Bob Paris Then and Now

[Daewoo_Lanos]

like i told pharmamarketer these guys changed my mind and gave me hope.

lol notsureifsrs on 'gave me hope.' everyone has different tastes. the only near constant rule is low bodyfat is more appealing to everyone. no matter how much muscle you have, a leaner you is a more attractive you.

now stop making life more complicated than it has to be and go hit on some ladies

[Larfleeze]

Rod looks pretty jacked too..can just imagine the two of them in a bar or club together getting hit on by ****loads of women haha..

[Tony_Ulibarri]

Bob Paris is or was the modern day Steve Reeves. Right now he could look better than what we see in the photos.

[hfce354]

If Bob had stuck around for the next evolution of supplements i bet we would have seen a great 90's version at 240 or so...

[usersignup2]

My favourite physique of all time. No joke.

I even did a couple of sketches of him last year as a test for a new tablet.

mirin tablet skillz

[jamesyboi]

There is an Australian bodybuilder that looks allot like Bob Paris

His name is Steve Jones, and is the founder of Natural Bodz magazine.

[sexnews]

If Bob had stuck around for the next evolution of supplements i bet we would have seen a great 90's version at 240 or so...

He didn't want to push that far. One of his books were called Gorilla Suit.

[alan aragon]

You're a 195lb male. I doubt you're an expert on the subject.

Needless flaming. Learn some respect & please keep that mess out of here.

On topic, here's Bob's latest take on bodybuilding, from his blog:

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So, What Happened?

I've recently received several emails asking the same essential question, "What happened to bodybuilding?"

Many of these messages refer to the sport itself, with the common upshot being: "What the hell happened to the sport we used to love; why has it grown so thoroughly corrupt and unrecognizable over the past twenty-five or so years?"

The other version of this question is directed toward me, as in: "Since you were once a champion, why doesn't your life still revolve around the sport?"

First, I'd like to focus on the personal aspects of this.

The shorthand answer is that, when I was still involved in bodybuilding, back before I retired more than twenty years ago, I wasn't ever really what one might call a "lifestyle bodybuilder." In other words, bodybuilding was simply a sport at which I excelled. It wasn't my core identity. In fact, I often found myself (as I wrote in GORILLA SUIT) desperately wishing I could leave the by-product of my hard training (i.e. that massive and generally uncomfortable physique) in the gym, as a baseball player leaves behind his bat, a track athlete her cleats.

Look, I've written this so many times before it's become something of a personal cliché: Back when I was 19 and wholly adrift, bodybuilding saved my life. But not because of the muscles. Rather, bodybuilding saved me because of the discipline, direction and focus it engendered. It provided both a physical and metaphorical path forward.

I've also often written of having combined my athletic and artistic sides as I pursued bodybuilding, but there was a third part to this intertwined structure: A strong, over-riding philosophy, a chunk of which went something like this: Do the work, do it well, and get on with it. So that's what I'd do: Invest my time in the gym with absolute focus and intensity and then let it go, heading off to pursue my real life; one composed of a dozen other wide-ranging interests from theatre to books to backpacking.

It’s this diversity of interests that eventually led me away from a strict focus on hard-core weight training as a central part of my life. Don’t misread that, though. I'm the fittest and healthiest I've ever been; and certainly the happiest and most authentic. I love my intense yoga practice, my cycling, my hikes and trail runs - and yes, my regular, moderate resistance training.

In an ironic way, I have the time spent in bodybuilding to thank for leading me toward this eclectic yet focused path, where exercise is merely one part of a fulfilling life.

One of the initial reasons I was first drawn to bodybuilding was the notion that this was what many of us back then were after: Yes, our efforts in the gym would sculpt the best possible physique. But more than that: We were striving to build a life. A real, well-rounded, amazing life. That was the bodybuilding of Arnold, of Zane, of Reeves.

That was my bodybuilding.

It is exactly this concept that completely evaporated from elite-level bodybuilding twenty-odd years ago, leading me (and many others like me) out of the sport along an inverse, carnival-side-show mirror of the road on which we had entered.

However, I don’t want this post to sound even slightly bitter. I am profoundly grateful for my path—successes, regrets and all. And in this spirit, I find myself obliged to share (once again) the core concepts I learned from my years in bodybuilding; the underlying fundamentals I have taken with me into both my work and personal life:

- The patient application of craft;
- The beauty of deep inside/out, outside/in personal transformation;
- The active search for authenticity;
- The development of a balanced approach toward life and work;
- A real feeling of focus and dedication;
- The profound blending of the athletic with the artistic (and the philosophical).
- And, if I had to add one more fundamental into this mix it would have to be:
- A willingness to look unmitigated corruption right in the face and speak the unvarnished truth, damn the tor****es.

So then, to the more general question posed at the top of this piece:

Well, I suppose I’ll have to leave that one with the fans of bodybuilding (including the writers and publishers covering it), all of whom I hope will, one day very soon, find the courage to stand up en-mass, turn directly toward those who have run the IFBB Pro Division for the past twenty-five years and finally demand a clear, honest and propaganda-free answer: “What happened to bodybuilding?”

In the meantime, I truly wish you and yours peace, health and happiness,

Bob

[u5711]

he looks a lot younger than many current IFBB competitors
props to him for knowing when it was time to move onto better things

[alan aragon]

he looks a lot younger than many current IFBB competitors
props to him for knowing when it was time to move onto better things

Yeah, Bob looks great at 52. Reminds me of how Kevin Levrone looks way younger than 47.

[sandyifbb2011]

its too bad he doesnt want any woman in the world :/

i agree to that, he was definitely a good looking hunk of an athlete, great look for this sport

[golfpunk1985]

women love confidence. If bodybuilding brings you immense confidence then you will have a large array of types of women seeking you out, stareing at you and wanting to meet you and own you. If you cannot attain a bit of confidence from bodybuilding then you will not get laid or meet women period.

