so abt Greg. I think fortress/OTH can validate a lot of this.
he was insanely strong. he'd set up 405+ in the squat rack w a seated bench and do his military presses like that. hed unrack it. sit down. do his set. stand back up and re rack it. he routinely worked w 6-7 plates a side for incline work in the smith machine. his shoulders and chest were beyond belief strong.
before he became known there was a powerlifting expo at a bbing show in niagara he was at. they were maxing out to one rep on their bench press to over 5 plates. when they had maxed out Greg came out of the audience in jeans workboots and a flannel shirt got under it and repped it out for mid teens reps. he got up and simply walked out after.
he was a victim of not knowing how big he was. x mentioned he used synthol. I know he used to put 10ml of cyp in each shoulder before a guest posing.
ya it's def not healthy to carry around 400+ lbs but a lot of Greg's passing had a lot w his wife's managing of him. she was relentless in booking him for shows expos and whatnot so she basically ran the him into the ground cause those appearances and needing to be 'him' meant the doses that went with it.
there was a lot of talk abt his mental state before his passing. gossip and rumours of a suicide attempt. he cut his wrist on a broken pane of glass at work.
I've stood beside ronnie and jay cutler. ronnie is in a class by himself btw. but when it came to sheer physical size I have never seen a human as wide as Greg kovacs was. he was immense.
it's a shame cause from someone closest to him I got painted a picture of a guy who was one of the nicest guys you could ever hoped to have met but who was trapped in his own body which caused him also much unhappiness as well.
Thanks for sharing this, man. Only met Greg once and, unfortunately, that was at the Arnold Classic where he competed back in '04 ( ?? ). Looked absolutely terrible. I remember thinking that he, quite literally, looked like death. And I'm not trying to be funny here. Am quite serious. Was standing about 10 feet from him.
On a more positive note, Markus Ruhl was standing next to him with his signature jean jacket on that he use to wear back in the day. Looked HUMONGOUS !! Shoulders looked like he had stuffed 2 basketballs under his jacket. Lol.
