Greg Kovacs had almost 26" arms at his peak

[NotMrAverage]

That same year they measured his arms 25 mr olympias where 19-20 (dorians). Its like having a crooked 13 inch dick and cum in 1 second. Total failure!

[Skylge]

Typical Musclemag guy: they ended up dead, in jail, or in gay porn movies   

[Fortress]

Typical Musclemag guy: they ended up dead, in jail, or in gay porn movies    

That’s not fair. Unfortunately, most just know about the crappy and sad stories.

Robert Kennedy was far from perfect (like all of us), but he was seriously colourful, generous and intelligent. Him and MMI’s editor-in-chief/Bob’s best and oldest friend, “Johnny Fitness”, are possibly the most entertaining and most incredible people I’ll ever know.

The wheels began to fall off when Paul “MuscleTech” Gardiner, then a manager of one of the MuscleMag stores, decided he was going to capitalize on the exploding supplements market.

Integrity and honesty be damned.

Bob had known Paul since he was a young teen, and, being the loyal guy he was, allowed Paul to utilize his entire MMI “platform” to launch MuscleTech (the name taken from a suggestion by Johnny Fitness).

It was one of a few waves that eventually led to MMI’s end.

Those of us who knew Bob, love him. I’d had a period when our friendship was fractured, but in time, Bob and I repaired it, and I’m SO happy about this.

If he liked you, you had yourself a very good friend.

I genuinely miss the man.

[njflex]

That’s not fair. Unfortunately, most just know about the crappy and sad stories.

Robert Kennedy was far from perfect (like all of us), but he was seriously colourful, generous and intelligent. Him and MMI’s editor-in-chief/Bob’s best and oldest friend, “Johnny Fitness”, are possibly the most entertaining and most incredible people I’ll ever know.

The wheels began to fall off when Paul “MuscleTech” Gardiner, then a manager of one of the MuscleMag stores, decided he was going to capitalize on the exploding supplements market.

Integrity and honesty be damned.

Bob had known Paul since he was a young teen, and, being the loyal guy he was, allowed Paul to utilize his entire MMI “platform” to launch MuscleTech (the name taken from a suggestion by Johnny Fitness).

It was one of a few waves that eventually led to MMI’s end.

Those of us who knew Bob, love him. I’d had a period when our friendship was fractured, but in time, Bob and I repaired it, and I’m SO happy about this.

If he liked you, you had yourself a very good friend.

I genuinely miss the man.

AWESOME MAN,,ALWAYS GOOD POSTS FROM THOSE TIME ,KEEP THEM COMING..

[Titus Pullo]

Rob,

How strong was Kovacs in reality?  And how about Nasser?  You once told me that you "marvelled" at how he struggled inclining 315.

[illuminati]

Rob,

How strong was Kovacs in reality?  And how about Nasser?  You once told me that you "marvelled" at how he struggled inclining 315.

Having heard his ridiculous claims that he never backed up
It would be interesting what poundage he did use.

Though as a 330/50lb+ man I doubt they were any thing special

[Titus Pullo]

Having heard his ridiculous claims that he never backed up
It would be interesting what poundage he did use.

Though as a 330/50lb+ man I doubt they were any thing special

Exactly.

I saw some of his Muscletech ad, err, "training video." It showed him pressing four plates on a Smith incline (with some effort, I might add); then the camera cut away, and another plate was put on per side.  Then Greg did another set, but the camera zoomed in and we never saw the actual weight he was moving...and on top of that, it was obvious that we were watching him do the very same reps he did with the four plates 

I was singularly unimpressed.  I did paused reps with three plates weighing 225ish many years back, and my training was very sporadic, low volume stuff.  I also wasn't gassed to the fucking gills.  How a man 100 lbs. heavier with massive doses, such big joints and such had to rely on cheap camera trickery to display much greater strength is pathetic.

