Peter grymkowski

[BigRisk]

This dude was crazy cool lol


https://youtu.be/Y0T8nVeeAmQ


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[UnderConstruction]

3-10g... a day? Wtf...

Taking a whole bottle of some random cattle drug that he knew very little about had me laughing though it wasn't supposed to be funny

 

[gungalunga]

Mr. Crazy Cool ended up with 17 arterial blockages at age 53 and was lucky to have survived.

 

[little slice]

dude was huge

 

[cuz]

10,000 mg per day. That's 70,000 mg per week. Shit wasn't cheap back then How could he afford it?

 

[gungalunga]

Pete Grymkowski interview:

Conversation # 35-Pete Grymkowski, Mr. World and Gold's Gym Genius, with an assist by Roger Callard, Mr. America.( Edit pending)

MD: Hey Guys. Pete, you have been involved in so many things and successful, world wide ventures, I don't know where to start. Perhaps the standard how you started with weights?

PG: Hey Mike. First, I want to say it is an honor to speak with you, and I am really enthused about your undertaking of spotlighting all the legends of the game. I am from upstate New York and started with the weights when I was 13 years old. I lived in a very tough area...the mob was present and there was a lot of punks looking to beat on me and others. This went on all the way through high school. My father had a post construction clean up business, and I worked for him. I have been working since I was five and I always had two or three jobs at any given time. Well, at 14 I started my own biz just like dad's. I had 67 employees in short order! I tarined at the YMCA and there were many foreign dudes-lots of Russians-who wanted to work, so I'd scoop them up. LOL-when I went to school-and I never did finish high school-I'd drive there in my new Cadillac. I also had two new Corvettes. My uncles were cops in town so I could basically drive around without a license, which is what I did. All the while, even while working a brutally hard , manual job, I'd pound at the weights for hours. I didn'ty do any drugs at all for my first couple of shows. My first show was the Mr. Rochester in 1968 and I won the whole thing. I weighed about 187 pounds. Well, I hit the 1969 Mr. Jr. USA, which was won by Kenny Waller. I was clean, 192 pounds, and I came in second to last...let me tell you Michael, my eyes were POPPING! Guys were jacked-210, 225 pounds. I was training hard with the Russians at the Y, and it was a powerlifting style workout. But I wasn't on the drugs yet, and these guys were light years ahead. I heard about steroids from Kenny. Here's a good one-at this show, there was Ellington Darden, big guy. Smart guy. Said he wasn't on steroids, but I will tell you, for someone not on steroids, he sure did know a lot about them!

MD: Darden, yes. I love his stuff, he's done some good work and research. He was an Arthur Jones guy.

PG: Yes he was. So I just hadda find out about the steroids, and I happened to have an uncle who was a medical doctor in Chicago. I called him and told him how I'd learned about Dianabol from the powerlifters and also what Waller had related to me, and we agreed that for bodybuilding purposes, D-bol would just retain too much water and fluids. He said "Anavar" and here is what he sent me: 12 big boxes, each filled with 120 bottles of Anavar tablets, 100 pills per bottle. So we are talking about 1,500 bottles of Anavar courtesy of the United States Postal Service. I'd simply take a handful of tablets before each meal, and it was go time.

Four months later, I zeroed in on the Mr. NY State contest, which was being run by Tommy Minichiello and in tandem with his famous Mid City Gym in NYC. Well, of course, I was outside with Harold Poole smoking a joint. Harold was into the Cheetah Club and some other kind of shady stuff, but it was ok. Tommy approached me and asked me to guest pose. I was kind of baffled, as I wanted to win the show. Tommy said they already had a favorite to win the show, and I'd easily win. I said "Sure." I recall big Tony Carroll was there to. I was big-236 pounds. No change of workout, food, nothing. It was the chemicals. People went wild when they saw me. We all went out after and I bought dinner for everybody. John Romeo, Tommy, Harold, Tony, the rest. I was like, "You guys are the best!" We went to Jack Dempsey's Restaurant and they gave me 50% off the check, as I did know some of the owners.
I went into another show, took fifth. Dickerson won that one. I went in and placed second in three consecutive Mr. America (AAU) shows, in 1971, 72 and 73. The winners were Casey Viator, Steve Michalik and Jimmy Morris. Listen Mike, I was still happy to place where I did. I was honored.

