by Bryan Krahn
Introduction by Lou Schuler
In the spring of 1999, when Body-for-Life came out, I was fitness editor of Men's Health magazine, and a part-time reviewer of fitness books for Amazon.com.
All I knew about Bill Phillips and his magazine, Muscle Media 2000, was based on offhand remarks from my friends and colleagues in the bodybuilding world. (Before I joined Men's Health in 1998, I'd spent six years at Men's Fitness, working a few steps away from the editors of Muscle & Fitness and Flex.) I was probably aware of the physique-transformation craze inspired by Phillips' original Body-for-Life Challenge in 1997, but can't remember ever giving it much thought.
Then one day I got a call from my editor at Amazon, who was flustered and flabbergasted by the preorders for Phillips' book. It was already the number-one book on Amazon, a month before its publication date. Neither of us had ever heard of such a thing.
She got me a copy of the book to review and asked me to get an interview with Phillips. That was my first descent into the mysterious world of the guy Outside magazine later dubbed "Mr. Big."
I didn't descend very far. Without ever refusing my request for an interview, I got bounced from a spokesperson in New York to another in Colorado multiple times, and never got to speak to Phillips. I wouldn't learn until later about his famous aversion to situations he couldn't control, such as interviews.
Still, the BFL phenomenon shifted my career in ways I couldn't have predicted at the time. By 2000, a year after the book came out, my employers at Rodale wanted a piece of the action. You couldn't blame them, since BFL was well on its way to becoming the bestselling fitness book in history. That's how I started working on the project that would eventually become Testosterone Advantage Plan, a book that sold very well when it was released in late December of 2001.
In its humble way, Testosterone Advantage Plan had a profound effect on readers' lives. I heard from hundreds who changed their approach to diet and exercise, many of whom bought my subsequent books and allowed me to have a nice run as a fitness-book author. So I have Phillips to thank for making my category as popular as it became. (We even have the same agent.)
But, really, outside of my family, who cares that it worked out okay for me? The open question is, how did it work out for the people who made the whole body-transformation thing into the phenomenon it became? Specifically, what happened to the 10 winners of the original "fitness challenge" in 1997?
Those 10, several of whom had overcome tragedies and personal setbacks, were featured in Body of Work, a documentary directed by Phillips himself.
Which brings me to the story you're about to read. Several weeks ago, a Testosterone Muscle reader emailed TC a simple suggestion: "I was thinking it might be cool if you did a 'where are they now?' piece on the original winners of EAS' challenge."
We ended up assigning it to journalist Bryan Krahn, who subsequently scored interviews with seven of the 10 original winners, each of whom received $50,000 and a Corvette, along with instant celebrity and a small place in pop-cultural history. He also tracked down Ami Cusack, who appears early and often in Body of Work, and in my opinion came off better than anyone else in the movie.
Speaking of which, I assume most of you reading this haven't seen the two-hour documentary. I hadn't either, despite the fact someone at EAS had sent it to me 10 years ago. For 10 years, as it sat on different shelves of different offices, I'd never felt compelled to watch it. Until now.
And, having watched it, I think Bryan's description is better than any I could work up:
"Bill Phillips runs through the streets of Las Vegas in his underwear. Bill decides to hold a 12-week before-and-after contest. Bill poses in his bathroom in his underwear. Fifty-four thousand people enter the contest. Bill informs the 10 finalists by surprising/embarrassing them in their home cities, and runs through the streets of Manhattan in his underwear with one of them. The finalists meet in Denver for the final judging, and work out with Bill (in his underwear). In the film's climax, all 10 are announced as Grand Champions. Bill rushes off, presumably to buy flannel underwear to brace himself for the upcoming Colorado winter. Roll credits."
Still, all cheese aside, the transformations were amazing. But were they real? Were they permanent? Bryan set out to find some answers.
If you've seen Body of Work, you might recall Jeff Seidman as the soft-spoken San Francisco bellman, whom Bill surprises at a bachelor party. (The party's stripper, whose naked backside we glimpse as she runs out the door, is the only one in the movie who exposes more flesh than Phillips.) Jeff comes across as likeable and maybe a little camera-shy, but his physique definitely commands attention. He reportedly gained 28 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks, naturally, at age 36.
That made him one of three finalists to get blindsided by Phillips with accusations that he'd used steroids.
Jeff Seidman
You made a hell of a transformation: 28 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks.
It was actually closer to 32 pounds.
