His name is Bill Grant. He was a skinny fella from the East Orange area of New Jersey. No  one would have ever believed he would have risen to the current heady heights in bodybuilding where he now breathes its rarefied air. In his early years Bill gained many of his muscular pounds while training at the Orange YMCA, and later, with a number of important physique titles under his belt, he joined my gym - training there for a year or so. Sometime later, in 1974, he beat a very young Lou Ferrigno for the WBBG Mr. America title. Bill Grant cried that night in front of an admiring and excited audience…the man had arrived, and he knew it.

Before this victory Bill often tried for the AAU Mr. America title, without success. He had, however, won every other possible title the AAU East Coast had to offer. A respected muscle denizen of the east by this time, he felt he was still not the topnotch bodybuilding hero he could ultimately become. At this point the boy went west to train with "The Men." It was Santa Monica, and Muscle Beach, the world's " College of Bodybuilding."

Since going west, Bill has surfaced in the field to a new height - a level referred to as truly 'Pro'. Amateur bodybuilding is not easy to stick to, with its meager trophy rewards. If that is so, then what of professional bodybuilding? Is it possible to make a living in this field as a pure physique entity? What are the rewards here? Grant, who went on to appear in movies, on television, and to win the IFBB Mr. World title, and is now a well-known international physique celebrity in great demand for appearances throughout the world, answers here some of these questions.

The following interview occurred at the WABBA World Championships in Paris, held by Serge Nubret. Bill placed a disappointing third to Tony Emmott, with a rather smooth Sergio Oliva winning the top professional cash in the Pro World division.

Grant was certainly not happy about this, but it was slightly salved over by the fact that perhaps the best-known bodybuilding promoter in Germany - Peter Fasching - shortly afterward offered Bill $2000 for some guest posing in that country. Bill agreed? Why not? His muscle is now handy money in the sport. All that pumping we muscle boys do may, for the first time, be worth more than the sweat that pours into our workout clothes, which dries into odors of sweet and sour consistency.

MTI : "Bill, in America you were recently interviewed on the late night Tom Snyder Show. Tom spoke of some problems you have in being a professional bodybuilder. You explained your view about how hard it is to be a bodybuilder, and why you did turn to the more difficult professional end of bodybuilding. What are you doing at the moment?

BG : "Right now, I'm still competing professionally, but I also hold a full-time job. That's because at this particular time the money I earn, as a professional is no great sum - not enough to support me. After competing tonight for the Mr. World this was proved by the fact that in placing third I won only $750. Now as you know, that's not going to go a long way…it's just about enough to pay my way here. So I still hold down a full-time job - and also have my own bodybuilding mail-order business, merchandizing my own training courses, pictures, and so on."

MTI : "Let me give you a plug, go on…"

BG : "I sell different training manuals, showing how to build arms, muscularity, chest, and I'm now in the process of making posters and writing a few more courses. As an example of what's in these courses: well, they are my training secrets - what I found out in taking the hard knocks of experience in the game. I spend a lot of time on diet and what it takes to become a championship bodybuilder. I definitely state these things, and only I know them because they are me."
"Let's take diet: it plays at least 80% of the whole in building a body, along with training. The training, you could say, is about 20%, but you have to 'hard in ' this 20%. But you could do all of the training in the world, and if you're not eating right you're going to be singing that 'no definition' song. Diet contributes that extra sharpness which is needed for the platform. Most bodybuilders don't realize that. They think they can eat whatever they want just before a show - and that just because they train 4 or 5 hours a day they'll automatically be ripped. Well, it's just not that way.
"Another point I go into heavily is posing, and that's a heavy percentage in there some place. Like just by turning my wrist a certain way I can make my arms look a half-inch bigger. It's little things like a positioning of a leg; the positioning of the arms and hands - that can accentuate each body-part and make it look a lot bigger than it really is. Many posers don't realize that if you stand a certain way you can make a specific muscle gigantic, as seen by angular illusion by onlookers. I've saved these things for years, and have finally written and published these successful ideas."

