From the storm of despair to unwavering glory
The Black Sword
The Incredible True Story of One Man's Fight Against Obesity and Addiction to Becoming a Champion
Author · Natural bodybuilding champion · Austintown, Ohio
Philip Albenze
In 2009 Phil weighed 304 pounds and had been drinking for twenty years. His nine-year-old son heard the doctor's warning and cried, "I don't want you to die, Dad." Phil drove to a gym that same day and hired a trainer. His two books tell what happened next.
The books
The Black Sword (2025) runs from a premature birth to the bodybuilding stage. After the Sword (2026) starts where it ends: Masters boxing in his fifties, the clients who changed him, and his wife Kim.
The next chapter of The Black Sword
After the Sword
A Story of Redemption, Resilience, and What Comes Next
Where the title comes from
The Black Sword is a trophy
Phil's first trainer was a natural bodybuilder. After Phil lost about 140 pounds in his first year, the trainer suggested he try a contest. At his first, the USA All Natural in New York, he placed fourth.
In 2015 he entered the open class of the NGA Northeast Ohio All Natural, where anyone 18 or older could enter, and beat much younger men. The championship trophy at that show is a black sword. "I won the Black Sword!" he told the Tribune Chronicle ten years later, grinning.
He stepped on stage 20 times and won four championships. At the Reign of Fire in Akron he took first in Masters Over 50, first in Transformation and the Overall Poser award. TRAIN magazine ran his before-and-after on the cover of its Chris Pratt issue: "How to drop 133lb at 45."
304 lbat the doctor's office in 2009
4.5%body fat by 2015, per TRAIN magazine
20 showsin natural bodybuilding, four championships
1987–93US Army, before the drinking took over
"If I can do this, anyone can."Phil Albenze to the Tribune Chronicle, September 2025
The Body by Phil podcast
Hear it from him
Since December 2025 Phil has recorded a video podcast: the day he first said "I need help," the three DUIs, quitting drinking cold turkey, and long talks with clients like Karen, who started training at 71, and Tory, who lost a leg at 51. Every episode on this site has its full transcript.
In the press
- Tribune Chronicle
- TRAIN magazine
- 21 News (WFMJ)
- The Vindicator
- Business Journal Daily
Speaking
He tells it in person, too
Phil has told his story to about 200 people at a time at Otterbein University and Hubbard High School, to 600 at the Human Resource Association of Central Ohio, and three times at California Palms Addiction & Recovery Center in Austintown, which billed one August 2019 evening as "A Night With Phil Albenze."
Body by Phil · Austintown, Ohio
The gym he built
Phil owns Body by Phil, a training studio in Westgate Plaza on Mahoning Avenue, and is there by 4 a.m. writing programs. Clients have included a blind man another gym called a liability, a woman who first came in at 71 and now trains others, and an amputee sent by his vascular doctor for balance work. "I meet people where they are," Phil says.
