Chris Aceto – Bodybuilding Legends Podcast with John Hansen [S7E7]

Nutrition Expert and Contest Prep Coach, Chris Aceto, is interviewed for the Bodybuilding Legends Podcast to talk about his early days in Bodybuilding.

Chris talks about competing in bodybuilding competitions in Massachusetts under the tutelage of Bob Gruskin, meeting Jay Cutler for the first time, training with Mr. America Jeff King, working at the Bodybuilding Camps in the 1980s and writing up diets for the top bodybuilders at Gold’s Gym in Venice, California.

Pre-Interview Podcast

John Hansen:

Alright, welcome everybody to another episode of the bodybuilding legends podcast where we’re talking again about Old School Bodybuilders, and some of the old stories from the 70s and 80s and the bodybuilding world.

And today’s guest is Chris Aceto – Chris “The Technician” Aceto. Chris is well known in the industry as one of the top contest prep gurus for many many of the pros. And he’s one of the most sought after guys in the whole industry. Chris has been around for a long time. He was married at one time to Laura Creavalle, who was one of the best women bodybuilders in the world; she won the Mrs. International competition that was held at the Arnold Classic and she came second to Lenda Murray at the Ms. Olympia several times.

Luara was one of the best. Chris’ help was one of the reason she was so good, but in addition to Laura he also has helped Mike Francios, he’s helped Jay Cutler, Jose Raymond. Just last week at the Tampa pro he helped Henry Peirre Ano, who was the Classic Physique Champion. He also helped Sergio Oliva Jr. who was a very close second place. So Chris is still very much involved in the industry. And he’s the cohost with Dave Columbu heavy muscle radio, which in on every week at rxmuscle.com and is also available as a podcast.

Chris has been around for a long time, and I have known him for many years. In fact I talk about Chris in my new book, Dairy Of A Natural Bodybuilder where I talk about all the natural bodybuilding contest that I went in 1991 through 1998 and Chris was very helpful to me figuring out what supplements to take and also my diet. So I mention him several times in the book if you’ve read that book. I’ve relied on Chris before for his advice. His books that he wrote back in the 90s or maybe in the 80s are still very much in use today by people who want to understand diet.

His approach to dieting has a lot of common sense and it just makes sense as far as what he recommends, as far as training, cardio, test prep… And that’s always attacted me to Chris with his advice. He used to write articles for Joe Weider and he wrote articles for Muscular development at one time. And so that’s how I became a fan of Chris Aceto. And today we’re not really talking about training and nutrition; we’re talking about his memories of bodybuilding. He started off training in the East Coast with Bob Gruskin, in Boston MA, I believe.

Then he became a friend of Jay Cutler so we talk about that. We talk about him training with Jeff King, who was the 1983 Mr. America, and he talks about his memories with Jeff. And then Chris moved to California for many years. He had his own office at Gold’s Gym, and they used to hold these bodybuilding camps that was started by David Zelon. And Chris was one of the guys working there – as a teenager, I believe. I think he was only 19-20 years old. So he talks about his memories of that. So we have a lot of great stories from Chris Aceto coming up in a minute.

Alright so here is our interview with Chris Aceto – Mr. Chris “The Technician” Aceto. We are going to talk about Chris’s memories of the old school days of bodybuilding. Here we go.

The Interview

John Hansen:

Alright welcome back to the bodybuilding legends podcast. I have one of my old friends with me today – a Mr. Chris Aceto. And Chris is known as The Technician because he has been a diet coach to so many pros and he is also the cohost with Dave Columbo on Heavy Muscle radio. But Chris has a big history in the sport; he goes way back. He was a big bodybuilding back in the day. So Chris welcome to the show and thank you for taking the time out to talk to me.

Chris Aceto:

Thank you, John. You must be a legend because I’m not a legend so a legends show… is a little like.

John Hansen:

*Laugh*

Chris Aceto:

It’s ego boosting!

John Hansen:

*Laughs* So Chris, a lot of us, like I said, know you as the technician diet coach, and they don’t know that you were a really good bodybuilder back in the day. So when did you get bit by the iron bug? When did you start training? Back in Massachusetts

Chris Aceto:

I was four years old, John. You know… No I was like 14 years old or something.

John Hansen:

Okay.

Chris Aceto:

I had some weights in my garage. My uncle was pretty big, actually pretty darn big. If he was, uncle Charlie, he would have done a cycle or the nationals.

John Hansen:

Right

Chris Aceto:

So I would go up to his garage and lift a little bit. And somebody said I’m going to a bodybuilding show. I didn’t really know what a bodybuilding show was, you know?

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

And I went and it was like in a, you know, a gymnasium. Of course, right, a gymnasium with a light over the…

John Hansen:

Wow. You go way back. Probably with the… AAU right?

Chris Aceto:

Yeah of course it was AAU shop. Little stage. You know and people had to do their little posing routines like. You know you thought people were just freaks! They were huge! You know?

John Hansen:

Yeah. And that’s when they had a little box where they had to stand on right? That little posing platform?

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. And no joke so I go and I went with this kid – I forget his last name – and we walked home, and it was a long walk home. I was just crazy! And he was like, some bodybuilding had written a diet and training program. And I was like GIVE IT TO ME! Because I was like, that’s what I need. I need a program.

John Hansen:

Right.

Chris Aceto:

I mean. People worry about cycles now. I just needed a diet and training program.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

He said he paid 20 bucks for it. A bodybuilder had written it out for him.

John Hansen:

Oh really? Wow.

Chris Aceto:

And so I went to his notebook and I copied down all the notes, you know? You would do chest traps and bi’s, shoulders, legs and you’d repeat the thing. And you know a protein shake. The whole 9 yards. So I was like 14 or 15 or something like that so – I get pretty tunnel vision with the things that I do.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

So the bodybuilder that had written it out for him – he was a very well-known bodybuilder. His name is Skip Robinson; He texted me today. He’s actually… he won an AAU Mr. World and a bunch of shows. So he looked the part, you know. A big-time bodybuilder. So I went down to the gym.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

So he took a liking to me, which was very odd. Extremely weird. There’s a gym filled with bodybuilders that could beat the hell out of you.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

So he said, “You want to train.” And I’m like, “What doya mean?” You know? He said, “You want to work out with me”. It’s like if Arnold said that. Right? You want to come to my house?

John Hansen:

Right yeah.

Chris Aceto:

So he said, “Meet me at the gym at 5:30” so I go to the gym at 5:30 like “You seen Skip? You seen Skip? You seen Skip?” “Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.” And I had to walk to this gym – it was like a mile and half from my house. I go down to the gym the next day “You seen Skip? You seen Skip? You seen Skip?” “No. No. No…”

Somehow I run into him and I said “I’ve been coming to the gym at 5:30 to train with you and you’re not there”. He said, “I’m there everyday…” I said, “No you’re not!” He said, “I’m there every day at 5:30 sharp” I said, “I’ve come down at 5 o’clock, 30 minutes before you to wait for you. He said, “In the morning, right?”

John Hansen:

*Laughs*

Chris Aceto:

I said, “Who comes to the gym at 5:30 in the morning?” And then… so without blinking a wink I’m like, “Oh 5:30…” He’s like, “Yeah. AM.” So I go home and tell my parents can you drive me to the gym, and they’re like, “Are you out of your mind. We’re not driving you to the gym.

John Hansen:

Right.

Chris Aceto:

So I figured okay what I’ll do is I’ll walk. I have to wake up at my house at like 4:15 in the morning…

John Hansen:

Wow *laughs*

Chris Aceto:

… looked up the little diet thing, the diet that he had written and given to someone I stole from and I walked to the gym and meet him at 5:30. And I was hooked.

John Hansen:

Wow. Man.

Chris Aceto:

You miss that world. You want to train, you know what I mean, at 5:30 with me? I’ll be there.

John Hansen:

Yeah. I remember that name, Skip Robinson. I remember that name.

Chris Aceto:

Very good bodybuilder.

