Hack
Total Posts: 4182
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Man, Bruno must have got around. He was, and is, a legend in Pittsburgh. I wrote about my old gym in Canonsburg/Houston that had his picture up on the wall. He worked out there,I guess, back in the early sixties. This gym didn't really have a name as far as I knew. It was owned by a grocer named Maximo who took dues in cash only. The weights were old,rusty, and mismatched. The air stunk some and the radio played polkas on Sundays. He did have two squat racks and two platforms and learned your name fast. The lights were bare bulbs on wires. It was a good place.It was a place were the thick wristed men who made steel at night came to move it during the day. He trained wrestlers too. College and H.S. style. The place was flooded out in September during the hurricane rains leaving a lot of rats and more than a few lifters homeless.
As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.
Ernest Hemingway
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Hack
Total Posts: 4182
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I remember my first(new) barbell set was bought for me by my Dad and brought home on a PAT bus from Honus Wagner's Sporting Goods in Pittsburgh for Christmas 1966. He had just retired and he carried the whole thing up the street on his shoulder like it was a loaf of bread or something. I was playing football in the street and asked him if I could help him and he just smiled.
As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.
Ernest Hemingway
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Laree
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jeffk14
Total Posts: 95
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In 1975, I got my 1st weight set. I was 14 years old. They were 110 lbs of plastic Orbatron weights. The small home I grew up in had no room for such an extravagance, but my grandparents lived next door in an old house built in the very early 20th century. In a spare room off to one side of the house, I set up my eqpt. No heat or a/c. Outgrew the 110 set. Got 2 additional 25 lb plastic plates. Outgrew that. Got 2 more 25 lb plastic plates. Bent the cheap bar. My grandfather got me a 1 inch solid piece of steel barstock for a new bar. Trained in that old room for a couple of years & built a fairly decent foundation. My only guide was an old bodybuilding course that I ordered out of a comic book. I believe it was called Universal Course or something like that. As a junior in highschool, I joined Powerbuilders in Macon, GA. Me and a buddy alternated driving the 40 minutes each way four times a week. It was on the second floor above (I think) an auto parts store. A very fit 60ish gentleman named Wayne Montgomery was the proprietor. A very no-nonsense straight-forward type of man. This gym was dingy, sweaty, and had more iron and equipment than I'd ever seen. This is where I was introduced to Hoffman's Protein (YUCK), and liver tablets, my only supplements at the time. Got a lot of good instruction from Mr Montgomery & some of the veterans of the place. At 16 & 17 years old, it was a great place to train and learn. I'd really love to get my hands on one of the old Nautilus pullover machines like Mr Wayne had in his gym. I haven't seen one in years. Now days, I train in the basement of my home where I've amassed a pretty good gym over the years. Thanks for the opportunity to recollect.
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Wicked Willie
Total Posts: 16864
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Jeff:
Until just a few weeks ago, the Universal Bodybuilding course had a website. Last time I tried to access it...my search engine couldn't find it. It recommended a high fat diet to quickly gain weight. I believe that they had offices in Detroit, Michigan.
Wicked
"I'm in good shape for the shape I'm in."
"Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man comes to the Father, but by me." John 14:6 |
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jeffk14
Total Posts: 95
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Quote:
Wicked Willie said:
Jeff:
Until just a few weeks ago, the Universal Bodybuilding course had a website. Last time I tried to access it...my search engine couldn't find it. It recommended a high fat diet to quickly gain weight. I believe that they had offices in Detroit, Micigan.
Wicked
I vaguely remember the part about the diet. Copious amounts of milk & eggs if I recall correctly. The course itself was basically a booklet of sketch drawings of a guy doing basic barbell movements, along with written instructions and suggestions of sets & reps. I particularly remember the sketch of the guy doing dips between 2 chairs. That was so long ago, that's about all I remember. It would be kinda neat to be able to see an old copy of that course again.
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Sweatn
Total Posts: 9275
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Quote:
Bill Keyes said:
Quote:
Wicked Willie said:
Everything I've been able to scan on the 'Net would seem to indicate that "Red" is still around...operating one of the largest, most successful health clubs in the South. I think his given name was Lloyd...but he preferred "Red" for obvious reasons.
Red's gym (in Lafayette, LA?) is mentioned a number of times in James Lee Burke's series of novels featuring a character named Dave Robicheaux. In almost every novel Burke has Robicheaux hitting the weights in his back yard (three sets each of military presses, curls, and dead lifts) and occasionally he has the character going to Red's for boxing-oriented workouts (heavy & speed bags).
