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In Memoriam IFBB PATRON By Ben Weider, CM, CQ, SBStJ, PhD
Lou Zhuo Yu was the pioneer of the bodybuilding movement in China. I met him over 50 years ago and I immediately identified him as a great leader, a promoter, and an individual who loved bodybuilding and enjoyed living a healthy lifestyle. Even at a time when communism dominated China, and ideas from the west were not allowed, bodybuilding at that time was banned, but Lou Zhuo Yu continued to work and give bodybuilding classes. I eventually supplied him with bodybuilding equipment, so that he could open a Weider gym in Shanghai and train the athletes using the latest Weider methods. Lou Zhuo Yu and I corresponded ever since. The contacts between Lou Zhuo Yu and I included meeting almost every year at the Men's World Amateur Bodybuilding Championships, where we had an opportunity to exchange ideas, and I guided him on how to spread the Weider methods throughout the great Republic of China. I travelled to China numerous times, in order to give lectures at the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education and Sport, the University of Shanghai, the University of Beijing, and also visited Nanking, Canton and numerous other places. My first trip to China was in 1952 when the cold war was at its height. Because I was going to China to spread bodybuilding and health and fitness, the authorities did not prevent me from travelling around the country. On every trip that I made to China, I always met and travelled with Lou Zhuo Yu. Lou Zhuo Yu always maintained his physique and enthusiasm for bodybuilding, health and fitness. Lou Zhuo Yu was also the creator of the Weider Coaching Class, which taught students from all over China how to keep fit, and how to teach physique training using the Weider methods. Every year the Weider Coaching Class attracted hundreds of students from all over China, and when they graduated they were given jobs in different gyms, clubs, schools and universities throughout China, and thereby spread the Weider way of life. Lou Zhuo Yu is a man that we shall long remember as one of the pillars and pioneers of the bodybuilding movement in China, and a man who helped maintain the high reputation of the Weider methods in that country. Lou Zhuo Yu passed away peacefully on February 8, 2005. The IFBB family will miss him greatly. Ben Weider, CM, CQ, SBStJ, PhD
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