Dennis Newman – Complete Profile: Height, Workout And Diet

Dennis Newman is a retired American professional bodybuilder who shot to fame in the early 1990s with an incredible physique that was complete in all aspects. He is best known for winning the 1994 NPC USA Championships. Despite being one of the highly touted youngsters of the sport, Newman’s career ended relatively quickly after a battle with leukaemia. This article explores his complete profile, biography, competition history and other details.

Dennis Newman (Bodybuilder)

Date of Birth – January 4, 1970

Age – 54 years

Place of birth – Visalia, California, USA

Place of Residence – Salinas, California, USA

Nickname – Inhuman Newman

Height – 5’10”

Weight – 250 pounds (113 kg)

Nationality – American

Dennis Newman Biography

Early Life and bodybuilding Career

Dennis Newman was born on January 4, 1970, in Visalia, California, USA. As a young kid, Newman had a passion for surfing but eventually shifted his focus to bodybuilding and decided to make a career in competitive bodybuilding.

Newman’s competitive bodybuilding journey started in the year 1989 when he secured a victory at the NPC California Teen Championships. He then went on to register a resounding victory at the NPC Teen USA Championships in the heavyweight division and never looked back.

He competed in a few competitions over the next four years and winning the 1994 NPC USA Championships proved to be the biggest achievement of his career. Newman won the competition in the heavyweight division and also became the overall winner.

The win earned him the IFBB Pro Card and many believed that the 24-year-old would be a future top contender in the professional bodybuilding circuit, and potentially even become the Mr. Olympia at some point. However, things did not play out that way.

Battle with Leukaemia

Dennis Newman was on top of the world after winning the 1994 NPC USA Championships. But the joy was short-lived as destiny had something else in store for this rising talent.

In the weeks following the USA Championships, Newman started having health issues like fatigue, fever, hearing difficulties and dizziness, among others. Initially, he ignored the symptoms as potential side effects of his competition prep, which is usually extremely demanding on the mind and body of most competitors.

However, when the symptoms refused to go away for several weeks, Newman seeked medical help and it was suspected that he might have mononucleosis, a respiratory condition. However, it turned out that he had Leukaemia and Newman was immediately admitted to the hospital and started receiving chemotherapy.

During the treatment, Newman learned that he had a leukaemia gene in his system and he would probably have developed the condition at some point in his life anyway. However, it was speculated that using growth hormone for bodybuilding purposes might have accelerated the process for him to get the condition in his early to mid-20s.

Dennis had to get a bone marrow transplant to get his health back on track but lost a significant amount of weight during the whole recovery process. This is when he decided that bodybuilding was no longer a viable career or lifestyle for him to pursue going forward.

Newman also underwent stem cell therapy and by 1996 he felt that he needed to compete in bodybuilding once again.

Bodybuilding career after Leukaemia

Dennis Newman had earned the IFBB Pro card with his 1994 USA Championships victory. However, the IFBB was initially reluctant to allow him to compete after recovering from leukaemia due to obvious health concerns.

He crashed the 1996 Mr. Olympia stage and posed alongside the six finalists which came as a surprise to everyone. Newman’s IFBB Pro card was subsequently renewed in 1998 and he made his first stage appearance in four years when he competed at the 1998 Ironman Pro Invitational.

However, Newman was no longer the threatening future Mr. Olympia contender that everyone thought he would be. His stage presence, although electric, was no longer as dominant as it was before his battle with the life-threatening disease. Newman walked away with a seventh-place finish at the show and was never quite able to find his footing in the professional bodybuilding circuit in the following years.

He competed three more times before officially retiring from competition. At the 1999 Toronto Pro, Newman finished 18th and achieved a 13th place finish at the 2000 IFBB Ironman Pro Invitational. The 2001 Night of Champions proved to be his final professional bodybuilding outing as Newman never donned the posing trunks after this show.

Thoughts on professional bodybuilding

Dennis Newman’s thoughts on bodybuilding changed drastically during the later years of his career and after retirement. While he was hailed as one of the biggest prospects in the sport in early 1990s, he was unhappy with a lot of things in bodybuilding:

“I got sick of people dying and sh** and I looked at it in a different way. Before I was in bodybuilding I was a surfer. It was more like one with the ocean. Bodybuilding was more like the artistic thing.”

