One of the coolest things about working at EliteFTS is that I get to correspond with many different lifters, coaches, and trainers. Our network at EliteFTS is huge, and not a day goes by that I don’t meet or talk to someone new in the strength world. Many of these people are not going to grace the cover of PLUSA or be on the lecture circuit. But most of them have some amazing stories to tell.
One of the people that filled out our EFS Strength Coach and Trainer survey was Scotty Cox. His story is a unique one, filled with experiences and memories that most of us have just read about and includes visits to Venice Beach in the 80s, powerlifting, bodybuilding, and many big names.
EFS: You’ve had quite an extensive and varied lifting career. Before we delve into the powerlifting, tell us about your pilgrimage to Venice Beach. What year did you leave for Venice Beach?
SC: My first venture out west was in 1982.
EFS: How old you were you?
SC: I was 19-years-old and I thought I was grown!
EFS: Why did you go? What drove you there?
SC: Actually, my very first trip out west was to drive home with a friend that was getting out of the Marine Corps. This was only for a week, but I remember the first morning I walked out to go to the gym. I looked at the mountains in the horizon and knew I wasn’t in Alabama anymore. I told Allen (my friend) that I had a feeling that I would be back out there. It was almost a spiritual feeling that I was in the right place! Nine months later I was back.
My first trip out there, we trained at Kal Szkalaks Flex Fitness in El Toro. The gym was only three months old, and I was in heaven. Kal was a former Mr. Universe from Hungary. He had won a lawsuit from Weider Enterprises for unauthorized use of his image, hence the new gym. Thanks Joe!!
Kal had arms like I had never seen before, and he and I hit it off right away. We had several good discussions on training, Joe Weider, the meet for which I was preparing, and just life in general. This was a big deal for a 19-year-old who had been reading magazines with Kal on the cover. It was fun to have him spotting me and giving me a hard time in the gym!! I actually visited Venice Beach at this time but was too intimidated to train. I only shopped at the Gold’s Pro Shop. Funny looking back!
EFS: How long did you stay there?
SC: I was back out west nine months later. This time I actually went to Venice Beach. I was back and forth for four years. I remember turning in a college English exam to my instructor with who knows what on it and stating, “See ya! I’m on my way to California!” Of course, I hope my children don’t read this!
I sold my car, took the money I had been saving from my health food store job as well as money from the workouts I had been writing for people around here, and flew back to California. My girlfriend at the time wanted to go to gemological school, and the only two schools were in New York and Santa Monica. Glad I could help her make the right decision! I actually stayed with her with her mom’s blessing and helped look after her.
EFS: Where did you train?
SC: I trained at Gold’s Venice and Joe Gold’s World Gym but mostly at Gold’s because that is where most of the “who’s who” went. Also, Gold’s was the proving ground for new equipment. I think anything new was brought out there first. I remembered one day they brought in one of the first recumbent stationary bikes, and we were all like what the heck is that thing?!
I had trained my girlfriend back home and I also trained her out there. She got asked to do some modeling work with Hot Skins, which was one of the first fitness clothing companies around. This opened many doors for meeting new people from magazines, etc.
EFS: Who did you meet?
SC: Some of the big name bodybuilders and lifters were Chris Dickerson (Mr. Olympia 1982), Samir Bannout (Mr. Olympia 1983—he was a clown!), Mike Christian, Peter and David Paul (the Barbarian Brothers), Tim Belknap (unbelievable), Tom Platz, Mike and Ray Mentzer (heavy duty fame), Boyer Coe, Casey Viator (Mister America winner at 19-years-old), Lyle Alzado (one of the nicest and most respected people out there), Hulk Hogan (whom I had met back home in our local gym a few years before), Lou Ferrigno (of course), and Arnold (actually met him in the post office).
The females were Rachel McLish, Kaye Baxter, Tegan Clive, Janice Regan, Reggie Bennett, and Cory Everson. I also met some people in the tv/music industry including David Lee Roth and Eddie and Alex Van Halen. We all did a leg workout together. Also, I met Carl Weathers (the Rocky movies) and several soap opera people, both male and female. It’s funny how you are all in the gym at the same time, and everyone just becomes people who enjoy training and taking care of their bodies. No one is really a star in there. Really cool! And tons of respect to the lifters who were media stars back then!
EFS: Who did you train with?
