Callender was born 1944 in Barbados to an academician couple. His interest in bodybuilding started by the age of 8 and after moving to England for studying law and from 1967, he began to compete, winning the title Mr Southeast Britain the same year. He became Mr. United Kingdom in 1968. After finishing second in the medium-height class in the NABBA Amateur Universe in 1967, 1969 and 1971, Callender moved to Canada where he won Mr. Canada contest.
Training Routine
His workout usually lasts three hours, the reason being he does not like to rush through it for a heavy pump like most bodybuilders but prefers to perform all his movements slowly and correctly with the utmost concentration.
Roy believes in the heavy basic exercises, squats, bench presses, etc. but as before, never sacrificing style for poundage.
He trained quite instinctively. He will take no rest days until his body tells him to do. He trained 10-15 days straight (Sundays and Holidays, too) before resting.
Roy also uses his instinct to decide which muscles he’ll train each day. Sometimes he trains ones bodypart for three or four days in a row and occasionally he’ll not touch another one for a week or more.
He spent a lot of time in the gym. On three training days he worked out five, seven and then four hours, resting little between sets and taking no food. He drank from a bottle of mineral water, but ate nothing.
Callender did an amazing number of sets for each muscle group.
One day he trained for over two straight hours just on his chest, which must given him something 90-100 total sets for his pecs.
And he used respectable poundages, such as 100-pound dumbbells on incline presses and 75 pound dumbbells for his flyes. When he’s not pre-contest training Roy uses 140’s and 100’s respectively on these two exercises.
Roy’s calf workout lasted nearly 1 1/2 hours. He did about a half hour each on the standing calf machine, seated calf machine and leg press machine (where he would lie on his back and do toe presses).
Here’s Roy’s training routine for the back
| Back | Sets | Reps |
| Front Chins | 11 | 6-10 |
| Single Dumbbell Bent Row | 8 | 6-10 |
| Lat Pulldown Behind Neck | 10 | 6-10 |
| Seated Pulley Rowing | 13 | 6-10 |
| One Arm Pulley Rowing | 7 | 6-10 |
As I said he trained quite instinctively. The above routine is just a sample/snapshot. Roy did 6-10 reps on everything and he actually didn’t count sets. This was a total of 49 sets and the workout took only about an hour, despite the used of heavy weights.
He used a 50lb dumbbell around his waist for most of the chins and 100lb dumbbell for the bent rows and he rested a minute (or even less) between sets!
Diet
He did not believe in the use of supplements.
Roy used to eat 4-5 large, well-balanced meals per day, placed plenty of emphasis on protein foods. While he ate some junk foods in the non-competive season, Callender believed overall in eating wholesome and healthy foods.
These typically include fresh beef, poultry, fish, fruits, vegetables, grains, potatoes, eggs and milk products.
Callender’s metabolism was so good that he didn’t have to diet very strictly. Instead of going to fish, chicken, salads and water like many champs before a competition, Roy merely cutted out his junk foods and limited the milk products he consumed. Even with plenty of grains and potatoes in his diet Roy had phenomenal cuts into his huge muscles.