He added:

“Once it got in the Dorian scene and stuff, it got out of my cup of tea, I guess. I just lost the interest, especially after having leukaemia and going through all that and just people talking and asking about the drug situation and all that… I didn’y want to be a part of it. I didn’t want to be responsible for that kind of thing, especially after what I went through.”

Besides, Newman was more interested in having a circle of friends that spoke about and had interest in topics other than bodybuilding, presumably to help himself mentally detach from the passion he had for it in the past.

One of the things that contributed to his loss of interest in the sport was the fact that a lot of classic and aesthetically perfect bodybuilders were now losing to the newly emerged mass monsters. Newman, who had got a second chance at life after defeating leukaemia, did not want to be part of the new age of bodybuilding and decided to never return to the sport.

Life after retirement

Dennis Newman now works with the company Florida Alternative Meds and weight loss. The company specializes in anti-aging solutions and provides services like testosterone replacement therapy, growth hormone therapy and vitamin injections etc.

Newman also works as a personal trainer and actor. In 2005 he co-starred with Gus Malliarodakis in No Pain, No Gain, produced and directed by Samuel Turcotte.

Competition History

• 1989 NPC California Teen Championships – 1st place
• 1989 NPC Teen USA Championships, Heavyweight – 1st place
• 1991 Musclemania, Heavyweight – 1st place
• 1993 NPC National Championships, Heavyweight – 2nd place
• 1993 NPC USA Championships, Heavyweight – 6th place
• 1994 NPC USA Championships, Heavyweight – 1st place
• 1994 NPC USA Championships – Overall winner
• 1998 IFBB Ironman Pro Invitational – 7th place
• 1999 IFBB Toronto Pro – 18th place
• 2000 IFBB Ironman Pro Invitational – 13th place
• 2001 IFBB Night of Champions – Did not place

Dennis Newman Workout

Chest

Chest was admittedly a weak part of Dennis Newman’s physique. He had to work extra hard to bring it at par with the rest of his body. He typically started his chest training sessions with bench press and cranked out a few sets to get the blood flowing into the chest.

“I use a light weight and bring the bar up and down slowly, squeezing as I do these to get the blood in the pec region.”

Sometimes, he started the workouts with cable crossover and push-ups as well. He usually followed it up with a combination of free weight and machine movements using free weights and machines too. He generally maintained a 10 to 12 rep range.

Typically, the chest workout included:

• Bench Press
• Flat Dumbbell Press
• Smith Machine Incline Bench Press
• Incline Dumbbell Press
• Push-ups

Shoulders

Deltoids were one of Dennis Newman’s favorite muscles to train. He was particularly careful about doing shoulder exercises as being one of the most crucial joints in upper body movements, shoulder injuries can hamper the ability to train chest, back and arms as well.

“It’s one of those body parts that grow fairly easy for me. So I don’t need to do too much on it.”

Newman’s shoulder workout consisted of:

• Newman’s shoulder workout included:
• Seated Barbell Shoulder Press
• Dumbbell Lateral Raises
• Reverse Pec Deck Flyes

Legs

Dennis Newman described his leg workouts as brutal and taxing. It consisted of compound and isolation movements to target all the major muscles in the lower body like quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings and calves, among others.

Like most other workouts, he applied the progressive overload principle to leg training and trained extremely hard to build the lower body. His leg training typically started with leg extensions or leg press to warm up the knee joints. Following this, he jumped right into the working sets of the next exercises.

Standing leg curls used to be Newman’s favorite hamstring exercise and he referred to them as ‘concentration curls of the hamstrings’.

Typically, his leg workouts included:

• Leg Extensions
• Barbell Squats
• Leg Press
• Hack Squats
• Lying Leg Curls
• Standing Leg Curls

Dennis Newman Diet

Dennis Newman’s incredible physique and early success were testimony to the fact that he followed a strict diet along with the intense training routine. However, his diet was not documented as his career was significantly hampered with health issues.

To Conclude…

Despite high expectations and great performances in the early going, Dennis Newman’s career was cut short due to health complications. However, the fact that his name is still associated with elite bodybuilding and great physiques is a proof of the potential that was never realized.

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