MD: Your interactions with the AAU?

PG: Ha. They were not happy with me at all. You know Mike, I've never kept quiet about my steroid use. Why? Everyone is full of shit in so many aspects of life. Don't people get tired of lies? The AAU wasn't tired of it.

RC: If I may add, gentlemen, this just popped into my mind. Arnold was telling me that Franco would hurt him so much when he'd plunge a needle into the Oak's ass, he made Franco practice his syringe technique on grapefruits!

MD: Ha. That's beautiful. Oh and gentlemen, please, DON'T hold back with info. Somehow, I don't think you will.

PG: Lol. Dr. Murray Israel told me never to take Anavar alone. I learned some about Deca Durabolin injections. I got married in 1971, and my wife's uncle was a doctor in Rome. I knew one of Arnold's favorite drugs was Primobolin, and I called to ask him abot the Deca and Primobolin. He said they were hopping up animal feed with different types of steroids in Europe, and this also involved Russian reasearch. Beagle dogs were given 3,000 mgs of steroids per kilogram of bodyweight per day, and they suffered NO side effects. There was Orgabolin from Russia, and also some round pellets in oil which came 12 to a unit. I decided to start taking nine shots per day along with five bottles of orals per day. This was a total of 10,000 miligrams per day. I took two types of testosterone, as well as Anavar and Nilavar. I balsted up to 262 pounds. NO side effects, ever. In 1972 on was on this doasge for one year straight. The Russians as well as Dr. Horowitz from Poland suggested to keep dosages high all the time to keep the steroid receptor sites open. So, from 71-73, I did this. I started at 3,000 mgs per day, working my way up to 10,000 mgs per day and staying there. Of course, I'd take Clomid and Nolvadex to keep my natural androgens up.

MD: You did well in shows, but then there was a gap in your stage career.

PG: Yes. In 1974 I went off the drugs. There was Dick Fabrizi and Stephano Magazinno, and they started their own family in Buffalo. They wanted to sponsor me in a chain of gyms. They came to a show I was in, it was 1972, and the AAU judges saw them and basically said I could never win because I was tied to the mob. But I wasn't. So, me and Danny Padilla rented an old bowling alley, covered the floor with mats and got a bunch of serviceable Olympic equipment. We got 25 guys to pay 400-500$ each, and there was our private gym. Well, the mob came along and wanted to take it over, pay the rent and sponsor me in shows. I agreed, as I still had my clean up business. I was still training five hours per day with my monstrous daily doasges. I did quit in 1974 because the Feds wanted me to testify against the mob. I took off for Orlando straight away. You know, I'd have ended up dead. I went down there with a big old box of 'roids, slept on the roof of a gym and trained only at night. I'd eat one food meal a day wlong with five protein drinks. I'd undergo hypnosis to get through utterly brutal workouts. I had pride-look. I quit high school, built my own businesses, but the Feds wanted me. The had warrants out on me for me to come back to NY and testify. I came down to Orlando at 185 pounds. When I left for California four months later, I was 258 and cut up, diced I tell you. This was right around the time myself, Roger and Danny Padilla all won our classes in the AFAB Mr. America. This was run by Arnold and Franco, and under the banner of the Weiders.

MD: So things were looking brighter.

PG: Yes and no. As soon as I got out to Cali, well, I arrived with 63$ in my pocket. I slept under the Santa Monica Pier. I would eat day old McDonald's hamburgers out of dumpsters. I'd wash my clothes and bathe in the sea. Michael, I didn't want to even own a car or have a job. I just wanted to be training all the time. Train all the time and evade the Feds. And the bodybuilders-well, I had little confidence. I'd see Platz. Mentzer. Roger and Danny. I didn't think I could beat any of them. Dr. Peter Siegel, the hypnotist, noticed my lack of confidence and hypnotized me. It made a huge difference. At the America I posed great and won my class-it was like night and day.

