Who was Greg Anderson?
- Greg Anderson was a weight room gym rat.
- His father was killed during a gambling altercation when Greg was a child.
- He grew up in the same neighborhood as future baseball home run king Barry Bonds.
- Like many gym rats, Greg became the go-to guy for fellow weight training enthusiasts wanting to gain muscle or get stronger.
- This morphed into a career as a Strength and Fitness Trainer despite Greg's lack of educational background or formal accreditation in the Fitness Training field.
- Anointing the most muscular men as physical training experts was not uncommon in the hard core weight room environment.
- Greg Anderson starting working in the weight room with Barry Bonds and became his weight training guru.
- Barry Bonds morphed from a tall, wiry and talented athlete into a baseball bashing brute with cartoon like muscles and a pumpkin sized head under Anderson's guidance.
- The gym where Greg trained his clients was only a few blocks from the headquarters for a health supplement company named the Bay Area Lab Cooperative. (BALCO)
- BALCO founder, Victor Conte, was providing an undetectable steroid known as 'the Clear' to pro athletes in many sports. He also supplied the Clear to Greg Anderson.
- Anderson also bought Human Growth Hormone from financially needy AIDS patients.
- Presumably these substances were supplied to Greg Anderson's star client Barry Bonds.
- After a tip from Olympic track star Marion Jones' disgruntled former coach, the internal Revenue Service and the Food and Drug Administration began investigating BALCO.
- The ensuing fall out caught up to Greg Anderson and Barry Bonds.
- Barry Bonds was indicted and tried with lying under oath.
- Greg Anderson refused to testify against Bonds and spent 3 stints in jail for contempt of court.
- Bonds was convicted but the conviction was later overturned.
- With the case concluded, Greg Anderson was off the hook for the contempt charges but remains with a criminal record for steroid trafficking. He has resumed Fitness Training for lower profile clients and as the go-to guy for aspiring gym rat/bodybuilders
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| Barry Bonds (left) and Greg Anderson at court appearances |
Obviously, Greg Anderson was guilty of supplying banned substances to a client. That the client used these performance enhancing drugs to break a sacred baseball record compounds the story. Greg Anderson remained faithful to his client and repeatedly refused to testify against him at great cost to himself. Was this merely out of loyalty or will some financial payback be received from Barry Bonds in the future?
In some social circles Greg Anderson deserves street cred for not ratting out his friend and client. However in the eyes of the legal system such loyalty is considered a criminal act. Does Greg Anderson Belong in the Fitness Trainer Hall of Shame? You decide!
Despite a lack of educational credentials this subject is often referred to as a Fitness Trainer. The controversy and danger arises when such a person obtains supplements or substances for someone else. Not only is this beyond the scope of practice for a Fitness Trainer, in this case it entered the realm of unlawful activity
In some social circles Greg Anderson deserves street cred for not ratting out his friend and client. However in the eyes of the legal system such loyalty is considered a criminal act. Does Greg Anderson Belong in the Fitness Trainer Hall of Shame? You decide!
Despite a lack of educational credentials this subject is often referred to as a Fitness Trainer. The controversy and danger arises when such a person obtains supplements or substances for someone else. Not only is this beyond the scope of practice for a Fitness Trainer, in this case it entered the realm of unlawful activity
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| Fitness Trainers beware! If you deal in illicit substances or Performance Enhancing Drugs you just might run afoul of the long arms (and/or legs) of the law! |
Little Bobby Strong
References
Steroid Nation Shaun Assael (2007) ESPN Books
Bases Loaded Kirk Radomski (2009) Hudson Street Press
Game of Shadows Williams and Fainaru (2006) Avery Publishing
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