John Hansen:

Yeah. So when did you start competing then, Chris.

Chris Aceto:

I competed like when I was 16 at like the mainstay bodybuilding show, I got like third in the teenage… and I won some other teenage show that year. I went to teenage shows and other local shows and I won and… I was just into it big time… at that age.

And one day – John, this is funny – crazy small world. So I go off to collage, just another weird story, because I know you like stories, is I go off… I had this in my collage dorm, I move in with this kid. You know, they bunk you up like 2 kids in this ridiculously small dorm at springfield collage. And I put his, I kid you not, Ikea type shelving up. And I had supplement, protein… it looks like a GNC store.

John Hansen:

*Laughs* Right.

Chris Aceto:

And it’s so funny now. So years later, like it had to be like 25 years later. I’m like… I’m walking across the street with my wife at Yale, and this guy almost hits me. You know, and then he beeps and says like, “Idiot!” and he keeps going. Then he slams on the brakes and I’m like “Oh God, here we are. We’re gonna fight.” He backs up the car. It was my roommate. I hadn’t seen him in… since 25 years.

John Hansen:

*Laughs* Oh really? That’s crazy!

Chris Aceto:

He told my wife, “Oh my God Chris was so into it with the supplements and the… he says it looked like we lived in a store.

John Hansen:

Right *Laughs* Wow. So what bodybuilders do you remember in that area from around that time. Because Massachusetts was always pretty good with bodybuilding.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah we were the original… you know, before there was like Windburger’s Gym where bodybuilders came out of. It was definitely our gym in Springfield. You know people don’t know the names, but there was like Art Prince, he won the Mr. America for his class when he was like 20. And keep in mind Mr. America was on par with the nationals.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

He was 20 when he won it. Twenty! Jeff King was there. Rich Roy was there. Rich Roy got second in the nationals but he won the Mr. America or Mr. World…

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

There was a guy by the name of Joe Gomes, I think he won his class in the… I mean there was just a lot of… Matt DuFresne was there. He won the Mr. America, Mr. Universe.

John Hansen:

Yeah I remember him.

Chris Aceto:

There was just a lot of good bodybuilders there. It was a good environment. And you know, it was a good time, hardcore gym. Really hardcore.

John Hansen:

Yeah. We had a conversation 10 years ago – I don’t know if you remember this – we were talking about hard training and stuff and were talking about how some of these bodybuilders today do so much cardio.

We were talking about the old school bodybuilders that didn’t do any cardio, but we trained really hard. You were talking about… I think you were working out with Jeff King, and he said the night before you worked out with him you would get so nervous because you guys had to do legs together.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah him or Matt DuFresne – I would do a lot of workouts with Matt DuFresne. And you know the workouts were intense. I mean, the same stuff people do now. You know, drop sets. Drop sets.. the drop sets we did were not for pump; they were for… like we’d do the hack squat drop set where by the last set, you’re done.

And a lot of people still… there are a lot of people that train that way today, but you’re going to throw up… or not. Or you’re going to try to stand your legs and they just don’t work.

John Hansen:

Right. Right. *Laughs*

Chris Aceto:

And we were reckless, you know. Reckless in the gym

John Hansen:

Right and everybody trained like that…

Chris Aceto:

Everybody trained like that. There was no… yeah.

John Hansen:

The whole gym would train that hard.

John Hansen:

What was King like to train with because he was like… he was really legendary. I remember living in Chicago and I remember he won Mr. America in 83. Like all the guys in the gym who were at that level who were regional level bodybuilders who were going to go to Mr. America all looked up to King like “Oh my God, how do you match this?” You know. He was such an incredible winner that year.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah he was such an incredible winner that year. His genetics were so great. He was so ahead of his time in terms of… Jeff was ahead of his time in that Jeff was unequivocally the first person who introduced me… or indirectly introduced me to the idea of not overdieting and not overtraining. I still overtrained and overdieted of course.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

Because that all stems from insecurity that I’m not, you know… I’m not going to be… I don’t have… I’m not going to be ready for a show or hey that might work for Jeff. I’ll borrow from that but I won’t do it like he did it. But… ironically, even though Jeff didn’t overtrain or overdiet he also incorporated cardio into his plan which nobody really did back in the day.

John Hansen:

Oh really? Wow.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. It wasn’t a lot but it was cardio you know.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Was he running? Or riding a bike or…?

Chris Aceto:

No. He’d do like 20 minutes… 30 minutes of stairmas… or lifecycle. You know, running on an empty stomach. And nobody did cardio at that time.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Hmm. No. No.

Chris Aceto:

You know, Jeff in 83 was the best bodybuilder, period. I don’t care what anybody says. If not, Noah would have been third. Then he had the car accident. He just never really was… got back to… in 85 he had flashes… he was good in Boston in 85, but he was nowhere near…

John Hansen:

Yeah that was the one Samir won, right?

Chris Aceto:

Yeah he just didn’t have the body. And he was very young. The oddness is… people like “hashtag me 28 years old I’m young.” Shit he was like 20-22 when he won Mr. America. 22!

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

Art Prince was 20 years old when he won the AAU Mr. America. That was a class of like 25 people. Still on that day, 83 and 84, Mr. America was still on par with the nationals.

John Hansen:

Oh yeah. For sure.

Chris Aceto:

Because a lot of people who would do both, did both. Not one or the other. So Art was there. Training and looking crazy at that age. So if someone like him came up at 20 years old, you know, people wouldn’t know what to do with him.

John Hansen:

And Matt DuFresne was a good teenager, right?

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. Matt was a good teenager. He was like 21-22 when he won the Mr. America, Mr. Universe. 21 maybe 22. I think he won the teenage Mr. America. He beat Flex Wheeler.

John Hansen:

Oh did he? Really?

Chris Aceto:

There you go. Little tidbits on the show. And then he came back…

John Hansen:

*Laughs* Was Victor Terra out there too?

Chris Aceto:

He came back. He said, “I beat this little Michael Jackson kid.

John Hansen:

*Laughs*

Chris Aceto:

… was peeled. And if you looked back on those pictures of when Flex was in the teenage Mr. America he was shredded like crazy, but he looked like a bone freak.

John Hansen:

Right. Right. I remember yeah.

Chris Aceto:

He had this jerry curl. But years later Matt came to visit me at Gold’s in Venice, and Matt had come – he wasn’t competing anymore – and he came into the gym into my office. He came in to say hello, chit chat, and talk and catch up. I was always a very likeable guy. Nice guy, smart guy. Also a very very – one of the smarter trainers I knew for sure. And in terms of knowing how to prep for a show. Clearly

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Jeff King and Bob Paris

Chris Aceto:

And a lot of that he stole from Jeff. A lot of stuff that Jeff – you know, we got from Bob Gruskins anyway. So it was one big circle.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

So Matt’s in my office, and we’re standing out by Gold’s and Wheeler pulls up. (Making car blasting music noises). He’s got a Honda Miata… there was some like a… Back in the day, there was a jeep, a Suzuki Samurai. You could buy it for like six grand. And they looked incredible, but if you got hit, you would be dead in a second. But they were so cool looking.

John Hansen:

*Laughs* Right. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

And Wheeler pulls up in Gold’s gym in the Venice parking lot. He’s got that cheap Suzuki Samurai – it looks like something, but they’re dirt cheap. But he’s got a stereo system in it that you can hear from Chicago. And he pulls up – and the first thing he does when he pulls up – he looks at us and goes, “Matt!”

And they just hit it off and they were talking, you know, about the teenage Mr. America or whatever. And at the time Flex hadn’t turned pro or anything yet. He’s still, you know, he’s still trying to… I think he might have one the Cal or something like that.

John Hansen:

Right. What was it like to train with Jeff King. What kind of weights was he using and what kind of workouts?