[keanu]

Typical Musclemag guy: they ended up dead, in jail, or in gay porn movies    

  Musclemag had a Canadian flavor to it but there was plenty of tragedy associated with the magazine. Kennedy had a lot of balls to leave a secure teaching job and start a magazine which was losing money for a long time. He managed to succeed and did so with much more integrity than Weider. Greg Kovacs wouldn't have made it to 50 regardless. The guy was 400 lbs and looked like he was ready to explode. The whole Bruce Patterson pump up was hilarious. They were comparing him to Arnold and giving him a ton of exposure. Then it comes out that he is gay escorting and in gay porn. Of course it is common knowledge that many bodybuilders do this, but Bruce never attempted to hide it.

  Bob himself was a tragic figure. The accident with his son Braden, followed by the suicide of his wife. Watching his son each day for 10+ years in a vegetative state. Dying of lung cancer while living a healthy lifestyle. His top writer Greg Zulak evolved from his beginnings as the average Joe muscle guy, to the sex and drug expert. Unfortunately Greg became a drug expert. A friend at the gym had a picture of himself with Greg. It sure didn't look like Greg unless Greg got really sick.

   The biggest evil to come out of Musclemag is Paul Gardiner. He never really added anything to the world of muscle except another protein powder. Unfortunately he had Kennedy and all his contacts helping him. Musclemag went from an interesting magazine to a magazine pushing Paul's company and attacking rival supplement companies. Paul didn't have an honest bone in his body and lied his way to the top.It is never good being around the devil and watching him succeed. It poisons the integrity of all those around. Kennedy had taken a bite out of the forbidden fruit and his life started to turn sour after that.

[Matt]

That’s not fair. Unfortunately, most just know about the crappy and sad stories.

Robert Kennedy was far from perfect (like all of us), but he was seriously colourful, generous and intelligent. Him and MMI’s editor-in-chief/Bob’s best and oldest friend, “Johnny Fitness”, are possibly the most entertaining and most incredible people I’ll ever know.

The wheels began to fall off when Paul “MuscleTech” Gardiner, then a manager of one of the MuscleMag stores, decided he was going to capitalize on the exploding supplements market.

Integrity and honesty be damned.

Bob had known Paul since he was a young teen, and, being the loyal guy he was, allowed Paul to utilize his entire MMI “platform” to launch MuscleTech (the name taken from a suggestion by Johnny Fitness).

It was one of a few waves that eventually led to MMI’s end.

Those of us who knew Bob, love him. I’d had a period when our friendship was fractured, but in time, Bob and I repaired it, and I’m SO happy about this.

If he liked you, you had yourself a very good friend.

I genuinely miss the man.

Great post, Fortress.  I love your MuscleMag stories.

Can you tell me about the collapse of MuscleMag?  It seemed to me that the massive reduction in MuscleTech ads was coincidental to the death of Bob...rather than what I initially thought, that Bob's wife Tosca Reno ran the magazine into the ground.  Although I wondered if it could be both.

[NarcissisticDeity]

Typical Musclemag guy: they ended up dead, in jail, or in gay porn movies   

   

[mphgrove]

   

Is that Zulak? I thought he was a bodybuilder.

[ESFitness]

Is that Zulak? I thought he was a bodybuilder.

It almost looks like him, but judging by Bruce's age in the pic, there's no way then other fella is Greg. Id guess thats bursitis is uncle

[NarcissisticDeity]

Is that Zulak? I thought he was a bodybuilder.

Bruce's father

[Jayel]

Was the story Nasser told true about Kovac’s hotel room being littered with shit stained white towels from the elephant turds he used to do?

