T Nation

Erik Fromm - R.I.P

Bodybuilding
#1


Erik Fromm, one of the nation�??s leading amateur bodybuilders, has died at age 36. His fiancée said he was not a steroid user and had no health problems that she knew of. The Hennepin County medical examiner�??s office is investigating.

Erik (The Viking) Fromm, one of the nation’s leading amateur bodybuilders, died Monday in his Richfield home.

The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office is looking into the cause and manner of death. Police said they are investigating but do not believe a crime was committed.

Fromm, 36, took an interest in bodybuilding at age 14 and excelled in a sport that has long been troubled by steroid abuse among some of its competitors. But Fromm’s fiancée and his ex-wife both said he was not a steroid user and had no health problems.

“When he was bodybuilding, he was a really giant guy,” said Micah Brown, who has lived with Fromm for the past two years and was engaged to marry him. “But he has the genetics that are naturally of a large man.” At 5-foot-11, Fromm’s competitive weight would range from the low 250s to upper 270s.

“He worked his butt off,” said Kori Fromm, of Hudson, Wis., who was married to Fromm from 1998 until they divorced in 2004.

“I went in the gym every day with him. That was our life.”

While living in his native Wyoming and other Rocky Mountain states between 1998 and 2004, Erik Fromm consistently finished in the top 10 among amateur super-heavyweights in national competitions sponsored by the 20,000-member National Physique Committee (NPC). He climbed to second in 1999.

Flex magazine reported in 2005 that Fromm suffered physical setbacks – tearing a biceps and a chest muscle.

Fromm “was very well known and respected in the bodybuilding community,” said Dan Traugott, owner of the Repetrope Productions video company, which covers the NPC.

“He had the genetic potential to succeed in the sport, and he was passionate and committed,” Traugott said from his office in Tampa, Fla. “He was very gregarious and friendly with the other competitors. Sometimes, they try to be tough and psych each other out.”

Brown, 23, said they were to be married in August at Clyth Castle in Scotland, Fromm’s ancestral home. "Things were really coming together,’’ she said.

After Fromm and Brown moved about two years ago to Minnesota from Wyoming, where he was in the oil and natural gas drilling business, he began training people in health and fitness, Brown said.

Fromm had “just absolutely blossomed and created an awesome network” in pursuing his new profession, Brown said. “He was a warrior and … a hero to everybody – everybody’s big brother, everybody’s father.”

Fromm was well known at Los Campeones Gym on East Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis. The gym’s MySpace page mourned his death.

A memorial service for Fromm is scheduled for today at Lakewood Cemetery Chapel, 3600 Hennepin Av. S., Minneapolis.

For more on Fromm’s bodybuilding career, including photographs, visit: www.startribune.com/a3992.

#2

While I indeed feel sorry for anyone’s passing, especially at a young age, I would like to state that I have known many a steroid user who’s wife/ fiance/ girlfriend had no clue of the absolute boatload of drugs that were routinely taken, and even went as far as to vehemently deny the use at all.

S

#3

Also, not to cast aspersions, as I didn’t know the guy or anything, but he competed (i.e. was ripped) while weighing between 250 and 270 at 5’11"??

Um, must’ve been some gooooood creatine.

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
While I indeed feel sorry for anyone’s passing, especially at a young age, I would like to state that I have known many a steroid user who’s wife/ fiance/ girlfriend had no clue of the absolute boatload of drugs that were routinely taken, and even went as far as to vehemently deny the use at all.

S

[/quote]

#4

Sucks that this guy met an early demise. He obviously accomplished alot as bodybuilder. That’s all I’ll say.

#5

Uhmm, I don’t mean to be crass, but what’s the average lifespan of professional bodybuilder? What about people that do it as a hobby, for lack of a better word, like us? I sometimes wonder if eating so much and physically pushing my body will wear my body down quicker. However, the flip side is being lazy and getting fat, which will also send you to an early grave.

#6

“The Viking”, wow. Thanks for sharing. Always sad and humbling to read those news.

#7

[quote]Digity wrote:
Uhmm, I don’t mean to be crass, but what’s the average lifespan of professional bodybuilder? What about people that do it as a hobby, for lack of a better word, like us? I sometimes wonder if eating so much and physically pushing my body will wear my body down quicker. However, the flip side is being lazy and getting fat, which will also send you to an early grave.[/quote]

Oracle: “You will die at the age of 33 from drowning…3,000ft in the air…from inhaling water droplets in a cumulonimbus cloud…after deciding diving from an airplane would be a great way to celebrate your second year wedding anniversary.”

Happy?

#8

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Digity wrote:
Uhmm, I don’t mean to be crass, but what’s the average lifespan of professional bodybuilder? What about people that do it as a hobby, for lack of a better word, like us? I sometimes wonder if eating so much and physically pushing my body will wear my body down quicker. However, the flip side is being lazy and getting fat, which will also send you to an early grave.

Oracle: “You will die at the age of 33 from drowning…3,000ft in the air…from inhaling water droplets in a cumulonimbus cloud…after deciding diving from an airplane would be a great way to celebrate your second year wedding anniversary.”

Happy?[/quote]

Uhmmm…can you tell me if my wife is hot?

