Sergio Oliva

“The Myth,” Sergio Oliva is a bodybuilding god. He won the Mr. O 3 times in a row (1967, 1968, and 1969) and finished 2nd to Arnold Schwarzenegger twice.

Known for his mass, Oliva probably had the biggest arms of his era. His arms, if looked at from a front double biceps pose, were bigger than his head.

Oliva was quite the character and had a very exciting life, even before bodybuilding:

In 1962, the National Weightlifting Championship for Cuba was won by Alberto Rey Games Hernandez; Sergio Oliva took second place. Because Games received an injury, Oliva was chosen to represent Cuba at the 1962 Central American and Caribbean Games hosted in Kingston, Jamaica.

During his stay in Jamaica, Oliva sneaked out of his quarters while the guards were distracted. He ran at top speed until he was safely inside the American consulate. Arriving breathlessly, he demanded and received political asylum. Soon, 65 other Cuban nationals followed him, including Castro’s entire weightlifting team and their security guards. Soon afterward, Oliva was living in Miami, Florida, working as a TV repairman.^[3]

He was a cop in Chicago for 25+ years and died in 2012 at the age of 71.

Steve Reeves

From wikipedia:

Childhood

Born in Glasgow, Montana, Steve Reeves moved to California at age 10 with his mother, Goldie Reeves, after his father, Lester Dell Reeves, died in a farming accident. Reeves developed an interest in bodybuilding in high school and trained at Ed Yarick’s gym in Oakland. By the time he was 17, he had developed a Herculean build, long before the general interest in bodybuilding. After graduating from high school, he enlisted the Army during World War II, and served in the Pacific.

Acting

After his military service, Reeves invested in an acting career. In 1954 he had a small role in his first major motion picture, the musical Athena playing Jane Powell’s boyfriend. The same year Reeves had a small role as a cop in the Ed Wood film Jail Bait. This is one of the few movies where his voice was not dubbed. In 1957, Reeves went to Italy and played the lead character in Pietro Francisci’s Hercules, a shot-on-a-shoestring epic based loosely on the tales of Jason and the Argonauts, though inserting Hercules into the lead role.

From 1959 through 1964, Reeves went on to appear in a string of sword and sandal movies shot on relatively small budgets, and although he is best known for his portrayal of the Greek hero Hercules, he played the character only twice – in the 1958 film Hercules and the sequel Hercules Unchained (released in the U.S. in 1960). He played a number of other characters on screen, including Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Glaucus of Pompeii; Goliath (also called Emiliano); Tatar hero Hadji Murad; Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome (opposite Gordon Scott as his twin brother Remus); the famous war-time messenger of the Battle of Marathon, Pheidippides (The Giant of Marathon); pirate and self-proclaimed governor of Jamaica Captain Henry Morgan; and Karim, the Thief of Baghdad. Twice he played Aeneas of Troy and twice he played Emilio Salgari’s Malaysian hero, Sandokan.

After the box office success of Hercules, Reeves turned down the role that finally went to Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) because he couldn’t believe that “Italians could make a western”.[2] He also claimed to have turned down James Bond’s role in Dr. No (1962).

During the filming of The Last Days of Pompeii, Reeves dislocated his shoulder when his chariot slammed into a tree. Swimming in a subsequent underwater escape scene, he re-injured his shoulder. The injury would be aggravated by his stunt work in each successive film, ultimately leading him to retire from filmmaking and weightlifting.

In 1968 Reeves appeared in his final film, a spaghetti western that imitated the Sergio Leone epics, which he also co-wrote, titled A Long Ride From Hell. At the peak of his career, he was the highest-paid actor in Europe. His last screen appearance was in 2000 when he appeared as himself in the made-for-television A&E Biography: Arnold Schwarzenegger – Flex Appeal.

Death

Later in his life, Reeves promoted drug-free bodybuilding and bred horses. The last two decades of his life were spent in Valley Center (Escondido), California. He bought a ranch with his savings and lived there with his second wife Aline until her death in 1989. On May 1, 2000, Reeves died from complications of lymphoma.

