He was a columnist for Muscle and Fitness magazine for 16 years and tested all kinds of new training ideas to figure out which ones worked. He is the thinking man’s trainer: a wise, reclusive, Yoda-like figure hidden in the high desert serving up insights that are often years ahead of their time.Īn early fitness adopter, Bass helped popularize such concepts as periodization and eating nutrient-dense, calorie-light whole foods, along with Olympic lifting and Tabata intervals.

Unlike other fitness impresarios like Jack LaLanne, Bill Phillips, and Tony Horton, Bass eschews the spotlight and self-branding in lieu of thoughtful articles steeped in sports science and physiology. You’d be forgiven if you’ve never heard of Bass, a former competitive bodybuilder and fitness writer, even if he is the subject of several books-such as Lee Berquist’s Second Wind and Bill Pearl’s Legends of the Iron Game. Ripped, whose real name is Clarence Bass, does this hourlong hiking circuit once a week, but it’s enough-just enough, combined with one weekly weightlifting session and walking and staying active every day-to place him among the fittest men in America, a physical specimen par excellence who, at 79, may be unrivaled in his age group anywhere in the world. We’re hammering a trail at 6,000 feet in the Sandia Mountains near his home in Albuquerque. It’s a good rule, because attempting to pass him could put you at risk of a cardiac event. There is only one rule on these hikes: Do not pass Mr.

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