Growing up in India, I developed an interest in physical culture watching movies starring that big Austrian dude and that other Italian dude (who, in one of his movies, goes to Russia to wallop that big Russian fella). While my Dad eventually bought me some of Arnie's books while I was in high school, I craved a much personal learning experience. I didn't get that until the advent of the Internet -- a few years after my arrival in the US -- allowed me to learn about the lesser known strongmen of yesteryears and their bare bones training with just a few pieces of equipment.
Clancy Ross full squatted well into his 60s and convinced me that full squats were the way to go. A few years after that conviction, I grew from a thin 130 pounder to a dense 155 pounder with 22 inch thighs. Reg Park, on the other hand, remained elusive from my research for many years. Somebody wrote somewhere that if John Grimek oozed dense muscularity and Steve Reeves exuded aesthetics, then Reg Park combined those two qualities to build a rugged physique...a physique that would eventually inspire a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, thousands of miles away in a little Alpine village, to give up soccer and become a bodybuilder. A couple of years ago I re-discovered Park and his lifestyle and made a drastic change to my training again: I threw away isolation exercises and only did the big, compound movements. I stopped feeling guilty about not doing "cardio" or training abs directly. After a while, I realized that I was able to stay strong and in shape without, it seemed, really trying. Workouts weren't simply workouts anymore. I was training and it suddenly defined my existence, like breathing, eating and sleeping do. A year later I finally convinced my brother to start lifting free weights. And, Reg Park, was the reason for that.
Tributes are here (starting with one by that big Austrian dude).
