By JULIE ASH
Explaining to women that lifting weights wouldn't turn them into frightening Arnold Schwarzenegger lookalikes overnight was a problem Clive Green faced in the 50s, 60s and 70s when he was trying to encourage women into the gym.
Some 44 years later, the former New Zealand bodybuilding representative can
lay claim to helping revolutionise the world of fitness.
Hundreds of gym goers, including women and sports stars, owe their healthy images to Green.
The 68-year-old has sold his Clive Green Health Centre in Newmarket - but is not ready to drop the barbells and dumb-bells just yet.
"I'll still be here training," he says. "I love being with people and helping them train, and train myself. I just didn't want to have the stress of running a business any more."
Green was born in England, but left at 17, spending three years in Australia, where his interest in bodybuilding began.
"I started training seriously there and won Mr Victoria twice."
He moved to New Zealand in 1954. A year later he competed in the Mr New Zealand contest, but once he bought his own gym, rules prevented him from competing.
"I didn't enter any more contests until 1961 when I went to England and competed in Mr Universe."
Representing New Zealand, Green finished a credible third in the tall class.
It was in London that he met media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
"When I was working out for the Mr Universe contest I used to train at the YMCA in the morning and then I'd go to another gym in the afternoon.
"I met these guys in this small gym and they said to me, 'How do you do this? How do you do that?'
"So I started helping them. They would say, 'When are you coming in again?' and I would say, 'Oh, two o'clock tomorrow,' and they would reply, 'Can you help us tomorrow?'
"So I did that for about six weeks before I competed.
"Then I got invited to one of their houses for lunch and it was Rupert Murdoch's. I knew he was a wealthy guy, but I had never heard of him then. He wanted me to stay in London and open a gym with him.
"Which I guess now is something I regret not doing."
Green opened his first gym, on Auckland's Karangahape Rd, in 1958.
"There were only two gyms in Auckland in that era. There was the YMCA, which had a small weight area, and Vitality, which was the headquarters of the Auckland Weightlifting Association.
"So I opened a gym because there was nothing else around.
"In those days it was just barbells, dumb-bells and benches. That was all the equipment you had."
The following year Green opened a gym on Broadway in Newmarket.
"When I was at Newmarket we only had men. That is how the gym was in those days."
But things were changing by the time he was helping his friend Les Mills manage his gym in the late 1960s.
"Les was training for the Commonwealth and Olympic Games so I ran his gym for about four years.
At Les Mills they had men Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and women on Tuesdays and Thursdays and on Saturday mornings. There was one lot of changing rooms - so that was the way it was."
After a short stint in real estate, Green returned to the industry and opened a gym in central Auckland. It was the first of the Clive Green Health Centres.
"That gym was for men and women, we had two lots of changing rooms, two lots of showers, that sort of thing. That was quite radical at the time."
The gym was also open seven days a week and the doors opened at the earlier time of 6am.
Green was in central Auckland for 12 years before he relocated his existing premises in Newmarket.
These days he has little interest in bodybuilding.
"It has probably got a bit too serious for me. I think when drugs came into bodybuilding I lost a bit of faith in it.
"Now they go into contests looking like an anatomical chart.
"To strip down as they do now - you would never have won a contest in my day, you would have been too skinny."
Nutrition is also a lot different, he says.
"There were no supplements around when I was young. We just used to drink milk.
"I can remember [New Zealand weightlifter] Don Oliver coming in with six pints of milk.
"He would train very heavy and have long rests. In those rests he would flick a pint of milk."
Green has seen plenty of other changes in the industry over the years.
"The introduction of Jazzercise in the late 1970s really got women into gyms.
"They were always scared off dumb-bells and barbells.
"I'd say, 'Here lift this up' and they would reply, 'Oh no I don't want to get muscles like you.'
"You had to really sell it that you won't wake up one morning with a giant body. It took a lot of persuasion.
"Now people read so much about health and fitness they know more than I do."
Among those who have trained at Green's are Olympic canoeists Ian Ferguson and Paul McDonald, the Blues rugby side and Team New Zealand's Tom Schnackenberg, who is a life member.
"It is about service more than anything else. You can have an average gym and top-class service and you'll succeed."
Green is unsure about what is going to do next. "I don't know. But I am definitely going to come down here and work out."
JUST THE FACTS
Name: Clive Green
Age: 68
Place of birth: Bishop Auckland, United Kingdom
Status: Single.
Career highlights:
1953/54 - Mr Victoria, Australia
1961 - Mr Universe, 3rd in tall class.
By JULIE ASH
Explaining to women that lifting weights wouldn't turn them into frightening Arnold Schwarzenegger lookalikes overnight was a problem Clive Green faced in the 50s, 60s and 70s when he was trying to encourage women into the gym.
Some 44 years later, the former New Zealand bodybuilding representative can
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