MTI : "Why did you go to California? You were an American East Coast lad. Why did you take off? Don't you like the four seasons?"

BG : "I grew up with the four seasons, but I don't think I was never particularly a cold-weather person. What really got me going was that I think California is the Mecca of bodybuilding. This is where all the top bodybuilders would go if they expected to become real champions. So I felt it was time for me to make the trek, and because I work for an airline it was very easy for me to get there. So I transferred to Los Angeles, and this enables me to get away from the cold weather. Basically, I'm warm-weather orientated in spite of the fact I grew up in an area of the world that had four seasons. I like the warm weather and I've been out in the Los Angeles area happy and comfortable for five years. I love every minute of it."

MTI : "What were some of the really fun things that happened to you when you first took up residence in what the bodybuilding world considers 'Muscleville' (the LA area)…the big champs and that type of thing?"

BG : " I got to see a lot of the things that were new to me. I met a lot of good people, as well as having the chance to come personally in contact with the important movie and showbiz people. Later I began getting parts in various films and TV projects, all of which are produced in Los Angeles, which is the center of this business. This was the exciting part to me, aside from the concentration of bodybuilding talent and knowledge that are also there.
"As a matter of fact, I just did a TV thing with Robert Wagner. It was for his TV series Switch. That should have hit the tube last night where were here in Paris. Let's see, you mentioned the Tom Snyder Show. I did a lot of local news shows and TV in Los Angeles. Manuel Perry and I did a Muscular Dystrophy Foundation benefit, which was a thrill because I felt it helped the sport and my sport was helping people in serious need of public attention.
"Things keep chopping up all the time out there in the LA area because the theatrical people are constantly calling Gold's Gym, where we train. Kent Kuehn, for example, played Sandow last week on a TV show. Roger Callard, I am told, has the contrast to play Eugen Sandow in a new movie coming up…all the opportunities are out there, you see."

MTI : "Okay, Bill. Here's a loaded question for you. You were in that great film about bodybuilding and the muscle life, Pumping Iron. How about your opinion of the film from a personal bodybuilding standpoint?"

BG : "I don't think it gave a big enough story about bodybuilding because the film was mostly about Arnold. You know…there's more than one bodybuilder. I don't think they gave a full view of bodybuilding and didn't dig into the actual lives of the bodybuilders. They just dug into part of Arnold's life.
"But there's a lot of great bodybuilders around, not only Arnold. I'm not taking away from Arnold, because he is one of the greatest bodybuilders.

But they should not only have focused on him, but on most of the other bodybuilders all of them. They focused on Arnold and Lou Ferrigno, really - but they didn't go deeply into our actual lives. I mean, what do bodybuilders do when they're not actually in the gym? This was one of the things they didn't depict in the move, which was supposed to be included."

MTI : "What do you do when you're not in the gym?"

BG : "I do all the things that other people do. I go to nightclubs, and parties…the normal social things."

MTI : "Aside from that, you seem to be traveling on a world-wide basis because of your physique reputation, titles, and competition. You are in demand. Bill, what do you do to keep fit - not your general training routine. What maintains your body with the 10 and 12-hour plane trips, and regional or country-to-country time changes? All this action takes some toll on your health. How can you handle the new exotic foods along with this pressure?"

BG : "Well, I try and take a lot of vitamins, and I try to watch what I eat, because there's really not much time to exercise. The fact is, if you watch your diet and take the proper supplements, and do some calisthenics here and there, you'll get by. It makes one very tired. All those moves can be very tiresome. And there's no sense in putting the people on and making them think you go to a gym when you're traveling for 2 or 3 hours a day, because it's just not possible to do that.
"The only thing you can do is perhaps light pushups, maybe cable exercises, or crushers in your room - things like that, just to keep fit. If you're on the road for a month it's really hard to go into a gym and train. You may be able to get 3 or 5 workouts in a week, but as far as training as you would normally train; I think it's impossible to do. And that goes back to my original point that diet is 80% of it, because if you've trained really hard all along, the muscles are there, and they're going to stay there as long as you control dietary conditions."

