Hi Mick,
My name is Corne and I’m a personal trainer-we have a gym at home and train people here and my husband is an artist. I just wanted to comment on your article “Bodybuilding Persecution”. It is so true-the young guys always bug my husband wanting to know what they must inject to look like him and all I say is if it was that easy wouldn’t there be more of us walking around?

Anyway I prefer that we are few and rare coz it makes us more exotic and special. It is a very special person that can get up every day work hard, eat right, cardio and gym like a maniac and still enjoy other things in life after the gym and work are done! We said the other day, they say we’re stupid but jgheeee if we’re that stupid how come we get it right and so many can’t even make it to the second day on the diet and the second workout? We must be real dumb to know how to time everything just right and never be late for gym etc…I can go on forever…

Those guys that you wrote about are everywhere and they irritate me so much! I tell them now before my husband/I answer them-why ask any questions at all because with the first sentence already you can hear they couldn’t care less about your answer they still only want a huge quick fix and instant muscles like three minute noodles!!! They just don’t get it!! And who gets the blame when they fail??? So NO thank you!!

My husbands’ life was saved by the bodybuilding lifestyle and he inspired me to become a bodybuilder too and it’s changed my life forever!!! Please read his letter below…

Hi Mick…
I would like to share my story with you since I thought you might be interested in it. I find that my story has inspired many people in my country and may inspire more people if my story is told further.

My name is Frans Coetzee, I’m 47, born in South Africa and I’ve been weight training since I was 14 and competing since 1984. My dad a power lifter in his time grilled me in the gym and I gained 30pounds in three months and was already very muscular at the age of 16. I loved training but only got serious about competing when I turned 24.

I’m one of the few athletes who were chosen to represent South Africa overseas at the IFBB WORLD Police and Fire Games in Colorado USA after the sanctions were lifted in 1993 where I won my weight class-Lightheavyweight and the Overall. Besides this I have never placed lower than 5th at any competitions and I am still competing every year this is my 22nd competitive year.

I was diagnosed in 1996 with a terminal non-malignant cancer and was told I only have one week max to live. Luckily for me I was referred to a young doctor who told me I might still have a chance. My tumor was the size of an ostrich egg that according to the doctor formed when I was a child due to a possible back injury and bearing in mind we lived near an asbestos mine when I was a child and that’s why it formed between the lung and spine-luckily not in the spine.

The doctor told me after the op that it was easily removed and that my weight training& healthy eating habits due to my bodybuilding lifestyle has saved my life because had I smoked/drank alcohol/ate junk food all my life I would’ve been gone long ago. Therefore I’m a walking advertisement that a bodybuilding life style not only gives you longevity but can save your life.

I’m approached every day by all sorts of people from different walks of life, different ages, both genders and different races asking me what they can do to look this way and what supplements they should use. I can’t go to a mall without being stopped at least five times by people who want information and I tell them what to do and tell them my story.

And finally just as a point of interest I’m also a Naturalistic/Illustrative artist and I paint oil on canvas paintings of any subject in Super realistic detail and I’ve done many pencil sketches. Please see my website:- www.southafricanartist.com/FransCoetzee

Kindest regards
Corne and Frans.

Take care and God bless

- Mick Hart.
Founder of Mick Hart Training Systems and the No Bull Collection Magazine.

- Layman’s Guides to Steroids I and II

- Layman’s Guides to Steroids III (new)