Clean? I'm tempted to call bullshit, especially since you admit to using steroids in your past.
Seriously, I was clean. But you have to understand I'd been big before. Not as big as my "after" picture, but around 182, and pretty muscular. At the time of my "before" picture, I hadn't been lifting in a while. I was focusing a lot on racing, cardio, and stuff like that.
So you were detrained.
Absolutely. There was a lot of muscle memory in that transformation. But I also busted my ass and ate like a machine.
But didn't you fail a polygraph test for steroid use?
Everybody failed that polygraph. It was just for the movie!
Explain.
The whole time I was in Denver, Bill was building me up like I was going to win. He would pull me aside and say, "Jeff, you're the exact age of my target market, I want you to win this thing. Just hang in there."
When they told me I failed the polygraph, I was floored. Here I was thinking I'd already won! I actually started to freak out until Bill's friend, Stoney Lee Grimes, pulled me aside, off-camera, and said not to worry, that they needed this for the video.
Needed what?
Drama. They wanted to have more drama in the movie so they made up the polygraph results. Bill had built me up all week to get the biggest reaction possible.
Man, that's cheesy. Let's talk about your transformation. What did you do?
First off, I ate like crazy. Every two hours like clockwork. I was eating upwards of 6,000 calories a day for a while. I think at one point I was eating 12 meals a day. If I was awake, I was eating.
What about training?
I trained for about 90 minutes to two hours a day, six days a week. With that level of calorie consumption, I think a high-volume approach is best.
But at your personal-training studios, Hiperfit, you sell 30-minute workouts.
That's actually how I train now — 30 minutes, four times a week. But it's a balls-out 30 minutes — basic lifts like squats, bench presses, pull-ups, and rows, every set done to failure. I also eat a lot less, maybe 3,500 calories a day. I'm 47 years old, so that makes a difference.
What's your physique like now?
I guess I'm at 90 percent of what I was then.
Any advice for folks wanting to copy what you did back in '97?
Keep it simple. There's no fancy workout, special diet, or magic supplement. Eat a healthy, varied diet. Train balls-out and be consistent. You just don't need anything more than that.
Everett Herbert was the contractor from Utah who went from a typical middle-aged guy to an absolutely ripped, deeply tanned, silver-haired stud. He also came off, fairly or unfairly, as the biggest prick in Body of Work when he suggested — or seemed to suggest (it's not really clear) — that the three competitors who'd failed a polygraph test be thrown out.
How have things been since the big contest?
The shits.
Can't say I saw that one coming.
Well, it's the truth. I've had some struggles since then — a divorce, battles with clinical depression.
I'm sorry to hear that. Are you still training?
I was, but then in 2000 I suffered a bad fall while working and tore both my biceps. I've had six surgeries to date.
I'm just starting to get my strength back. Before the fall, I was [doing incline bench presses] with 120-pound dumbbells for reps. Once I was cleared to work out again, I was using 35-pound dumbbells. Lately I've been creeping back up to 85 pounds for reps.
You got in great shape for your contest. What was your diet and training like?
Diet-wise, I was super-anal. I wrote everything down. It was basically a 40/30/30-type diet, with most of my fats coming from CLA, flax oil, and other EFAs. I trained three days a week, just basic lifts, and did cardio on two off days.
Just two cardio sessions? To get in that kind of shape?
Yeah, I started with 15-minute sessions, twice a week. The last few weeks I peaked at 30 to 40 minutes, three times a week.
I was super-paranoid about overtraining, especially as I lowered my calories. One of my rules was if I showed up at the gym and I wasn't stronger, I'd go home and take a few days off. I'd always come back stronger, even on low calories.
Given your troubles, and the fact you're now 61, is it safe to assume you've had trouble maintaining your fat loss?
I'm only about 10 pounds off of my contest-day weight. I would guess my body fat is at around 12 percent.
Damn!
It's all diet. Even when I could barely move, I still tried to stick to it. Today, for example, I've had two chicken breasts and two protein shakes. I think living and eating like it was my lifestyle and not a "diet" has worked for me.
Did that whole experience have any other lasting impact on you, positive or negative?
I believe it made me a better person. I feel it made me more generous. I put my ex-wife through school to get her doctorate. It was something she had always really wanted.
Did you really ask for the three guys who flunked the polygraph to be thrown out?
No, that was bullshit. I asked for the results to be thrown out, but they edited it to make me look like an asshole.
