Clarence Bass

Clarence Bass is an attorney and fitness writer. He is also known for his series of Ripped books, which chronicle how he brought his body fat down to 2.4% and became a past-40 bodybuilding champion.^[1] Bass also wrote a monthly question-and-answer column in Muscle & Fitness bodybuilding magazine. He has kept detailed journals and photos documenting his fitness spanning almost 60 years. He continues to train and publish monthly articles on his website.^[2]

Early career

Bass was born in 1937 in Albuquerque, New Mexico to a medical doctor and a nurse. Bass is a former Olympic style weightlifter. Bass graduated from Albuquerque High School, University of New Mexico, and UNM Law School. He practiced law in Albuquerque until 1994, when he stopped practicing to devote full time to other interests, including studying and writing about the fitness lifestyle. He was among 100 UNM graduates chosen by the Alumni Association to represent the "Best Efforts" of the university on the occasion of its 100th anniversary. In 2003, The Association of Oldetime Barbell & Strongmen^[3] honored him with its highest award, The Vic Boff Award for lifetime achievement.^[4] Bass started training with weights at about 13 and garnered his first athletic award in 1954, when as a junior he won the State High School Pentathlon Championship. He also wrestled in high school, placing second in the State Championship as a senior. He then concentrated on Olympic weightlifting where he won many more trophies over about a 20 year period, including city, state, regional and national awards. His best Olympic lifts were: Standing Press 275, Snatch 245, and Clean & Jerk 325.^[2]

Bodybuilding

In 1976, Bass began planning his entry into bodybuilding competition. To help keep his body fat percentage as low as possible, he started a diet high in whole foods and low in concentrated calories. On August 24, 1977 his body fat was measured at 2.4% at Lovelace Medical Center using hydrostatic weighing.

His first success was at the 1978 New Mexico bodybuilding championship, where he won Best Legs and Most Muscular. He then turned his attention to Past-40 competition. In 1978, he won the AAU Past 40 Mr. America, short class. In 1979, he won the AAU Past 40 Mr. USA, short class. In the USA contest, he also won the overall awards for Best Legs, Best Abdominals, and Most Muscular Man. In his final year of bodybuilding competition, he placed 2nd in the middleweight class of the 1980 Past 40 Mr. America. When asked by Second Wind author Lee Bergquist why he retired from competition in the best condition of his life, Bass replied, “I had nothing to gain and everything to lose.” He added, “I developed my reputation with new photos [every few years] and these contests aren’t a lot of fun.”^[5]

Fitness writing career

In 1980, Bass wrote his first book, Ripped: The Sensible Way to Achieve Ultimate Muscularity, which detailed how he reduced his body fat to 2.4% and won his class in the Past-40 Mr. America and Mr. USA contests. In his book, he described what he did wrong as well as what he did right. For example, he described both the ups and the downs of his experience with steroids. He sent the manuscript to Bill Reynolds, then Editor-in-Chief of Muscle & Fitness. Reynolds liked the book and showed it to Joe Weider, who invited Bass to write a monthly column called "The Ripped Department." The column ran for sixteen years, making it the longest-running column in the history of the magazine. The same year, he and his wife Carol formed Ripped Enterprises, through which they sold his books and related items.^[6]

Encouraged by the success of his first book and his monthly column, Bass published a second book, Ripped 2. Ripped 2 is a training manual devoted to building and maintaining lean muscle mass. It also deals with the subject of training psychology. (Bass’ undergraduate degree is in psychology).^[7] As Bass’ training regimen and diet evolved, so did his books. In 1986, he wrote Ripped 3: The Recipes, The Routines and The Reasons. Ripped 3 includes 22 meal variations and introduced a new training concept: periodization, a training concept first developed in the former Soviet Union.

From 1984 to 1994, Bass published the Lean Advantage series. The three books are a compilation of Bass’s question and answer column in Muscle & Fitness. In 1989, Bass published Lean for Life, which describes a balanced training regimen that places equal emphasis on cardiovascular training and resistance training. The book also emphasizes motivational techniques.

Bass and his wife started their bodybuilding, health, and fitness website, cbass.com, in 1996. Bass uses the website as a vehicle from which to write monthly articles in ten categories as well as to sell books and fitness related products.

Bass' 1996 book Challenge Yourself describes the evolution of his diet and training. At that point in time, his training included two workouts a week, one weight workout and one high intensity interval workout. He also began adding healthy fats, such as fatty fish and ground flaxseed, to his diet. The book also includes a series of photographs of his physique.^[8]

In 2002, Bass collaborated with Wayne and Tina Gallasch of GMV Productions to produce Ripped, The DVD, which complemented his books.^[9][10] Encouraged by the success of the first DVD, Bass and Gallasch produced The Second Ripped DVD in 2003. In 2004, he and Gallasch produced The Third Ripped DVD, which focused entirely on motivation.

Bass published his latest book, Great Expectations, in 2007. In Great Expectations, Bass tells how he combated expectations of age-related physical decline. He talks about overcoming two medical problems, hip replacement and a bladder malfunction and explains the scientific basis for his positive vision for the future. The book also describes a "blueprint" for physical excellence at any age. Illustrating the success of his approach, Bass reveals what Dr. Waneen Spirduso, co-author of Physical Dimensions of Aging, called "one of the most remarkable 70-year-old bodies in the world."^[11]

Bibliography

• Bass, Clarence (1980). Ripped: The Sensible Way to Achieve Ultimate Muscularity. Clarence Bass' Ripped Enterprises. ISBN 978-0-9609714-0-4. 
• —— (1982). Ripped 2. Clarence Bass' Ripped Enterprises. ISBN 978-0-9609714-1-1. 
• —— (1984). The Lean Advantage. Clarence Bass' Ripped Enterprises. ISBN 978-0-9609714-2-8. 
• —— (1986). Ripped 3: The Recipes, The Routines and The Reasons. Clarence Bass' Ripped Enterprises. ISBN 978-0-9609714-3-5. 
• —— (1989). The Lean Advantage 2: The Second Four Years. Clarence Bass' Ripped Enterprises. ISBN 978-0-9609714-4-2. 
• —— (1992). Lean for Life: Stay Motivated and Lean Forever. Clarenece Bass' Ripped Enterprises. ISBN 978-0-9609714-5-9. 
• —— (1994). The Lean Advantage 3: Four More Years. Clarence Bass' Ripped Enterprises. ISBN 978-0-9609714-6-6. 
• —— (1999). Challenge Yourself: Leanness, Fitness & Health At Any Age. Clarence Bass' Ripped Enterprises. ISBN 978-0-9609714-7-3. 
• —— (2007). Great Expectations: Health, Fitness, Leanness Without Suffering. Clarence Bass' Ripped Enterprises. ISBN 0-9747682-4-3. 

Filmography

• Clarence Bass (2002). Ripped, The DVD (DVD). GMV Productions and Clarence Bass Ripped Enterprises. 
• Clarence Bass (2003). The Second Ripped DVD (DVD). GMV Productions and Clarence Bass Ripped Enterprises. 
• Clarence Bass (2003). The Third Ripped DVD (DVD). GMV Productions and Clarence Bass Ripped Enterprises. 

References

• Fair, John D. (1999), Muscletown USA: Bob Hoffman and the manly culture of York Barbell, Penn State Press, p. 352, ISBN 978-0-271-01855-3 

External links

• Bass' official website
• Clarence Bass Interview for Martial Arts Illustrated Magazine.
• Biography of Bass at agelesstimeless.com