MTI : "How powerful are you? Were you stronger in the old days back in Jersey, or today, on the California scene? When I visited Gold's Gym in July of 1977 to cover the AAU Mr. America, I say you doing One-arm Dumbbell Triceps Extensions with a 25-pound dumbbell. That's an awfully light weight."

BG : "Right. I've found at this particular point over the years of training I've used a lot of heavy weight. But at this time the muscle is more or less built, and the foundation is there, and you really don't need a lot of heavy weight. What you need it stimulation. In other words, you need only a weight heavy enough to make the muscles work, and stimulate them. This is where the diet comes in again. The gym is just a stimulation-type thing, and then you have to eat the right foods to build the muscle. But still you have to handle enough poundage to break down the fibers so it makes the body produce more size within that tissue. Once you get stronger the process repeats itself, but you don't have to constantly use a lot of heavy weight, because I've found too much of this, when repeated, can cause injuries. I found this with other trainers as well as myself.
"Over the years, due to carelessness and over-emphasis on the heavy-heavy stuff, I got it in the knees and shoulders. Now Ken Waller is a perfect example of this. He's used tones and tons of weight, and now it's a shame he's hurt his elbow and needs an operation on both of them, I think. At the stage of the game we're at we don't need that much weight to build muscle."

MTI : "You're an ambassador for a gym-equipment firm now, aren't you?"

BG : "Yes, you could say I am."

MTI : "We don't mind mentioning a brand name in the magazine, because everybody in the field deserves a plug. In the end it all works out. You're now a success and you should be proud of it, so why should we hold back that the fact that you're trying to stay in our business and make it from there? The name of the company is Billard, right? What do you do for them?"

BG : "What I do is to go around to different sporting goods shows and exhibitions all over America. The last one was in New York City. I n the future I'll be appearing in Houston, Chicago, Miami…wherever they're having shows…to promote the product. I get paid a fee and all my expenses are paid. Why not? I feel that bodybuilders who've worked hard their entire career should be able to capitalize on the things they've achieved, while helping others along the way.
"Today the field revolves around one or two major commercial people. Why should they be stuck to only one commercial interest? As a professional, this is the name of the game - to make money. The only way to be able to make money is to go wherever we want ot go to earn the money. I don't think it's right to be dictated to as a professional, and be told that we can compete only in one show. Or that we can only do things for just one commercial interest, and can only go to this one place, etc. It's not fair.
"As a former amateur I could see where certain restriction s and controls could be put on the amateur bodybuilder, but this can't apply to professionals. It's their living."

MTI : "You started out as a little skinny boy, years back; took up weights and wiped out everything in sight on an amateur level in most cases. You then turned pro. You understand the ropes of what's going on in our sport from both sides. It's now your career, even though you still maintain a vocation in the airline industry. What kind of advice can you give bodybuilders in the intermediate state of our sport who may feel that being a pro is a flashy and attractive eventuality?"

BG : "I advise them to keep training, and only compete as a pro when they really feel they're ready. In other words, don't just jump off into it because they see money there. You know you have to take the necessary steps to get yourself noticed. You must get the publicity, and keep winning the titles on the way up.
"Once you feel you're ready and you have the publicity, and only then should you go pro. Otherwise you'll be doing grave damage to yourself. You should win as much as you can as an amateur before you move on to the pro field.
"Sometimes I even look back and feel I jumped into the pro field a little too fast. But now that I'm here, I'm going to make the best of it, and I'm going to train twice as hard to stay right on top."

MTI : "Bodybuilders who are seeking info on your courses, or promoters looking to book you for appearances - how would they contact you?"

BG : "They could contact me through 'Bill Grant, Box 1493, Santa Monica, CA. 90406'."
Anyway you cut it; bodybuilding is the way to go. Bill Grant found that out. He knows. "Take it from a pro."

Magazine: Muscle Training Illustrated June 1978

Department: The Americans In Paris

Section: Magazine Feature

Article: Take It From A Pro by: Denie