Drew Avery had probably the most dramatic transformation, reportedly losing over 22 pounds of fat and body hair while gaining 10 pounds of muscle, bronzer, and baby oil. His "zero to hero" metamorphosis set the bar for how manipulative the before-and-after shtick can be.
Bill Phillips was quick to recognize Drew's potential as a marketing tool, and created the "Drew Avery Report," an advertising insert that came with the January 1998 issue of Muscle Media. In the report, Drew gives details on how he transformed his body, complete with a gawd-awful diet that included three sugar-laden EAS "supershakes" a day.
Drew, who's now 45, currently lives in Long Beach, California, where he and a partner run Ascendant Marketing and Media, which manages advertising campaigns and produces commercials.
Drew Avery
I kind of thought you'd be in the fitness business.
I still do the odd photo shoot for various fitness products that we promote through my business. Honestly, at the risk of sounding cocky, I'm in much better shape than I was back then.
Are you still following the same diet?
Well, back in 1997, I followed a kind of balanced protein-carb-fat diet...
Hey, what about the three supershakes a day?
(laughs) You remember that, huh?
It was all bullshit, wasn't it?
Not exactly. I had at least one shake a day when I was bulking up and adding size. But once I hired [nutritionist] Keith Klein...
You canned the supershake.
Yeah.
So what's different now?
Seven or eight years ago, I was having a hard time staying in shape without doing a lot of cardio. My legs in particular just couldn't get hard. But then I had a chance meeting with Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale that completely changed how I look at food. Have you ever heard of the Anabolic Diet?
There's only about a 4,000-page thread over at T-Nation.
It completely changed how I eat, and how I look. I stay leaner, add size easier, and need a lot less cardio to get photo-lean. I can stay within four weeks of being what we call "camera ready," and still have beer and fast food on the weekend, provided I drink a lot of water as well.
Has your training evolved since the contest?
I've never been a big, strong guy. My thing has always been symmetry. The last few years I've been trying to bring up my weak points, specifically my hamstrings and calves.
I find that a variety of exercises and rep ranges work well for weak points, as it prevents adaptation. I rarely do the same workout twice in a row.
I also do a lot less direct arm work these days. I noticed that a lot of the injuries older guys get come as a result of too much arm training. I let the compound lifts take care of it and I still make progress.
You weren't one of the guys singled out for steroids. Did you think any of the guys were juiced?
I have my suspicions. Let's just say Bill was convinced that one guy was using. He never appeared in any of the EAS ads following the movie.
Any funny stories?
Bill's ex-girlfriend took a shine to another winner. Bill wasn't too happy about it, and [that contestant] also never appeared in any of the marketing spots.
During the 1997 contest, Brad Wadlow reportedly lost 25 pounds of fat while gaining 27 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks. Looking at his pictures, you can definitely see significant fat loss, but the muscle claims seem like a stretch. Regardless, he looked a hell of a lot better.
We caught up with Brad, who's living the life of a modern-day Daniel Plainview, as owner of an oil-exploration and drilling company in the wilds of rural Missouri.
Are you still in shape?
I don't look like my "after" picture anymore, but I can still see my abs. I have a home gym now, so unless I'm out in the middle of nowhere I can train.
As I recall, you followed a kind of "heavy duty," low-volume approach?
I sure did, and still do to this day. I used to train three days a week. Now it's down to two days, Mondays and Thursdays, 20 minutes per session.
I train upper body on Mondays and lower body on Thursdays. For two weeks my upper-body workout is chest and back, and for two weeks it's shoulders and arms.
For me, it's all about getting stronger. If I don't get another rep [from one workout to the next], I take a week off and come back and try again. That way, I always progress.
Any cardio?
None. Zero. My job is very demanding, so I don't see the need. If I feel fat, I clean up my food and I usually see results in a few days. Simple as that.
So what's your diet like these days?
It's not as strict as before, because of my business. Basically, I eat three small, low-fat, low-sugar meals a day, along with fruit for snacks. I also still drink a gallon of water a day.
You were one of the three singled out for failing a polygraph test. Did you use steroids?
No! Seriously, that whole polygraph thing was messed up. They were hooking me up to this thing and I started to freak out. I have no idea if I failed or not.
Any lasting effects of the big transformation?
It taught me what can happen if I make my goals and myself a top priority. I was able to take that focus and start up my own business. Before the contest I never would have even considered that.
Tomorrow, we'll see what happened to the rest, including Ami Cusack, one-time girlfriend to Bill Phillips, Playboy model, and "lesbian" star of CBS' Survivor.
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