MD: You did compete as an IFBB pro.

PG: Yes. This was when the reign of Robby and Mike Mentzer was at its zenith. At the Pittsburgh pro show, I placed third to these two, beating Roy Callender. I was quite proud of this, as Roy was great. You know Mike, even when I was a pro, I was very hard on myself. I always saw others as being better than me.

MD: You really must reveal your secrets for mastering the development of truly cannonball deltoid development.

PG: I trained in a unique way for deltoids. I'd use the power rack. I'd slide the horizontal bar across and grab the vertical bars-this would prevent me from sliding. I had very strong hands from my post construction clean up work. You know, I'd climb up buildings using ropes. This helped my abs and my grip, and I'd keep my legs straight out when doing this.

MD: Crossfit?

PG: Hell no! ( Roger laughing. All of us laughing) I had great strength. I'd fix a 110 pound dumbell to my waist, and do chins behind and in front of the neck for 20 minutes straight. This would stretch my clavicles. I did 540 pound inclines, 500 pound press behind the neck. With the power rack and my "rarefied air" dosages, this just stretched my bones. I wore a size 60 coat in 1972-73. In 1977, I started shooting water based drugs as well as Equipoise, which had an anabolic and irritative effect on the tissues, into my triceps as they were rather over shadowed by my deltoids. You know, going back to that AAU stuff. Arthur Jones told me that Steve Michalik was going back to the judges and whining to them about my blatent steroid use. Lol, Michalik-he was not a friend. You remember Norbert Schemanski?

MD: Yes! Olympic Gold medalist...he's in his 90's now. Fred Schutz was just telling me they had a birthday party for him this past winter.

PG: Still alive-is he? That's great! Well, he approached me and said, "Don't listen to these assholes. You will be one of the best. Look when you trained five hours per day and with no drugs, you took second to last. Pete, you owe it to these people to be honest."

MD: These guys who are always blaring their natural status, they should just "Shut up and train, " as they say. Be honest or just shut the hell up. Nobody cares. I certainly don't.

RC: Agreed.

PG: I don't even think about what other people do. I think about what I do.

MD: So Pete, you don't have any "Haters?"

PG: Huh? What's that?

MD: Exactly. Tell me about Joe Weider.

PG: Really nice guy. Ben was the tough businessman. Joe helped me pose after my Mr. America win, at the Mr. World. It was night and day how he helped me. He took me to lunch and I swear I was the only guy he took out where he didn't forget his wallet! Joe helped me, yes. But I was still cleaning the gym, moving equipment around, just so I could train seven hours straight-under hypnosis of course. I'd do 100 sets per body part-NO pain. Robby and Lisa Lyon watched me one day. I was doing inclines with 540 pounds...and I HADE to finish the set. Hypnosis told me this. It took me four minutes to do my final rep, but I did it.

MD: Any injuries?

PG: Never. Not one. My uncle and sister, both docs, agreed that the super high dosages of steroids protected me...NOT cycling helped me. Cycling caused deficiencies in the organs. I'd drink beet juice and cranberry juice to flush the bladder and liver and keep my acid levels down.

MD: How did the Gold's deal come down?

PG: We all went out to lunch one day, Jim Manion, Ken Sprague, others. Jim Manion was supposed to buy Goild's from Ken. This was 1978 when the NPC started. About ten of us went back to Ken's-me and Manny Perry ended up in the alley, smoking a jay. I laugh when I think about this-at the time, I was Lou's double on the Hulk. But I spent the first day-14 hours just sitting there with caked on green makeup. I offered the job to manny as I had just quit. Manny was like, "I can't do that-I'm black!" I told him it was makeup and he got the job! So all of a sudden we hear a commotion in the house. Manion and Sprague are fighting in the kitchen. Manion took off, leaving his wife and saying, "Fuck these guys." Two other guys wanted to buy it, but so did I. Marion Sprague, Ken's wife, liked me and wanted me to get it. Ken said whoever got him a 50K down payment first would win. This had to be followed by a second payment of 50K about a year later. I had 27 thousand dollars saved for my daughter's college fund. I called Ed Conners and Denny Doyle and asked them to buy in with me. We got the money together and we got it. You know, the wheels were turning in my head. At the time, I was doing posings all over the world, and with the advent of Pumping Iron, everyone everywhere wanted to know of the Mecca of Gold';s. I thought, "What about people who can't get there? I've got to buy it and franchise!"

About a year later, Doyle wanted to cash out to buy his daughter a car. I called Tim Kimber, who had just literally put 30 thousand dollars down on a new house. I told him if he could get the money back, there'd be a spot for him. He did and we had him run the front office, Ed handled the banking, and I was on the road. It was a spiritual time, how everything fell into place.

MD: So even at this time, you were guest posing all over the world.

PG: Oh yes. Earning boatloads of money-10K per week clear, every week. I was late for a guesting in Europe, at the Mr. Universe in Belgium. Wayne Demelia was going nuts looking for me. He found me in my hotel room, as I was "Getting ready for the show." You know how I was getting ready? With four or six IV's of steroids running into my veins, simultaneously. That was my training! I had a suitcase FULL of drugs. Guys asked if I was selling. "Selling?" Hell no, this was all for me. In a few days, it'd all be gone!

Sprague though, ha. We kept his lawyer on with us, and he told me how Sprague was crowing that we'd be bankrupt within a year, that the gym made no money, and he'd get it back within the year. Of course, that never happened.

Like I said, I was raking in 10K per week. I'd send it back in duffel bags with tee shirts stuffed on top. Look, customs was a joke, they'd never look. If they did, they'd see tees. That's how we grew the business for a whole year.

MD: How long did you stay on 2nd Street?

PG: Not long. Arnold and Joe Gold wanted to put me out of business. Robert Blake, the actor, bought the building and tripled the rent. That was fine as our lease was just about up anyway. But we had to relocate. I put Derek Barton, Tim Kimber and Joe Bucci together as a team. Derek became president of the Chamber of Commerce, which allowed him to keep the cops off me while I "negotiated" with neighborhood crack houses. We wanted to open in the neighborhood, and there were five very bad, seedy crack houses in the way. I walked in, strapped ostensibly with a machine gun pistol. "I'm here to talk business," is what I announced. I said I wanted to open a gym there, and the crack houses had to go. Larry Fields was the guy who owned this real estate, and I offered if I could clean up the mess, would he give us a building for the gym six months rent free? He basically said he'd kiss my ass if I could do that.
So there were a bunch of folks all about. I told them we had to get the homeless element corrected. We could be friends or enemies, either way, the crack heads had to go. I said they could move a few blocks away, RIGHT NOW. How hard could it be to set up shop as a crack house? C'mon man. Y'all gotta move. My second wife, Linda, a great person, she had my back. She was with me and strapped with an Uzi. No nonsense bro.

One guy, packing about 550 pounds, said, "Man, I will be gone!"
Another: "What if we don't want to cooperate?" I told him he could walk out or he could of course be carried out. I expect them all to be gone. I didn't hope. Successful people EXPECT good things to happen. Movement. I wanted it and got it. They offered me a stake in the crack outfit, but I said, "Are you crazy? I don't do crack, I just smoke pot." So this became the next home for Gold's Gym, which we started to franchise. But there was a rude awakening. To franchise internationally, you must register in every territory, which was prohibitively expensive to do. Liability abounded as well. If a club went bankrupt, they could sue me personally for damages. We decided to make things simple with the help of my brother, Paul, who held an NYU degree in marketing. We went into licensing instead of franchising. Any products sold by clubs must be purchased through me, but, the clubs could also sell OTHER products as well. It also gave us the right to go into territories for premise use only. This helped me get into department stores. My uncle was the VP of Abercrombie and Fitch. Dennis Tinnerino had contacts with Macy's, Dick's, Nordstroms, Walmart. All of a sudden, we had 11,000 stores globally selling products.

MD: You had nearly 660 clubs.

PG: We offered a cheap way to become a member of the Gold's Gym system. $1,500 franchise fee...now, it's 100 thousand. It's a disgrace. I am still proud of what we accomplished. You know, I never finished high school, but I was industrious, as was my family.

MD: I have two B.S. degrees and a doctorate. SCHOOL IS FOR FOOLS! (all laugh)

RC: You know, Pete offered me a stake for 11 thousand dollars. I thought it was too much. You know, me and Bill Grant did the famous Tank Top advertisement for Joe, and sales went through the roof. So I had been exposed to business success. We talked about franchising in 1976. We were smoking weed-we were ALWAYS smoking a doobie!- and talking about it. Me and Pete, our paths always crossed. I met him when I went backstage at a show and he was guest posing. I was 20-he was a giant even then.

PG: Roger had guns. We both did. Me from New York, Roger from Michigan, we had guns of course. Cali was mellow-not so many guns. Roger had his in view in his pickup window. Nobody messed with Roger!

MD: You sold Gold's, ultimately.

PG: In 1999. I had 17 arterial; blockages and underwent open heart surgery, and I was 53. It was time. One year before, I actually imposed a moratorium on opening new clubs because I really wanted to perfect the ones we had. I was ready to implement opening another 1,000+ clubs. More soe internationally. Ed Conners stayed on, and Omni took over. They raised the fee to 100K. All of our prime people got disgusted with Gold's when they took over. Their goal is to push the independent owners out. They are much more profitable when owned corporately. Half of them are now corporate and they alone generate 650 million dollars annually.

MD: I've been with Montanari's for 30 years. You know they had a flagship Gold's for years in New haven. They converted to Powerhouse. Richie Montanari wasn't hearing it when an Omni rep came in and said he could only go up to 60 pound rubber dumbells.

PG: ReallY? Oh my God, I did not know that! I tell you, I wish I never sold. Ever. Our dream is now ashes. Montanari's-great people. I wanted to keep it great for our owners. I was making the most money from the stores and tees, so I said let's have NO fee for anyone with us five years or more.

MD: So many things suck now. Damned kids. Grymko International is your latest venture. Tell me of this.

PG: Well yes. We have created an umbrella organization that will allow us to hold events, conventions, competitions, expos, and also allow businesses and athletes to make money. It is truly symbiotic in that everyone involved will benefit. Myself and Jim Rockell decided to start a new bodybuilding federation. You know-these fit girls-so many are being forced to do this soft porn posing-and many don't even get it. Can't they see what this is? They have no choice and nowhere else to go, it seems. We want to team up and align the many small organizatiuons, including WABBA and NABBA, and form a union for all. We are working on a very interesting Lifestyle Fitness show, and NBC is interested in this. I have a contract in hand from them. I am also connected to many UFC athletes. We have athletes all over the world from all the Gold's locations. We will feature very interesting and different athletes from all over the world. I've got Mark Burnett, producer of Survivor and other shows, interested. Of not-I gave him five thousand dollars years ago when he was broke. He is thankful and remembers this.

We've got the Mr. America show this August in Rochester-the title has been bought by Bruce Ebel. We will have Red Lerille, ill Pearl, Me, Roger, Danny Padilla, yourself Mike, and many other luminaries from the bodybuilding pantheon of icons there.

MD: It sounds rather innovative-and much needed.

PG: We are always thinking of new and innovative ideas to bring everyone together. We want to give an alternativbe to the NPC. I have big companies on board who want us to distribute their products. These will be totally OPEN contests for pros and amateurs,. Your previous or present affiliation will NOT be held against you.. We are planning fit expos all over the world and having parties afterward. I can get big sponsors-I have supplement and equipment companies in line. Remember, Michael, I have done this before. I know what to do.

MD: It's all very exciting, the plans as well as speaking to two of the foremost bodybuilders ever. Thanks so much guys, and I'll see you both in a few weeks in Rochester, August 8th. Any contact info or anything else to add?

PG: Anyone can contact me or Roger directly, and we welcome suggestions or ideas you may have for this massive international organization. We want to bring everyone in and create a huge family of comraderie. Everyone can network together and everyone can profit, just like we did with Gold's all over the world. EVERYONE has a place in this society of new development.