SC: I had a few training partners while there. I met a 19-year-old kid from New Jersey named Nick Bevins. He was 275 lbs with a raw 505 bench press. He and I became friends and partners. Nick actually competed in the Mr. California at age 20 and got fourth place in the heavyweights. He decided to move back to New Jersey out of frustration! His first ever bodybuilding show, fourth place in the toughest state amateur show in the country, and he was pissed!
I also trained with Jim Inschoe, a guy I knew from out east. He was from Warner Robins, Georgia, and neither he nor I knew the other was out there so it was pretty cool when we ran into one another. Jim had won the heavyweight class at Mr. USA and was known for his thighs. Here’s a quick story: I had never seen a hack squat machine. Jim introduced me to it with strip sets every leg day! My legs stayed sore it what seemed like six weeks! I put about two inches on them in that time period!
I also trained and became good friends with Rick Valente of the TV show Body Shaping. Rick won the Mr. Los Angeles, and due to his marketable looks, that was all it took. At last count, he had done approximately 80 TV commercials, not to mention the Van Halen album cover holding the world on his back. Another partner and friend was Dr. Dean Tornabene, lightweight Mr. America and founder of so many infomercial exercise pieces that I have lost count! He is a very intelligent person as well as the one who introduced me to personal training. He stands five feet, one inch tall and weighs a lean 170 lbs. He later came to Alabama to guest pose at one of my shows and was quite an entertainer and speaker. People were amazed at the amount of muscle he has!
EFS: Looking back now, how cool is it to be part of lifting history?
SC: You know, Jim, it is really cool to look back and realize the era that I was in out there, but the fact is, I really don’t think about it that much. I grew up in Dothan, Alabama, around the old LA (lower Alabama) Powerlifting Team who had several national champions as well as a world champion. I saw guys in Auburn, Alabama, like Kaz, Terry and Jan Todd, Chuck Dunbar, Lamar Gant, George Herring, and others. That’s pretty amazing looking back. The opportunities I have had and the people I have been able to learn from and associate with are really awesome.
Training has been the one constant in my life for 26 years, and the things that I have seen and been a part of and the relationships I’ve had are truly what it is all about. I learned several years ago that my biggest thrill comes from helping others achieve their goals. I try to live so that one day maybe some of these people will have some good things to say about what I did and what I was able to help them with! I have been truly blessed to be doing something that I love and to be around and accepted by some of the best. Sometimes it is fun to remind the youngsters about the guys that blazed the trails. It’s nice to know that I really was a part of that era, and I am still able to do things now, especially by helping others.
EFS: What kind of training was going on at this time?
SC: We had sort of felt our way through the Nautilus era. I actually went to Deland, Florida, to a seminar in the mid-80s with Mike and Ray Mentzer, Boyer Coe, and Casey Viator. They were disciples of Arthur Jones Nautilus and his one set to failure training. During the early 80s, machines were just starting to develop so there was much curiosity about this. I remember the rep phase with guys doing sets of 100 reps. Looking back, this was a big time for overtraining! The good old basics were still king, just faded a bit in the early 80s due to machines (e.g. Nautilus). Of course this was with the bodybuilder crowd!
EFS: Were there many powerlifting movements intermixed with bodybuilding?
SC: Squats were always king. Of course we laugh because the BENCH was and is still the most popular and misunderstood lift. We like to see new guys come in the gym and go straight to the bench EVERY workout! There weren’t many deadlifts back then in bodybuilding. I think Ronnie Coleman has sort of revived that for the bodybuilding crowd! I personally don’t think the intensity was the same back then. There wasn’t as much heavy, basic training. There were too many new machines to play with.
EFS: How did guys eat?
SC: Eating was actually much simpler but also more complicated, if that makes sense! We didn’t have the engineered foods of today (it has been fun to watch this evolve). Simple eating involved sticking with the basics like chicken, turkey, and fish. Back then, red meat was sort of a no-no. It was more complicated because restaurants didn’t serve as much healthy or lean food as they do today. Bodybuilders today have a buffet to choose from! Of course, we all had the pre-digested protein SYRUP in our gym bags and our hands full of desiccated liver tabs. As always, the high carb and then low carb fads would drift in and out depending on how much money the nutrition industry was making (in my opinion, they change the fads to keep people buying products). I learned much from the guys that promoted Weider, although I never used his products. I learned that you can’t believe every ad you read!
EFS: How did the general public view lifting and bodybuilding?