Chris Aceto:

I didn’t train with him a lot. Like, you know, he did basic exercises. Good form.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

He emphasized the negative a lot. *background noises* Do you hear my 4-year-old crying.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

Okay. He would emphasize the negative a lot, and, you know, perfect form. Do things like not quite lock out on a bench press to keep… You know, just those small things like that you pick up from him. But at that point like I get to Springfield in 85 and he was struggling to train like the old Jeff. And he blew it because of the neck injury.

John Hansen:

Oh yeah yeah. I saw pictures of him doing squats and the old vertical leg press you know that’s straight up and down.

Chris Aceto:

The basic stuff.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

If he didn’t have injuries, he would have had a mind-blowing career.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

And what’s frustrating I think for him is, you know I think he knew that. And I mean… I never talked about it in depth with him, but I don’t think it sat well with him that, here he is 22 completely and unequivocally a superstar on Earth. And people don’t know – people that have not been around the sport – don’t know the star power that Jeff had.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

And he was guest posing 50 weeks out of the year.

John Hansen:

Wow crazy!

Chris Aceto:

He was guest posing… And the irony, John, is that he was guest posing at AAU shows and NPC shows and everybody wanted to see him. Everybody wanted to see him.

John Hansen:

Everyone wanted to see him, yeah.

Chris Aceto:

He was ridiculously good looking. And very personable. Very personable. Very very very smart. He came out years later to Gold’s – out of the blue. There was someone… I had an office there in Gold’s in Venice. It was complaints free from Ed Connors.

John Hansen:

Wow!

Chris Aceto:

And my office was next to Ed’s. I had a better view actually than Ed’s. I had a view of the parking lot so I could actually see people coming and going. Someone would say, “Hey Chris. Someone is here to see you.” I’d get a lot of people like that. “Someone’s here to see you.” “Who?” They’d go, “Jeff King.” “Really!?”

You know, we would go back and hang out for about an hour and, I think he had just got married or remarried. Remarkably young. Getting ready… His was getting his degree in… I think he had just graduated with a degree in physical therapy. I think he had just gotten… he became a chiropractor at the time. And it was just weird that he had… he was one of these people like Bob Paris. You ever have Bob Paris on your show?

John Hansen:

No.

Chris Aceto:

Well he was like Bob Paris who is someone who is when they are out, they’re out. You know what I mean? That was just one segment of their life. Whenever someone would say to Jeff, “You know so and so in the Olympia this year?” He would just be like, “Yeah I heard that.” “Did you know so and so who got second?” He’d be like, “Who?”

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

…”Who. Who? Sorry I just don’t follow it”

John Hansen:

Yeah. It’s funny you mentioned Bob Paris, because Bob just won the Nationals the same year, and I think Jeff was a lot more popular. And Bob Paris was super popular, you know?

Chris Aceto:

Oh yeah. Yeah. You know, Bob Paris was… I mean… Bob Paris was another guy too far ahead of his time. Yeah. It was weird. People didn’t appreciate the posing. They didn’t really appreciate the lines. They didn’t really know what they were looking at.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

Bob – you listen to interviews with Bob – he always had a, you know, focus of where he wanted to go with the sport, which was a classic  look. People laugh at it at the time. Like “what does he just not want to get big?” Well no. He just wanted to maintain what he thought was the integrity… his lines, because he knew that’s what made him special.

I mean a ridiculous good poser, right?

John Hansen:

Right. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

Unbelievable symmetry. I tell this story a lot – I tell this on the radio show with Dave. So I worked with Bob Paris in 92’. He had this thing where his body shut down and he couldn’t get in shape or whatever. So I helped him. I actually went up to Montreal with him, where he qualified for the Olympia. Those years… those times the top 3 for the pro show could qualify for the Olympia.

John Hansen:

Oh okay.

Chris Aceto:

And Robby Robinson was first. Ron Love was second. No disrespect, but Bob Paris was in third. Bob was in an unbelievable good condition. It was hard for him to get an unbelievable condition, but he was in an unbelievable condition. And when he was in an unbelievable condition, his lines where so wacky in real life.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

I mean just so ridiculously square shoulders, triceps, full pecks. You know, square down to the right looking torso with the right looking legs. You know what I mean?

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

His legs looked huge, even though they weren’t that big. But they were huge.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Great shape.

Chris Aceto:

It was a tremendous fun show to be there with him. And at the time, I’m young. He’s young too. You know what I mean?

John Hansen:

Mhmm.

Chris Aceto:

Looking back. I think it was an amazing experience to be with him for that show. He qualified for the Olympia, he got 11^th. And he kinda just… I don’t remember what happened to him after that. I don’t think he did any more shows after that Olympia, you know. But they were both products of 1983.

John Hansen:

Yeah I know. It’s funny what you say about 1983…

Chris Aceto

… Before I forget my train of thought. I’ll try not to interrupt you, but I want to finish my story. So I get pretty close to Bob. You know, no cells phones at that time. I’m just up there on the telephone. So Bob… I say, “I’m helping this kid, this kid, this kid, this kid…” Cormier.

John Hansen:

*Laughs* Okay.

Chris Aceto:

… I say great body, great body, great body, great body, this kid, this kid. I never say black, white, nothing. So I just explained his physique. So one day, same office in Venice Bob’s getting ready to leave –  I remember it like yesterday – Bob says, “Here’s Cormier now coming across the parking lot.”

And I like, “How do you know that?” Because nobody knows Cormier. He says, “He looks exactly the way you described him.” The physique, you know what I mean.

John Hansen:

*Laughing* Yeah  yeah.

Chris Aceto:

I never said he’s got big black shoulders… I just think the idea that of all the people on Earth that he could pick him out. He says “He’s exactly the way you described him.”

John Hansen:

Shows you that’s…

Chris Aceto:

I thought that was the most crazy thing I introduce him to Bob and we laughed and laughed. And I said, “You’re not going to believe this, but I just described you to a T, like this guy’s going to go pro, he’s going to be great. And sure enough, here you are walking across the parking lot, and Bob goes there he is now!”

John Hansen:

Shows you the eye for symmetry and stuff.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah.

John Hansen:

It’s good what you said about integrity too, because all the interviews I’ve ever heard about Bob he always said, “I’m not going to conform to what they want me to do. I have the idea of what the perfect body is in my mind, and I’m always going to stay with that.” And he did. He stuck with that throughout his whole career.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah he did. And it’s laughable in terms of what he used and what he did not use. In terms of anabolics. Because he could have easily… people don’t realize that Bob Paris is a big guy – tall guy, white guy, big guy – responds easily to lifting weights. He was a phenomenal bodybuilder.

John Hansen:

Right! And how many guys do we see today, they don’t even have half the publicity that Bob had, half the acclaim. Because when he turned pro everyone was like, “ This is the new Steve Reeves.” So the pressure had to be on him to be bigger, to be Mr. Olympia. But he said no. He had the integrity to say no. I mean guys today, who are just armatures, who don’t have any acclaim, no one’s pushing them  and they just push it to the limit with all the stuff they’re doing and they ruin their physiques.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah I mean you can’t say enough good things about Bob Paris. You know he was out of the closet when out of the closet was a death note to your career. He was just like, “Yeah I’m gay. I’m going on the tour. And I’m bring my boyfriend.” And people were like, “whatever!”

It was amazing that he was comfortable in that skin and comfortable in the bodybuilding skin against mass monsters. And he would knock them off from time to time. He would place very good in shows.

Bob Gruskin

John Hansen:

Yeah yeah. Let’s talk about Bob Gruskins too while we’re at it. Because when I read your books… when I was younger it seemed like you really had a common sense approach to nutrition. You broke it down, you need carbohydrates, you need protein…

Chris Aceto:

Could we put a plug on those books real quick?

John Hansen:

*Laughing* Sure!

Chris Aceto:

Just look up my name 400 dollars each.

John Hansen:

Your articles – I think you were writing for Muscular Development at the time. I’m not sure.

Chris Aceto:

I started with Joe Weider. Then Bleckmen whisked me away with MD. Then he dropped me for a better contract. Then Joe picked me right up the next day.

