“If I Had Physique Like Yours, I’d Walk With My Shirt Off All the Time”: Words That Helped Frank Zane Believe He Can Be a Bodybuilding Legend, Interview 2019

Three-time Mr. Olympia Frank Zane is one of the most renowned personalities in the bodybuilding world. The 80-year-old bodybuilder introduced new and effective ways of building a competition-worthy body. However, Zane would not have been the greatest today had he not heard motivating words from the father of American weightlifting.

Zane began bodybuilding at 14 after reading Muscle Magazine. He fought dumbbells and practiced in his basement. Soon he was introduced to a contest where Zane met his life-turning moment.

Frank Zane shared the reason behind being the greatest

Frank Zane developed his muscles during the early stages of his training when he gained an interest in bodybuilding as a sport. Eventually, Zane came across a bodybuilding contest near Allentown, Pennsylvania. Although he was a novice in bodybuilding, he trained for the contest. During that contest, Zane met Bob Hoffman, the ‘Father of American Weightlifting’. That meeting gave him the confidence to become the greatest bodybuilder ever.

In an interview with Escape Fitness in 2019, Zane shared the incident and the magical thing which Bob Hoffman told him. The retired bodybuilder stated that 50 people participated in that competition. While he was pumping backstage, Bob Hoffman came to him. Frank further told:

“Hoffman came over to me and he said young man if I had a physique like yours I would walk over with my shirt off all the time and that was enough for me to hear and I believed them that I would be the greatest”

Hoffman’s words to Zane were enough for him to take bodybuilding as his career.

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He stated that it felt great hearing those motivating words that remained with him for the rest of his life. Eventually, Zane took over the bodybuilding world and also become one the few bodybuilders to defeat the OG Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Zane talks about how genetics affected his bodybuilding

When asked about how genetics played a role in building his body, he gave a very well-explained answer to it. According to Zane, genetics could be divided into two portions, structure and metabolism. He admitted that he had a genetically good structure for bodybuilding. However, he did not have a great metabolism.

Zane was unable to digest his diet as fast as other bodybuilders. He had to put extra effort into doing so. Eventually, he studied effective methods of improving metabolism and it worked out for him. The rest, became history.

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Have you been inspired by someone to pursue your dreams as Zane did? Tell us your story in the comments!