cover 0708.qxd - PhillyFIT Magazine
cover 0708.qxd - PhillyFIT Magazine
cover 0708.qxd - PhillyFIT Magazine
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PhysicallyFIT<br />
Left: A young Bob...<br />
back then they called<br />
it "Physical Culture"<br />
Below: Bob and<br />
Arnold circa 1974<br />
by Charles Peeples<br />
Kudos From<br />
The Great<br />
White North<br />
The MUSCLEMAG “Encyclopedia of BodyBuilding,” all 792 pages of it, arrived unsolicited at Jami’s office<br />
recently, a gift, inscribed by the author “To the magnificent Jami, a supreme publisher, and amazing fitness example.<br />
In appreciation for all you do for fitness! Regards Always, Bob Kennedy.”<br />
“I’m so totally blown away,” Jami told me, “do<br />
you think you could explain to our readers who<br />
this man is and maybe find out why he’s been<br />
so thoughtful to me over the past few years”<br />
ing look” is passe, that only functional fitness matters, and because they can<br />
spout clinical gobbledygook, they’re the only ones qualified to train clients. Uh,<br />
ok --- are those other 99% of folks jamming all the health clubs really in pursuit<br />
of “functional” fitness too What a waste of mirrors!<br />
Okay, Jami: he’s an ornery old goat, always surrounded<br />
in Hefneresque fashion by a stable of<br />
spectacular fitness beauties and cartoon-like<br />
muscle-studs, his Canada-based enterprise<br />
churning out fitness books and magazines like<br />
some vending-machine run amok. And of<br />
course he’d be interested in you because along<br />
with your brains and great accomplishments,<br />
you’re a sexy, very fit blonde, and like any normal<br />
guy…<br />
Alright, the truth is that Bob is married to a fit,<br />
brainy blonde of his own, Tosca Reno, author of<br />
The Eat Clean Diet series (NY Times bestseller)<br />
and between them they have five children. But<br />
those who aren’t into bodybuilding, fitness --- or<br />
for that matter, caring how they look --- probably<br />
couldn’t care less about publishing magnate<br />
Robert Kennedy. Or, if they do know about him,<br />
they resent him as a matter of principle. Among<br />
the latter are likely a few of those inevitable<br />
pencil-necks with a bunch of Cs and Ss after<br />
their names, whose nostrils flare at the word<br />
“bodybuilding,” and who console themselves<br />
about their own unremarkable appearance by<br />
touting their high-school 40-yard dash stats and<br />
insisting, somewhat noisily, that the “bodybuild-<br />
38 I <strong>PhillyFIT</strong><br />
A helluva lot of people do know who Robert Kennedy is: heir-apparent in his<br />
way to whatever’s left of the media side of Joe Weider-style muscle imperialism.<br />
That includes several top international physique magazines (MUSCLE-<br />
MAG INTERNATIONAL, OXYGEN, REPS, MAXIMUM FITNESS, and<br />
CLEAN EATING), a website (emusclemag.com),<br />
fitness product-lines (one of which, a top-selling<br />
supplement brand, he coyly disavows) and<br />
more books on muscle-building and nutrition<br />
than anyone can count. Add to that the sculpted<br />
eye-candy of both genders who jam his<br />
magazines and booths at the Arnold and<br />
Olympia weekends (many, like WWF diva Trish<br />
Stratus, owe much of their media glory to his<br />
“dis<strong>cover</strong>y”), and you’ve got a hugely successful<br />
man whom a lot of losers will take<br />
shots at.<br />
I’ve taken my own shots at Sir Robert: I<br />
tease him about his screamingly gaudy<br />
neckties. I do a reckless pastiche of his<br />
British accent. I take him to task for<br />
overindulging in T&A in his photo layouts<br />
at the expense of more physicallydeveloped<br />
women. I might even teasingly<br />
refer to the “Weider Pre-Exhaust<br />
Principle,” knowing that Bob claims to<br />
have introduced this training technique<br />
March/April I 215-396-0268 I www.phillyfit.com