Author Topic: old Jim Quinn interview....................  (Read 5024 times)

michael arvilla

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old Jim Quinn interview....................
« on: March 20, 2006, 08:07:26 AM »






 

 
 ART ZELLER: Jim, I'd like to start off by getting some of your vital statistics.

JIM QUINN: Sure Artie, I'm 28 years old and about six foot one [1.85 m]. In the off–season, my bodyweight goes up to around two hundred and seventy five pounds [125 kg]. When I competed in the US Championships, I weighed two hundred and forty six pounds [112 kg] and in the Nationals two hundred fifty one pounds [114 kg].

AZ: What about your measurements?

JQ: My arms have been up to twenty one inches and five eighths [55 cm], when I've bulked up and my legs stay around thirty inches [76 cm] all the time. My calves measure a cold twenty inches [51 cm]. I'm not one of those genetically blessed teeny waisted guys, so my mid–section around contest time goes down to about thirty three and a half inches [85 cm] and my chest to about fifty five inches [140 cm].


AZ: How did you get into bodybuilding?

JQ: I first lifted weights in college when I played football for the University of Hampshire for about five years. But I've only been bodybuilding training for the last five years.


AZ: You know, when I was a kid, the majority of people that went in for bodybuilding were short, or inadequate and underweight. They felt that if they couldn't grow tall, then at least they could grow thick and wide, so it's curious to me why a big strong guy like you would go in for a sport like bodybuilding. How did this evolution come about?

JQ: When I played football at college, I was a running back and really fast and elusive. I was just under six feet tall [1.83 m] and weighed under two hundred pounds [91 kg]. Some of the line–backers were up in the mid–two hundred pound [113 kg] bracket and I'd look at those guys and think, "When I get to play against teams with similar guys in, I'm going to get the crap beat out of me!" But we had a great strength coach, George Elder, and I got into the gym and immediately my body responded.

My bench press went up sixty or seventy pounds [27 kg or 32 kg] and by the time I left there, I was benching four hundred and thirty pounds [195 kg]. In fact, the first time I ever benched, I did two hundred thirty pounds [104 kg] and within a year and a half, I was doing three hundred eighty five pounds [175 kg]. My body just blew up and I thought, "Hell, let's stick with it!" Gradually weights became a bit of a nemesis for me, because I became muscle–bound.

AZ: What do you mean by muscle–bound?

JQ: I had been the type of kid who could dunk a basketball very easily, I'd always been light on my feet, kinda cat–like. But the weightlifting made me become very thick physically, I stopped stretching and playing basketball. I don't know whether it was physiological or just in my mind, but I changed my style of running.

I went from being a guy that could run around people and fake them out, you know a speed runner, to just a power runner. Fortunately for me, it fitted right into our football team's offence and we just pounded people from one end of the field to the other. We used to call it "Four yards and a cloud of blood".

AZ: So what you're saying is that, although the looseness and suppleness of youth were going, it felt like you were getting a feeling of power in its place.

JQ: It did, I saw my bench going up, I was military pressing just under three hundred pounds [136 kg], weighing just two hundred and five pounds [93 kg]. I had most of the records in my weight class and I was only nineteen. I got it into my mind, that instead of running around people, I'd run over or through them. I got told all the time, that guys didn't like to tackle me, because it was such a bitch to bring me down.

Other guys would be playing basketball and to them it would be a drudgery to get into the gym, but I couldn't wait, my whole week was dictated by how I lifted Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. My body changed so much that if I were to coach a running back, I would keep him off a lot of these movements that limit flexibility.

AZ: So you fell in love with bodybuilding?

JQ: Sure, it got to the point where I was praying to God that I wouldn't get beat up any more on the field and affect my bodybuilding. However, I didn't escape receiving a serious shoulder injury and a cartilage problem. Towards the end of my senior year, I'd look up at the sky and say, "Let me just get through this year and then I can train seriously." I got so badly bumped and bruised during the season that when I went into the gym on a Monday, I couldn't even squeeze the bar.

AZ: Does this mean that you neglected your academic studies?

JQ: Not at all Artie, you could be excused for thinking that, but I graduated with a degree in business administration. It's funny, but people used to tell me that watching me play on the field, gave everyone the impression that I had no regard for my body. But as I've grown older, I've become very meticulous about the way I train and eat.

The only reason that I come in hard in bodybuilding competitions, is that I very rarely pig–out. I see these guys eat four or five meals of rubbish a day, but I only eat a little rubbish once every five days or so. I can only get away with this because of my fast metabolism. You have to learn to control the way you live and get every day under some sort of management. Unless you can relax and get the rest you need, you're not going to grow.

AZ: I had a long conversation about that with Frank Zane just a couple of weeks ago. He's a great believer in the resting part and as he says "Bodybuilding is not about building yourself up, but about tearing yourself down. It's only when you rest that the building starts".

