Working to calm his breathing, George Napper bent down to grip the loaded barbell in front of him.
Just weeks earlier, the powerlifter had been close to death — his body pumped so full of steroids that he suffered a heart attack and was hospitalised.
Yet despite the heart attack and multiple warnings from friends, Mr Napper was only a month out of hospital when he drove to Melbourne to compete in a powerlifting tournament.
“It was an absolutely idiotic decision,” he says now.