I ran across this pic and instantly thought, “what the hell happened?”. I decided to make this thread, not to make jokes about the man, but to honestly discuss how some of these guys do take it too far to the point that they destroy the positives they had previously.
Again, this isn’t for blatantly degrading the guy.
I’m not familiar with him. I tried google’in him with no luck, I only found really tiny pics. Do you have any pics of what he looked like in his prime?
EDIT: NVM, beat me to it.
I believe this one was taken at the Arnold where he was known for walking off stage when he couldn’t finish his routine.
I remember that show. He could barely do any poses and hadn’t practiced anything at all.
He went from HuscleFlecks main posterboy to being dumped by them and swept into the closet.
Before:
He was known, for those who don’t know, as one of the strongest bodybuilders “ever”…at least before Ronnie hit the scene.
Most of his ads were exaggerated nonsense by “Hustlefleck” (I think their name is still banned on this site) but I do believe he hit 400lbs at least once. They claimed he was so strong he needed to have extra 45lbs plates duck taped to the other plates on the bar so he could train.
They basically pimped him out to the masses to sell more supplements and then seemed to leave him high and dry quickly once the novelty wore off.
What the hell did he do to himself?
everybody but the guy on the right looks mad disfigured
Whats the story behind him? What was his deal? He clearly just slowly let him self go…
[quote]elusive wrote:
Whats the story behind him? What was his deal? He clearly just slowly let him self go… [/quote]
It was more than that. He actually had a decent build originally. I honestly think the company “that shall not be named” pushed him to gain even more and more weight so that he could sell more supplements for them.
In the beginning, he was their main attraction. He was in EVERY SINGLE AD in every magazine.
It was like he overloaded or “short-circuited” his body and things never went back to normal for him.
I have honestly never seen someone burn out like that in terms of muscle groups that just wouldn’t flex right anymore or ever get to the size they were previously.
I am not expecting bodybuilders to look the same in their 40’s and 50’s as they did in their 20’s. This isn’t about that.
In that first picture it looks as though his triceps is missing. The third picture he just looks odd, huge torso, but arms and legs look skinny comparatively.
His gut is obviously huge…likely from GH I assume.
It is pretty sad whatever has happened. In that first picture he looks like he is using drugs of some sort or something.
I met Kovacs at the '99 Mr. Olympia. He was clearly the largest human I’ve seen. His hands were like catcher’s mitts. He said that he was about 390 at the time, and had dieted down to get there. He would do a couple of poses and would become as winded as if he ran a mile at full-speed. It was a bit disturbing. Unreal size, mixed with huffing and puffing at a crazy level after maybe 30 seconds of posing. His size was insane. I hope his health has held out.
[quote]Free2Be wrote:
His gut is obviously huge…likely from GH I assume.
[/quote]
Yeah, he was pretty well know for having a huge midsection that was nowhere near a natural occurrence.
I have learned that some people simply have torsos that protrude slightly and it has nothing to do with GH use in all cases…but it is safe to say that this isn’t one of those.
As much as I’m not a fan of the BS marketing practices some supplement companies employ, I will say that despite the BS spewed in ads, I’ve heard that Kovaks was one of the nicest, most humble guys around, and was genuinely bothered by a lot of the marketing surrounding him.
Met him once, it was like shaking hands with an oven-mitt -lol.
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
As much as I’m not a fan of the BS marketing practices some supplement companies employ, I will say that despite the BS spewed in ads, I’ve heard that Kovaks was one of the nicest, most humble guys around, and was genuinely bothered by a lot of the marketing surrounding him.
Met him once, it was like shaking hands with an oven-mitt -lol.
S
[/quote]
I agree, I never heard anything negative about him as a person…which is why I am trying to avoid insults to him personally.
However, he has to be the most public example of someone who somehow screwed up his body with his training practices and supplements.
I think they overused him. It also seemed they tossed him to the side way too quickly once they were more established and could get other bodybuilders.
What years was he at his best? Was he ever a contender for the top shows?
[quote]Professor X wrote:
I believe this one was taken at the Arnold where he was known for walking off stage when he couldn’t finish his routine.
I remember that show. He could barely do any poses and hadn’t practiced anything at all.
He went from HuscleFlecks main posterboy to being dumped by them and swept into the closet.[/quote]
I remember that routine as well. I think that was pretty much the last thing he competed in, wasn’t it? I actually felt bad for him as he walked off the stage, knowing what he used to look like compared to how he looked that day. He didn’t look like he even wanted to be there.
[quote]elusive wrote:
What years was he at his best? Was he ever a contender for the top shows?[/quote]
He was most known off stage in those ads. It was supposed to be a big deal if he ever competed because he was touted as supposedly being the largest human in any gym…which he might have been at one point.
I have never seen a training video from him, but the pics they used to post were fucking insane.
You would think someone who could do what he was presented as being capable of would have tried powerlifting or World’s Strongest Man. He chose to stay in the gyms most of the time.
There may have been other contests, but I only remember the Arnold one I posted earlier.
It is true that he was over 400lbs and apparently ate enough food to feed…like 5 me’s, 2 you’s and at least 1.5 Mighty Stu’s.
[quote]AngryVader wrote:
Professor X wrote:
I believe this one was taken at the Arnold where he was known for walking off stage when he couldn’t finish his routine.
I remember that show. He could barely do any poses and hadn’t practiced anything at all.
He went from HuscleFlecks main posterboy to being dumped by them and swept into the closet.
I remember that routine as well. I think that was pretty much the last thing he competed in, wasn’t it? I actually felt bad for him as he walked off the stage, knowing what he used to look like compared to how he looked that day. He didn’t look like he even wanted to be there.[/quote]
It was painful to watch.
I felt bad for him. The whole audience went quiet and he didn’t finish his routine. he just stopped, turned around and walked off stage.
I never saw him again until that pic above.
I was thinking :How did he make his midsection so big?
any ideas guys?
MaYBE HGH?
[quote]Marlind wrote:
I was thinking :How did he make his midsection so big?
any ideas guys?
MaYBE HGH? [/quote]
most likely that combined with a huge amount of food. huge food intake alone is enough to get your gut to become distended.
