A Memorable Moment

By: Ron Kosloff n/c NSP Research Nutrition As a kid I always knew that some day I would get into bodybuilding. I always admired physical culture and excellent physiques. Unfortunately, I never was blessed with what Vince Gironda called a genetically superior body, but trough the years I did build a fairly decent physique. A friend of mine, Herbie, had a brother who was deeply into bodybuilding. He had an excellent physique and entered a few contests when drugs werent so prevalent and did quite well. He worked out at an old gym in downtown Detroit called Yacos Gym, it was owned by a very nice gentleman named George Yaco, and was located in the Taft Hotel. Once in awhile Herbie and I would go down and watch his brother work out. We were too young to work out ourselves, but nonetheless watching the body builders was quite fascinating. One day, in the late 50s, we were at the gym watching Herbies brother work out. I was thumbing through a magazine reading about a body builder named Steve Reeves. He was the epitome of bodybuilding at that time. Everybody wanted to be like Steve Reeves because he was all natural and tremendously gifted. So here I am sitting in the gym, when the door opens, I glance at the door, then back at the magazine, low and behold, it was Steve Reeves. Everybody in the gym was taken aback at the sight of him and he caused quite a stir. It just so happens that he was in town with the May West Muscle Troop, a traveling show, at the old Shubert Theatre in Detroit. He had walked 3-4

miles down Woodward to train at Yacos Gym. As I looked at him, my first impression was that he was the male equivalent of the most beautiful woman that you could ever see. He was flawless. He was about 6 1 and he weighed approximately 215 lbs. The genetic proportions of this man were just phenomenal. He had a small waist, no obliques, small glutes, sweeping thighs, tremendous calves, square pecks and rounded delts. Vince Gironda always said that Steve Reeves was the best there ever was. For all practical purposes Steve Reeves was the epitome of bodybuilding at that time. If you scanned Steve you would see that he had a perfect head of hair and complexion, and it made for a memorable moment in my life. Steves image has never left my psyche. I could never emulate him, but every time I worked out I would always think of Steve Reeves standing there. That day in the gym, he took his workout and I noticed that his workout was very similar to what Vince Gironda taught. The only person that I have ever seen that could match Steve genetically, or perhaps was even a little superior, was a man named Don Howorth. He trained at Vince Girondas gym in the 1960s. It is not uncommon for many people in different parts of the world to come up with the same ideas and philosophies at the same time. For example, its just like when the car was invented, there was a man in England who was working on the internal combustion engine and at the same time a German engineer was also working on an internal combustion engine. The point I am trying to make is Steve, in the early days, worked out at a gym in the San Francisco Bay area, which was owned by a man named Ed Yarick. Ed had the same philosophies as Vince. Dont over train, work out hard and fast, he stressed nutrition and working out each muscle to the nth degree. He also stressed that the sum of the parts equals the total in creating a beautiful physique. Ed was dead against weight lifting squats, which did nothing for you, but give you a big rear end, widen your hips, push your stomach out and widen your lower back, just

as Vince believed. Ed invented an exercise similar to what Vince would teach in the sissy type squat, it was called a T-bar. It was a bar that came through a platform in a hole in the floor. You would grab the T-bar behind you and when the bar went down, your pelvis went forward resulting in a sissy squat. The results were obvious in Steves physique because he had a tremendously small waist and tremendously small abs. He also did not have the typical over developed rear end like most squatters have. As we all watched Steve Reeves train, he was a very deliberate trainer and he implemented what Ed Yarick and Vince Gironda preached intensely. He got through his work out very, very quickly, with very little rest. Anyone could see that mentally he was into it, and that he blocked everything out as he used a lot of autosuggestion. He did not lift that much weight, I think he did about 25-30lbs. in dumb bull curls, which is not a lot of weight He did all isolation exercises just as Vince and Ed preached. That particular day in the gym he worked his upper body but he only did one exercise per body part. Being that everybody gathered around as he worked out and because he was the celebrity, so-called hit of the show, he really did not have that much time to work out. You could tell that he was not comfortable with all the adulation and attention, and perhaps he was even a little shy. Steve was truly a one of a kind, gifted person. But what impressed me the most about him was that he was totally natural. I think the only supplement Steve took was B12 shots for blood building and muscle growth. Steve worked out in Ed Yaricks gym until he came south to the L.A. area and worked out at Muscle Beach. There he got involved in the movies and then entered a few physique National and World contests. I thought Id share this little story with you about Steve Reeves because everytime I go into a gym, there are two people I think of, Steve Reeves and Vince

Gironda The thought of them sort of motivates me and its a shame that now both of them are gone. Another little tidbit, Steve Reeves is the reason that I have always worn a beard, because of that day at Yacos Gym and in his Hercules movies he wore a beard. Thanks,

Ron Kosloff n/c

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