PRO BODYBUILDER AND TRUE INSPIRATION JACK LONDON

The UCW Radio Host Louis Velazquez had the opportunity to have Pro Bodybuilder Jack London on the Show.

It all Started when Jack was 12 yeas old. he was going into the 7thgrade and was extremely overweight. He was at the jersey shore and went to his dad and asked him to buy him a gym membership- According to Jack London he was was ready to be an Animal!!!

He was lucky and trained at a place called Atilis Gym, little did young Jack know, that he was training with the likes of Joe Meeko and Jeff king and Ron Tueful. These were the granddaddies of bodybuilding at the time.

As time went on, he grew…and grew, and grew…until he was bench pressing 400lbs at age 15…he was playing both offense and defense in football and was pretty much all world!!

Jack’s self esteem had grown incredible since then, in the beginning he was just another fat kid, trying to get a girlfriend…..

Then his  parents told me him that he was going to an exclusive high school called the William Penn Charter school- there He grew to excel in academics as well as athletics…

Jack’s football career started to look like a reality. He was actually running a 4.8 40 yard dash and was weighing 280lbs as a senior. he was also, lifting heavy…800 squat/600 bench…all in high school!!!!

But during his senior year in High School tragedy struck and he blew out his shoulder, According to physicians at the time he was getting too strong for his own good and when Jack would hit people he actually was tearing his own joints up. he dislocated his right shoulder 6 times and his left 4 times, For Jack his dreams of Professional Football came to an abrupt end…..

Shortly after that he was then approached by Lincoln Gottschalk who at the time was the Power lifting coach at Temple University and who at the time were the National Champions….NCAA. He went on to be not only a Teen and Collegiate National champion, but also NCAA All American 3 years in a row.

At some point, Jack reached the highest point in power lifting, hitting an unrecorded 1010 lbs in the squat and 662 bench (with no shirt). He got bored, as Jack is a mover and shaker , so he decided to drop weight.

In one year he went from 340lbs to 190lbs…and all of a sudden, He found a new calling as he began to look like a bodybuilder with a small waist and broad shoulders. Jack recalled this gorgeous girl telling him “you know, you should be a bodybuilder, you look like those guys in the magazines” and so, well thats all that Jack needed to hear and he was off to the races.

He competed in the Mr. Northeast Philadelphia, and took it all the way to the World Championships, winning bronze in that as well as winning titles like the Mr. North America, Mr. East  Coast and Mr. International…..SO the obvious next step is a trip to California in 1992:

He went to California, for a week vacation, and never returned. He met Ed Connors who, at the time, was one of the three owners of Gold’s gym enterprises, he told me that I had what it took, we struck a deal- and off he went….Jack spent the next three years competing and traveling- living the dream!!!!

Jack retired in 1998 when he got married, but then reemerged in 2004, requalifying and going all the way to the Night of Champions in NYC in 2006……

Jack London’s story is so inspirational that you need to hear it from the horses mouth to udnerstand his journey and continued journey.