JQ: I totally agree, on my days away from the gym, I don't even like taking out the garbage. All I think about is repairing my body, I completely slow it down, eat my four or five meals and think about growing.

AZ: Tell me a little about your competitive history.

JQ: After signing with the Dallas Cowboys as a free agent, I suffered several compounded vertebra in my lower back during a game. So at the end of summer 1983, after leaving football, I decided to enter a show in New York City called Mr Metropolitan. I worked really hard on strengthening my lower back, up to the point where I can now handle really heavy weights whilst bent–over rowing.

Anyway, I finished second, losing to a guy who won the Junior USA or America a couple of weeks later. A lot of people thought it was a dose competition and the judges' comments afterwards were very encouraging. In fact, I took home the trophy for the most muscular athlete there, so I was pleased. I trained hard for another year and kept changing. I tried for the Eastern American title, but could only manage a fourth against guys like Mike Ashley and John Hnatyschak. I can remember going backstage, seeing those guys and feeling like Pee–Wee Herman. It made me realise just how far I had to go.

Later the same year I entered the Tri–State and won the heavyweight class, but lost the overall. Then in 1985 at the NPC Eastern USA Championships, I won the heavyweight, but lost the overall to a middleweight and was really irked by that. So I took another year out from competition, planning to win the Eastern USA and then go on to the NPC Nationals. The following year I won the overall and that's THE best feeling I've had in bodybuilding.

Three weeks later, I went to the Nationals, actually weighing three pounds [1 kg] lighter and placed sixteenth. Then in 1987, I came in fourth in the USA, well actually I came in third with Danny Smith who's now a pro. I then came third in the IFBB North American Championships and then last year I came in a very disappointing fifth at the same show. I looked flat and drawn at the show, but the next day, I looked totally different and on the back couple of pages of "Iron Man", you can see the photographic evidence of that. I guess I mis–timed my carbing–up.

AZ: Tell me now Jim, the philosophy behind your training and how you execute it?

JQ: When I go into the gym, I always train a big body part and a small body part, preferably the small one in the morning.

AZ: By a small body part, you mean calves or biceps?

JQ: I hate to say this, but I hardly ever train calves or traps. If you saw my 57 old dad you'd understand, his calves must still measure eighteen inches [46 cm]. I like to do the small body part in the morning because I'm not an early morning person, I'm still wide awake at four in the morning and don't start to shut down until sunrise.

I think nothing of doing twenty to thirty sets for small body parts and thirty five to forty for the larger ones. I do an incredible variety of exercises for every body part and people get frustrated waiting for me to finish, because it seems like I'm never done. I have an incredible amount of endurance, I guess from playing football all my life. I see guys tiring after fifteen sets telling me they're through. Hell they're not done, there's plenty of glycogen stored. If ever I feel that drained, then I go get a carb drink or a couple of oranges and I'm ready to roll again. Sometimes people freak out, because after an hour I get stronger, it's only then that I'm waking up.

AZ: You strike me as the type of person who has an incredible amount of energy, you were born with it and it's been built into you since you were a kid.

JQ: Very much so, my father was a great basketball player. I'm a product of him and he's always been an incredibly driven person. We nicknamed him jokingly, "The Neurotic", because from the moment he gets up, to the moment he goes to bed, he's like a fireball of energy. He was always like an older brother. He would get off the train at five o'clock. My brother, dad and I would gobble down food and he'd have us down at the field pitching balls in the summer, or running track in the snow.

My Father just drove us and drove us and I guess that's why Jimmy Quinn, who doesn't have incredible genetics, will turn pro. I won't let anything stop me; injuries, getting sick, hassles in my personal life, nothing will stop me, you can bet on that.


     
 

Victor VonDoom

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Re: old Jim Quinn interview....................
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2006, 08:15:27 AM »
Not the best genetics but with a good work ethic he showed impressive mass and conditioning for his time.

Doom approves.

littleguns

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Re: old Jim Quinn interview....................
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2006, 01:01:51 PM »
Jim was awesome and was one of the first true mass monsters and who could back it up with tremendous lifts.....

BayGBM

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Re: old Jim Quinn interview....................
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2006, 01:14:29 PM »
Jim Quinn = yum my!  :P


sarcasm

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Re: old Jim Quinn interview....................
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2006, 01:26:44 PM »
gotta respect a guy who does cable crossovers in a pair of khakis, a belt and no shirt.
Jaejonna rows 125!!

Bast175

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Re: old Jim Quinn interview....................
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2006, 01:27:32 PM »
cable crossovers are gay.

sarcasm

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Re: old Jim Quinn interview....................
« Reply #6 on: March 20, 2006, 01:31:24 PM »
cable crossovers are gay.
as the day is long.
Jaejonna rows 125!!

BayGBM

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Re: old Jim Quinn interview....................
« Reply #7 on: June 18, 2006, 05:38:49 AM »
Where can I find more clips of superman, Jim Quinn?