The Story Behind
the Hardgainer
Collection

The more I think about the possibility of sharing the complete Hardgainer collection, the more I realize that there is a much bigger story here than I initially understood.

The collection has had quite a journey.

And, in many ways, that journey is really a story about friendship, generosity, the Iron Game, and remembering the people who helped shape our lives.

I think it is important to begin with Stuart McRobert and what he created with Hardgainer.

Stuart began publishing Hardgainer in 1989, creating something very different from the typical bodybuilding magazines of the day. Rather than simply presenting the routines and physiques of genetically gifted or drug-assisted elite bodybuilders, Hardgainer focused on practical, abbreviated training and on helping ordinary, drug-free trainees make meaningful progress through intelligent training, basic exercises, proper technique, recovery, and patience. Stuart ultimately published 89 issues over 15 years, with the final print issue appearing in 2004.

That philosophy is a large part of why these magazines have meant so much to me.

And somewhere along that journey, I became fortunate enough to become a very small part of its history myself.

When I purchased the complete Hardgainer collection from Dr. Ken Leistner, I was writing my "Herk's Log" column for Cyberpump.com. At the time, readers would send emails to Bill Piche, the editor of Cyberpump, and Bill would often forward them to me.

Over the several years I wrote Herk's Log, a number of those emails came from a gentleman named Rich LaBombard.

Rich was a fellow lifter and an absolutely die-hard Dr. Ken fan. He ate, slept, and breathed anything and everything related to Dr. Ken. He was also a huge York Barbell aficionado, just like Ken. Those emails eventually turned into a friendship.

At the time, I was living in Tucson, Arizona, while Rich lived in Townsend, Massachusetts. My mom and dad were also living in Massachusetts, so whenever I flew back East to visit my parents, I would make a point of visiting Rich, his wonderful wife Suzanne, and their two beautiful daughters, Emily and Katie, whom they had adopted from Russia.

Those visits became very special to me.

Eventually, I realized that Rich was probably the one person I knew who would appreciate the Hardgainer collection as much as anyone possibly could.

So I decided to give it to him.

I gave Rich the complete Hardgainer collection as a birthday present, along with a York competition barbell.

To say that he was thrilled would be an understatement.

For Rich, receiving those magazines wasn't simply receiving a collection of old publications. He absolutely revered Dr. Ken. He understood what those magazines represented, and I knew they were going to be cherished.

Rich and Suzanne eventually introduced me to the woman who would become my wife, Nancy.

Nancy and Suzanne worked together and were themselves best friends. So that original connection through Cyberpump eventually led, quite unexpectedly, to Nancy and me finding each other.

I will always be grateful to Rich and Suzanne for that.

Sadly, Suzanne passed away in 2015, and Rich passed away in 2021.

But shortly before Rich passed away, he gave the entire Hardgainer collection back to me.

I believe he knew that I would understand what it meant and that it would remain in the hands of someone who would continue to appreciate and preserve it.

That gesture has stayed with me ever since.

And that brings me back to Dr. Ken.

When I originally purchased the collection from Ken, my recollection is that he told me the $500 proceeds from the sale were going to the Lakeview Youth Federation, the Long Island organization with which he was involved for many years. I remember making the check payable to the Lakeview Youth Federation and mailing it to Ken at his Long Island address.

I no longer have the original check or correspondence, so I want to be very careful not to present that particular transaction as something I can independently document today.

What I do know is that Ken himself wrote about the Lakeview Youth Federation and described it as his "other work" for more than twenty-five years. He was deeply involved in efforts benefiting young people, including scholarships, educational assistance, summer camps, athletics, food and clothing drives, and other community programs. He also used his strength-training work to help raise funds for the organization.

That makes my recollection of the original purchase especially meaningful to me.

The magazines began with Dr. Ken. I purchased them from him, with the understanding that the proceeds were going toward an organization he cared deeply about. I then gave them to Rich — a man who loved and revered Ken and the Iron Game almost beyond description. Rich and Suzanne became part of my family's story and helped bring Nancy and me together. Rich eventually entrusted the collection back to me.

And now the collection has come full circle once again.

There is another part of the Hardgainer story that makes these magazines particularly meaningful to me.

One of the things I love about the old Hardgainer tradition is that it encouraged people to think rather than simply obey.

That reminds me of Dr. Ken's classic "Dogma" article from Cyberpump.

In that piece, Dr. Ken used two extraordinarily strong men — Doug Hepburn and Robert Sparkman — to make a powerful point about training dogma, pointing out that both lifters achieved remarkable levels of raw physical strength despite using very different training methodologies. Hepburn, the legendary Canadian strongman and powerlifter, was renowned for tremendously heavy, low-repetition training. Robert Sparkman took a very different road, becoming known for brutally hard, high-repetition, high-intensity training pushed to absolute muscular failure.

And that Robert Sparkman was me.

I have to admit that I am still incredibly humbled whenever I think about Dr. Ken putting my name in the same discussion as Doug Hepburn. Doug Hepburn was an absolute giant of the Iron Game. To have Dr. Ken use me as an example alongside someone of Hepburn's stature is an honor I could never take lightly.

But I think the real beauty of what Dr. Ken was saying had little to do with either of us personally. His point was that the Iron Game does not have only one legitimate road to strength. If one rigid training dogma were universally true, then two men who trained so differently could not both have achieved extraordinary strength. The lesson is that hard work, progression, consistency, intelligent training, and perseverance can take people down different roads toward remarkable results.

That philosophy has always resonated deeply with me.

In October of 1994, I had the incredible privilege of meeting him at Iron Island Gym. He was gracious enough to give me a complimentary workout, and before that we spent more than an hour together as he gave me a tour of his phenomenal gym.

Dr. Ken was exactly the kind of person you hoped he would be — extremely gracious, kind, generous with his knowledge, and seemingly a walking encyclopedia of strength training, its history, and powerlifting.

I can still remember the feeling of being there.

Iron Island wasn't simply a gym. It represented a particular kind of Iron Game culture — a place where serious training, knowledge, history, intensity, camaraderie, and respect for strength all came together.

Hardgainer issue 26 is especially precious to me because its September–October 1993 cover features the Iron Island Gym Family. And Dr. Ken personally signed my copy. That makes that particular issue almost impossible for me to look at as simply a magazine. It is a piece of history that I actually touched. It connects Stuart McRobert's Hardgainer, Dr. Ken, Iron Island, and my own life in one place.

And then there is another connection that still amazes me. Bill Piche was kind enough to write an article about me titled "Herculees" in Hardgainer issue 69. I am deeply grateful to Bill for that. To have someone from that world take the time to tell my story and put it into the pages of Hardgainer is something I will always treasure.

And then, in another full-circle moment, I eventually had the opportunity to write for Hardgainer myself. My article, "Twenty-rep Squatting Magic," appeared in issue 75.

That is why I don't want these magazines simply to sit on a shelf. I want their story to continue. I want Stuart's work to continue to be appreciated. I want Dr. Ken's legacy to continue. And I want to honor Rich's memory too. Rich loved these magazines. He loved Dr. Ken. He loved York Barbell. He loved the Iron Game. And he trusted me to be their caretaker once again.