Matt Mendenhall: a short biography

Gifted by the gods

Matt Mendenhall was born on Sunday, 26th of June 1960, in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he grew up with his three older brothers—Mark, Scott and Bobby—and his two sisters—Robbie and Martha. Three of his siblings were into bodybuilding, two of whom competed: Bobby in Florida and Robbie. [Matt’s mother passed away in 1992, and Bobbie in 1996. May they rest in peace!]

The Mendenhall family has undoubtedly been blessed with the gift of outstanding genetics. Yet, a high school injury is at the start of Matt’s own bodybuilding career. As a teenager, Matt is a keen football player and a good pole-vaulter, and already his exceptional physique—and his calves especially—draws comments from his fellow students. In 1975, while practicing his pole-vaulting at home, the pole breaks, and Matt falls ten feet into the sand pit, causing a double compound fracture of the forearm. After 16 weeks in the cast, it appears that the arm healed incorrectly, and Matt badly needs some physiotherapy: doctors predict that he will never regain full use of his arm! However, on their recommendation and following his brothers’ example, he takes on weightlifting. He quickly recovers full use of his arm, and after a year of fooling around with the weights, he decides to start powerlifting seriously, mostly in the family basement. (At 5 foot 11-and-a-half, he then weighs only 165 pounds.)

In 1978, after a couple of years of powerlifting—in his senior year in high school, Matt is already showing an impressive capacity at developping muscle mass easily, especially in the legs—a teacher incites him to enter his first bodybuilding competition, the Mr Ohio High School, where 17-year-old Matt manages to place second... with no tan, no diet and no posing routine! In 1979, he enters the Mr Metropolitan in Cincinnati, winning the teenage overall title, the tall class, best power, most muscular and open men’s division! In partnership with his brother Mark, he opens a gym in Cincinnati, which provides a good training environment and a source of revenue. In 1981, he enters the Mr Cincinnati and Mr Buckeye State competitions, walking off with both titles.

In 1979, Matt had graduated from the Ohio College of Applied Science with an electrical engineering degree and for a while worked for his father’s company in Cincinnati, before realizing that a desk job was simply not for him.

Taking the world by storm

In October 1982, at 223 pounds (down from 270 in the previous months!), he takes part in the NPC Nationals in New York, and to his delight finishes second in the heavyweight category, barely losing to monstrous Lee Haney and ahead of even Bob Paris and Tim Belknap (the previous year’s heavyweight winner)! On that occasion, the bodybuilding press is “bowled over” to discover one of the sport’s most gifted athletes. Commentators remark on Matt’s inexperience on stage—after all, this is his first national competition—but they all marvel at the obvious talent, extraordinary physique, certain charisma and mindblowing potential of this young bodybuilder. Needless to say, the audience quickly takes on to the handsome newcomer: the beginning of the biggest following of any amateur bodybuilder, even to this day!

In the summer of 1983, after his commendable results at the 1982 competition, Matt chooses to move to bodybuilding Mecca, Los Angeles, along with his wife, Lori. His parents are not thrilled by the decision, but they remain supportive of their son, as they will throughout his career. In Los Angeles, Matt meets Joe Weider. On top of an all-night secutiry job in an LA hotel, he gets a job with the sales division of Weider Health and Fitness and will eventually become a regular contributing editor to Joe’s magazine Muscle & Fitness.

As he is preparing for the 1983 NPC Nationals and after eight weeks of exhausting posing exhibitions, he contracts a flu virus from Lori, within three weeks of the competition. As the big day approaches, Matt loses weight and critical hardness and overall knows that he is fighting an impossible battle against an invisible foe. At the last minute, when he learns that his parents are already en route to see him compete, he decides not to withdraw from the contest. Unbelievably, Matt (then weighing 219 pounds) manages to make the fourth place in San Jose, ahead of Richard Gaspari, but behind Bob Paris, Rory Leidelmeyer and Mike Christian. Despite his loss, his popularity and the public pressure continue to grow. “With the magazines comparing me to Arnold, people expected to see something close to God when I stepped onstage.”

At the 1984 NPC Nationals in New Orleans, Matt delights the audience with a 238-pound physique, straight out of Michelangelo’s wildest dreams by its aesthetic perfection. The hall goes wild each time Matt appears on stage and his superlative calf, thigh, triceps, biceps, pecs and shoulder development should seal his victory, when, to the dismay of the audience and a sizeable portion of the competitors, Mike Christian is proclaimed winner of the heavyweight class. Many will question a judging system which seems to put to such a disadvantage the superior overall physical developement! (Moral: Never underestimate the subtelties of a bodybuilding judge’s mind...)

A sudden twist

On the evening of December 8, 1984, Matt’s impossibly hectic life takes a sudden twist: on his way to pick up some material for a bodybuilding seminar which he was to give the next day in Canada, Matt hits another car which had just driven through a red light. Matt, who was not wearing a seat belt, is ejected through the windshield and lands in the middle of the street. He is rushed to the hospital and the doctors puzzle at the fact that he broke neither his neck nor his back, a phenomenon which they can only attribute to his outstanding muscular mass and physical development. Matt is out of the gym for 16 weeks during which he follows therapy sessions at the Institute for Neuromuscular Reeducation.

Rumors have it that his bodybuilding career is over, but this is counting without Matt’s resilience, and as he begins lightly to train again, offers for posing sessions and seminars keep pouring in, which will keep him busy four days a week for most of the following year... In fact, in 1985, Matt will guest pose in 48 weeks out of the year!