John Hansen:

Oh okay. I used to read those articles when I was young, because I was trying to figure out nutrition for myself. I was a natural bodybuilder competing at the Natural Universe at the time, and the challenge I had was how do I keep my muscle as I’m dieting.

So I have to diet slow, and I have to make sure I’m getting the right macronutrients, not do too much cardio because I know you were a believer in…  don’t do too much cardio because everybody says to do it.

I remember you used to always say, “If you do a lot of cardio in the off season, what are you going to do when the contest comes.” So if you could get away with not doing cardio in the off season, then maybe you could just do three days a week when you’re getting ready for a show.

I see people doing so much cardio all the time. Everyday in the off season. So it seems like a lot of people would do stuff, just because other people do it. But you had so much more of a common sense thing. Did you learn to do a lot of that from Ruskin.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah I learned it by mistakes and thinking about it, and I learned a tremendous amount of information from Bob Gruskin. Who was like the king of being counter-intuitive. He taught me so many things. One of the things he taught when he probably didn’t know he was teaching me anything was to think outside the box. And to think, you know, what’s the opposite.

What’s the opposite in terms of… Bob would do stuff like your holding water – you drink a lot of water – you think you drink less. If you’re holding fat he would have you eat more. Very counter-intuitive. Bob Gruskin is like the original contest prep superstar. And I to this day… I have so much respect for you. So when someone says, “Look at that guy; he does contest prep.” He’s never tried a day in his laugh. I think of Bob Gruskin.

Isaac Newton didn’t have to go into space. He didn’t have to shoot himself into outer space to understand outer space and quantum physics. And some people their kids take piano lessons. They’re learning to play piano. Some people just know how to play piano – that’s a fact. And when it came to contest prep, Bob Gruskin knew how to do contest prep. Why? Who knows.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

It’s funny. People always ask me about training. To me – someone just asked me the other day who I’m doing contest prep for – I said, “Listen, those concerns you had the other day when we spent a lot of time in Tampa. Sergio the training don’t even matter to me.”

I said, “Because you train different from Rhoden. And this Arnold Creyden trains different from that Jose, and Jose is training different from Garcacino. Guy’s training different from Cederic, Cederic’s training different from Ramy. Ramy trains different from Jay. Jay Cutler is training different from Reagan… Grimes. Reagan Grimes is training different from Henry Pierre, which is from Tampa.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

So the way you prep overrides who you train, I think. You know what I mean. Otherwise, I put some input on training. I don’t…. the only input I put on training is… Reagon called me to today. He said, “I don’t feel good.” I said, “Don’t do anything.” And he said, “Alright.”

John Hansen:

Right. Right.

Chris Aceto:

The interesting thing about Bob Gruskin is that he would take people to the gym too. He would kill people in the gym with zaney workouts that were effective and some of those workouts were remarkably short. They were usually remarkably short, but scary intense.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

And you know what Bob looks like right. Just by instruction, he would touch the weights. A lot of what he did he would be emphasis. He did a lot of emphasis on the negative. He loves negatives.

John Hansen:

Okay.

Chris Acteo:

And he loved isolating the muscle and doing the negatives. So if you could do bicep curls – I see Charles Glass doing the little drag curls. Forty years ago, Bob was doing alternative dumbbell curls, where you’re on the bench, he holds your just. That’s about the extent of him participating.

He would put his camera on your just and put your chest back so you’re isolating – you can’t move forward to put your shoulders in play. So for the first time in your life, you’re doing curls and feeling your bicep from beginning to end. Your arms would be smoked.

John Hansen:

*Laughing* Yeah. I lived in Chicago when I was a teenager, and I remember Bob’s… all the guys that Bob trained, we would be like “oh shit Gruskin training that guy!”

Chris Aceto:

Oh yeah. He train them to death.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Some guy would come from the east coast and come to the Midwest to compete in a show, and I would be like, “oh damn…”

Chris Aceto:

Okay John, there was no email. Bob was one of the first with a phone machine. And I would be at his house and come home – seriously – I would go to his house; I spent so much time at his house. And we would come him, he would go to the machine, and it would go, “Beep. He you’ve called Bob Gruskin. Nobody’s here to answer the phone so please leave a message.” The first message would be like, “This is John Hansen from Chicago and I’m getting ready and I really need your help… *tap*He would delete it.

John Hansen:

*Laughing*

Chris Aceto:

This is Chuck Santo from Chicago and I need… *beep*

John Hansen:

*Continuous laughter*

Chris Aceto:

Seriously though, on a weekend he would get 70 phone calls. Just people from all over the county. *Beep* “I’m getting ready for this show”… or it would be people he’s helping like, “Bob I pleaded and I need you to help me with my diet…” It would be nonstop.

Jay Cutler

John Hansen:

Right. Chris, when did you meet Jay Cutler. Because a lot of people may know… they know you’re friends with Jay, but you met Jay when he was a teenager and you saw that he had the potential, right?

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. Yeah. I have great Jay stories. I met Jay in 1991, I think. So he was 17 – 18. And Luziwick gave him my telephone number. Luziwick had this T.V. show right – American Muscle. Which Ron Harris was his waterboy at the time. That was like 100 hours a day and make like 10 bucks. And Luziwick could make like 10 million in a week. So he had given me the number. I would get a lot of calls.

I would get a call from this kid Jay Cutler… “Could you help me?” “I’m 18 and I’m getting ready to turn 18…” I was struck, to some degree by his level of maturity. “Except some people think I have potential, but, of course…. “ This is how he talks at 18. “You and I know – you are older than me – that potential doesn’t mean much unless you can fulfill it. So the reason I’m calling you is a lot of people in this area are telling me to get with Chris. You seem to be somebody who would be able to guide me. I would appreciate it if you could help me.” I said, “I’m just too busy. So why don’t you call me in two weeks.”

So two weeks go by and like, “I’m still too busy. Call me in a week.” A week goes by, he calls me. I realize right then: wow this is weird. He was very punctual, organized person. 18. Two weeks then one week. So I said, “Well [namedrop]… I’m getting ready to meet with Uther Vandeross at a concert. It’s in Worcester; it’s right near you.” I said, “Why don’t I came down and I meet you?”

So I go down and I meet him. And we ate a place – he’ll remember, we’ll remember always – Arthur’s Bagels. And wrote up the side of him. I had him do some poses for me. I train with him. We did legs. I showed him some things. He was wide. He looked like a farm boy.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

And I gave him that diet, and I said, “Maybe let’s meet up again in six months.” I don’t know. He’ll remember, because he’s got the greatest memory in… Trump says he’s got the greatest memory of all time, even though he said that he didn’t know about the meeting in Trump Tower. Now he does. He recalls it now.

Jay has the best memory of all time. Of all time. I was just thinking in Tampa that the code to get into parking for the hotel was 5434 and I wrote it down. Every single time I had to look at the card. 5434. 5434. Jay would remember that like 20 years later. “Oh yeah. I know the code to that Resident’s Inn.

So Jay – I think it’s like 3 months later – I went to see him again. And I was like, “Uh oh.” I knew right then… I said, “This guy’s gonna be something.” Then I saw him a month later, a month later… you know, I started… would see him regularly…

John Hansen:

How could you tell? Just the structure, the muscle structure?

Chris Aceto:

It was how his body responded. The way he responded. He was like “pewwww!” So he came to stay with me a week before Teen Nationals. Brett Shwarm beat him.

John Hansen:

Yeah. I remember that. I seen the video there.

Chris Aceto:

And I was going to go down there. I said, “You know what, Jay. You’re going to go down and you’re going to win your class. You’re not going to win the overall. You’re going to be beat by some kid who’s been training longer than you – who’s got more muscle density than you – but you look good. But, at this time, you’re not there yet.” And that’s exactly how it happened – he won his class and lost in the overall.

