Super Muscular Man - Chester Yorton, bodybuilder

Chester Yorton is a bodybuilder. He defeated Arnold Schwarzenegger at the 1966 NABBA Mr. Universe (amateur) held in London. He is one of three men in the world to have beaten Arnold Schwarzenegger in competition.

Chet Yorton was involved in an auto accident just out of high school that cut his left eye through the eyeball, cut his left forearm from his elbow to his wrist, dislocated his hips, and shattered the bones in his thighs. His leg injuries were so bad that doctors at the hospital debated about amputating his right leg, only he wouldn't consent.

He ended up having an iron plate put around his left thighbone, and a steel rod inside the femur bone of his right leg. He was in casts from hips to toes. As he began getting about with the aid of crutches, he lost his balance and fell down a set of stairs, which re-injured his left thigh. More surgery, and then 4 months in a wheelchair before he got back to being able to get around on crutches again.

While in a wheelchair at the hospital, he noticed a set of dumbbells in the corner of a room. He had never touched a weight prior to his accident. He asked his doctor if using weights would assist his recovery. Seven months later, he was 55 pounds heavier.

He continued to train, and after two years competed in a bodybuilding contest for the first time. That was in 1960. He went on to win the IFBB Mr. America and NABBA Amateur Mr. Universe titles in 1966, and the NABBA Pro Mr. Universe in 1975. In 1976, he attempted to compete again but was disturbed due to a large infection in his right foot, from which he quickly recovered to his family's great joy.

Chet Yorton owned and operated his own gym and produced several natural bodybuilding shows. He is known as the "Father of Natural Bodybuilding" because of his belief that steroids had no place in the sport of bodybuilding. Chet still trains to this day.

Super Strong Man - Flex Wheeler, American IFBB professional bodybuilder

Kenneth Wheeler (born August 23, 1965, Fresno, California, United States), better known as Flex Wheeler, is a former American IFBB professional bodybuilder.

Wheeler began training as a teenager, initially with martial arts in mind. However, his natural development persuaded him to pursue bodybuilding. Despite this he is on record as regarding himself as a "martial artist first, a bodybuilder second". It also accounts for his remarkable flexibility in a physique so large. Even so, he has been described by Arnold Schwarzenegger as one of the greatest bodybuilders he ever saw.

After a short career as a police officer, Wheeler focused full time on becoming a professional bodybuilder, taking the nickname 'Flex'. He competed for the first time in 1983 but it was not until 1989 that he secured a first-place trophy at the NPC Mr. California Championships. Since then, he has placed second at the 1993 Mr. Olympia, narrowly missing a win (something he was to repeat in 1998 and 1999). He is a 5-time Ironman Pro winner, 4-time Arnold Classic winner, and has enjoyed victories in the France Grand Prix, South Beach Pro Invitational, Night of Champions and Hungarian Grand Prix.

While Wheeler had the reputation of being arrogant and over-confident, especially on stage. He attributed these faults to a need to compensate for his natural introversion as a child and young man.

In 1994, he was involved in a near-fatal car accident that could have left him with lifelong paralysis. He started from scratch again, returning with remarkable speed to bodybuilding's top tier. In 1999, Wheeler discovered that he had Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a form of kidney disease. Despite press speculation as to the cause of the failure, Wheeler pointed out that the condition is hereditary, not self-inflicted. Wheeler announced his retirement from competitive bodybuilding in 2000, but continued to compete until 2002. He received a kidney transplant in 2003.

Since retirement, Wheeler has focused again on martial arts, his specialism being Kemp-Kwon-Do, a variant of Kempo and Tae Kwon Do. He participated in a demonstration fight at the 2005 Arnold Classic. In 2007, Flex was interviewed by freelance journalist Rod Labbe for Ironman Magazine's Legends of Bodybuilding series. Entitled "Yesterday and Today," it covers his extensive career and reveals how people can conquer adversity and triumph against incredible odds.

