Ronny Rockel | |
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Bodybuilder | |
Personal info | |
Nickname | The Rock |
Born | Schlema, East Germany | 12 July 1972
Height | 5 ft 6 in (168 cm) |
Weight | 230–235 lb (104–107 kg) in season 240–250 lb (109–113 kg) off-season |
Professional career | |
Pro-debut |
|
Best win |
|
Predecessor | Lee Priest |
Successor | Dexter Jackson |
Active | 1996-2018 |
Ronny Rockel (born 12 July 1972) is a former IFBB professional bodybuilder from Germany. [1]
Ronny Rockel was born and raised in East Germany. Like many other professional bodybuilders from Europe such as Milos Sarcev and Pavol Jablonicky, Rockel grew up under communist rule. Because of this Rockel was not aware of bodybuilding and other things of the outside world.
This soon changed in 1989 when the Berlin Wall was taken down. At seventeen years of age and 143 pounds, he decided that he wanted a body like Arnold Schwarzenegger's after seeing the film Conan the Barbarian , but at the time commercial gyms in his hometown of Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz), East Germany, were non existent. Instead of abandoning his interest in bodybuilding, he created his own weight set.
Following the demise of communism, entrepreneurial activities in the East of Germany spawned and with that the first gym opened in Ronny's hometown. He soon joined and began absorbing information about diet and weight training from other members and fitness magazines.
At his first competition, the Hessian Championships, he placed last in his class. But he did not become discouraged, he came back a year later and won the 1995 NABBA German Nationals and placed third at the NABBA Mr. Universe. From then Rockel decided that he had the potential to become a professional bodybuilder.
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