I saw – maybe like a year later – Luziwick. Luziwick don’t know me really.  I mean, he does, but he doesn’t. And Lou – I was in New York. I was guest posing someone – I saw Lou who recommended Jay. I said, “Lou this is going to be one of the best bodybuilders of all time. And the smartest bodybuilders of all time. I would sign him to a contract of 100K a year starting right now. And you won’t regret it.” I told him just like this. “You’re not going to regret it. And you’ll remember exactly this spot where we’re standing when I told you.”

That’s how confident I was that Jay was going to be a superstar. And he hadn’t won nothing yet. He just got smoked in the teenage Nationals. You know how people go, you got a good rebound. He had a rebound like… real rebound. Like 20 pounds. He would go up 20 and it was all muscle.

John Hansen:

Right.

Chris Aceto:

So that’s how far I go back with Jay. He lived in Worcester. And Jay typically, when prepping for an amateur show, would come up to Maine. 3 days a week he’d make the drive. 3 hours up 3 hours back.

John Hansen:

Wow.

Chris Aceto:

Usually he’d come to my house at 7:30. He’d come to my house at 7:30. He’d do some poses for me. He’d go back to his car, which means he left his house at 4:30, go back to Worcester. And I see him in contest prep, he’d do it probably, for sure, twice a week. He’d come up, pose for me for… and he’d only stay at my house for 15 minutes. Never ever would stay…

John Hansen:

Yeah. Unbelievable.

Chris Aceto:

That’s because he felt like he was inconveniencing me. So that relationship goes back to the beginning.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah. The very beginning.

Chris Aceto:

And I told Sergio this weekend – and Jay would tell you the same stories – is Jay went on to do different Olympias. Jay started out looking insane. I think 99’ Olympia might have been his first, [he placed] second to last. That show I thought it was going to be top 3. I told him it would be top 3. I told Roma in 2012 he’d be top 3. I was wrong on that, wrong on Jay.

John Hansen:

Yeah, but Jay didn’t deserve that low of placing. That was ridiculous.

Chris Aceto:

Me and Jay were out in Los Angeles. Like at least two full weeks before the show. Everywhere we went, every person in the show was stunned to see what he looked like.

John Hansen:

Yeah. I remember when Matarazzo did that battle for the Olympia in 99. He looked incredible in that. Remember? When he was training with his wife.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. So he looked incredible on stage. I just posted once on Instagram and got an insane amount of hits. It came from 99. People like, “Wow! This was your best.” He got second to last.

John Hansen:

*Laughing* Right.

Chris Aceto:

So the next year he goes back. He was holding water. The prejudging was a very difficult prejudging to go through, because he got eighth – he moved up seven slots – so I went with him on the tour. I told him on the tour, “I think you’ll beat Colemen at one of these shows.” That’s a ridiculous thing to say, right?

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

People would just laugh at me. So I don’t know if you remember, but in those days they would call people by name. They call them out the exact way that the head judge would think they would place in the show. So they would say, “John Hansen in the center.” That means you’re first.

John Hansen:

Right.

Chris Aceto:

“Chris Aceto the side, and John Smith on the other.” That means he’s lined it up for John Hansen to win the show. He’s the head judge. He’s telling the other judges, “This is the way I see it. You can vote the way you want, but this is the way I see it.

So we get to Italy, and Jay looked like ridiculous. And like I said, I was just telling Sergio this story, and I had a throwaway camera. You know those disposable cameras. So I had told Jay backstage that he’ll beat Colemen at the show. So they start the show, everyone comes out. The crowd goes absolutely berserk on Colemen, but when Jay came out, they went wacky. He worked so hard for that show. It was ridiculous.

John Hansen:

Right.

Chris Aceto:

So I’m in like whatever, fifth, eighth, twentieth row, and I start moving up because I think Jay’s going to be first. So they had lined up Jay in the center, Colemen on one side and, I think, Dennis James on the other. So I felt like Jay would win. I couldn’t keep my hand steady to take the picture, because I was so excited for Jay to win. Colemen wins that show. And Jay says to me after that show, “I got this guy.”

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

He says, “I got him”. I said, “Why?” He says, “Because I felt his fear. I felt it when they lined us up. He took me as a threat.”

John Hansen:

Wow.

Chris Aceto:

So Jay took the entire year off and did nothing but get ready for that…

John Hansen:

… 2001.

Chris Aceto:

… 2001 Olympia, yeah. And that was a show where Jay came out to do his mandatory, and it just lit up the place.

John Hansen:

Right.

Chris Aceto:

He knew that he was going to win that show, which he did by a wide margin during the prejudging.

John Hansen:

Yeah. The first time that I remember Jay – I didn’t remember him from the Teen Nationals – he won a  show in California. He won a show, I think it was before the Nationals. I saw a picture in Ironman, they were holding his arms up. And I was like, “Who the hell is this!?” His legs were incredible. You could tell he was a Mr. Olympia competitor right there.

Chris Aceto:

We were in Atlanta after that show. After that show right there, and Tony Freeman just won the Nationals. I think Tony had just won the Nationals. He looked crazy in those days. He looked like a B version of Wheeler. And Tony came into the gym when Jay and I were training – I used to train at that time – and Jay just looked ridiculous, you know. I remember Tony Freeman coming up to us quote, “Who the hell are you?” And he just won the show.

John Hansen:

*Laughing* Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

Said, “My name is Jay Cutler. Nice to meet you.” And Tony’s mind was just blown.

Los Angeles Pro Muscle Camp

John Hansen:

Yeah. Talk about Gold’s gym. When did you go out to Gold’s gym, Chris? When did you move out from Massachusetts to California.

Chris Aceto:

So David Zelon was a big time Hollywood producer.

John Hansen:

Yeah, I remember.

Chris Aceto:

… He used to do a bodybuilding camp out there in the summer.

John Hansen:

Yeah. I want to talk to you about that.

Chris Aceto:

His idea was, “What if I take all the champs out of today, and have a camp where…” He was thinking kids, you know, teenagers could come out and train with him for the summer. So he devised up this dream camp, where he was going to have Haney, Gaspari, and Berry De Mey, and Bob Paris, and Mike Quinn.

So I see this little ad in Muscular Development before Bleckmen owned it. And they said they had this camp, and they are looking for people to work there. They were only looking for like 10 people.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Wow.

Chris Aceto:

So they get like 500 applications. I sent in an applications. Put a stamp on it, you know. Just like a little envelope. Put a stamp on it, return address, I’m like 18 years old… 19… I put a resume in. It’s an impressive resume. I put my whole, you know, I knew how to write a resume, even at that age. And I leave a phone number.

No cell phones, it was a landline. And I mail it out, and I get a call from David Zelon. “ I want to hire you, but nobody wants to hire you. They think you’re too young.”

John Hansen:

Yeah. Right.

Chris Aceto:

And he said, “But I’m going to hire you, because it’s my camp.” Even though he has partners. He said, “Everyone out here is going to be mature and old.” And everyone that was going to be helping – not the superstars, but the helpers like the camp counselors – they’re going to have like their Ph.D.’s and everything in exercise physiology… you know, their masters in this…

Plus everyone has their Chicago show. They have great credentials. They have a degree in Physical Therapy and they won the Michigan State show.

And then there’s me. So he says, “I’m going to bring you out. I’m going to buy you a one-way ticket, because I’m going to… if you don’t last, I’m going to buy you another ticket, send you home. So if you screw up, I’m going to kick you out of here.

John Hansen:

Wow. Okay.

Chris Aceto:

So I said, “Yes sir! Yes sir! Yes sir!” Sure enough, before I knew it – it’s the olden days – he’s FedEx’ing me – I didn’t know what a FedEx is – a ticket to California.

John Hansen:

Wow *Laughing*

Chris Aceto:

And I’m out in California, and working at this bodybuilding camp. And I’m going from…. the next day and Lee Haney’s here. I’m hobnobbing with Lee Haney, Lee Labrada, you know, the whole nine yards.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

It’s weird, because I never wanted to be appear, and I never was, a groupie. I was there to… I remember his advice, “You screw up, and I’m sending you back.” So I was out there to work for him. So I never really breached that. I had that professional line between… Chris Aceto, the worker and Lee Labrada, the superstar, or Lee or… Samir Bannout, that was the first time I met Samir the superstar. 