[badlad]

Very briefly. Met both Victor Richards and Greg Kovacs in the nineties with both in pretty amazing condition. I'm a legit 6 foot 4 and at the time I met them weighed somewhere around 280 pounds. First off - the thing I remember about Richards was that his upper leg from the side was basically a circle. His hams and quads were so pronounced that when he walked he basically had to waddle. His forearms were insane but also remember that his back really really stood out as a massive weakness - the rest of him was so complete that his back, if judged apart from the rest of him was probably pretty ok, but in regards the whole package it stood out like a sore thumb, it was crap compared to the rest of him. Oh, last thing, Richards is full of BS and basically just talks shit (which I think he actually believes which makes me think he might be nuts, I mean really nuts.

Now, Kovacs: went to his seminar, freakishly massive. I'd guess around 6 foot 2 or 3, hard to tell from basically watching him talk sitting  behind a desk for two hours. Remember him having serious breathing issues - sounded like he was a major asthmatic and sweated like a pig. Drank maybe 2 gallons of water whilst just sitting talking over two hours, the whole time sweating like a rapist.
I then met him at my local gym and seizing the opportunity I managed to train with him for an hour or so.
Based on that experience what I can tell you is that he was massive - bigger than Richards by  big margin. His biceps were insane when flexed. He did a front thigh pose in front of me and I can tell you now, when his biceps popped when he put his hands behind his head, biggest I've ever seen. One of my training partners at the time had legit 22 inch arms and 33 inch quads at about 5 foot 8 and Kovacs was just way way bigger than that. Seriously I don't have too much trouble believing his arms were close on 25/26 inches. His quads were insanely big as well, and we did good mornings and some weird lunges and he was doing good mornings with 225 on his shoulders like it was absolutely nothing. Again, guy was just suffering all the time with breathing - his heart must have been under massive pressure all the time - didn't look healthy at all and was constantly out of puff even when doing nothing and just standing talking. Seemed like an alright guy, was much better when he wasn't around his annoying wife (seriously she was like a squawking parrrot and basically tried to talk for him all the time at the seminar). Anyways that's the truth, and I've trained and hung about with some seriously huge bodybuilders many moons ago and Kovacs seriously dwarfed them all.

[njflex]

Very briefly. Met both Victor Richards and Greg Kovacs in the nineties with both in pretty amazing condition. I'm a legit 6 foot 4 and at the time I met them weighed somewhere around 280 pounds. First off - the thing I remember about Richards was that his upper leg from the side was basically a circle. His hams and quads were so pronounced that when he walked he basically had to waddle. His forearms were insane but also remember that his back really really stood out as a massive weakness - the rest of him was so complete that his back, if judged apart from the rest of him was probably pretty ok, but in regards the whole package it stood out like a sore thumb, it was crap compared to the rest of him. Oh, last thing, Richards is full of BS and basically just talks shit (which I think he actually believes which makes me think he might be nuts, I mean really nuts.

Now, Kovacs: went to his seminar, freakishly massive. I'd guess around 6 foot 2 or 3, hard to tell from basically watching him talk sitting  behind a desk for two hours. Remember him having serious breathing issues - sounded like he was a major asthmatic and sweated like a pig. Drank maybe 2 gallons of water whilst just sitting talking over two hours, the whole time sweating like a rapist.
I then met him at my local gym and seizing the opportunity I managed to train with him for an hour or so.
Based on that experience what I can tell you is that he was massive - bigger than Richards by  big margin. His biceps were insane when flexed. He did a front thigh pose in front of me and I can tell you now, when his biceps popped when he put his hands behind his head, biggest I've ever seen. One of my training partners at the time had legit 22 inch arms and 33 inch quads at about 5 foot 8 and Kovacs was just way way bigger than that. Seriously I don't have too much trouble believing his arms were close on 25/26 inches. His quads were insanely big as well, and we did good mornings and some weird lunges and he was doing good mornings with 225 on his shoulders like it was absolutely nothing. Again, guy was just suffering all the time with breathing - his heart must have been under massive pressure all the time - didn't look healthy at all and was constantly out of puff even when doing nothing and just standing talking. Seemed like an alright guy, was much better when he wasn't around his annoying wife (seriously she was like a squawking parrrot and basically tried to talk for him all the time at the seminar). Anyways that's the truth, and I've trained and hung about with some seriously huge bodybuilders many moons ago and Kovacs seriously dwarfed them all.

good stuff...

