Bodybuilder seeks to help others

Jim Davis said he went from a more-than-200-pound football quarterback to a 135-pound weakling following a serious knee injury in a car crash.
After that, he said, he decided to work himself back up to where he was - and beyond. Almost 20 years and many more than 20 bodybuilding titles later, Davis now works to help others get themselves into the shape they'd like to have.
 
Davis, 52, owns Workout Anytime in McDonough. The business, which Davis bills as "a total family fitness center," has been open for five years.
Even though Davis has a plethora of trophies he won for his physique and strength, he said that even the most out-of-shape couch potatoes should feel comfortable in his gym.

"People who are out of shape wouldn't be scared to come in here," he said.
Perhaps Davis strives to accommodate less-than-perfect physical specimens because he remembers how it feels to be out of shape. A quarterback in high school and later at the University of Tampa, his football career was ended by a sport-related knee injury that was made much worse by a subsequent wreck.

With numerous pins in his leg, Davis could no longer play football, and his weight dropped during his convalescence down to about 135 pounds. But when Davis began his rehabilitation, he came back with a vengeance.

He got into weightlifting and bodybuilding, and would go on to win numerous titles in the field. These included three consecutive Mr. Georgia titles and the Junior Mr. America title.

But as he went through college, Davis decided to use the fitness knowledge he had obtained for the benefit of others.
"If you have somebody with knowledge who can help people, there's something wrong if they don't go out of their way to help folks," he said.

After graduating from Mercer University with a degree in physical education, Davis began working for fitness centers in the Atlanta area. A Chamblee native, for a while he worked on the north side of town.
But he had friends in the Southern Crescent, and eventually moved to Henry County.

Now with a wife and four children ranging from nine months to 20 years old, Davis said he has cut back on the heavy weightlifting. His last competition was the Eastern American Bench Press Contest, in which he lifted more than 500 pounds to win the competition.
"Now I just stay with the light weights and numerous repetitions, just to keep the body fat off but keep the muscles working," he said. "I'm probably going to be working until I'm 72 or 75, so I've got to keep myself in shape."