Neil Rech’s Story – Body Building in your fifties? I am living proof it is not too late to strive for the perfect body!

Old Bodybuilder“I believe that if you are motivated, you can start bodybuilding at any age.  I had a wakeup call at my doctor’s surgery early in 2002.  I went to the doctor for what I thought was a simple check up.  My family GP who has looked after my health for over 20 years told me to hop on the scales.  Much to my shock he said that I was obese.  At 90 kilos and 168 centimetres tall, this description didn’t compute to me.

But my doctor was adamant.  For my health’s sake, he said that I had to lose weight.  Obese was not how I saw myself.  On the contrary, I had always prided myself on being fit and healthy.  I have played sport of some description most of my life and have a box full of trophies from my early years to prove it.  When I had to stop playing sport because of a tear in my rotor cuff tendon, I took up jogging.  This kept me fit and lean for 10 years but every step was painful because of my damaged knee as a result of a workplace accident when I was 29.  My knee was starting to give out under the pounding on the pavement and I was running less and less often.  What now? I never saw myself as a gym junkie.  But I was running out of options.”

Neil Rech, Aged 55     

31 October 2011.

Neil Rech’s quest for fitness

On the 3 March 2002, an overweight 46 year old Neil Rech began his quest to get fit and healthy and reduce his waistline by joining a gym in Canberra, the capital of Australia.  Neil did his own thing at the gym and mucked around with weights, exercise bikes and cross trainers and this kept him reasonably fit, and happy, for a while.

In April 2004 Neil Rech became frustrated with the restrictions of not being able to lift weights above his head because of his bad shoulder or do squats because of his bad right knee. (To this day Neil has never done squats even with an unloaded bar.)  In desperation, Neil asked Harry Haureliuk, a celebrated and highly accomplished bodybuilder who happened to work at the gym, for advice on how to use the equipment in the gym withhis physical restrictions.  After several discussions, Harry suggested that Neil could work around his injuries and developed a personal exercise program tailored to his needs……. and so the story begins.


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After three years of regular gym training, Harry started to suggest that Neil should compete in the next competition which was to be held later that year, the 2007 50+ ACT Natural Physique Bodybuilding Titles.  Neil thought Harry was joking at first but after his persistent requests to join him in the competition and the encouragement of his gym colleagues, Neil decided that he would give it a go.  As the competition was only 9 weeks away, he started a strict diet and exercise program andattended posing classes every Friday night for 6 weeks.  With two weeks to go, Harry gave Neil two bodybuilding magazines to look at and get a feel for what a bodybuilder should look like.  This was the first time Neil had looked through such a magazine and did not relate to the seemingly distorted and oversized bodies which bore little resemblance to his own.  More intimidating still was the fact that he had never seen a bodybuilding competition before.  He was truly a novice at the sport in every sense of the word.

Yet at his very first competition in October 2007, much to his surprise Neil finished fourth.  Neil had a major shoulder reconstruction in March 2008 and did not compete again until October 2008 also at the ACT Natural Physique Titles where he finished a creditable second behind Harry Haureliuk, the 2006 INBA Mr Olympia and Mr Universe – Grand Master.  This was an outstanding achievement as Neil was severely restricted in his gym regime as a result of the shoulder reconstruction.

Bronze Medal Natural Olympia Reno, Nevada, USA, 12 Nov 2010

Since that time, Neil has gone from strength to strength, competing in 23 International Natural Bodybuilding Association (INBA) competitions to date:

Neil Rech’s Natural Bodybuilding Association Results
Date Place INBA Competition
14-Oct-07 4th ACT Natural Physique Titles 50 +
12-Oct-08 2nd ACT Natural Physique Titles 50 +
18-Apr-09 2nd Dubbo International Physique Titles 50 +
3-May-09 2nd Sydney Natural Physique Titles 50 +
20-Sep-09 1st ACT Natural Physique Titles 50 +
27-Sep-09 5th NSW Natural Physique Titles 50 +
3-Oct-09 5th Australian Natural Physique Titles 50 +
17-Oct-09 4th 2009 INBA Natural Olympia X11 50 +
25-Apr-10 1st Adelaide Natural Physique Titles 50 +
1-May-10 2nd Dubbo International Physique Titles 50 +
16-May-10 1st Sydney Natural Physique Titles 50 +
22-May-10 2nd Brisbane Classic Natural Physique Titles 50 +
19-Sep-10 4th ACT Natural Physique Titles
2-Oct-10 4th Victoria Natural Physique Titles
9-Oct-10 5th Australian Natural Physique Titles
6-Nov-10 4th Natural Universe USA  Hollywood 40-49 Short
6-Nov-10 7th Natural Universe USA Hollywood 50-59
12-Nov-10 6th 2010 INBA Natural Olympia X111 USA Reno, Nevada 40-49 Short
12-Nov-10 3rd 2010 INBA Natural Olympia X111 USA Reno, Nevada 50-59 Short

 


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