BIOGRAPHY

Name: Gregory Alan Reid
Born: November 18, 1962
Birthplace: Huntington, New York

Memory: I was five years old. It was early morning. I was waiting to be walked to school. The TV was on. A man was standing tall and talking to people at home, teaching them how to exercise. I watched how he stood, and how he would move his body. It motivated me. He challenged me. I wanted to watch his show every morning, and did.

Even at that very young age I took in a lot of what I saw and what he was saying. It always made sense to me. It would be him and a chair, and sometimes he would have his big white German Shepherd with him.

His name was Jack LaLane. Now, as I write this, Jack is a living legend, well into his 90's and still putting it down. He's proof that exercise is something we should practice throughout our lives.

The cool part about my mornings was that I got exercise energy, every day, first thing before school.

Introduction to Exercise

Exercise consciousness began at age 5

Exercising started at age 7.

Weight training started at age 13.

Growing up in Huntington, a suburb on Long Island, being physical was something we did just being kids: playing in the street, playing hide and seek, freeze tag, kick ball. I lived for a while with my grandfather, an ex-Marine. The first formal exercising I did was of real structure: the deep knee bend or squat. When I was punished for something I did that I shouldn't have, this would be the movement he would have me do. There were times we would start while it was light outside, and finish when it was dark. Pretty brutal, maybe. But the truth is, it didn't really bother me all that much. Neither did the endless standing at attention or the bouncing up and down.

You might be thinking: "Damn, that was a lot for a little kid." But I was already learning the old adage: That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Introduction to Weight Lifting

At ten, my mom, younger brother, sister and I (I'm the oldest of four) moved to Los Angeles. I saw kids my own age playing a lot of sports I had only seen on television in Long Island. I had no clue that kids really played like this. The thing that really got my interest was Martial Arts, but we could never afford lessons. Instead, I started helping Bob out at the store, and it was then that I first experienced lifting heavy objects.

Pool chemicals - chlorine and acid - came 4 gallons to a case. At ten years old and slightly small, I could only carry one bottle at a time. A case weighed about 35 pounds. But by the time I left to go into the Marine Corps, eight years later, I was carrying 2 cases, in one hand, out to customer's cars.

I remember being in the 7th grade and seeing weights for the first time. Mr. Scott, the P.E. coach, had the gym floor set up with weights going all around the room. This was my introduction to circuit training. Each movement he showed us was to be done with good form in a certain time frame, before moving to the next station. When I saw this, something clicked. Big time.

In the 9th grade I got something called chondromalacia (growing pains in the knees), which put me in "remedial P.E.," and transferred me from the blacktop to the weight room. This was where and when the regularity of weight training started for me.

When I was about 14 I borrowed some weights and hauled them back to my apartment. Between school and home and sometimes at a friend's house, I'd always be lifting. I can thank Mr. Scott for my form, and my body responded very quickly. Seeing this really kept my interest.

I played football in 11th and 12th grades. Second string usually; sometimes first, depending on the line-up. But all throughout high school I got stronger. I graduated still only weighing about 150 pounds. And at barely 5'10'', I was never as sharp as my friends in football, basketball, or baseball. But one thing was certain: no one could lift as much as I could.

USMC

Six days after high school I was in the Marine Corps. Talk about being physical and getting exercise… I didn’t like the running, way too much for me. But you do what the government says. I did set a personnel best in my push-ups: 100 straight. But I’d had practice: in school I would do three sets of fifty every morning before leaving home.

First Bodybuilding Competition

During my first year of service I entered my first bodybuilding competition. Man, what a rush that was. Scared me out of my mind. I was wearing these little posing trunks, and nothing else. I was basically naked, and on stage in front of God and everybody, posing and flexing. I didn't actually complete that first show, but I did get the chance to meet and talk to Bill Pearl, who had a booth there.

Bill Pearl is one of the bodybuilders from the day. Even before Arnold. He told me to always work my legs and back the hardest. Those are your two biggest body parts, he said.

The following year I laid into my body like a hurricane, and the next show I did, which was actually the first show I completed, I placed 2nd, and was on my way to compete for the next 15 years.

The Body Builder

I was fortunate to learn a lot, very early in my competitive career, about the value of proper diet with training. That allowed me to actually watch my physique change and mature. I remember my weight lifting/football coach saying to me, "Reid, you have great symmetry and proportion, keep it going." I really didn’t know what he meant at the time he said it, but I know now, the way things turned out for me, that he would have been proud. The elements of proper eating and proper training are what bodybuilding is all about. They’re the cornerstones of healthy living and a good life.

I remember the first time I saw a World Champion Bodybuilder. My friend and I (Troy, who lived downstairs from me), rode our bikes to - where else? Venice Beach. This was before they re-did the "pit" (which is famous for allowing you to watch bodybuilders work out). This was the place where so many old bodybuilding stories were born. And being there really blew my mind. I mean, how could one human being get so fricken HUGE?!

At that point I believe my world was changing, although I was still some years away from going into bodybuilding with all my fire and hunger. This would find me at about fifteen, and really into my push ups, lifting with my friends, or by myself. But still, I hadn’t fathomed the depth of my training just yet.

Training in the USMC wasn't easy. As I got bigger, I got hassled about my size, and after a while I had a hell of a time fitting into my uniforms – which the government didn't like at all. But completing my tour of duty freed up my ability to compete. Now, finally, I was able to focus on the true essence of training and gaining size, while not stressing about how big I shouldn't get, but how big I could get.