Flex currently serves in an executive position as the Director of Media and Public Relations for the Sports Nutrition Company All American EFX, based out of Bakersfield, California. Additionally, he manages their sponsored athletes and can be seen in numerous advertisements for the company.

Super Muscular Man - Casey Viator, AAU Mr. America

Casey Viator (born September 4, 1951 in Lafayette, Louisiana) was the youngest ever AAU Mr. America - gaining the title at the age of 19 in 1971.

Viator grew up in New Iberia, Louisiana. In 1968, Viator placed third in the Mr. Louisiana contest. The following year, he came in sixth in the 1969 Teen Mr. America, but won in the categories best arms, best abs and most muscular. Casey Viator had extremely large forearms proportional to the rest of his body.

He trained under the guidance of Arthur Jones for ten months prior to the Mr. America contest at DeLand High School in DeLand, Florida. The two first met briefly at the 1970 Mr. America contest in Los Angeles, California, where Viator placed third. Realizing Viator's potential, Jones offered Viator a job at his new company, the Nautilus Group.

All in the same year, Viator won three separate bodybuilding championships; Teen Age Mr. America, Jr. Mister America, and lastly, the title of Mr. America. In 1982 he capped off his bodybuilding career by placing third in the Mr. Olympia competition.

Today, Viator is a writer for Muscle & Fitness and Flex magazines.

Super Muscular Man - Craig Titus, IFBB professional bodybuilder

Craig Michael Titus (born January 14, 1965, in Wyandotte, Michigan) is an American former IFBB professional bodybuilder and a convicted murderer.

Titus is of French and Greek origin with a French mother and a Greek father and lived most of his early life near Detroit, Michigan, in a city called Riverview. He has a younger brother, Kevin, and a younger sister, Nicole. Titus played high school football but quit because he was too small. He also wrestled at 132 lbs. After graduation Titus decided to put on some muscle by weight training.

When Titus graduated from high school, he was 5'6" and 140 lbs. By the age of 21, he was 5'9" and 185 lbs. Once he started seeing good results from weight training, he decided to become a bodybuilder. Titus's first bodybuilding show was the 1988 Houston Bodybuilding Championships in which he won the Men's Open middleweight class and the overall title.

Titus wrote a monthly column for Muscular Development from July 2003 until November 2005. Previously married to bodybuilder Kelly Ann Ryan, Ryan filed for divorce while both were in prison in connection with the murder of Melissa James. The divorce became final in December 2009.

Super Muscular Man - Vince Taylor, American IFBB professional bodybuilder

Vince Taylor (born August 25, 1956) is an American IFBB professional bodybuilder residing in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

Taylor until recently held the Guinness world record for the most IFBB professional wins at 22 victories (this record was recently beaten by eight time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman with 26 wins). He recently made a comeback to the sport by competing in the 2006 Australian Pro, where he placed 3rd. Then went on to the 2006 Mr. Olympia to come in 11th.

Took 10th place at the 2007 Arnolds Classic, in a very competitive field.

He has now signed on to compete again at the Australian Pro in 2007.

Vince Taylor also appeared in several training videotapes such as: "Vince Taylor Workout- "Getting Pumped".

Super Muscular Man - Joel Stubbs, IFBB professional bodybuilder

Joel Stubbs (born December 30, 1967 in Nassau, Bahamas) is an IFBB professional bodybuilder.

Stubbs first started studying bodybuilding on his own at age 29 in 1996. In 2000 he competed in the NPC (National Physique Committee) where he placed first. It wasn't until 2003 when he received his first IFBB procard during the Central American and Caribbean championships. Stubbs is an airline pilot for Bahamasair, but doesn't fly much any more due to the time he spends competing in the IFBB pro-circuit.