Ya know Bill, I read some of those novels in Japan while studying there. I did not know that was a real gym, but it figures as writers often use real places in their books. The stuff you learn here. lol
What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach.
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Steve Wedan
Total Posts: 2112
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Quote:
Bill Keyes said:
Quote:
Wicked Willie said:
Everything I've been able to scan on the 'Net would seem to indicate that "Red" is still around...operating one of the largest, most successful health clubs in the South. I think his given name was Lloyd...but he preferred "Red" for obvious reasons.
Red's gym (in Lafayette, LA?) is mentioned a number of times in James Lee Burke's series of novels featuring a character named Dave Robicheaux. In almost every novel Burke has Robicheaux hitting the weights in his back yard (three sets each of military presses, curls, and dead lifts) and occasionally he has the character going to Red's for boxing-oriented workouts (heavy & speed bags).
I love James Lee Burke's work. I confess I don't remember Dave ever going to Red's, but that's probably more a function of my aging mind than anything else.
Burke is a perfect example of a genre writer being better than some of the so-called literary writers out there.
Okay, back to the topic.
Steve
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brucedl
Total Posts: 2406
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The first old gym I remember was in the basement of my parents home. I had around 300lbs of weight a couple bars and dbs bars a state of the art York bench with the tack offs for benching. I still have the bench and will never part with it. Cost $29.95 from York!
At the American University in Washington they weren't much into weights in 1963 so there was an exercise bar over 300lbs of weight, a chin up bar and some mats. I used to work out while some guy gave classes in Judo to the girls that went to the college. Fun to watch. I talked to the instructor and he said the best thing for them to do if attached was to try to run away. Guess they weren't too good.
In the Air Force while I was in Vietnam (Danang air base) we had a weight room in a hutch with a bench, some mats, squat stands and some weights with adjustable db's. I used to go there and work out as hard as I could then take a shower and do to sleep. It was boring over there when it wasn't terrifying.
One of the fun places I lived in over there. The weights had better accommodations than I did.
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LeePinac
Total Posts: 687
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The first gym I joined was Austin Gym in Dallas, Tx. April 1981. Small gym, mainly bodybuilders, great feel, basic equipment, great people. Your typical street corner gym.
San Marcos Athletic Club San Marcos, Tx. Early to mid '80's Similar feel. Basic equipment. Mainly college kids.
Big Steves Austin, Tx. Late '80's. Mix of powerlifters and people getting/staying is shape.
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In my early teens back in the 60t's I started at the "Y" gym in my home town.....It was the only weight room in town. A true dungon gym for sure.....concrete and stone walls, located in the basement near the boiler room and next to the pool........there were a few serious weight lifters....weight lifters in the truest sense, they did all the Olympic lifts and a few more....always heavy. Always the big booooom when a bar filled with plated hit the wooden lifting platform. There was one guy who drove a little car. He probably weighed 180, he was really hard, cut to ribbons..and looked much bigger than he was....he looked out of place in that little car. He had the biggest traps I ever seen. No neck traps. He always wore lifting boots....you'd see him around town with the boots on.
There was no air conditioning, as a matter of fact, there weren't any fans either.....summer nights it was a buzz with clanking plates and the grunts and groans of men doing heavy work and sweat, man did you sweat in that place.
No women allowed.
Art
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Laree
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01-15-07 07:41 PM - Post#256013
I was looking for a thread to fix a wiki link that was broken in transition and stumbled upon this one. So...
BUMP!
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PumpDaddy
Total Posts: 116
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I remember my first(new) barbell set was bought for me by my Dad and brought home on a PAT bus from Honus Wagner's Sporting Goods in Pittsburgh for Christmas 1966.
Hacksquat: I grew up in Pittsburgh and remember Honus Wagner's store well. In the 60's, we used to go up to Channel 11 on the hill and watch Bruno Sanmartino, DeFasio, and George the Animal Steel wrestle on Saturday nights. Bruno frequently trained at the downtown YMCA, where I had him autograph many programs and photos. He was built like a bull and liked to do push-ups with Bill Cardille, the ring announcer, and two other men sitting or crouching on his back. We really liked George the Animal, too, and I have lots of autographed items from him on the walls of my home gym.
