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Oliver Lee Bateman

Oliver Bateman is a contributing writer to MEL Magazine. He writes about the extreme sides of fitness, the weirder sides of MMA and pro wrestling, and the unorthodox lifestyles of professional athletes. His writing on these topics has appeared in publications such as the Paris Review, the Atlantic, and the New Republic. Ever since he was a little kid, he's been really good at exercising.

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Tony Siragusa Made Being Big His Business

The former star defensive lineman, who died yesterday at the age of 55, wasn’t just larger than life, he put all that size to work — on the football field certainly, but also as a sideline reporter, pitchman and even bit player on the ‘Sopranos’

When You Grow Up and Realize You’re Just Not Strong Enough

To commemorate my 40th birthday, I set the ‘grand goal’ of punctuating decades of powerlifting by hitting 500 pounds on the bench. Instead, I tore my pec from my chest and very painfully learned the limits of my power

The ‘Rocky IV’ Director’s Cut Is Sylvester Stallone’s ‘Citizen Kane’

The longtime action star and sometimes director looked deep into his soul in an effort to add dramatic heft to a new cut of the fourth installment of his famed ‘Rocky’ series