SZ: We know about your hard work helping Sly to get in shape for his films. We know that you appeared in “ROCKY IV,“ but what we don’t know is what made you get into bodybuilding yourself?GEORGE PIPASIK: I used to play hockey. And it was very difficult in Czechoslovakia. During that time, I had met some friends and started lifting weights. I was 19 years old. And since that time, I have been lifting weights all the time.
SZ: When did you decide to make it your career ?
GEORGE PIPASIK: It was unexpected. I was supposed to open a gym with Arnold.
SZ: Arnold? As in Schwarzenegger? Who of course (respectfully laughing) is now our Governor?
GEORGE PIPASIK: Yes. I started building everything myself. In another place, split between L.A. After two years, he decided he didn’t want to open his own gym, so he decided to go somewhere else. I decided to open a gym myself. That was December of 1982.
SZ: That’s the official date of opening Santa Monica Bodybuilding Center?
GEORGE PIPASIK: Yes.
—–