But I worked out there 80… I worked there 3 years. I think going into my sophomore… Senior year of graduating college. So that’s what got me oiut to California. And it got me in that environment – that weird environment where everyone is. You know, not everyone could just go up to California.

I didn’t have any worries up there. I just lived at this college, and we did bodybuilding. Train in the morning, run the camp all day, relax at night. It was an unbelievable time. Anyone who’s ever attended that camp could tell you that was a tremendous, nostalgic time.

John Hansen:

Yeah. So how do they run those camps, Chris? I mean, did they have… because I’ve seen videos… they have videos of Platz and stuff training and all the people in the back were…

Chris Aceto:

I trained with Platz. Couldn’t bury me on legs. I trained with him at that camp. Gaspari buried me. Luis Freitas buried me. Samir did bury me. So I would train with the people. I’d be like, “Wanna train?” They’d say, “Yeah, Chris will train with you.” Because the way they would be doing it was like 100 hundred people plus the stars. It was crazy.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

They’d have like a nutrition workshop in the morning. I think there was a break for a snack. Then the first training session. They’d break for lunch, an hour to relax.

Come in the afternoon and like a training session – I can remember now – like Haney would say, “Hey, I’m going to train back by myself. You guys can watch.” Or he’d pick someone. So sometimes people would pick me. They would train back, and they’d pick a camp counselor. Or if he wanted to train alone, then he would train alone.

Then at nighttime, we would go to dinner. They would have like a meat… you could sit down with Lee Haney and pick his brain on just personal crap.

John Hansen:

That’s awesome.

Chris Aceto:

It was a blast. Then you would wake up and do it over again. And people would come in for six days. And then they would all leave. They’d fly back all of the world, somewhere. And we would have like 3 hours off to get ready for the next group! It was grueling.

John Hansen:

Wow! Really?

Chris Aceto:

People would burn out. But I wouldn’t because I loved it. I was like, “Can’t wait! Chris Berry is next week!” You know?

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

… “Berry Base next week. Brian Bucannon next week. I mean it had everybody.

John Hansen:

So would it be one bodybuilder for the whole week?

Chris Aceto:

One bodybuilder for the whole week.

John Hansen:

Okay.

Chris Aceto:

And just to show you how crazy popular female bodybuilders were was the number one bodybuilder there was Corey Averson. Not Lee Haney.

John Hansen:

Right. Right. So this is the mid-eighties? Late eighties?

Chris Aceto:

It was late eighties. Rachel McLish was there. And then, because the environment was so cool, we had this crazy gym that we would have to build by hand. We had a basketball gym, and turn it into a killer, killer gym. And we’d have to do all that, the counselors. Work like slave labor.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

What was the question you asked before that?

John Hansen:

Just what the schedule was like.

Chris Aceto:

So who’s who was there. And the people who lived in the Venice area, who weren’t necessarily… they were invited, but maybe they couldn’t get there contact… Strydom was there too. So Strydom would have his week, but then Strydom would find out that the food was unbelievable.

John Hansen:

Oh yeah? Really?

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. So Striden would come up… at dinner, everyone would come up anyways. So it would be like 100 bodybuilders. Let’s say it’s Lee Haney’s week. Everyone living in Venice, Mike Christian, Victor Richards, everyone would come up and eat. They go up there to the collage university. They got like chicken, and this, and that. So it was just filled with the who’s who of bodybuilding.

John Hansen:

I’ve the videos of Platt’s training. That was pretty wild.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. Like bright T-shirt, pink.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he’s screaming at the guy, “harder, harder!” Like pushing down on the leg curls.

Chris Aceto:

Like they’re pushing the leg accessory machine, and the machines going all the way across the…

John Hansen:

*Laughing* Right yeah. The whole thing was bouncing yeah. What was it like doing legs with Gaspari?

Chris Aceto:

I did shoulders with Gaspari. People today could not keep up with Gaspari. I hope Gaspari listens to this. People today could not keep up with Gaspari. People today could not.

John Hansen:

Right.

Chris Aceto:

Because he’d do, let’s say chest in morning – I’m talking… he would do 30-40 sets. Then he’d go and came back at night and do back!

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

He would do two big body parts a day. I mean they would be all out. They would be drop sets and drop sets. Anything you could do to create havoc with the muscle, he would do it.

John Hansen:

*Laughing* Right. Right.

Chris Aceto:

And he was nutes. Gaspari was nuts. And he was young.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

But he was… A lot of people train hard over the years. He is one of the hardest of all time.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

I did legs with… what did I do? I did legs with Freitas? I did legs or back…  I think legs with Luis Freitas, who had huge legs at the time.

John Hansen:

Yeah. He had huge legs.

Chris Aceto:

… Brazilian guy. Super just… nice guy.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

I don’t know. Like, Samir. Samir took a liking to me. And so did Luis took a very strong liking to me. And I was a kid.

John Hansen:

Uh huh. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

And I did this leg workout with Luis. And he was pushing…. I thought it was… and I would push back. And he’d push, I’d push back. And I was done with the workout. I remember going somewhere  and just lying on grass for like an hour and a half. I thought I was going to die.

I thought I was dehydrated. No one was around. I finally got up and I made it dinner somehow, and he was there. His girlfriend told me that was the hardest workout of Luis’ life.

John Hansen:

Really? Wow

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. Or something like that.  And I thought that was just him. But he was pushing because I was pushing. It’s just like one big… one big battle of the egos. We didn’t say one word to each other.

John Hansen:

Yeah. And you got to do it in front of… you have a whole crowd watching you to. That’s got to be wild.

Chris Aceto:

So it was just a blast. And sometimes we’d go down at night out to Gold’s at midnight. And it’d be packed in there. Someone would give us a ride to Gold’s. We’d hang out there.

John Hansen:

Oh really?

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. And we’d have to get up next day at 5.

John Hansen:

So what was that like… the late eighties?

Chris Aceto:

The late eighties. They eventually sold it to Weider. Weider had it for a few years. And Joe asked me to come work for him there. But I got into a…  the last day that I worked there, I got into a big fight with one of the directors.

Not David Zelon. It was just ugly. And I was very offended because every week people would pay good money. And review like John Hansen, Chris Aceto – people running the program. And I would always come up with the highest ratings.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

People just liked me. Nobody can outwork me when it’s something I like.

John Hansen:

Yeah. It’s your passion, yeah.

Chris Aceto:

And so people would be like, “Lee Haney, Lee Haney, but also Chris Aceto!” You know what I mean.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

They were like, “Oh I didn’t expect to have such a good time. And so much commitment from Chris…” So here it was, like the last day, and I had skipped out on something, because I had to. I had a good excuse. There was someone breaking down the gym and one of the directors, one of the owners… he’s very well known today and I won’t even mention his name. If I give a hint people will know who it is.

And he cornered me, and I thought it was like one of these “Punked out” shows. He’s was like, “Aceto! Aceto! You effin this, and you effin that! Aceto! Aceto” And I’m like… I remember just taking it all in, and blasting back!

John Hansen:

Wow.

Chris Aceto:

So when Weider bought it, Joe asked me to come back, almost begged. And I said no because of this John Hansen guy. You know, can’t say the other guy’s name, because of him. And people are allowed to have bad days, but not that bad day. Because I wasn’t getting paid… and I didn’t want… well at all. I could handle not getting paid well at all. I just expected some respect back. Because I didn’t make money on the camp. The director did.

All I wanted to do was to fulfill my obligation to David Zelon, who said, “If you screw up, I’m sending you back to Massachusetts.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

So when Joe took it over, I said, “No. I’m not going to do it.” And of course Joe said, “Of course. Don’t” Found out the reason why and said, “No big deal.”

Training With Mike Francois

John Hansen:

Right. Speaking of hard trainers, I know you worked with Mike Francois for awhile.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. That’s right.

