I agree with Wes. I have seen them all. Bill Kazmeijer was a huge guy. Jeff Everson was as well. Even louie Ferrigno ( and Arnold too of course) I am 5ft 9 and now 190 but back in the day I was always 220 to 230 ( biggest was 238 was trying to hit 250 but I couldn't ) But next to some of these guys I looked ok . But next to Kovacks I looked like this DJ guy! ( Example: like Kovacks was a 20cc syringe and I was the needle) But Dj is like the needle when standing next to Karen Carpenter or any other anorexic.
Greg was a very nice guy from the few encounters I had with him. Talkative and friendly but I just got the impression he was not happy. I think he would have rathered stayed out of the limelight and just worked out and did whatever. Musclemag/Muscletech ruined him. They pushed and pushed and wore him out and his body gave up. I do not know that but that is just the impression I got from him. Plus the man could hardly breathe. Could not do anything because he was unable to have the o2 and energy. He couldn't even add and remove his own weight plates because then he wouldn't be able to workout well. R.I.P big greg!
Great post.
I didn't realize we have the same stats currently, bigbychoices! [Height/weight].
It sounds to me that you made a decision to be lighter, be it for health or other reasons.
I think 190-lb may be the sweet spot, if I want to keep my bench press in the 350+ range, and my deadlift in the 500+ range. I started to think...all the risks [injury risks, or potentially health risks from eating more or dabbling in gear] come from being heavier. I feel I have to be at least be 200-205 to make improvements, but that I can maintain the aforementioned training level at around 190. I'm hoping with some dietary adjustments, I can drop to 185, and still maintain that, but I need to be realistic.
I'm sort of applying an 80/20 approach to training, in terms of injury or health risks: I can maintain my current level with 20% of the risks, but trying to push my deadlift up to 600 could result in 80% of potential training risks. So I'm looking for a "sweet spot" - and IMO, a 500+ deadlift gives a person 80% of the benefits with 20% of the risk compared to pushing that up to 600. I can understand your zeal in wanting to be 250 before, but I'm sure you still look well above average being 190.
Out of curiosity, what made you decide to go to 190, bigbychoices? Was health the deciding factor for you, or was it something else?
I took this sneaky video of Greg Kovacs at the 2011 Toronto Pro, but stopped recording when he turned around and noticed me. Greg was HUGE there. Even though he was 42 years old, and six years from his last IFBB pro bodybuilding contest, he was 365-lb there, and he was bigger than EVERY Ontario's Strongest Man competitor that year, including the promoter [and former Canada's Strongest Man Winner] Hugo Girard.
Even a retired, small [for his own standards] Greg Kovacs was bigger than active provincial [and some national level] massive Strongman competitors. As I said, Greg was bigger than ALL of them, including Hugo Girard [who was himself 300+ and massive].
While numbers vary somewhat, Greg was between 412 and 416 at his biggest. Someone said that at one contest, Greg was backstage [helping out with the show] and when someone went for a food run at McDonald's, Greg ordered six Big Macs.
The man was absolutely huge.
In hindsight, he probably could have lived longer had he dropped another 100-lb. To my knowledge, Greg was still 365 when he died.
Greg was literally 300+ for 27 years [from 1986 to 2013], and was 400+ from about 1995 to 2005. He was probably 350-365+ from around 1990 to 2013 [when he died]. Aside from when he cut for contests. Even then, he was never below 300, and was probably 320 in that 1997 Night of Champions photo posted by affeman on the first page.
So he spent decades at 300-350+, and was 400+ for a solid decade.
Had Greg allowed himself to drop to 265 after his last contest [2005 Toronto Pro where he was 385-lb], he would maybe still be with us. He would be 55 if he was alive today.
EDIT:
Looks like he was below 300 at least ONCE between 1986 and 2013 [when he died]. He was 270-lb in the contest below in 1990. But that would have literally just been for the 12 weeks or so he spent cutting. So he was still almost always 300+, basically throughout his entire adult life. Sounds like Mike Matarazzo narrating [RIP Greg & Mike]:
