These photos show Bill 20 years apart(at the same bodyweight of 150 lbs) - proof that fitness and health can be a way of life. Note: The knife and wardrobe are only props inspired by Sylvester Stallone's great character "Rambo". (Bill was Rambo for a college Halloween party in '85 and followed up with the same wardrobe for these photos for comparison).

BILL ON FITNESS & HEALTH

(IN HIS OWN WORDS)

I wanted to add this page because aside from my art, keeping fit and healthy has always been an important part of my life. The seed was planted when I saw the movie "Rocky" at the age of 12. It had a very strong impact on me. To this day, I have never felt better leaving a movie theatre as I did with "Rocky". When I got home after seeing the movie, I was so pumped up and inspired, I literally did several one handed push-ups on each arm. After that, I started a regimen of doing 100 push-ups every other day pretty regularly up until the age of 15 when I got a weight bench and a set of iron weights for my birthday. I started reading weight training and bodybuilding books along with "Muscle & Fitness" magazine. I trained regularly with weights along with jogging all through high school although one of the things lacking at this time, was my knowledge of nutrition and the discipline to eat healthy.

The summer after I graduated from high school, I saw "Rocky III" in the theatre. That movie re-ignited the fitness spark that was started from "Rocky". I saw how Sylvester Stallone had transformed his body into unbelievable shape. I wanted to have a body just like that. To me, it was ideal. I like bodybuilding and am a fan, but for me, that kind of build is too much and unrealistic.

At the University of Missouri, I joined a gym and worked out all through college but it wasn't until my senior year that I started getting "quality" muscle(as seen in "Rambo '85" pic above). I believe it was a combination of being inspired by "Rambo ll" that summer and just learning more about nutrition and exercise and knowing what works for me.

Today, I work out differently than I did 20 years ago. More recently, I have been very inspired by Clarence Bass cbass.com and his great books. He is a true inspiration and like a fine wine, gets better with age. I go with the motto: "Less is MORE" and only work out for 30 minutes a day, 4 days on, one day off working every muscle group. For aerobics, I do fast powerwalking with wrist weights. I concentrate on quality in the workout, not the quantity of sets or time. The workouts are short but intense usually doing just one set for each body part(more sets on bigger muscle groups such as legs, chest and back) with as much weight as possible. The exercises continuously change and revolve to "shock" the muscle. I work out at home with modest equipment and keep it simple.

As for nutrition, I basically keep it low fat, high fiber and food in its natural state as much as possible like with fruits and vegetables. Albacore tuna and eggs(only one with yolk out of 4) are staples for protein. 

There it is in a nutshell. Keeping fit can be habit forming like brushing your teeth. The fitness guru, Jack Lalanne said it best: "what is the most important thing you own? your body, so you might as well take care of it first and everything else should follow". That makes a lot of sense to me. Obviously, Sylvester Stallone not only inspires me to paint heroic pictures of him but also to keep in shape. Go for it!

Below are photos of Bill's body of art through the years