SC: In south Alabama, I was definitely a rare commodity! There were several powerlifters, but my training partner and best friend, Tim Goodwin, and I were the only two serious bodybuilders in our town. He was one of the owners of the club I trained at. Tim and I started training together when he was getting ready for the Mr. USA, and I was preparing for Teen Alabama. I was 17, and he taught me so much. He now owns a company called American Club Systems that either owns or manages health clubs all across the country. Tim is still one of my best friends today. We were sort of looked at as freaks, especially because of our nutrition. The tights I wore probably didn’t help either! Bodybuilding was not really understood in the south and still may not be.
That was one of the reasons why I loved California. A funny story: when I drove home with my buddy the first time from out west, we noticed that in California, people approached us as bodybuilder/weightlifters. As we got into Texas, the waitress would ask “Where do you guys play football?” By the time we got to Mississippi, we were being asked if we were wrestlers! It’s amazing how we can all live in the same country and see things so differently.
EFS: Do you have any funny stories or memories that are fit to print? (Names can be removed to protect the innocent!)
SC: One innocent but truly funny story was the day Tegan Clive (female bodybuilder from California Girls video fame) was doing the incline bench. A new guy came in and joined Gold’s Venice. He was dressed to the hilt with his new lycra tights, wrist wraps, new gym bag, gloves, and high-top Reeboks with the slouch socks pushed down. He walked over to the incline bench next to her. He put a 25 on either side and did ten reps. She did the same on her bench. He casually pulled the quarter and loaded a plate on either side, getting eight. She did the same. He slowed down a bit and decided to put a quarter on with that and got five decent reps. Tegan, who honestly wasn’t paying any attention to the newbie, slid another plate on and knocked out six reps without a spot. The guy grabbed his bag, left his weight on the bar, and promptly left the gym. Don’t know if he ever came back! We were cracking up, and Tegan never had a clue as to what she had done!
Another fun day was during photo shoot with one of the female bodybuilders, Kaye Baxter. As she was pumping up and getting her oil on, she walks over to the dumbbell rack where I was and says “good morning, Scotty.” She pulls her posing suit top down, and looking in the mirror, begins to rub in the posing oil. Being the gentleman I am, I offered to help. However, with a wink, she declined and said I think I have it taken care of. We were truly like a big family every day in the gym!
With me being from Bear Bryant country, I also have many funny stories from Alzado about football as well as from Hulk Hogan about wrestling at the Houston County Farm Center, a mile from my boyhood home.
EFS: You mentioned in the EFS interview that you have also powerlifted. How did you make this change from powerlifting to bodybuilding?
SC: During my early years, I would do some powerlifting after I got burnt out on the bodybuilding diets. I didn’t really know that much about it, but I always did quite well. This was in the days of the old super suit (single ply) and knee wraps. No bench shirts!
Actually a kid named Greg Warr from Dothan, along with the late, great Anthony Clark, was one of the first people that John Inzer used for modeling and designing the bench shirt. Greg was a 500 lbs bencher at 148 lbs, and he got nearly 600 at 165 with the new shirts (single ply). He made several trips to Hawaii for the World Record Breakers meet. I had a decent squat and deadlift—a 660 squat and a 640 deadlift at 193 lbs were recorded. My bench sucked, and was around 365 raw. As a bodybuilder, I never did much bench!
I had in the last few years been doing some deadlift competitions and was trying to get a 700 lbs dead at 220–242 lbs. I got smart (not) at 41 and decided I wanted to also do bench in the push/pull events. I tried to use a denim 2-ply shirt with 415 lbs, but I tore my left rotator cuff and bicep tendon. Along with that, I had bone spurs, arthritis, etc. from years of abuse as they put it. My awakening came the night after my doctor visit. My surgeon told me that lifting as I knew it would be over after the surgery but that I had no other choice! I was sitting on the couch that night trying to take all of this in, and I really started to get bothered. Not wanting my wife to see or wonder what was going on with me, I walked outside to be alone. I really started to think about what I had not done, not what I had done. I decided then and there that after all the blessings in my life, some doctor, who was a runner not a weightlifter, was not going to decide when and why I would give up what I love to do!
I honestly was walking around in my front yard talking to God and myself about his plans and my dreams and goals. I knew then that I had not reached my potential as a powerlifter or a trainer and still had much to accomplish. It was actually a renewed fire in me! After a four hour surgery and two visits to therapy, I started my own plan. I walked on the treadmill and did leg extensions. My arm was still in a sling, but I graduated to squats on the Smith machine with one arm. I also worked my good arm as much as possible. To make a long story short, in six months I benched 385 raw and in eight months I benched 455 shirted. I still am learning to bench with a current 495. I decided I needed to do a full meet after 15 years, and in June 2005, I got my Elite rating at 220 weighing 216. This consisted of a 445 bench, 685 squat (with only two full squat sessions due to tendonitis), and 700 deadlift.
