Croon building a career

"I had always read the bodybuilding magazines and watched shows when they used to be on ESPN (when I was a kid), but I didn't know you could make a living out of it," said Croon, a 2009 UNLV graduate. "It was all new to me. Something was pulling me towards Vegas, and once I met Jay, everything exploded from there."

Has it ever.

Croon, 25, is on the cusp of earning his pro card in the ultra-competitive bodybuilding world. The 5-foot-10 Croon competes as a heavyweight -- he's a ripped 265 pounds in the few weeks of his offseason and a super sculpted 225 when he's training for a show -- and has to place first in a national open competition to earn his pro card.

Croon finished fourth at his most recent competition on July 31, going up against guys who were in their mid-to-upper 30s. Croon's next chance to win comes in Atlanta in two months.

"I'm one of the youngest guys out of all the bodybuilders on the nationally-ranked level," Croon said. "I've pretty much won all the regional shows I could win, so now I'm one step away from getting my pro card."

Croon's bodybuilding career has been on the fast track ever since he met Cutler through a mutual acquaintance. Cutler has won Mr. Olympia -- the sport's biggest and most prestigious title -- three times.

Cutler took Croon under his massive wing, connecting Croon with sponsorships, shows and people within the industry. More importantly, Cutler gave Croon workout tips, sharing some invaluable knowledge that Croon still uses today. Croon worked hard to make sure his newfound opportunity would not go to waste, and today he considers Cutler one of his best friends.

"It was a shock meeting Jay at first," Croon said. "But meeting him showed me this is what I wanted to do."

Croon getting workout advice from Cutler would be like a wide-eyed freshman quarterback receiving guidance from Peyton Manning or Tom Brady -- he was learning from the absolute best in the industry. Croon never played a down for UNLV, taking a redshirt his freshman year. Right after the season was done, Croon decided to give up the sport.

"It just wasn't for me," he said. "I wasn't having fun anymore."

Croon decided to focus hit talents elsewhere, and that's when his bodybuilding career began. Croon had only trained for a year when he did his first show five years ago at age 20, and since then has gone on to do 10 more competitions, winning the Junior Nationals in Chicago last year.

'Amateur' in name only

Even though Croon is technically an amateur, he seemingly lives a pro lifestyle.He's sponsored by MuscleTech, one of the best-selling supplement companies in the world. Croon has also appeared numerous times in some of the sport's most popular magazines, including Flex and Muscular Development, along with a number of different European publications. Croon's career has taken him to photo shoots throughout Europe and the U.S., with plenty of fun times -- aka partying -- along the way.

It's not easy

But most of the time Croon spends his time training diligently for competition. Bodybuilding isn't just about pumping iron and maintaining a strict diet. Posing plays a huge part in the sport. In fact, posing is a competition and art in itself. If two competitors are on equal footing physically, the one who can best sell his or her poses to the judges will prevail.

In addition to the mandatory poses -- of which there are many -- bodybuilders need to incorporate other poses in their routine to be successful. Once bodybuilders get on stage, they pose nonstop for 30 minutes at a time, and up to two hours total for a show. Just how important and tiring is posing?

"I'd rather go to the gym and lift a thousand pounds for an hour than do 20 minutes of posing," Croon said. "(In posing) you have to flex every single muscle in your body from your feet to neck. Bodybuilding is like an illusion -- you're trying to make your muscles look bigger than they actually are. It's like art to us. We look in the mirror and see if we need bigger shoulders, then we work on developing bigger shoulders. It takes a lot of practice to master the art of posing. Some (bodybuilders) just don't get it, and they never get it."

But the ones who do are the ones who move up in the sport's ranks, and all signs seem to point to Croon having a bright future. In technical bodybuilding terms, Croon explained his muscles aren't fully mature yet, meaning it will take a couple of more years for his muscles to become "rounder and fuller" on par with many of the pros.

"In bodybuilding, the older you get, the better you are," he said. "You really don't get muscle maturity until you're 27, 28, and for a male bodybuilder your prime years start around 33. I still have young muscle belly fat."

Say what? With veins popping out all over his body, legs the size of tree trunks and trapezius muscles that could be mistaken for a volcano, Croon resembles a Greek statue. Having said all that, Croon acknowledges he still has a ways to go until he realizes his dream of making -- and perhaps winning -- a Mr. Olympia competition.

"One step at a time," he said. "It takes a lot of time, but I'm willing to do what it takes."

Croon still comes back to the Bay Area a couple of times a month to train with renowned trainer Hany Rambod, who also trains Cutler and a number of other top pro bodybuilders. Croon will usually stay a week each time he visits, working out at the Gold's Gym in Campbell under the guidance of Rambod.

"I spend a week with Hany and then come back to Vegas and try out all the new tricks I've learned," Croon said.

Hard-core dedication

It takes serious dedication to become a top-caliber bodybuilder. In addition to posing, Croon said one of the toughest parts of his sport is the strict diet regimen he employs starting 10 to 12 weeks leading up to a competition.

"That's the period when you have to start grinding down," he said. "I'm eating every two and a half to three hours, but it's a very low calorie intake, and you're still lifting heavy. The last 10 weeks (leading up to a competition) it's a lot of protein and no sugar (at all). At times I'll go as low as zero to 50 (grams of) carbs a day, which is like three slices of bread (whole wheat of course). I've gone as long as six days with no water (usually in the week leading up to weigh-ins). This is the time when start feeling miserable and when it's hard sometimes to get up in the morning, but you have to be a warrior and love what you do. And there's nothing I'd rather do than this."

Because of the 24/7 demands of bodybuilding, Croon said it's the hardest sport he's ever competed in. Here's an athlete who not only was a standout football player at Serra but also made the varsity for the school's wrestling and track and field teams to go along with playing at the junior varsity level for the baseball and basketball squads.

Baseball was Croon's favorite activity growing up, and he played the sport in the summer every year starting in the first grade. Football became his No. 1 love in high school, and it was only as a freshman at UNLV did Croon's bodybuilding career begin to take shape.

Of course, one could say it was years in the making. Croon was 5 and visiting relatives in Atlanta when his uncle took him to a gym for which Lee Haney was working. Haney is a legendary figure in the bodybuilding industry, winning the Mr. Olympia crown a remarkable eight consecutive years, from 1984-1991.

"That kind of started everything (bodybuilding dreams)," Croon said. "What inspired me was seeing him and how successful he was, and how everyone looked at him and said, 'Wow,' when he walked into the room. I wanted to be that person."

In a way, Croon has done just that. When he was a freshman at UNLV, heads would start spinning as soon as Croon entered the on-campus fitness center. Girls would be staring at him wanting to hook up, and guys would constantly come up to him to ask for workout tips.

"It was uncomfortable because I'd have eyes on me the whole time," Croon said. "I couldn't concentrate, so I had to find a hard-core gym. In the college gym, they weren't used to seeing a freak. That's when I started going to Gold's."

When Croon first met Cutler, the reigning Mr. Olympia told him, "You have a good physique and could do well in the sport." Almost seven years later, Croon has done nothing to disappoint his mentor, friend and one of the sport's all-time greats.