James Hollingshead and Iain Valliere to retire from bodybuilding soon.
Top modern bodybuilders James Hollingshead and Iain Valliere discuss retiring early from competition. The two standout athletes recently discussed their thoughts on the subject on Foud Abiad’s podcast.
No athlete can compete forever. After all no human is immortal. Certain athletes have an expiration date depending on their chosen sport. For combat sports athletes that expiration date is usually sooner rather than later. Bodybuilding on the other hand has seen athletes compete well into their fifties…or at least Dexter Jackson has. It’s a sport where many athletes compete into their forties on the regular. But some high level bodybuilders choose to call it quits at an earlier age.
James Hollingshead and Iain Valliere both seem to fall in that latter category. They both recently indicated that they are choosing to retire sooner rather than later.
Retirement Talk
While on a recent podcast hosted by Fouad Abiad and featuring Evan Centopani, James Hollingshead and Iain Valliere indicated that their future plans are not to push their physiques past their limits. Hollingshead in particular went into some details as to why he’s choosing to stop competing by age 35.
“When you think about everything involved in bodybuilding, sometimes I’m reluctant. Sometimes I’m like, I don’t want to go down that road, because that road doesn’t lead to the end that I want and the end that I want, like you say, is a long and healthy one.”
So it’s clear that James Hollingshead views competing in bodybuilding as a massive risk to his health. At the end of the day our well-being must definitely be paramount. Without our health we pretty much have nothing.
Still it comes as a bit of a shock that James Hollingshead, who has a tremendous upside, is choosing to call it quits sooner rather than later.
To see and hear everything that James Hollingshead and Iain Valliere had to say about retiring from bodybuilding check out the full video here.
What do you think of James Hollingshead and Iain Valliere considering early retirement?
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News and Editorial Writer at Generation Iron, Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Sound Cloud for in-depth MMA analysis.