He's about as good a natural bodybuilder as you'll ever find. No, wait a minute. Let us revise that. He's about as good a bodybuilder, natural or not, that you'll ever find. Ripped as in the photo below, he weighs in the low 140s. On duty in Iraq, where the heat is incredible, you'd think he'd just melt away. Fortunately, he still works out in the gym six days a week, and he's bulking up, aiming at 200 pounds.

Here he is, above, in a photo taken recently by Lindley, one of his training buddies.

Time and time again we see overall show titles going to the men who weigh the most, who are the biggest in the show. This really is unfair. If you have genes for being tall, then you'll be tall. If you have genes for having blue eyes, then you'll have blue eyes. Giving the title to someone who is the biggest man in the show (and who usually isn't the man with the most aesthetic physique) seems to us to be grossly unfair, rather like giving a title to someone based on his eye color.

You may have noticed a strong tendency on this Web site for us to feature natural bodybuilders. The reason is simple. Due to marketing forces during the last 40 years, huge bodybuilders on steroids have received 95% of the promotion. You're unlikely ever to hear about some of our greatest athletes like Randy Jackson, Sr., because their bodies aren't parodies of what the human form is supposed to look like.

Randy writes in a recent e-mail:

"I... train at the gym every day except for Sunday. I split train, and train each body part twice a week. Mon.: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, and Abs. Tues : Back, Bis, Calves, and Abs. Wed : Inner/Outer Thighs, Hamstrings, Quads, and Abs. Then I start all over the next day. I do two exercises per body part, 4 x 8 Heavy weights, and do up to maybe 2 x 20 reps burns. Everyone says that I'm looking bigger, but as for me I when I step on the scale, I don't see myself going up as much.

"But I guess on account of my size, and the way I train, I'm looking bigger to everyone...around me. I train after midnight, and I have maybe three to four people training with me, then sometimes I'm by myself due to their hour always changing. I'm supplementing a lot now while I'm here in Iraq.... We'll see how my training goes in another month or so. The weather here has changed now. It's not that hot during the day now, but very cool at night.

"I could have gone home on leave, but I turned it down. Those soldiers that were killed when the helicopter that they were on got shot down left from here going to Bahgdad airport to fly home on two weeks leave. Don't know if I knew anyone that was on there; they haven't told anybody who they were. They are getting wiser now, and knowing when to strike back against us. So far, we're all hanging in there, and doing the best that we can to finish our mission over here."

And in another email, Randy gives more details about his training:

"After my final fourth set of eight reps, I go straight into my 2 sets of 20 reps burn, which you can say is preexhausting the muscle for an explosive pump. For example: Incline Bench Presses, Supersetted with Flat Bench Presses back and forth 4 x 8, then once that is done, 2 x 20 reps burns nonstop with Crossover Cable. My whole Split Training is set up that way to keep my muscles hardened until I start fresh come Mon., with Sun. being my off day.

"I hope that this explains how it's done, because you only get minimum rest in between sets, because I have the next station set up near each other, so you're only getting no more than 30 to 45 seconds between each workout. My friend Lindley took the picture for me with his digital camera. I will have more of me taken again soon to send you by e-mail."

Let me put in one more plug for Randy. He's still hunting for the right lady and has messages out all over the net. Ladies, where are you? Email this man at randy.jacksonsr@us.army.mil right now. It's your patriotic duty.