cover 0708.qxd - PhillyFIT Magazine

PhysicallyFIT
Left: A young Bob...
back then they called
it "Physical Culture"
Below: Bob and
Arnold circa 1974
by Charles Peeples
Kudos From
The Great
White North
The MUSCLEMAG “Encyclopedia of BodyBuilding,” all 792 pages of it, arrived unsolicited at Jami’s office
recently, a gift, inscribed by the author “To the magnificent Jami, a supreme publisher, and amazing fitness example.
In appreciation for all you do for fitness! Regards Always, Bob Kennedy.”
“I’m so totally blown away,” Jami told me, “do
you think you could explain to our readers who
this man is and maybe find out why he’s been
so thoughtful to me over the past few years”
ing look” is passe, that only functional fitness matters, and because they can
spout clinical gobbledygook, they’re the only ones qualified to train clients. Uh,
ok --- are those other 99% of folks jamming all the health clubs really in pursuit
of “functional” fitness too What a waste of mirrors!
Okay, Jami: he’s an ornery old goat, always surrounded
in Hefneresque fashion by a stable of
spectacular fitness beauties and cartoon-like
muscle-studs, his Canada-based enterprise
churning out fitness books and magazines like
some vending-machine run amok. And of
course he’d be interested in you because along
with your brains and great accomplishments,
you’re a sexy, very fit blonde, and like any normal
guy…
Alright, the truth is that Bob is married to a fit,
brainy blonde of his own, Tosca Reno, author of
The Eat Clean Diet series (NY Times bestseller)
and between them they have five children. But
those who aren’t into bodybuilding, fitness --- or
for that matter, caring how they look --- probably
couldn’t care less about publishing magnate
Robert Kennedy. Or, if they do know about him,
they resent him as a matter of principle. Among
the latter are likely a few of those inevitable
pencil-necks with a bunch of Cs and Ss after
their names, whose nostrils flare at the word
“bodybuilding,” and who console themselves
about their own unremarkable appearance by
touting their high-school 40-yard dash stats and
insisting, somewhat noisily, that the “bodybuild-
38 I PhillyFIT
A helluva lot of people do know who Robert Kennedy is: heir-apparent in his
way to whatever’s left of the media side of Joe Weider-style muscle imperialism.
That includes several top international physique magazines (MUSCLE-
MAG INTERNATIONAL, OXYGEN, REPS, MAXIMUM FITNESS, and
CLEAN EATING), a website (emusclemag.com),
fitness product-lines (one of which, a top-selling
supplement brand, he coyly disavows) and
more books on muscle-building and nutrition
than anyone can count. Add to that the sculpted
eye-candy of both genders who jam his
magazines and booths at the Arnold and
Olympia weekends (many, like WWF diva Trish
Stratus, owe much of their media glory to his
“discovery”), and you’ve got a hugely successful
man whom a lot of losers will take
shots at.
I’ve taken my own shots at Sir Robert: I
tease him about his screamingly gaudy
neckties. I do a reckless pastiche of his
British accent. I take him to task for
overindulging in T&A in his photo layouts
at the expense of more physicallydeveloped
women. I might even teasingly
refer to the “Weider Pre-Exhaust
Principle,” knowing that Bob claims to
have introduced this training technique
March/April I 215-396-0268 I www.phillyfit.com