The Student Diet: What to Eat, What to Avoid

When you go away to college, you are thrown into an unfamiliar environment. Sleeping in a bed that is not your own and dealing with a new roommate you don’t know may be difficult enough, but you can’t forget about learning how to eat healthy foods while at college. Healthy eating is important so that you keep the weight off and keep your immune system healthy.

It is first important to settle into an eating routine. At home, you would probably never eat after a certain time at night—don’t at college either. If you’re used to eating breakfast, wake up before classes in enough time to do so. At the very least, be sure that you have time between classes for a balanced lunch and dinner. Don’t skip meals.

If your schedule is hectic, as most people find, you’ll need to schedule time to eat. Instead of grabbing food from a vending machine when you are hungry, plan ahead. Take a healthy salad or sandwich with you to eat if you have class over mealtime. Most professors don’t mind if you bring food to class as long as your eat it quietly.

When you do have time to eat in the cafeteria, it is important to make healthy decisions. Most colleges offer pizza and a variety of desserts every day, but that doesn’t mean you have to eat them! Look for choices that have a balance of the food groups in every meal. A good indication that you have a nutritious meal is color. If your trey is colorful, with fruits, vegetables, and proteins, you are on the right track.

Of course, not every college has a cafeteria, and even if yours does you might choose to eat elsewhere. It’s very tempting to order Chinese food or other delivery, especially when participating in study groups. Try to find the best options here and allow yourself to splurge only on special occasions. For example, if someone is ordering pizza, see if the pizzeria also offers salads. This may be a healthy option. Try to stay away from fried or greasy foods.

College is one of the best times of your life. Don’t let poor eating choices ruin the experience. You might also want to note as a closing thought that alcohol has more empty calories than most of the foods you can eat at the cafeteria combined. Staying away from it can not only keep you safe, but also healthy. Add an exercise routine at a local gym, and you’ll never see that freshman fifteen!

Powerful Training Secrets

Nick Nilsson has been all around the block on training issues. In his latest offering, Powerful Training Secrets, Nick is giving you a TON of information for a nominal monthly fee.

Nilsson is well-known and highly-respected in the strength and conditioning field. He’s also probably even better known for his unconventional training methods.

I suggest you take a quick look at Powerful Training Secrets. It will be money well-spent.

Here are some highlights:

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• unique and powerful exercises that have NEVER appeared anywhere else – these exercises go WAY beyond the typical exercises. Say goodbye to plateaus in muscle development with these laser-targeted movements.
• hyper-effective fat-loss and muscle-building programs – the best exercises can be that much better when you have a great training program to put them in. These programs will help you peel off the fat and build PILES of muscle and strength!
• super-intense training techniques that will simply blow the doors off anything you’ve ever tried before. Your muscles will have NO CHOICE but to respond and respond FAST!

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I’ll tell you right now, the information in this site will vault you literally YEARS ahead in your training knowledge. These are the most powerful training secrets I know that have taken me more than 20 years of neverending research and experimentation to come up with. Now I’m bringing them to YOU.

I encourage you to give this resource strong consideration. Powerful Training Secrets is a gold mine.

Pre-Workout Shake

The subject of a pre-workout shake comes up now and again. As I’ve said in the past, the nutrition around your daily weight workouts are very important, to say the least. It is during and after your workouts where your muscles are SCREAMING for nourishment; your muscle tissue is literally damaged during hard weight workouts and your muscle cells begin rebuilding — right away — bigger and stronger than they were before.

Consequently, the pre-workout meal you consume, usually from 30 to 60 minutes before your weight workout, is very important. You want your muscles to get an infusion of critical building blocks (amino acids) and a good source of energy (carbohydrates) right as they’re being torn down.

Fast-acting creatine can also help.

Here’s a simple shake you can mix up before your workout. You can use this concoction during your workout, too.

Ingredients

• 1 scoop whey protein isolate
• 1 scoop (5 grams) of creatine monohydrate
• 20 grams Maltodextrin
• 1 tablespoon MCT Oil
• 16 ounces of milk (any variety, fat-free or lowfat is best pre-workout)
• Fruit to taste

Mix up in a blender and drink it up! I suggest a different post-workout shake (fat-free chocolate milk). It’s simply awesome. You can add in some whey powder to give it more protein, but you needn’t saddle it with much else.