 

[Bio]

Wild story! It's too bad he/they sold.
17 blockages! YIKES!! He took so much gear but I'm sure the mass amounts of Anavar had him with a close to 0 HDL for many years, causing all of those clogs.

 

[XstarchildX]

I can't imagine blasting that much gear, let alone not eating enough to support sufficient growth. Clearly he made some serious gains, but one begins to wonder what his physique would've been like had he been taking in more calories.

 

[Ashop]

Wild story! It's too bad he/they sold.
17 blockages! YIKES!! He took so much gear but I'm sure the mass amounts of Anavar had him with a close to 0 HDL for many years, causing all of those clogs.

17 BLOCKAGES??!!

 

[Bio]

Bump for those that haven't heard it. INSANE! LOL!!

 

[bigsonbitch]

Bump for those that haven't heard it. INSANE! LOL!!

how is this even possible? 10g a day??? yea he had blockages later in life..17! which i read somewhere or heard in an interview he said hes not sure it came from that which we know is BS - but why no immediate effects on liver or kidneys?

 

[gungalunga]

The only thing Pete got wrong in the interview was that he said one of Arnold's favorites was Primobolan. I know for a fact it was Parabolan, not primo.

 

[NEMSZ]

The only thing Pete got wrong in the interview was that he said one of Arnold's favorites was Primobolan. I know for a fact it was Parabolan, not primo.

How do you know “for a fact?”

 

[jeroendebleser]

The only thing Pete got wrong in the interview was that he said one of Arnold's favorites was Primobolan. I know for a fact it was Parabolan, not primo.

He loved both from what I've heard.

 

[gungalunga]

How do you know “for a fact?”

Yes....for a fact.

 

[NEMSZ]

Yes....for a fact.

Nvm my post....

 

[austrianoak]

The only thing Pete got wrong in the interview was that he said one of Arnold's favorites was Primobolan. I know for a fact it was Parabolan, not primo.

So what about the fact that the original Parabolan by Negma was introduced in 1980 in France, the year when Arnold won his last Olympia? He fell in love with it after ended his competitive career according to you?

 

[gungalunga]

So what about the fact that the original Parabolan by Negma was introduced in 1980 in France, the year when Arnold won his last Olympia? He fell in love with it after ended his competitive career according to you?

Trenbolone Hexahydrobenzylcarbonate represents the dominant large ester based Trenbolone compound on the market. It was first released by the France based Negma Laboratories in the late 1960’s under the trade name Parabolan. This represents the first and only Trenbolone hormone to ever exist in human grade form. Parabolan was prescribed for many years in cases of malnutrition, which will make a lot of sense as we dive into the compound. It was also prescribed to treat osteoporosis in some cases, as well as in the treatment of cachexia. However, in 1997 Negma would pull Parabolan from the market. As the first human grade pharmaceutical Trenbolone compound, it was also the last

(Copied and pasted from steroid.com)

 

[austrianoak]

Trenbolone Hexahydrobenzylcarbonate represents the dominant large ester based Trenbolone compound on the market. It was first released by the France based Negma Laboratories in the late 1960’s under the trade name Parabolan. This represents the first and only Trenbolone hormone to ever exist in human grade form. Parabolan was prescribed for many years in cases of malnutrition, which will make a lot of sense as we dive into the compound. It was also prescribed to treat osteoporosis in some cases, as well as in the treatment of cachexia. However, in 1997 Negma would pull Parabolan from the market. As the first human grade pharmaceutical Trenbolone compound, it was also the last

(Copied and pasted from steroid.com)

It was introduced in France in 1980 and was voluntarily discontinued by its manufacturer in 1997.

William Llewellyn (2011). Anabolics. Molecular Nutrition Llc. pp. 619-. ISBN 978-0-9828280-1-4.

Let’s agree to disagree since you know it “for a fact” anyways.

 

[Elvia1023]

How do you know “for a fact?”

I wondered that as well. Gungalunga did you sell it to Arnold or was you or someone you know very close to him?