pairs Champion with Erica Mes – 1st place
- 1982 Holland Grand Prix – NBBF, HeavyWeight – 1st place
- 1983 World Amateur Championships – IFBB, Heavyweight – 2nd place
- 1984 World Amateur Championships – IFBB, Heavyweight – 2nd place
- 1985 Mr Olympia – IFBB – 6th place
- 1985 World Games – IFBB, Heavyweight – 1st place
- 1985 World Games – IFBB, Overall Winner
- 1986 Night of Champions – IFBB – 6th place
- 1986 Mr Olympia – IFBB – 5th place
- 1987 Grand Prix France – IFBB – 6th palce
- 1987 Grand Prix Germany (#2) – IFBB – 9th place
- 1987 Grand Prix Germany – IFBB – 6th place
- 1987 Mr Olympia – IFBB – 6th place
- 1988 Grand Prix England – IFBB – 3rd place
- 1988 Grand Prix France – IFBB – 3rd place
- 1988 Grand Prix Germany – IFBB – 2nd place
- 1988 Grand Prix Greece – IFBB – 3rd place
- 1988 Grand Prix Italy – IFBB – 4th place
- 1988 Grand Prix Spain (#2) – IFBB – 3rd place
- 1988 Grand Prix Spain – IFBB – 3rd place
- 1988 Mr Olympia – IFBB – 3rd place
- 1990 Grand Prix Holland – IFBB – 4th place
- 1991 BWF Grand Prix – WBF – 3rd place
- 1993 Night of Champions – IFBB – 10th place
- 1994 Arnold Classic – IFBB – 15th place
Berry De Mey Workout
Before deciding to become a bodybuilder, Berry De Mey had built a fairly muscular physique through home workouts with exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, crunches, and squats. So when he started training in a bodybuilding gym, he already had a good base to start with.
The veteran bodybuilder feels that he could make early progress by working out with his father in their garage because there was no internet at the time. As a result, he did not have to deal with confusion arising from contradicting information available online and could train with peace of mind, not worrying about weird opinions.
“We had to go to the library. I friend of my dad was a doctor. We had to learn about the body and ask those kind of things. But most importantly, we had to listen to our body. Now on internet you can search for ‘how to build muscle’ and you find a hundred things. But at that time, you only had your body as a reference. So basically, I’ve always been stubborn and I never wanted to listen to people.”
This is the rule that Berry De Mey follows to this day. He trained extremely intensely right from the beginning and continues to train with furious intensity even at this stage of his life.
Berry De Mey believes in consistency and feels that getting in an uber-supreme shape for competition while not being too conscious about it for the rest of the time is not an ideal practice for long-term health. He worked around all year around and made sure that he did not get out of shape, at least significantly, unless there was a very strong reason for it.
During the competitive bodybuilding days, Berry De Mey reduced the training volume and intensity as he got closer to the competition date and focused more on eating right to bring the best version of himself on stage.
The Dutch bodybuilder’s training routine changed as per the immediate goals but he mostly dedicated a separate training session for chest, back, shoulders, arms, and legs. De Mey is a big believer in the importance of warm-up sets to remain injury-free and ensure the smooth functioning of muscles and joints.
“The moment that I would start doing the two or three working sets was the moment I realized that I was completely warm, completely hyped up, and at my strongest.”
Berry De Mey did not allow his body to fall into a fixed pattern of exercises that eventually resulted in diminished results. Instead, he would use different methods to constantly shock the body and keep it in a constant state of growth and betterment.
He used to achieve this by switching rep ranges and number of sets, length of rest periods between the sets as well as other intensity-building techniques like supersets, drop sets, and giant sets, to name a few. Apart from weight training, Berry De Mey performed cardio exercises to build cardiovascular health and burn calories.
Typically, this is how Berry De Mey’s workouts looked like:
Chest
Back
Shoulders
Arms
Legs
Berry De Mey Diet
Berry De Mey’s initial dieting methods were admittedly wrong as he did not have an understanding of a balanced diet and also did not realize how important other nutrients were.
For instance, heading into the first bodybuilding show when he was 17, Mey ate three chickens per day for nearly two weeks, not realizing he needed to eat healthy portions of carbohydrates and essential fat-rich foods as well.
But he eventually experimented with the diet, got a better understanding of nutrition, and developed a habit to get a scientific understanding of nutrition and diet.
At the peak of his bodybuilding career, Berry De Mey’s team kept track of each calorie that he consumed and made sure that his diet was on point, every single day.
“We always wrote down everything – what will I eat, what will I drink, what will I train, everything. So because of this I was able to check all the boxes. I knew exactly what I ate and how much weight I lost and if I didn’t, what do I need to improve.”
Interestingly, Berry De Mey liked to add multiple layers of preparation for competition to be able to bring his best version to the stage. Typically, he started the competition prep diet 16 weeks out of the show. But he did another pre-prep diet to already be in good shape at the start of the competition prep.
“I’m a strong believer that if your prep starts like 16 weeks out, then you better not be too fat. Therefore I followed, like, a preparation time for the prep. The better the condition is on the day that you start the actual prep, the easier it is.”
Most bodybuilders reduce their caloric intake during competition prep and focus more on training. However, Berry De Mey did the opposite and started training more so that he could grow into the show, instead of cutting down by starving himself.
Typically, Berry De Mey ate 2500 calories per day at the beginning of competition prep and slowly built his way up to a 3700-calorie per day diet as he got closer to the competition date.
To Conclude…
Berry De Mey is one of the most important figures in the history of Dutch bodybuilding. Not only did he achieve competitive success but also proved that you could achieve competitive success by not sacrificing long-term health and performance longevity. In his own words:
“I think I am a living example that bodybuilding can be really, really healthy. I’m convinced about it. I’m willing to talk about everything i did back in the day and nothing has changed really as far as that perspective for me.”
Berry De Mey Gallery
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