So, when Greg attempted to diet down his midsection he lost a lot of size in his arms and legs and ended up looking like shit because you can’t “diet down” gut and organ size.
He looked great at 305-310, ripped as shit with vascularity and tons of size…not sure why he felt the need to get to 390, but it ruined his career. I guess the pressure to be a freak from his sponsors and “the world” caught up with him.[/quote]
Interesting post. This sounds like one of the more possible explanations.
As an aside, the second picture X posted is pretty awesome. He had a pretty good physique there. Shame what happened later.
[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
The Mighty Stu wrote:
I’ve heard that Kovaks… was genuinely bothered by a lot of the marketing surrounding him.
S
Between this and X’s comments about supp companies ‘using’ him too much, I wonder why he didn’t fuck them off. I mean, clearly he knew his shit when it comes to diet/training/supplementation.
Are pro BB’s this dependent on endorsements as their only source of income? [/quote]
I think its the allure of getting payed to do what you love. cause under normal circumstances big muscles don’t pay the bills. and these guys spend a lot of money to look that way.Hell i couldn’t even afford to look like that if i wanted to.
I don’t know if the guy had a ‘real’ job or not… think about his grocery bills. Without naming names, I can tell you someone I know who is in tons of ads for a certain supplement company, and doesn’t actually use their products. Sure he makes a decent living, but who wouldn’t shill a little bit for the money.
Kovaks certainly got some degree of fame from the deal he had. He never would have been a cover boy as an actual competitive bodybuilder.
Kovacs was one of my favorite bodybuilders back in the day. I still have one of his training tapes. Strong as shit; 2000 lb leg presses for 20 reps, hacks with 7 plates for 15 reps, inclines in the Smith with 6 plates etc etc. Much of it was exaggerated but he was still easily 350-390 at his biggest.
There’s a really good interview with him over at md.com and he talks a bit about his experiences with another line of supplements, Nasser and even a bit about his drug use (3 grams of test a week…which is actually less than I would have expected). Comes across as a humble, likeable guy. His story about breaking a hot tub had me laughing my ass off. A cautionary tale.
I think he basically just pushed his body too far for too long. He had an excellent structure for strength and mass gains, not so much for bodybuilding (a fact which he wholly admits). Even 25’ arms are going to look like sticks if you have a 70’ chest, 36’ legs and a ripped midsection that’s almost as big as your chest. He was used, plain and simple.
Used to work at the same supplement store as him, though different locations. I never met the guy, but I was told Greg took some 2-3 hours to cool down after a show and that even walking around would wind him.
He just took things to far, pushed his body past the limit.
"Greg does sets of 12 reps in the seated behind-the-neck presses with 405 pounds regularly and does 2 sets of 6 to 8 reps with 455 pounds.
He recently did a 495-pound seated behind-the-neck press for 3 reps on the Smith machine. and that was after the preceding sets : 155 x 20 reps , 245 x20 reps , 335 x15 reps, 425 x 12 reps , 455 x 8 reps , 455 x6 reps , before finishing with 495 x 3 reps …Just imagine what Kovacs could do if he went for a max attempt without first exhausting his triceps and shoulders with so many other high-rep heavy sets! "
I remember seeing the ads of the company that must NOT, and NEVER me named when I was a wee sprout back in the motherland. The man looked unreal. Then recently, actual yesterday, I saw those pictures of him at the Arnold. “Wow, that sucks” what exactly what I said. Did he walk off due to health concerns or just because of self defeat?
I must just suck at being able to judge bodybuilding…but if he looked like that in his other comps and only placed 16th WTF did the other guys look like? He is soooo massive, symmetrical, relatively aesthetic in terms of waist and RIDICULOUSLY dry…honestly…how do you judge that? …I can’t really find any problems with his physique there.