EFS: You also mention that you won a bodybuilding show at age 40. What was it?
SC: On my fortieth birthday, I won the Mr. Alabama competition. This was really cool because my kids (Sarah Jessica and Cody) were able to see me on stage and cheer for me. They were nine and seven at the time. I remember Cody saying, “Dad, this is so cool. I can go back to school and tell everyone that my Dad is Mr. Alabama!” It was fun to show the young kids that we helped pave the way for how things should be!
EFS: Did you have to radically change your training?
SC: I didn’t have to change my training as much as I had to change my nutrition and cardio. When training for a show, I would always write down everything I ate and stagger my calories over the course of a week for about 12–15 weeks. I do the same with the competitors that I train now, and I am usually able to look at a person and tell them what they need to be doing to accomplish their goal. Of course after 26 years in the trenches I should be able to do that!
EFS: You mention Kaz and Bill Pearl as being big influences on you. In
what ways did they influence you?
SC: Kaz influenced me just for his ability to take his body where no one had ever dreamed it could go. He was so far ahead of his competition, mentally and physically.
Bill Pearl is my all time hero and idol next to my dad! He taught me how to be humble and polite. He makes you feel like you are someone special. I had the opportunity to spend three days with him here when I managed Gold’s Gym and ran my training business there. He came in to do a seminar and demonstrate the LifeFitness electronic equipment he had designed. We had bought a circuit of them. The night I picked him up at the airport, he saw me and came straight over and introduced himself. We hit it off right away. On the way to his hotel, we discussed California, his battles with Joe Weider and Arnold, his dream to build the perfect piece of equipment, Arthur Jones and his former ties with him, and so many other things. He was amazing to talk to. He told me how he had made a comeback at 42 and sent out a challenge to all professionals to be at the Mr. Universe if they wanted a chance to beat Bill Pearl. Joe Weider saw him guest pose in England two weeks prior and would not let Arnold compete in the Mr. Universe that year. Arnold was actually preparing for the show until that time. True story!
When I Met Bill he was 63, and he kicked my ass in the gym! He trains at 3:30 AM, six days a week in his barn behind his house in Oregon. His workout consists of body part split training three days a week and full body the other three days. For his full body days, he will pick one exercise per body part and do four sets. Then, he will do 100 sit-ups before moving on to the next body part. Did I mention that he has not eaten meat since he was in his late 30s! Lacto-ovo vegetarian. Bill said there is nothing special in a piece of meat that you can’t get from something else?! However, the greatest thing about Bill was and is his attitude and unbelievable politeness. He is a true legend and humanitarian in the weightlifting industry. It was amazing to run into Bill at the Mr. Olympia competition two years after our days together and still have him recognize and remember me. He is definitely one that to model our spirits and attitude after. He is a true authority and gentleman on all things regarding weightlifting!
EFS: Being involved with lifting your whole life, what five things have remained constant? What five things are true today that were true when your first started?
SC: Here we go.
1) You still have to get your butt in the gym and work with intensity! Drugs, supplements, whatever will not get you there. No matter what you take, you still have to put your time in.
2) Basic movements are still the way to go. There are some good uses for machines, but they will never replace the good old basics. (No offense to Bill Pearl and his dream of building the perfect piece of equipment.)
3) There are “pseudo trainers” or experts everywhere. I still say the best rule of thumb is to look at who is giving you advice and then decide if it is worth trying. My analogy has always been: “If I were looking for a baseball coach, would I hire the guy who took a test that said he could coach or would I hire the guy who has been on the field and in the dugout for 10–20 years?” There’s nothing wrong with education, but experience is king! Time in the trenches can never be replaced by book knowledge.
4) The other side to number 3: don’t be afraid to take advice from others who may know their stuff. Swallow your pride. Just two weeks ago, my good friend, strength coach Richard Shaughnessy from Troy University, was talking with me. He told me Kaz came down to Troy to see him so that he could teach Kaz how to do power cleans properly! When Rich was in school at Auburn, he worked for Bill at his gym. Talk about a turnaround! Bill (Kaz) has a couple of football players he is working with. For the bench, squat, and deadlift, he is the man. But he didn’t know how to do cleans properly. Rich was strength coach of the year two years ago and definitely knows his stuff. He has an incredible strength program at Troy.
