Saturday, April 5, 2014

Training - Bench, and an incredible story about my spotter

The last time I put up a video it was about my spotter, and what an awful job he did, and how I took the blame for that being the case.

This time, I have a story about my spotter, but it's a story of survival.

About 8 years ago I was training at another gym in my area, and struck up a conversation with a fellow lifter.  Older gentleman, who was in awesome shape, not just for his age but for any age.

He introduced himself as Kevin and we chatted a bit in between sets, about the usual gym and lifting bullshit.  I got to know Kevin on a "gym basis" and we'd ask each other how training and diet was going, etc when we saw each other.  One day Kevin asked me a question about anabolics and I was curious as to why he would be asking me, as I was completely natty at the time.

Kevin went on to tell me that he had been diagnosed with HIV back in the mid 80's.  I was stunned, as Kevin was in impeccable condition, with quite a fair amount of muscle mass.  Kev went on to tell me that it was anabolics that had kept his life quality high for all these years, and was the one thing that had kept him from wasting away into nothing.

Kevin told me that it wasn't until he got on testosterone and anavar that he stopped dwindling down to skin and bones, and if not for those drugs he can't imagine how bad life would be each day.

I ended up changing gyms later, and then once more (long story) to where I am now, at Gold's.  Well today, as I was benching I happened to look over and saw that sure enough, it was Kevin.  Still kicking, and still training hard.

I went over to him and gave him the required bro hug and asked him how he was doing.  Kevin had lost a lot of weight since I last saw him, but his spirits were still high.  He told me that he wasn't sure if that was me because he thought no way in hell I had gotten that big since the last time he saw me.

I grabbed Kevin on the way out of the gym and asked him if he would be open to doing a video interview in the next couple of weeks to talk about living with HIV/AIDS for almost 30 years now, and how anabolics played a part in his life.  So stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, 365x8.  Pec is slowly getting better.



7 comments:

  1. Ever since I learned some bodybuilders who had HIV used roids to deal with it, and Jamie commenting that roids had saved Magic Johnson, I have been interested in learning more about that. Definitely interested in hearing his story.

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  2. Thanks so much Paul! You are a great listener and have a good memory for some of the details of my life. Maybe for guys in my shoes we can give an "experienced nod" to the motto on your t-shirt, "Death IS Winning, Do Something". As I've told many people, "When I "go out" I hope it's you guys pulling me out of the gym feet-first, 'cause I don't want to die in a bed gumming prunes." kev

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  3. Nice of you to not yell at him.

    "One day Kevin asked me a question about anabolics and I was curious as to why he would be asking me, as I was completely natty at the time."

    Interesting.

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    1. Did you have a question or just being your usual dick self?

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  4. I'm being a dick, and I have questions. Would you ever consider doing a live podcast on a site like Talkshoe, that has a chat room? Also, will you be doing any more pocasts with Jamie Lewis?

    Thanks!

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    1. Yeah I'd def do it. And I'd like to do more podcasts but the three of us can't seem to get together to make it happen right now.

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