Excellent package.
(bit homo)
LOL, I thought mphgrove meant body...but now I see what he did there.
I would also like to add:
Regarding the stress showing on his face, I would like to add this:
With that said, it is not at a "Jean-Claude Van Damme" level of combined drugs + training rate of aging yet.
I know that Steve was close to Art Atwood as recently as the 12 months before he died...I actually talked to Steve about this at the 2012 Arnold Classic, and I would have to think Steve is smart enough to know that bodybuilding is not a job to retire on. You get in, you put in your 10 years, YOU GET THE F*CK OUT.
Much like strongman.
Much like pro-wrestling.
Most likely, much like MMA/UFC fighting.
Georges St-Pierre did this, culminating an almost 10-year UFC career fighting as the main event at UFC 167 on November 16th, 2013, against top contender Johny Hendricks.
Georges' first fight was at UFC 46 on January 31st, 2004 against Karo Parisyan.
Again, you get, you do your 10 years, YOU GET THE F*CK OUT.
I will be deadlifting 450 or 500 at local lightweight strongman contests for the next 20 years. The difference is, I don't push myself NEARLY to the level that these guys do, purposely backing off precisely so I get that sort of tenure.
We all make choices. Neither GSP's longtime confidant Rodolphe Beaulieu nor myself wanted him to return to the UFC. He did it, taking on a brand new challenge in the process, and yet AGAIN left on top.
He mowed over his own division how many times. At some point you have to ask yourself, what more to want to prove?
Personally, I would be fine going to Nationals in my weight class for strongman and placing 12th of 14 guys. We all have different goals. But if your goal is to take strongman, bodybuilding, or MMA fighting to the highest level on the planet today [in that order of concern - I think], then I would think you are crazy. Or maybe just a little too ambitious.
But hey, to each their own.
