My Story: Part 1

Dear All,

I am sitting here thinking what might have been, had I succeeded at bodybuilding...

From reading the opening phrase I guess you know I failed. But I did not fail to train to the type of body, i.e., messomorph, ectomorph, endomorph. When I started training I weighed 9st, at 5 foot 11 inch high, chest 40 inch, upper arms 11 inch, thighs 19 inch, calves 13 inch, ankles 9 inch, wrist 7 inch, neck 15 inch.

I was born in Leeds, England, UK. My father was a paratrooper, and then later a wagon driver. I was always very skinny but played a lot of sports at school. I left school when I was fourteen and got a job as a joiner. I was at my local youth club one night when I saw this lad doing curls with a barbell, and his muscles were big to me. I touched the barbell for the first time - I never fell out of love with weights from that day on.

The youth club closed down, and I bought some weights and trained every day. I didn't really know what I was doing until I got hold of a magazine called Health and Strength. This had in it pictures and training routines, and advice from a man called Oscar Heidenstam. Oscar had won all different bodybuilding contests, and he helped me when I wrote him a letter in which I said I could not gain weight. He knocked me down to three days a week, instead of the seven days I was doing. I gained about half a stone. I remember I measured my arms at about 14 inch, when 10 stone and 6 foot tall. Still, I needed to gain weight. I bought a magazine called Iron Man and from this I learned all about bulking exercises and heavy calories. I gained about a stone in weight after going on Joe Weider's crash gain weight. I also had, I think, a can of protein of about 45 grams.

I trained at Leeds Athletic Institute, because I saw that most of the powerlifters were well built, and so I trained with them for a while. However, my poundages weren't great. I think my bench pess was 180lb, squats 160lb, deadlifts 350lb, press 80lb, clean and jerk 120lb. I needed to cultivate my eating, which was not great and left me lacking in nutrient, i.e., vitamins and minerals.

I saw an advertisement in "Men's World" about Reg Park's supplements and weight lifting equipment. I saved up some money and went down on a Saturday morning. When I first went in I thought: 'My God, this is out of the Dark Ages!' There was a picture of Reg's Grandad, with massive calves, and of course pictures of Reg Park junior. I bought some protein powder and some wheatgerm oil, and got a list of all their prices for weights, etc. I met a lad there who was a couple of yours older than myself. Brian Smith was his name. I will come back to Brian later on in my memoirs. So I saved up again and bought my own weights and Mr Universe course. This was a course by Reg Park on exercise, diet, etc.

I trained taking notice of the exercise but not the diet. I just added pints of milk a day. I took on a bodybuilder's shape but not a lot of size. I think my arms went up to 14 inch, thighs 21 inch, chest 44 inch. By now I was starting to look - to myself of course - top heavy, a thing I never corrected. I used to train on bench press for hours, just to pump out the heavy weights and feel great.

Now that I was getting used to going to Reg Park's place, I got to know Brian Smith, the manager, quite well, and we started training together. My poundages went through the roof, but I still lacked the hunger to eat a lot of food. We rented a room above the bookies in Rodley. We set up a small gym. I suppose today they would call it 'hardcore', because it was basic and you had to put in a lot of heavy training reps. Brian could have won any junior contest at the time - 16 stone of solid muscle - but was too shy to go in for one at that time.

Brian got married, and he and I did a guest spot. Mine was blowing up a hot water bottle and bursting it to which I rose to applause from the wedding guests. Brian didn't train much after getting married. A pity because Brian was bigger than Reg Park, and plus had a lot of potential.

I next trained at Gateway To Health, in Leeds. This gym was full of good training machines, plus free weights. I was thinking of entering a contest and forgot all about dieting, although at this time I weighed only 13 stone in defined condition no ad dab though. I went in for the Under 18's in Bradford Central Library Theatre. This was a plush venue. My training partner at that time came fourth. I came seventh out of twelve. I did not get home until twelve o'clock that night, but was so excited that I trained until about two in the morning.

I went and had a sauna the next day, talking it over with Harold Wrigley from Manchester. We decided to go compete in the Junior United Kingdom in Manchester. However, there were future greats there, Bertil Fox (the eventual winner), David Priestley and Bob Whitehead. We never even got an ask out to pose, although I looked like Twiggy compared to those three! I think Ian King was there also. The contest was held at the Holdsworth Hall Theatre. There was a good crowd, packed to the rafters. Glad I wasn't on stage! I was slightly depressed afterwards and wondered was it the way I was training. No. Was it eating? No. Was it drugs? What were these drugs? I enquired. "Oh, they just put weight and size on." I'd put on enough size without drugs, so what did I need them for? I was a joiner with two years apprenticeship to do, so I decided not to enter any more contests.

