A Star Profile: Art Atwood - The Wisconsin Wonder Boy Part 2

I would bet my entire kitchen cabinet full of supplements that most of you had no idea who Art Atwood was just a year ago. Until then, he was just another struggling amateur bodybuilder with big dreams to match his big muscles. Then, in the fall of 2001, he turned professional by winning the Superheavyweight class at the Nationals. Turning pro is no big deal in itself. I know a lot of pro’s working as personal trainers who never cracked the top ten in an IFBB contest or made a single penny from the sport. That’s why nobody was expecting Art to come along this past spring and win the Toronto Pro Invitational the first time he ever mixed it up with the vets. It’s a pretty exclusive club that includes names like Flex Wheeler, Mike Francois, and Kevin Levrone. Think about it: as great a bodybuilder as Lee Priest is, it took him nine years to win a pro show. Even Ronnie Coleman had been a pro for seven years before his first IFBB victory. We wanted to find out just what this unassuming young man from the Dairy State was all about, so here’s his Star Profile.

(Interview conducted July 2002. Art died on September 11, 2011 at the age of 37.)

What was it like being backstage at your first pro contest in Toronto? Were you nervous? Did the other guys know who you were?

AA: The other guys had no idea who I was. They all assumed I was from Europe, and were shocked to hear me speak English and find out I was from Wisconsin. I was very confident. Since I had turned pro at the Nationals, I had gone from 245 to 260 and the conditioning was even better. I actually looked harder the night before the show, but it didn’t matter. My back was much improved. The only guy I was worried about was Markus Ruhl, because he had just won the Night of Champions. He was huge, but I knew I was at my best and could give him a run.

Were you concerned about your chances, since Markus had just won the Night of Champions and the judges all knew who he was?

AA: Yeah, because I don’t really believe in all that political crap. My feeling is that if you look good enough, it doesn’t matter whether the judges have seen you a hundred times or never before. I was in the very first callout, so I knew they were looking at me as a potential winner right from the start.

What was it like when your name was announced in first place?

AA: It was an unreal feeling. Even though I had felt pretty good about it, you never know how these things will turn out until it’s all said and done. It took a while to sink in. The other guys were very cool about it. I’m sure a few were probably bitter because they felt I hadn’t paid my dues yet. But as I said, I think that’s all in their heads, the politics.

As a supplement store owner, do you find that a great deal of your customers are looking for the products to make up for sub-par training and nutrition habits?

AA: Oh yeah, it’s very common. I had a lady come in just yesterday and ask me what she could take to lose weight. I started asking her some questions. She didn’t exercise and had no intentions of starting. Her meals that day had been four candy bars. I explained to her that I couldn’t help her. She needed to get some information first and understand that supplements are good but that training and proper nutrition have to come first. A lot of people don’t want to bother with any of that, they just want to take a pill and have instant results. It just doesn’t work that way.

Time for a sensitive question. When was the last time you cried?

AA: Huh. (long pause) I honestly can’t remember. I don’t cry too often.

What do you think the average citizen in the street assumes about you that isn’t exactly true when they see you?

AA: A lot of people assume I’m mean and arrogant, which I’m not.

Do you think pro wrestling on TV has something to do with that assumption, the way those big guys act?

AA: Yeah, wrestling is huge here in Wisconsin. I’m always being asked if I’m a wrestler or why I don’t wrestle. I’ve had a lot of women come up to me and tell me that all my muscles are gross, and some of them are morbidly obese. At our state fair, people will wait in line for two hours for these famous cream puffs, but that’s okay. I don’t know whether it’s fear, jealousy, or both that makes people look down on bodybuilders. Most of the bodybuilders I have ever known are nice guys who go out of their way to be courteous.

Do you think the general public overestimates the role of steroids in creating an IFBB level physique?

