Sunday, July 25, 2010

Sept.6th 1988? Larry Scott


On September 6th, I believe the year was 1988 I returned to the Universe Health Club in Toronto where I had dropped in for a workout a few weeks before. I came back to attend a seminar by the great Larry Scott (the first Mr. Olympia). Larry arrived by car as I was standing outside by the front door. He looked remarkably youthful considering he had just turned 50. Age is a funny thing when I turned 30 I thought everything was down hill from there but my enthusiasm for training has stayed strong through my 30's, 40's, 50's and now 60's. Larry was much lighter than in his competition days but well groomed and tanned. His striped polo shirt displayed his still impressive arms built with the help of the preacher bench which is usually called the Scott bench.

I had come with my trusty camera and tape recorder. Larry had brought a flip chart, diagrams, and projector and other aids. When I spent day-long seminar with Arnold where he guest such as John Balik, Robby Robinson and Danny Paddilla I thought nothing could match it but this seminar with Larry was on a par. He was articulate,humerous and knowledgeable.Whether our questions were on training,diet or any other subject he had clear easy to understand answers. He demonstrated several exercises but when he bent down and picked up a bar with six 35lb plates and two 10lb plates and cranked out a set of reverse preacher bench curls he blew everybody away. He ended the seminar by stating if anyone wished to leave they could but if anyone chose to stay he was going to touch on what he thought was good way to live your life. Being a devout Mormon he compared life to a triangle mental,physical and spiritual. Whether a person was religous or not his comments made sense. Before he left I shook his hand and told him what a pleasure it had been to meet him.

An Update to my last post. This photo was taken at the seminar along with many others. I also taped the whole seminar. When I mentioned to Arnold that my city did not have a proper bodybuilding gym at that time his suggestion to me was Move!!
I was lucky we had fully equipped hardcore gym at my brother's house.
We travelled to Toronto in the past where we visited several gyms and after obtaining measurments of their equipment we returned to Kingston where my brother and other guys at our gym built our own benches and machine knockoffs. I believe we had one of the first power racks in the city.