At this point in time I had various training places. Anywhere I could get free training in. I mostly trained on my own on the Reg Park Mr Universe course, even today you will make gains at about twenty. I was a fully fledged junior and met a guy most of you will know called Bill Richardson. Bill, the first day he came to start in the gym, had a great body. His arms, without training, were about 16 and a half. Bill and I did not train together, as our training needs were different. I got kicked out of my home and I went to live with Bill and his wife, Trisha, in Harehills, Leeds. We went all over the place together - when I wasn't babysitting so that Bill and Trisha could go out. Sadly I was not with Bill when he won the Mr Universe Amateur, but wished him all the best.

Bill and I worked together on the doors at The Vine pub in Leeds at night. It was a decent enough job. I hated throwing people out though, it was such a bad tempered affair.

The next gym I was at was mine and a few partners, more or less a co-op gym. It was called Spartan Gym. But it was sold on and a couple of years later was pulled down to make way for houses. I next got into pro wrestling, a sport which I liked because hardly anyone got hurt. But I hated the umbrellas up the rear end you would get when you was going back to the dressing room. Some thought it was real and wanted to start a fight with you. I got out of that, as it was only a tenner a night. Also, finding one's way there was hard to do without being able to drive and you needed to be in Scarborough on a Saturday afternoon.

On I went, while all the time getting training was becoming harder. Next I played rugby union for Roundhay, but got drunk in the bar more times than I can care to count. Well the spirit was there, the flesh too weak, so I got transferred down to the Copperworks. I got more games there, but only in the second team. But we got many good drink-ups. In that team only we were happy when we lost or when we won. The training was all runing, sprinting, fast runs, slow runs, sprints, touch and pass, you name it we did it. I got sick of rugby though, too many injuries.

So I had to find a new venture. Boxing was the game at the Market district. I didn't last long there, broke a professional vow, was just suppossed to be around a bit. I then went to Centour health studios. It had two owners, Vic and Bert, and opened Monday, Wednesday, Friday and half day Sunday. There were not enough weights but the set out was there. Bill Richardson trained here, but trained in a gang. Bill was quite strong, benching over 500lbs. Trevor Cordingles trained here also, plus Paul Garner once a week. I was in touch with Harold Wrigley again, he said he had a novice contest coming, and would we like to enter. We said yes, and enter I did. I came third out of four. Bronze medal I won. It was Mr Lancs. Cheshire. There wasn't much of a crowd there. We said our goodbyes to Harold, and got back on our way to Leeds. Another fine day.

Each and every Saturday Bill, Trisha, the two and I would shoot off to Scarborough, and be back in time for The Vine in the evening. And every Saturday morning in the winter we went through to Doncaster for Bill to be trained by Terry Hollian. Also, do you remember Brian Taylor and Peter Simpson? They trained there, too. Brian Taylor, as you know, died early in life, but I wasn't training there then. So sad for his family. Yes, Brian, I still remember you, even though the years have passed. Good on ya, Brian!

Well the years passed and I left Bill's place and went home. I met two lads from Leeds: big Brian and little Brian. I talked training over with them on Friday nights out in the pubs. They told me how their training had gone. I saw how they looked and this helped me to train on my own. In other words it gave me a goal in my training. They were clean and they trained hard. They went running on a Sunday morning and trained five days a week. One Brian was an electrician, the other Brian a motor mechanic.

Anyway moving on to time to watch Mr Universe. We all got tickets down to London, and all stayed in one hotel bedroom (cheaper that was). We went down on the train early Saturday morning, and watched the show until about ten at night. Then we all went for a walkabout with Chris Dickerson following on. We came across a van driver unloading is wagon, and we rolled our sleeves up, but after about ten minutes he said thanks but no thanks, and we went on our way. Food was on our mind, so we went to a restaurant where you paid 10 pound to eat all you can. Bill Richardson must have been empty because he went around for four helpings! Mind you, he had just entered the Amateur Mr Universe, so dieting for a contestant leaves you famished. Good on ya, Bill! I believe Bill is abroad now, owning his own gym.

In the next few years I hardly had a lot of training to do, just trained on the nautilus system using weights, not machines. Routine would go something like this: squat 3x15, 10.5, pullovers 3x15, calf raises 3x15, bench press 3x18-10, flys 3x8-10, press with barbell 3x10-5, lateral raises 3x10-15, barbell curls 15-10-5, tri-stretch 3x15, end: Tuesday and Friday only.