#9

----UPDATE----
http://www.startribune.com/local/16029287.html

Erik (The Viking) Fromm, for many years one of the nation’s leading amateur bodybuilders, died in his Richfield home from an overdose of a highly potent and addictive painkiller, authorities said today.

Fromm, 36, who died Feb. 4, overdosed on fentanyl, the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office said. The office said the overdose was accidental, and police said today that they expect to close out their investigation soon.

Fromm’s death is at least the second in the Upper Midwest involving a bodybuilder using fentanyl.

“People can very easily can overdose on it because it is so strong,” said Carol Falkowski, of the Minnesota Department of Health and a leading expert in Minnesota on illicit drug use. “It’s almost always used in hospital settings, it’s so strong,” she added.

Fentanyl, under the jurisdiction of the Drug Enforcement Administration, is an opium-derived pain reliever, considered at least 80 times stronger than morphine and has the highest level of control for drugs with a recognized medical use. Last year, people in major cities such as the Twin Cities, Philadelphia and Detroit were selling fentanyl on the street as heroin, leading to numerous deaths, Falkowski said.

Fentanyl administered through a skin patch were the subject of recent federal recalls because of a flaw that could cause patients or caregivers to overdose.

In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration said that “deaths and other serious problems have resulted from accidental overdoses” of fentanyl.

The New York State Department of Health has investigated incidents of the patches being stolen from hospitals or being removed from the skin of patients.

Fromm had a serious traffic accident about a year ago in Wyoming, causing him severe pain in his lower back and in his legs and arms, said a friend of Fromm’s, Kevin Schreifels.

“He was rating the pain pretty high,” said Schreifels, a doctor at Lyn-Lake Chiropractic in Minneapolis.

While living in his native Wyoming and other Rocky Mountain states between 1998 and 2004, Fromm consistently finished in the top 10 among amateur super-heavyweights in national competitions sponsored by the 20,000-member National Physique Committee (NPC). He climbed to second in 1999.

Flex magazine reported in 2005 that Fromm suffered physical setbacks – tearing a biceps and a chest muscle.

In the other bodybuilder’s death, 34-year-old Clinton J. Bitz of Sioux Falls died in his sleep in April 2007 from a fentanyl overdose, said his fiancee, Bobbi Doerfler.

Doerfler, who moved from Monticello, Minn., with Bitz to South Dakota in 2001, said he suffered from painful migraines and had built up a resistance to other painkillers.

Bitz’s mother, Wanda Cyr, of Monticello said that a relative shipped fentanyl patches to her son. She said police in Sioux Falls have been pursuing a criminal case against that relative, who had the patches properly prescribed to him.

“I’m a nurse,” Cyr said, adding that she told her son, " ‘You can’t use these. These are dangerous.’ "

She said that her son, an electrician who competed in regional bodybuilding events, didn’t know that the dosage in the relative’s patches had been increased shortly before he last used them.

#10

[quote]HoratioSandoval wrote:
Erik (The Viking) Fromm, for many years one of the nation’s leading amateur bodybuilders, died in his Richfield home from an overdose of a highly potent and addictive painkiller, authorities said today.
[/quote]

There you go, it’s wasn’t roid related - case closed.

As for Digity’s question, my take on it is that you don’t overdo anything. You wanna get big? Fine - take your time and put the work in and you will get big, just don’t rush it. The same goes with almost anything.

An “average” bodybuilder who abuses steroids would mostly likely reduce his lifespan and die from a heart attack, but then again he is overdoing something. If you are doing this for a hobby, or just the love of the game, then just don’t take it too seriously. The idea is to feel and look good, without moderation you will be doing the opposite.

#11

Damn only 36…wow

RIP

#12

Jesus. They give fentanyl to cancer patients who have extreme pain (and I mean extreme by cancer pain standards). You don’t ever ever ever ever fuck with that shit.

#13

[quote]rsg wrote:

There you go, it’s wasn’t roid related - case closed.
[/quote]

Sadly, few will remember the true cause. I guarantee in a few years, we will see it written somewhere that he died from steroid abuse.

#14

They’ll just lump his name in with others who died for whatever reason and allude to it. That’s probably why his family strongly denied it, so he wouldn’t be used as an example of evil steroids.

#15

[quote]Pretzel Logic wrote:
They’ll just lump his name in with others who died for whatever reason and allude to it. That’s probably why his family strongly denied it, so he wouldn’t be used as an example of evil steroids. [/quote]

I was thinking along the same lines as what Professor X and yourself are saying. It will be another name in the list of bodybuilders who died young with the implication being that bodybuilders are self abusing nutjobs that die young.

Incidentally, I did a little checking and whoever the guy was who said it was definitely right. Fentanyl is some dangerous shit which one could off himself with accidentally with relative ease. Apparently it’s one of the most effective analgesics known, but requires EXTREME caution and supervision as overdose happens at small levels and is easily fatal. They even started making it in trans dermal patches for slow release, but even they can be dangerous. Unfortunate thing.

#16

It’s like professional wrestlers,… they’re so hopped up on painkillers so they can perform night after night,… but all anyone will remember is the steroids.

S