[SuperTed]

Seemed like an alright guy, was much better when he wasn't around his annoying wife (seriously she was like a squawking parrrot and basically tried to talk for him all the time at the seminar).

I thought his wife came across as odd in the full MuscleTech video. Almost like she was obsessed with Greg and didn't like him talking to anyone apart from her. Can't imagine how paranoid she must have got whenever Greg talked to other women.

It's a shame he didn't do a PL show. It would have been interesting to see how strong he really was. I know a few other posters here who trained with him said he was insanely powerful. IIRC, OneTimeHard said he saw Greg bench +400lbs like it was an empty bar.

[Bevo]

I thought his wife came across as odd in the full MuscleTech video. Almost like she was obsessed with Greg and didn't like him talking to anyone apart from her. Can't imagine how paranoid she must have got whenever Greg talked to other women.

It's a shame he didn't do a PL show. It would have been interesting to see how strong he really was. I know a few other posters here who trained with him said he was insanely powerful. IIRC, OneTimeHard said he saw Greg bench +400lbs like it was an empty bar.

Funny he wasn’t really known for strength,’ for his size he was pretty weak compared to a Coleman, Cormier, or Levrone

[Titus Pullo]

Funny he wasn’t really known for strength,’ for his size he was pretty weak compared to a Coleman, Cormier, or Levrone

The Muscletech people were touting him as the strongest guy around.  His video with them didn't show it, but I did hear the tale of him endlessly repping with a weight a fairly strong bencher did for a 1RM at some kind of informal lifting meet.  IIRC, the story went that said bencher worked up to 420ish, then Greg came along and did twenty with it :?:

I wish Fortress will shed some light on that.  Rob is nothing if not honest.

[_bruce_]

   

Extraterrestrial gaylord haircut.   

[illuminati]

The Muscletech people were touting him as the strongest guy around.  His video with them didn't show it, but I did hear the tale of him endlessly repping with a weight a fairly strong bencher did for a 1RM at some kind of informal lifting meet.  IIRC, the story went that said bencher worked up to 420ish, then Greg came along and did twenty with it :?:

I wish Fortress will shed some light on that.  Rob is nothing if not honest.

If he weighed 400lbs & taking a fair amount of PEDs
Benching his body weight for reps not really a big deal is it.

Could he bench or incline bench double + body weight
I’d then give him some credit

As a 400lb man + Whatever PEDs he used I’ve yet to see / read anything
Remotely impressive poundage wise - Just hype & hot air.

[Pet shop boys]

Ferrigno;  after 18 years retired and in his 40's



WooSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Pet shop boys]

 He was taller also

[Pet shop boys]

 

WooSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Fortress]

First, for Greg to approach a double-bodyweight bench is ludicrous. That’d be closing in on 800 pounds. The all-time raw bench is 738, by a man dedicated to pure strength training. Unlike Kovacs.

Strength output doesn’t simply coincide perfectly with bodyweight increases.

Now, was Kovacs strong? Yes. Would he have performed well in a (high-level) powerlifting meet? Not without very intense and prolonged coaching/focus. His free-bar squat to depth likely wasn’t elite and his absolute deadlift wasn’t honed. As far as benching, he was crazy strong, but likely not a 600-plus presser. With specific training, I’d imagine he could have went well over six/650.

The story of him casually repping a guy’s one-rep max at some event is true. No, I wasn’t there. By all accounts, it was a douche move, in that it upstaged some dude’s moment in the sun. Greg wasn’t a participant. His doing this was bravado.

His wife, with whom I spent time around, was indeed annoying. Pleasant. But annoying. She was dedicated to being Greg’s slave. I remember her holding a battery-operated fan in his face all the bloody time.