5) Bodybuilders’ egos are still as big as they have ever been. One thing that I was able to do at the Mr. Alabama in 2003 was to teach my kids that we can be nice and polite to people. We don’t have to strut around like peacocks for attention and still get attention. Humbleness, politeness, and helping others will get you further in life than all the muscles in the world.
EFS: As a bodybuilder, nutrition is obviously important. You mention that nutrition is seriously lacking in athletes. What are three things that you would change in regards to an athlete’s diet?
SC: Athletes seem to take nutrition for granted. They want to put all their focus on gym time and look for this special exercise or this miracle supplement to achieve whatever they want. The crazy thing is that they fail to study, learn, and change nutrition habits! Usually because eating right is hard as hell! It takes dedication 24/7. A workout takes dedication for the two hours that you are training. Nutrition is a constant. An analogy is the person who doesn’t want to do squats because they are hard, they make you feel sick, and they can cover up their legs anyway. This is the approach people take to nutrition, including most powerlifters! Nutrition is hard, not much fun, and most think “Well, I can do alright without it anyways!”
I am amazed at the people who dedicate their lives to training but never learn or are never DEDICATED enough to learn about eating better and healthier! Another thing that amazes me is people whose caloric intake isn’t enough to compensate for their activity level. It’s almost an anorexic sense. I like to use the analogy of a fire in a fireplace. If you don’t put another log on the fire, it will go out. This applies to metabolism as well. If you don’t feed it, it is going to slow down or the body will shut down. Of course, I am talking mostly about fat loss here, and women are three times worse than men about not eating enough. As I said above, eating correctly is a job in itself!
Number three would be that a supplement is just that—a supplement. That means it is there to supplement or help your nutrition, not replace it! There aren’t any pills or capsules that are going to totally replace your food intake and give you what you need. Whatever hype you may read, it isn’t there. If so, Bill Gates wouldn’t be making more money than anyone else in the world. The person who had that product would. Nothing will totally replace food. There are some great supplements out there but no shortcuts!
EFS: You have your own training business. How long have you been in operation?
SC: Body by Scotty was actually started when I was 18 and working in a health food store. I was in charge of protein supplements (what few there were) and fitness-related products. Many people would come in and ask me for workout advice or ask me to write them a plan. So my boss decided that I should charge them and design nutrition plans as well. Of course, he was promoting his products, but people would listen to me. He put up a sign and said we should call it Body by Scotty! I did this and also began working with some of the high school football players with their workouts. This was the beginning.
Later, a guy from a nearby town was planning to open a Gold’s Gym in my town and asked me if I would be interested in managing it. I helped him get the club going and managed it for the first six months. I was miserable. I told him I wanted to train people. Believe it or not, at that time, no one was training around here and most didn’t think you could. Most laughed at me but within six more months, I had more than I could do. I brought my wife in to help. This led to the first BBS and Company gym, and within two years, I had three of them. So, technically Body by Scotty has been around for 25 years (wow I didn’t realize that). I actually sold off those three and now have one excellent gym!
EFS: I know you are opening a new facility soon, and some of it is
powerlifting related. When will it be open and what are your plans?
SC: The new club (it will be a health club) is being finalized on paper right now with our architects and should be open within 12–15 months. It will truly be state of the art, with approximately 31,000 sq. ft. However, true to my heart, there will be a 2000 sq. ft. power room with deadlift platforms, monolifts, power racks, and anything else I might deem necessary for doing what we want. Of course, facilities don’t make money off people like you and me, Jim, so we will also have everything for the general fitness enthusiast including a basketball court, rock climbing room (the cave), smoothie café, and more.
EFS: How can people best reach you?
SC: I can be reached via email at bbscox2003@yahoo.com or at my gym at 334-588-6633. I would be more than happy to help people if I possibly can.
EFS: Thanks, Scotty.
Jim Wendler is the Senior Editor and Sales Manager at Elite Fitness Systems. He was previously employed as a strength and conditioning coach at the University of Kentucky, where he worked with several different teams including football and baseball. He graduated from the University of Arizona, where he played football and earned three letters. Jim’s best lifts include a 1000 lbs squat, a 675 lbs bench press, a 700 lbs deadlift, and a 2375 total in the 275 lbs class. The only thing Jim knows about Venice Beach is the cool hats that ST used to wear.
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