John Hansen:

… and you always said he was one of the hardest trainers you ever saw.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. Mike was just… the reason I put Mike in there as one of the hardest trainers ever, was because he was ridiculously strong, which is one thing. A lot of people are very strong.

John Hansen:

He trained at Louie Simmons gym, right?

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. Right. Louie’s.  But he would get the workout with that strength all the way through with thirty, forty reps.

John Hansen:

Wow. Crazy.

Chris Aceto:

It’s one thing to do fast-paced with like medium and lightweight, getting your heart rate up. But it’s another thing to be able to move those types of weights. And just like Jeff – Jeff got injured and that torpedoed Jeff’s career. Mike had colitis, and that torpedoed his.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Right.

Chris Aceto:

Mike was a wrecking ball. In fact, the irony is that I helped Cormier for the first show… for his first big national show. And then I moved to Maine. So that means, owing to that I didn’t work with Cormier next year. I worked with Mike. And it came down to those two. He actually beat Mike at the USC, which I don’t think he should have actually.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

And then Mike ended up going to a few months later to the Nationals and beat Dennis Newman there. To put his pro card.

John Hansen:

Oh. Okay.

Chris Aceto:

And then Mike went into Lightfield Health and win his first of four pro shows. One of his first four pro shows. It was like the city classic.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah. I met up with you guys  in Chicago that year. I don’t know if you remember.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. Yeah.

John Hansen:

You were with Mike and… I was posing for you in his room, and I remember he was lying on his bed watching. That was pretty weird.

Chris Aceto:

I spent a tremendous amount of time with Jay, and a tremendous amount of time with Mike. And when you go out with this guys, every show we’d head out a week before the show.

John Hansen:

Yeah. He had a thick physique. You could see his legs, his back, his spinal erectors… You could tell this guy was a super heavy squatter.

Chris Aceto:

It’s crazy. 

Gold’s Gym

John Hansen:

So how long we you at Gold’s then, Chris?

Chris Aceto:

I was there until like, I can’t remember… 90, 92 maybe 91. I wasn’t there too, too long. I ended up coming back to Maine to do a bodybuilding seminar. And I didn’t know nothing about nothing in terms of real estate, but I came back to Maine.

A promoter put me up at a mini-condominium on the beach. And this condominium on the beach cost like nothing. 100 grand. Maybe 160 grand, which is a lot for 91. This condo on the beach in the Venice, Santa Monica area would be like 1.5 million.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

And so I knew I was paying rent in California so I thought, “Do I go back to California?” The irony is, I was doing diets. No one was doing diets. It was unheard of to be doing diets. That’s what I was doing in California. I was doing diets. Chris Aceto doing diets. I was making really good money, and I am about to give all that up to go back to Maine.

But I love that condo so much that I would do it. But I really didn’t have an income source. Because I can’t be at Gold’s Gym in Venice with a free office that Ed Connors gave me in Venice California. That’s like, unheard of.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Right.

Chris Aceto:

I can’t make a dime doing that in Maine. So low and behold, Steve Bleckmen called me up and said, “Do you want to write for the magazine?” Because I had been writing for Weider. I’ve been thinking I should move back to Maine into this Condo, but what am I going to do for money.

John Hansen:

Yeah. No income. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

So he offered me a generous contract, and that was it. The way the stars line up.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Did you see the 88 Olympia, the one that was in L.A.?

Chris Aceto:

I wasn’t there.

John Hansen:

Oh really?

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. I didn’t go to it. I was there, but I didn’t go to it. I don’t know why I didn’t go to it. Oh because, what was it in, September?

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

I had to go back and leave. I saw everyone train… I saw everyone training for it in the gym that I worked at that I built. But I had to go back to collage so I missed the Olympia.

John Hansen:

Oh wow.

Chris Aceto:

What I could tell you is that six weeks out, Gary Strydom looked like he was untouchable. And six weeks out, Mike Quinn looked like a fat slob.

John Hansen:

Wow! Really?

Chris Aceto:

I mean slob. And at the end of the bodybuilding camp, we would have a mock contest. People who had never been on a stage before, we had a stage. And they could do posing routines and stuff. And people would just… it was incredible.

So Gary came up and looked like Hercules. And if they ever remember, Mike Quinn – if they can ever remember, who knows – Mike came up to guest pose, and he was just a fat slob. Maybe it was 7 weeks out. Not more than 7. Sloppy slob.

John Hansen:

*Laughing*

Chris Aceto:

And he was posing like he was King Kong. And he was doing a guest pose… he was doing a posedown with Strydom like he was blowing them off the stage. And you know what, I think he beat Strydom that year.

John Hansen:

No. Strydom beat him, but it was close.

Chris Aceto:

Oh did he? Okay. Strydom was way over dieted for that show.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Because I think Strydom lost to Phil Williams at the Chicago Pro show and  he panicked, yeah.

Chris Aceto:

He panicked. And you know what. In those days, I wasn’t vocal enough. But I knew what I knew. What I know now, I knew then.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

I had a tremendous eye at 20, 21, 22 for those things. And Gary came, and he was 274lbs. And I remember him getting  on the scale. I looked at him – not only was I young, but I had a very very very young face. I probably looked  like I was twelve. But I wanted to say things to him… and I alluded to it, but I just wasn’t me yet.

John Hansen:

Yeah.Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

I wasn’t as forceful as I am now. I told him, 269… I remember this day. He was wearing a white tank top cut-off with spandex. I said, “With 269, you’re there.” He’s like, “You think so?” And I said, “I don’t see why you’re going down from there.” He went down to like 233 for that show.

John Hansen:

I know. I know.

Chris Aceto:

40, 53, 63… 73. Drop 40 right there. “5lbs, you’ll be okay.”

John Hansen:

Yeah. I saw the Chicago Pro show and I don’t’ remember what he weighed there, but he had to be at least 20lbs heavier than the Olympia.

Chris Aceto:

Oh yeah. He was massive.

John Hansen:

That was the first time that I had ever seen him. And I remember when he came out and he did those front crunching most musculars, it almost blew me back in my sit. I was like, “holy shit!”

Chris Aceto:

You know, I’ll tell you how it happen – and I don’t have to be there, because I know how people think. He got beat by Phil Williams, and Phil was peeled out of his mind. And Phil smoked him on his weakest body part, which was his back.

John Hansen:

His back, right.

Chris Aceto:

So Gary thought he had to bring in the detail. He didn’t have enough back, you know what I mean. So he just dieted, dieted, dieted, dieted, dieted, dieted. Bring in that back detail. By the time he got that back detail in, all those crunch shots were worthless by the time the Olympia came around.

John Hansen:

Yeah. He was a shadow of his former self.

Chris Aceto:

Shadow!

John Hansen:

Yeah. I really wish I had went to that Olympia though, because that’s always one of my favorite Olympias. Everybody was in such great shape. And it would have been great to be in California that summer watching all those guys getting ready.

Chris Aceto:

Oh yeah. It was incredible! Everyone was there getting ready. And Shawn Ray was getting ready for the…

John Hansen:

That was his Olympia debut. That was his first Olympia.

Chris Aceto:

Oh. Okay, okay, okay. I saw him the year before when he was getting ready for the Nationals. The second year I saw him I said, “This guy is going to win the Nationals, easy.”

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah, he had an incredible physique.

Lou Ferrigno and the Strydom Situation

John Hansen:

So all of your time in bodybuilding, especially with your time in Gold’s, who were some of the guys that really stand out to you. I remember you always told Dave this story about Lou Ferrigno when Lou was getting ready to come back. And you said he was one of the most impressive situations…

Chris Aceto:

Yeah, that was another Strydom situation. I was doing diets, right? I was doing a lot of people’s diets – a lot of local… just a lot of good local amateurs. I saw Lou Ferrigno, and I think he was 320 – you could ask him. I think he was 320, and there was no way he should have been competing with less than 305.

