WOLF AT THE DOORDear members,
As Dennis Wolf won the World Championships, we got the information on short notice that there will be a professional photo shoot with FLEX magazine today. Because of that, the gym will be closed today from 3 pm to 7 pm. We ask for your understanding.
-- Fun Factory Team, Recklinghausen
Such is the rock-star treatment bestowed upon newly minted IFBB pro Dennis Wolf in Germany. Considering that the country has given us the likes of Günter Schlierkamp, Markus Rühl and Ronny Rockel, it’s not surprising that the locals take bodybuilding über seriously. So seriously that members wouldn’t blink an eye when they arrived at the gym for a workout and encountered that handwritten sign posted on the door.
Of course, FLEX didn’t request a closed shoot, but it was nice nonetheless. For Wolf, a polite well-grounded man, who just happens to be 247 pounds of shredded grade-A bodybuilding beef, it was red-carpet treatment he certainly didn’t ask for. Nor did he expect what happened at a shoot the following day, where the owner of that gym made a trip to the bakery to have cakes and biscuits on hand for the World Amateur Bodybuilding Championships heavyweight and overall titlist.
Ah, it’s good to be king, if just for a couple of days.
GERMAN GIANT | Wolf shouldn’t expect such hospitable conduct when he hits his first professional event, which will be in 2006 according to his current plans. Oh, sure, some of his fellow competitors will be pleasant, even friendly, backstage. When the spotlights flip on and the warm-up suits come off, though, it’ll be game faces all around. Because Wolf, with his impressive size, structure, balance and conditioning, including massive legs, wide and thick shoulders and a streamlined waist, will be more than ready to take someone’s paycheck away from him.
Wolf’s story begins in the former USSR, where, in 1978, he was born to a poor but stable family in the industrial city of Tokmak (now in the republic of Kyrgyzstan). His dad was a laborer who eked out a living under Communist rule, and his mom was a housewife. A few years later, they had a second son -- a third would come in 1996 -- and for Wolf, days were filled with the typical commotion of school, chores and friends. Bodybuilding was not yet even a glimmer in the back of his imagination, although he did pursue other sports. “I played basketball for a few years,” he recalls. “I think I was good.”
In 1992, in the aftermath of the breakup of the once seemingly impenetrable Soviet Union, it was time for a change for Wolf’s family. They moved to Germany, his mother’s home country, and settled in a town called Marl. “I needed to learn German, and I did that quickly,” Wolf says. “In school, I did well, but [looking back] I could have been much better. I also started doing some battle sports, like Thai boxing and kickboxing.”
Find out how Wolf comes upon bodybuilding and rises to current status as IFBB Pro in the March 2006 issue of FLEX, available on newsstands now.