Stubbs' most impressive and notable feature is the size of his upper body, mostly focusing on his back. Stubbs' undoubtedly has the largest back out of all of the current and former IFBB posers[citation needed]. The only thing that stands between Stubbs' and contention for titles, are his underdeveloped legs, due to an injury sustained to his knee during a basketball game.

He is promoted in advertisements as the worlds biggest bodybuilder.

Super Muscular Man - Gary Strydom, American IFBB professional bodybuilder

Gary Strydom (born 1960 in Durban, South Africa) is an American IFBB professional bodybuilder. He is notable as being the only person to win a Championship title under Vince McMahon's now defunct World Bodybuilding Federation. After the fall of the WBF Strydom decided to take a long break from competing in the mid 1990s. Prior to the WBF Strydom won four IFBB professional titles.

Super Muscular Man - Rashid Shabazz, IFBB professional bodybuilder

Rashid "Roc" Shabazz (born March 15) is an IFBB professional bodybuilder.

Roc has been featured in numerous fitness magazines such as Flex and Muscle and Fitness. He currently resides in Atlanta with his wife Gina, and trains at his facility, the Fitness Pro Welness Center. Also, he has two daughters, a son, and three grandchildren.

 

Top Muscular Man - Robby Robinson, American former bodybuilder

Robby Robinson (born May 24, 1946) is an American former bodybuilder who won the IFBB Mr. America, Mr. World and Mr. Universe titles. He was the Masters Olympia overall champion the first year that the event was held in 1994 and then went on to win the 50+ division at that same contest in both 1997 and 2000. His nickname is The Black Prince.

Robinson was born in Damascus, Georgia, and raised in Tallahassee, Florida. He attended Florida A&M University, where he competed in both football and track & field.

While training for those sports he noticed his body's great responsiveness to weight training, which motivated him to enter his first bodybuilding competition. After competing in more than 300 amateur competitions, Robinson turned professional in 1975.

Although it was to be his only exposure to the movie screen, Robby's first professional year in 1975 was chronicled in the cult classic Pumping Iron. Overall, he won numerous IFBB contests, including the first annual Night of the Champions in 1979 as well as the first Masters Olympia in 1994.

As one of the famed Golden Age of Bodybuilding' bodybuilders who routinely worked out at Gold's Gym in Venice, California during the 70s, Robby was known as one who was never in off-season condition. Superbly built head-to-toe, his massive and extremely peaked arms became his trademark. It was noted in Arnold Schwarzenegger's book "The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding", that Robinson has one biceps bigger than the other.

Top Muscular Man - Steve Reeves, American bodybuilder and actor

 

Stephen L. Reeves (January 21, 1926 – May 1, 2000) was an American bodybuilder and actor. At the peak of his career, he was the highest-paid actor in Europe.

Born in Glasgow, Montana, Steve Reeves moved to California at age 10 with his mother Goldie Reeves, after his father Lester Dell Reeves died in a farming accident. Reeves developed an interest in bodybuilding in high school and trained at Ed Yarick's gym in Oakland. By the time he was 17, he had developed a Herculean physique, long before the general interest in bodybuilding. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Army during World War II, and served in the Pacific.

After his military service, Reeves invested in an acting career. In 1954 he had a small role in his first major motion picture, the musical Athena playing the boyfriend of Jane Powell's character. The same year Reeves had a small role as a cop in the Ed Wood film Jail Bait. These two films are the only ones Reeves made where his own voice was used — for the remainder of his career, Reeves acted in Italian-made films where all dialogue and sound effects were added in post-production.

On December 17, 1954, Reeves guest starred in the ABC sitcom with a variety show theme, The Ray Bolger Show. Ray Bolger portrayed Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man repeatedly barely on time for his performances. Reeves played a well-built office employee whom Wallace sees in the company of Wallace's girlfriend, Susan, played by Marjie Millar. Others on the series were Richard Erdman, Allyn Joslyn, Betty Lynn, Sylvia Lewis, Gloria Winters, and Verna Felton.