MR: Not really. I have spoken with Peter Trenz many times and he knows his stuff. I am sure those guys are very good, but so is Peter. He has helped a lot of athletes over the years and his guys are always in shape.
RH: The recent video clips I have seen where you’re guest posing at almost 300 pounds shows that you’re not far from contest condition at all. Is this the best you have ever looked in the off-season?
MR: Yes, I think so. What you saw was what I looked like after dieting for six weeks. Let’s see how I look after a whole 16 weeks! I really think I am going to look my best ever and
that’s how I want to be remembered.
RH: What improvements can we expect to see when you step onstage in New York in a couple months?
MR: It’s going to be better condition than ever before. That’s the only thing I have really been missing. The size is there and I have a good V-taper too. I just need the really hard and detailed look to go with it.
RH: What’s going on with your personal and profes- sional life? The last I heard, you were the owner of one gym and were about to open a second gym. Did you do that? www.musculardevelopment.com April 2009
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MR: Yes, we do have two locations now. It’s been a lot of work for Simone and me, but they are both succeeding.
RH: You are also with Ultimate Nutrition now. How do you like the company? What are your favorite products of theirs?
MR: I love working with Ultimate. They have brought me over to many different countries to promote their products and myself. My favorite product is their Iso Mass. I use that three times every day.
RH: How have your fans reacted to your latest DVD, “Big and Loving It?”
MR: The fans’ reactions have been fantastic and I’m very happy about that. It was a project that took over three years to make and I showed a lot of my personal side in the DVD. I think you get to know me a lot better as a person and not just to say, ‘Wow, here is this huge guy who lifts weights and poses.’ You see I am just like anyone else. I am happy sometimes, sad sometimes and I don’t take myself too seri- ously. It was a little risky because it’s so different from other DVDs with the pros, so I’m glad people liked it.
RH: Speaking about family, are you and Simone planning on starting one? I’m sure you would make a great dad!
MR: I do think I would make a good father, but we’re not planning on having kids. We enjoy our lives together very much and we don’t feel like we are missing anything. If either one of us really, really wanted to have children, that would be different. But we are happy with everything the way it is.
RH: We now have a 230-pound Mr. Olympia, which most people thought would never happen. Do you think there is still a place for the ‘freaks’ in the sport like you?
MR: I hope so! I can’t change my physique. I am what I am, like Popeye says— I am a freak. That’s what I am bringing back to New York in May. The fans there have always loved freaks and I think they still do. Bodybuilding has always had guys over the years who represented tak- ing size to the limits, guys like Sergio Oliva, Victor
Richards, Nasser. There will always be fans who want to
see crazy muscle size and that’s what I have. I respect the
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smaller guys with the pretty physiques and I would hope they also can respect what I bring to the stage.
RH: Can we expect to see you stick around for a while, or is the New York Pro possibly your true ‘last contest?’ If you win the New York Pro, would that make you more or less likely to keep competing?
MR: No, this is it for me. Whatever happens in New York, this will be my last show. After that, I have plenty of things going on with Ultimate Nutrition: guest posing, photo shoots, autograph sessions and a lot of traveling. Between that and running my gyms, there really isn’t time for competing.
RH: So even if you qualify for the Mr. Olympia, you won’t compete in it?
MR: No. Seriously, the New York Pro is my final show, whether I win or take last place.
RH: What do you think of Germany’s other top pro, Dennis Wolf?
MR: Dennis is a great athlete with a very big future in the game. I hope he gets the chance to win the Mr. Olympia one day. We’ve never had one.
RH: That’s right— Arnold was Austrian, not German. Okay Markus, this is your chance to get a message out to many of your fans in the USA. What would you like to say to them?
MR: Keep your fingers crossed for me in New York! Thank you for all your support over the last 10 years. I love you all and appreciate every cheer, every e-mail, every DVD and picture sale— everything. I don’t think I was ever the best bodybuilder in the world, but I have had the best fans! ■
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hether we like it or not, biceps are always going to be the big star in the world of mus- cles. We can talk as much as we want to about how backs are what separates the great physiques from the rest of the pack and how big wheels are the mark of a true bodybuilder, but you can’t deny that since we were all little kids, ‘making a muscle’ meant flexing the biceps. Men throughout the years who had the very best biceps development, like Arnold
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and Lee Priest, also had and continue to have enormous fan bases. If biceps weren’t such a big deal, how would you explain that the first pose called in the prejudging of any amateur or pro contest is the front double biceps? It’s the first thing the judges are eager to get a look at, and quite often you can pick your top five based almost entire- ly on that one comparison.
So when a new pro comes on the scene and happens to have truly enormous biceps, he’s got a distinct advan- tage over his peers. New Overall NPC National Champion Ed Nunn fits the bill with a pair of guns that stretch the tape measure out past 22 inches— and probably more like 23 in the off-season. Whether or not finding out how he
got biceps nearly the size of his head will help you do the same, it’s always interesting, and there’s always something to be learned.