AA: Absolutely. It’s just ignorance. I get e-mails from angry guys who say that if they took drugs, they would be giving me and Ronnie Coleman some real competition. So many bodybuilders wrongly assume that if they just took a bunch of steroids, they would be pro’s. I have some big news for them. There are thousands of guys using tons of steroids out there and only a small percentage look anything like the pro’s. I guess the general public is worse, because they don’t even consider the training and nutrition that goes into the physique. I train twice a day, six days a week, and I eat up to nine meals a day. I can’t believe how people will verbalize their ignorance. Some of the stuff my wife has overhead when we’re out in public is just ridiculous.

What’s more important for success in bodybuilding, gifted genetics or the will to work your ass off for years?

AA: You need both if you want to rise to the top. There are different types of genetic gifts. There’s the ability to put on muscle fast, having the right frame and small joints, and being naturally lean no matter how much weight you put on. Ronnie Coleman is a good example of someone with all of those gifts, plus he works incredibly hard in the gym. Dorian Yates was not quite as gifted physically, but he made up for it with a work ethic I don’t think we’ve seen since he retired.

Do you ever wonder what life would be like as a regular person who doesn’t train and only eats three times a day?

AA: That’s a scary thought! Sometimes I wonder what I’d be doing if I wasn’t a bodybuilder, but I can’t imagine that. I enjoy my lifestyle the way it is so much. I could never imagine going off to some job I hated for eight hours a day and then sitting on a couch and watching TV until it was time to do it again. That’s no way to live.

Flex Wheeler once said that when he retired from competing, he wouldn’t even go to the gym anymore. Do you ever see yourself doing that?

AA: I think he only said that at the time because he was feeling burned out. This is a very competitive sport and it can take a lot out of you. I was thinking the other day about how Arnold had won six Olympias by the time he was 28 and retired until he came back in 1980. Bodybuilding is so much tougher now, because we have a lot more excellent physiques in the world. I would never stop training, but I would cut it back a bit. Instead of twice a day, six days a week, I would go to the gym once a day, four or five times a week. Definitely I would take the weekends off. But training is such a routine for me, like brushing my teeth or taking a shower. It will always be part of my life.

Who are your favorite bodybuilders of the last ten years?

AA: I’d say Dorian Yates. He was thick and massive, and had that grainy hardness that we haven’t seen too much or since. I remember when I first started working at GNC in 1992 and he came out in the magazines, I was just in awe of the guy. I knew nobody was going to ever beat him.

What do you think about Synthol use?

AA: It’s something that should never have come into bodybuilding. Anyone using that crap should be severely marked down. It looks lumpy and sick. I know guys who have ruined their physiques with Synthol. It can’t be good to create all that scar tissue, either. There was a guy in the Night of Champions who obviously had it in his shoulders but was right up in the top three anyway. Darrem Charles brought this up at the athlete’s meeting in Toronto, and at that show he was marked much lower. So the judges do listen at times when we complain about it.

You are getting ready for your first Mr. Olympia contest as we speak. Has it settled in yet that you are going to be sharing the same stage as Ronnie and all the other best men in the world?

AA: The last time I was on stage with Ronnie was when he was handing me a trophy at am amateur show I won back in 2000. If you told me back then that two years later I was going to be on the Olympia stage trying to take his title away, I would have laughed. It’s hard to imagine, but it’s coming up soon. It will be a real honor, that’s for sure.

Your career is just starting out. Where do you want it to go, and what would you like your contributions to the sport to be?

AA: I estimate I have a good eight years or so as a pro. Eventually, I want to be mr. Olympia. That is a serious goal of mine. I want to use that to get more publicity and help promote my business. Right now I have the one store, Results Discount Nutrition in West Allis, but I want to expand and have a few more locations in next few years. Lately I have been hiring qualified staff for the store so I can focus 100% on my bodybuilding career. We take care of our customers, and I won’t hire anyone unless they have a solid background in sports nutrition and supplements. Like others before me, I want to use bodybuilding as a steppingstone for other things. Contributions? I want to break the stereotype of the big dumb guys that some people think we are. I want bodybuilding to get on television more and attract major mainstream sponsors like Nike so we can bring more money into the sport. Those are my plans for the future.

Thank you very much, and I’ll be in Vegas cheering you on.

AA: You’re very welcome.

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