John Hansen:

Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

He might have been 330-340. I’m serious! He’s 6’4”, and he got with the wrong people, and they whittled him down to nothing. The science people got him. I’m serious. I know the people at the gym. They’re still around to this day. They’re around. One of them has got an infomercial.

So I see them here and there. And I’m like, “Holy shit. That’s Joe Blow.” I do this, “He’s one who crushed Ferrigno.” Because Ferrigno was, by far… I had seen everybody. In 87 I saw everyone. In 88 I saw everyone. 89 I saw everyone. 90 I saw everyone and whatever show he was getting ready for…

John Hansen:

92 Olympia, I believe.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. 92… so late 91 he was unbeatable, for sure.

John Hansen:

Wow. Unbelievable.

Chris Aceto:

And he just lost his… he did. He pulled a Strydom.

John Hansen:

Yeah, because when you see pictures of him in the gym when he was big like that, he looks incredible. He looks unbelievable. The vain in his bicep looks like a garden hose.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah and his pecs and his shoulders were so muscular. Even his back and legs – he had good legs.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

So he was memorable. Mike Matarazzo came out from Boston, and he was like 310lbs. And he came into my office, and he declared to me that he was going to win the USA. And he was fat as a sloppy pig.

John Hansen:

*Laughing* Right.

Chris Aceto:

I mean rolls of fat. I’m thinking he would never ever get down. He got down to 229.

John Hansen:

Wow. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

So he dropped like 70.

John Hansen:

Holy shit!

Chris Aceto:

And he won that USA. And to this day, those pictures are insane.

John Hansen:

Yeah, he was ripped. He was more ripped than Flex.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. Yeah he was. He and Flex had battles in the Gym… I would hear them screaming at each other across the gym.

John Hansen:

Yeah. That’s what I heard. Would you ever go into Gold’s now, the way it is now?

Chris Aceto:

I went into Gold’s recently when I was out there to see who was on, because I hadn’t been out there in just years. I went out twice. I took my family out on vacation to that area last year.

Me and my kids visited the gym one night. And then… I mean I had been back for the Flex Proland. Edwardo Corar did his open. So I hadn’t been back very much, but I went back. I mean it still has a great environment.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah. I went out there for memorial day weekend, and that was probably the first time I had been there in like 7 years. And it really still was a good vibe – a lot of movie stars and stuff. But it had to be amazing back when you had all the top bodybuilders in there. Because you don’t have that now. You don’t have the top bodybuilders all training in there.

Chris Aceto:

No it was just incredible. All the top bodybuilders would come to the bodybuilding camp. Then they spend a week a Gold’s after. A week maybe 2 weeks of the whole summer.

John Hansen:

Right Right. Remember John Gus. John was one of the guys…

Chris Aceto:

Oh yeah, yeah! He worked there. He was there… we were very close. John Gus and I were very close. He had a killer physique.

John Hansen:

Yep. Yep.

Chris Aceto:

He worked side by side with me for three summers.

John Hansen:

Oh yeah?

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. We were very, very close.

John Hansen:

Yeah. John was winning all the shows in Chicago. He was there when I was there. He was a 3 years older than me. He trained with me in 86 when won my first show.

Chris Aceto:

“Yeah he trained with John Hansen” – that’s how he talks. He talks slowly.

John Hansen:

*Laughing* Right. Right.

Chris Aceto:

“Out in Chicago we…” You trained with him at Quads Gym out there?

John Hansen:

Hammers Gym.

Chris Aceto:

Hammers Gym. Yeah we did a lot of workouts together; we had a blast.

John Hansen:

Yeah. He’s a strong guy. He was a big guy.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah very strong.

John Hansen:

Yeah. He was about 250, which was big back then.

Chris Aceto:

I wonder what he’s doing now.

John Hansen:

I think he’s in California, but he’s totally lost all his size. He’s dieted down.

Chris Aceto:

Well John, if you’re listening, even I’m bigger than you now.

John Hansen:

*Laughing* He doesn’t even train anymore.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah I know he gave it up a few years later. He went into the education field.

John Hansen:

Yeah. He did the America the year after Jeff King won it – 84.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. I think he had come up with… when I first met him I think he had the intentions of prepping for the America, but you can’t. When you’re there you had to be there. Like I said, salve labor. You realize real quick, it’s not going to work.

Parting Words

John Hansen:

Alright Chris, I know you’re busy so I just want to thank you for joining me, telling some old stories, and maybe we can have you on again.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah we can have another one with me, you, Strydom, and Mike Quinn. We could have a posedown.

John Hansen:

Yeah. That would be great. We could just have those two guys on.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. Have you had Mike Quinn on?

John Hansen:

Yeah. Several times, yeah.

Chris Aceto:

Of course! See?

John Hansen:

I can’t get Strydom on. He won’t come on, for some reason. He still hates Strydom to this day. They’re still going at it on Facebook.

Chris Aceto:

Are they?

John Hansen:

Yeah. *Laughing*

Chris Aceto:

Mike Quinn’s famous quote, “I’m going to rip that wig off his head!”

John Hansen:

Right! Mike Quinn was made for the internet, wasn’t he? He would have killed it back in the day.

Alright, Chris. Thank you for joining me. We’ll keep listening to you on Heavy Muscle Radio, and I enjoy doing the wrap up with you last week at the Tampa Pro.

Chris Aceto:

We got to get you out for the Olympia.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah, I’m going to try and make it out there.

Chris Aceto:

And whenever you guys have these legends on, you got to get them to donate something to the bodybuilding hall of fame. It doesn’t have to be anything of significance.

John Hansen:

Okay, we’ll start that up. Yeah we’ll start it up.

Chris Aceto:

You know, could be Mike Quinn’s… what could he donate from 1989?

John Hansen:

I don’t know…

Chris Aceto:

Probably his Speed, because I think he was using Speed back then in order to do the workouts.

John Hansen:

Or some of those spandex shorts he was wearing.

Chris Aceto:

Oh yeah. That’s right.

John Hansen:

Where are we going to have the bodybuilding hall of fame? Are we going to have it out here in Tampa?

Chris Aceto:

I don’t know. I don’t know. One last thing, before I go, though, John. Google – I just saw this – google how crazy Mike Quinn looked when he was 19.

John Hansen:

Oh I remember. I remember when he won the teenage America.

Chris Aceto:

If you think Chris Veada looked good… I mean he’ll squash a lot of pros today, and he was 19.

John Hansen:

Yeah. The thickness in his traps and his chest.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. His arms and shoulders… He had an Arnold upper-body, total Arnold upper-body.

John Hansen:

Yeah. He was amazing. I remember, because I was a teenager at the time, and I saw the pictures of when he won the teenage America. I’m like, “Oh man! This is who I got to go up against?”

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. “That’s my competition?” And then a few years later, Victor Terra looked better than him.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Aceto:

Victor Terra is probably the best teenage Nationals/… he won the teenage USA NPC, and he was the best teenager of all time. I’m on record. I’m on record to say that – Best teenager of all time.

John Hansen:

Yeah. Wow. And the guys back then, they were so good so young. Shawn Ray, Eddie Robinson.

Chris Aceto:

Oh yeah.

John Hansen:

Shane Demora, remember him?

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. All crazy guys.

John Hansen:

Even Gaspari was good as a teenager.

Chris Aceto:

Yeah. Tremendous.

John Hansen:

Alright, Chris. We’ll talk to you again soon. Thanks again for coming on. I appreciate it, and I’ll talk to you soon.

Chris Aceto:

Alright, thanks!

John Hansen:

Alright, buddy. Take care!

Wrap Up

John Hansen:

Alright, thank you for listening to another episode of the Bodybuilding Legends Podcast. Thanks to Chris Aceto for joining us this week. And we will be back next week with another episode on the Bodybuilding Legends Podcast.

I want to thank our sponsors Redcon One, Old School Labs, and Florida Alternative Medicine for sponsoring this episode of the Bodybuilding Legends Podcast. We’ll see you guys next week. Take care.