Here’s some footage from what I personally consider to be the golden era of bodybuilding. One of the real bodybuilding icons of the eighties, Tom Platz, was an absolute monster when it came to both leg strength and size. Watch him complete 23 reps with 500 pounds on the bar:
Tom Platz – also known as The Golden Eagle – never won any of the absolute biggest titles in bodybuilding (probably due to the fact that he never had the most symmetrical build out there), but for someone like me, who got into the sport in the eighties, his still remains one of the key bodybuilding names of all time – much having to do with his rather insane leg mass, of course. He did come quite close to taking the biggest bodybuilding trophy of all home with him in 1981, though, when he placed third in that years Mr Olympia contest. He also won an honorary Mr America title in 1995. In 1978, he also took home the Amateur World Championship title. Tom Platz retired from bodybuilding in 1987, and has since done loads of different stuff, including acting and – some say – worked as a private investigator (I’d like to have that confirmed, but no luck as of yet). No doubt an all time bodybuilding great and living legend, Tom Platz is currently a Professor and Director of Bodybuilding Sciences at the International Sports Sciences Association. He lives with wife Cha (whom he married in September 2000) in Scottsdale Arizona. If I’m ever there, I’ll be sure to look him up and shake his hand – he is one of my original bodybuilding inspirations, and more than anyone he certainly inspired me to give it all on the leg press machine when I first started lifting back around the time he retired from the sport (I had yet to realized the superiority of squats, but hey, I’ll never forget how that leg press machine made me feel!)