Darden on his "work" with Robinson:
I've been searching through all my old files trying to find my Eddie Robinson folder of materials. Finally, it turned up.
Here are the facts:
In June of 1987, Ken Hutchins, Tim Patterson, and I drove to Jacksonville, Florida, and met Robinson. We photographed him, took his measurements, and watched him train. He was 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 232 pounds. I measured his right upper arm "cold" at exactly 20 inches. Patterson, Hutchins, and I all recognized that Robinson was a genetic freak, in that he had long muscle bellies and short tendons throughout his body. I estimated that he had about 20 pounds of extra fat to lose to round into top condition. His plan was to enter the NPC's National Bodybuilding Championships later in the year.
As we drove back to Nautilus Headquarters in Lake Helen, Florida, I thought that an entire book could be written around Robinson's preparation for the contest. Nautilus was introducing a new line of Leverage machines, and Hutchins was putting the final touches on his SuperSlow techniques, so the idea looked like a doable situation . . . if we could get Robinson to agree to the project. The next day, he agreed.
Below were the ground rules.
First, Robinson had to promise me that he'd been off any type of anabolic steroids for six months before we started the training.
Second, he couldn't take anabolic steroids at any time during the proposed 10-week project.
Third, Nautilus was relocating its headquarters to Dallas, Texas, so Robinson had to agree to move there.
Fourth, with our help, he had to follow the HIT/SuperSlow exercise and diet plan precisely.
Fifth, in return Nautilus and I would compensate him for his move and hire him to do PR work for this new line of Leverage machines.
Sixth, Nautilus would send him to the National Bodybuilding Championships and I would package the project into an interesting how-to bodybuilding book.
Unfortunately, there were problems.
Robinson's furniture was damaged in the move.
Nautilus's big training center in Dallas was behind schedule. To compensate, we worked a deal with a Gold's Gym in Dallas to allow us to put a line of Nautilus Leverage machines in their gym, so we could train Robinson according to our mapped-out course of action.
Three weeks into the program, and this is no joke, the Gold's Gym mysteriously caught fire late one night and burned down. The next day, our Leverage machines were stolen by a couple of guys in a truck, claiming that Nautilus sent them to pick up the machines.
We had to finish the training by alternating among two or three different gyms in Dallas.
In spite of these problems, we managed to train Robinson consistently three times per week. His dieting seemed to progress according to schedule. After four weeks, he had lost 20 pounds.
Robinson, however, was becoming increasingly emotional and depressed. He, or his girlfriend, wrecked their car. And his pet bulldog fell off a retaining wall and broke his hip.
At the end of seven weeks, Robinson had lost another 10 pounds, or 30 in total, and some of it had to be muscle. Plus, he wasn't progressing in his HIT workouts as he should have. Something was obviously wrong.
We took Robinson to a North Dallas medcial center for some blood work. Perhaps he had a low-grade infection or was coming down with a sickness.
Several days later, the medical specialist met with us. He noted a significant problem with Robinson's total testosterone level. It measured 42 ng/dl of blood. This was very low. Normal should have been a minimum of 500 ng/dl of blood.
The conclusion was that Robinson was suffering from HPTA (hypothalamus/pituitary/testicular axis) suppression, due to long courses of anabolic steroid use.
We decided to finish the study and enter Robinson (weighing 190 pounds) in the National Bodybuilding show. He did not place.
Based upon the subjective and objective findings in this project, I believe Robinson did go off steroids, cold turkey, during the 10 weeks we worked with him. But obviously, he had been on them in high dosages prior to our agreement. From what I've read, going off steroids cold turkey is the kiss of death to muscle gains and emotional stability.
In other words, the entire project was doomed from the beginning.
After the contest, Robinson returned to Florida. There was no book.
Note: Robinson may have lost the 1987 National Bodybuilding Championships, but he returned in 1988 and won the overall championship.
I wish him well.
Ellington