Do what you do as long as what you do is raising your confidence. There are very muscular ripped men who dominate the bar/club/party scene and there are muscular ripped men who shy away in the corner at the bar/club/party scene. There are engineers that dominate the club scene and there are engineers that shy away into the corner.

Attaining self worth charisma and confidence are the very objectives of young male adult life, regardless of how it's attained. Whether it's from holding a steady job as a janitor or becoming the youngest senator in history.

That was a good post until the last paragraph, now I just think you're a *******. srs. How do you think you can speak on behalf of all men in the world, ie "this is the objective of young male adult life". Some people like to sit around getting stoned all day, drunk all day, etc. stupid *******. Not everyone shares the same objectives in life as you.

[transformerchad]

much respect for this man , follow your heart peepz

[DPNZ]

That was a good post until the last paragraph, now I just think you're a *******. srs. How do you think you can speak on behalf of all men in the world, ie "this is the objective of young male adult life". Some people like to sit around getting stoned all day, drunk all day, etc. stupid *******. Not everyone shares the same objectives in life as you.

When you say "some people", do you mean you?

[Dantop]

Bob Paris is a great man in all departments, and of course one of the best physique ever.

[golfpunk1985]

plus women don't like guys that big even if he was one of the smallest competitors in the 80's.

[Ajthemeso]

Needless flaming. Learn some respect & please keep that mess out of here.

On topic, here's Bob's latest take on bodybuilding, from his blog:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -



So, What Happened?

I've recently received several emails asking the same essential question, "What happened to bodybuilding?"

Many of these messages refer to the sport itself, with the common upshot being: "What the hell happened to the sport we used to love; why has it grown so thoroughly corrupt and unrecognizable over the past twenty-five or so years?"

The other version of this question is directed toward me, as in: "Since you were once a champion, why doesn't your life still revolve around the sport?"

First, I'd like to focus on the personal aspects of this.

The shorthand answer is that, when I was still involved in bodybuilding, back before I retired more than twenty years ago, I wasn't ever really what one might call a "lifestyle bodybuilder." In other words, bodybuilding was simply a sport at which I excelled. It wasn't my core identity. In fact, I often found myself (as I wrote in GORILLA SUIT) desperately wishing I could leave the by-product of my hard training (i.e. that massive and generally uncomfortable physique) in the gym, as a baseball player leaves behind his bat, a track athlete her cleats.

Look, I've written this so many times before it's become something of a personal cliché: Back when I was 19 and wholly adrift, bodybuilding saved my life. But not because of the muscles. Rather, bodybuilding saved me because of the discipline, direction and focus it engendered. It provided both a physical and metaphorical path forward.

I've also often written of having combined my athletic and artistic sides as I pursued bodybuilding, but there was a third part to this intertwined structure: A strong, over-riding philosophy, a chunk of which went something like this: Do the work, do it well, and get on with it. So that's what I'd do: Invest my time in the gym with absolute focus and intensity and then let it go, heading off to pursue my real life; one composed of a dozen other wide-ranging interests from theatre to books to backpacking.

It’s this diversity of interests that eventually led me away from a strict focus on hard-core weight training as a central part of my life. Don’t misread that, though. I'm the fittest and healthiest I've ever been; and certainly the happiest and most authentic. I love my intense yoga practice, my cycling, my hikes and trail runs - and yes, my regular, moderate resistance training.

In an ironic way, I have the time spent in bodybuilding to thank for leading me toward this eclectic yet focused path, where exercise is merely one part of a fulfilling life.

One of the initial reasons I was first drawn to bodybuilding was the notion that this was what many of us back then were after: Yes, our efforts in the gym would sculpt the best possible physique. But more than that: We were striving to build a life. A real, well-rounded, amazing life. That was the bodybuilding of Arnold, of Zane, of Reeves.

That was my bodybuilding.

It is exactly this concept that completely evaporated from elite-level bodybuilding twenty-odd years ago, leading me (and many others like me) out of the sport along an inverse, carnival-side-show mirror of the road on which we had entered.

However, I don’t want this post to sound even slightly bitter. I am profoundly grateful for my path—successes, regrets and all. And in this spirit, I find myself obliged to share (once again) the core concepts I learned from my years in bodybuilding; the underlying fundamentals I have taken with me into both my work and personal life:

- The patient application of craft;
- The beauty of deep inside/out, outside/in personal transformation;
- The active search for authenticity;
- The development of a balanced approach toward life and work;
- A real feeling of focus and dedication;
- The profound blending of the athletic with the artistic (and the philosophical).
- And, if I had to add one more fundamental into this mix it would have to be:
- A willingness to look unmitigated corruption right in the face and speak the unvarnished truth, damn the tor****es.

So then, to the more general question posed at the top of this piece:

Well, I suppose I’ll have to leave that one with the fans of bodybuilding (including the writers and publishers covering it), all of whom I hope will, one day very soon, find the courage to stand up en-mass, turn directly toward those who have run the IFBB Pro Division for the past twenty-five years and finally demand a clear, honest and propaganda-free answer: “What happened to bodybuilding?”

In the meantime, I truly wish you and yours peace, health and happiness,

Bob

thanks man! much appreciated!

[wolfpilp]

he was one of the first Openly gay famous athletes.You gotta give him credit for that also.

[sexnews]

[iabs]

My favorite bodybuilder of all time.

And to all the people saying "his calves look the same", calves are 110% genetics, you may develop them A LITTLE, but you are either born with big calves or you don't.

[adamgentile]

http://www.fantasticman.com/men/bob-paris