After moving from Ohio to California, it was soon obvious that the Mendenhalls would have to get used to a new, more public lifestyle. Eventually, some time after the car crash episode, the pressure proves too much for their marriage, and Lori who is homesick decides to return to Ohio. She remarries soon after their divorce and has now two children.

Towards the end of 1985, Matt lets himself be convinced to take part in the NPC United States Championships and enters the contest in Las Vegas at the last minute. Showing an imposing 226 pounds, he easily wins the heavyweight first place, which earns him to represent the United States in his class at the 1985 World Games in London. By then, Matt is tired out and jetlagged following his impossibly hectic schedule of the previous year. His confused body clock is making it impossible to control fluid retention, and, despite the support and encouragement of his new girlfriend, the glamorous and mediatic Rachel McLish, Matt’s massive build and unparalleled symmetry are not enough to win him the day, as he places second behind a tightly-shredded Berry DeMey.

Matt resolves never again to enter a competition when he knows he is not in position to achieve his best, and decides to forego the coming 1985 NPC Nationals. (With hindsight, it is clear nevertheless that Matt would have won against Phil Williams, by an order of magnitude! The competition in 1985 was not comparable to the three exceptional vintages of 1982, 1984 and 1986; such is the irony of life!)

In 1986, at the NPC Nationals in Atlanta, Matt battles against a Gary Strydom shredded as never before or since and in the absolute best condition of his career. One thing seems obvious to all the spectators present at the evening show: even Gary’s magnificent physique cannot quite match Matt’s superhuman proportions and transcendent symmetry, especially in the legs, chest, delts and triceps. In Jeff Everson’s own words after the contest, “from a flexed, face-front position, Matt looks like he’s from a different galaxy. He has no flaws in proportion or shape. He’s thick and defined too.” However, Matt seems to have peaked too late, as most of the points have already been awarded in pre-judging, when—as some commentators wish to point out—he had supposedly not shed sufficient fluid, and Gary’s shredded look gave him the edge. Once again, Matt gracefully takes the second place of the heavyweight class, to the disbelief of his numerous fans.

Letting go

The unjust defeat of 1984 had left Matt with a bitter taste in the mouth and a new sense of disillusionment towards bodybuilding in general. After the 1986 Nationals, his body shuts down and Matt becomes periodically ill. He half-heartedly takes part in the 1987 NPC Nationals where he achieves a disappointing 10th place. Finally, Matt decides to return to Cincinnati, away from the limelight and mediatic pressure. There, a pharmacist friend introduces him to homeopathy. Matt’s lowered immunity is eventually traced to a long-standing intestinal yeast infection. His friend’s treatment seems to work for him, as his body and health progressively get better; Matt is hooked and starts studying homeopathy, while also working with his older brother Mark on rehabing houses.

In 1988, he moves to Lakewood, Colorado—his girlfriend at the time goes to college in Denver. Still keeping a foot in bodybuilding, he pursues his own study of homeopathic medicine and eventually with his partner starts a company of homeopathis enhancement products called Natural Heights. Meanwhile, Joe Weider presses him to renew with bodybuilding and to compete at the 1988 NPC Nationals. Matt reluctantly enters the contest. He does not fare well at the pre-judging and consequently leaves the competition before the evening show. But the contest makes Matt realize that there is more to life than just winning contests. At roughly the same time, Matt refuses an offer to join the soon-to-be-formed (and short-lived) WBF.

In 1991, after repeated requests from Joe Weider and Jim Manion, he once again returns to the competitive stage, taking part in various shows. He turns up in Pittsburgh for the 1991 NPC Nationals, sporting a superlative 253 pounds of tightly chiselled muscles (Matt is then the heaviest of the contestants). The crowd greets with rapturous ovations the return of one of the most well-loved and outstanding athletes in the sport. If it is possible nowadays to gauge the unique position and contribution of this extraordinary bodybuilder—at once the first and forerunner of the really “Big Boys” and the last of the “classical physiques”—if that is now possible, then obviously this was not the case at the 1991 Nationals, when the judges awarded Matt with a fifth place, behind Kevin Levrone, Flex Wheeler, Paul Demayo and Ronnie Coleman. (Ironically, over the following four years, young Paul Demayo himself would be given a similar treatment, as contests only gradually would catch up with the new superheavyweights’ mass. At the same time, it may be regrettable that the more recent insatiable obsession for mass and definition progressively seems to push aside all other aesthetic considerations.)

In 1992, Matt moves to San Antonio, Texas, nearer the headquarters of a supplement company which he accepts to endorse. At the same time, he starts a successful personal training business.

At the beginning of 1993, Matt meets DeShay Ebert, the NPC Texas State Chairperson (female), and later that year she moves to San Antonio with him. She wants him to get involved in other aspects of bodybuilding and gets him to judge in various contests. In 1994, she convinces him to guest pose at the NPC Texas State Championship; Matt looks fantastic and deservedly receives a standing ovation. However, for Matt, this is it, and to an incredulous bodybuilding world, he anounces his retirement from the sport. Because of Miss Ebert’s involvement in bodybuilding, their relationship was from the start under a cloud of uneasiness as Matt’s view of the sport grew ever bleaker. However, after Matt’s retirement, everyone around Miss Ebert nags Matt about getting back into the sport he wishes to leave behind; hence the inevitable demise of their relationship.

In 1998, Matt moves to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he opens a massage therapy clinic, a discipline he had taken up in San Antonio in 1996.