I liked the post about "men who made steel by day and pushed it at night." That's how Pittsburgh Strongmen, like Bruno, were made!
| "Squeeze life until it hurts" PD |
Edited by PUMPDADDY on 01-15-07 09:22 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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Vince
Total Posts: 1461
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...this is the weight lifting loft at Saint James high school in Carney's Point NJ - 1969. It was my junior year and we decided to drag our weight sets from our basements to work out at school. Plenty of 10 pound plates and a few 25's.
...I cut the pipe for the bench we are sitting on and my buddy Timmy welded it together. It adjusts up for inclines. I am the self-absorbed guy sitting on the right. Timmy is standing behind me. We also built the squat rack behind us. It is 3" iron pipe, bolted to the floor and the ceiling joists. The loft was 10 feet above the stage floor and was accessed by a ladder. We also made a lat machine with cable and a pulley.
...I started lifting at home in my sophomore year on a bench I made from Uni-Strut steel channels and angles that were used for eveything at the Mobil oil refinery where my Dad and uncle worked. These Uni-Struts went together like a giant erector set. I also has a 3" pipe squat rack in our 5'-9" high basement. I made a vertical leg press that bolted to the front of it. The leg press was a pair of 30" long pieces of 1-1/4" iron pipe inside a slightly longer pieces of 1-1/2". A short piece of 1" pipe was welded to the top like a tee to hold the bar. I layed on a padded incline board with my feet under the bar and pushed straight up - somewhat like a modern smith machine.
...I weighed about 120 at the start of my sophomore year. By the start of my junior year I was 140 benching 225, deadlifting 325 and squating 325. Looking back I guess that was really a lot for 140 pounds. But the guy sitting next to me weighed about 130 and competed with more weight than that.
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Hack
Total Posts: 4182
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Laree, College Park, Md is a great town, with great memories from Penn State days. As to the gym, gotta include two.The Downtown (pronounced Dahntahn) Y in Pittsburgh. The 46B PAT bus would drop you a couple of blocks from it and you'd walk past Honus Wagner's sporting goods store. We'd get dressed and try to emulate the brawny, thick men who,in their night jobs made iron,watching them move that iron with a kind of good natured competition. I still remember watching a thick Italian guy named Bruno Sammartino hoisting great amounts of it and squat with it almost effortlessly.I remember one day, Bruno and George(the Animal) Steele squared off in a competition to see who was stronger. The plates were gathered from all corners of the gym. They loaded their bars for warmup and we watched transfixed as they ribbed each other and approached the bars. The animal led off and hoisted his without so much as a groan. Bruno countered and smiled as he did. On and on the challenge went. Finally, the younger Bruno prevailed. A cheer went up for the local gladiator and we rushed to shake his hand. Loudest I ever heard that place.
The other was a neighbor's garage. We were fourteen. It was 1966 or thereabouts and my neighbor and chum got introduced to lifting by his dad. I heard them one hot night as I lay awake with pre air conditioning windows open, listening to the summer night sounds of crickets and Harry Carey call a Cards game from the West Coast on KMOX. Memories so thick you have to brush them away. I looked out to see them and the next day joined them. My Dad came home around four thirty from his milk route and heard us banging plates on the concrete floor. My Mom called us for dinner and I didn't hear her.(That's my story and I'm sticking to it) Dad came over and got me. When I saw him I thought my goose was cooked. Instead of being mad he watched for a while and then effortlessly picked up a bar one handed and brought it over his head. I watched as the burly German who gave me his name brought it down and gently smiled and told me to finish up and come home for supper. He bought me my own set at the downtown Wagners that winter. That day, that garage gym, is to this day my fondest memory of the old man. God I miss him as I recall the story.
As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.
Ernest Hemingway
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irondawg
Total Posts: 1999
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01-16-07 07:59 AM - Post#256130
When I went to college the school didn't have much of a gym for the students so I went and asked the head football coach if I could lift weights at the field house.He said well the team is in and out but sure if you don't get in the way.So if they showed up I left but mainly they weren't there and I had a nice place to train,it was a new facility everything was cool until a student " a radical yankee" found out I was lifting over there and told the coach he "had a right to lift over at the field house" and he got really rude with the coach so the coach threw everyone out.I haven't thought about that s.o.b. yankee until today.I wonder where he's at today?I wonder if he has ever figured out you can get further by being nice to people as opposed to getting in their face and screaming and shaking your finger at them?
| How often has bad management been mistaken for destiny? |
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Hack
Total Posts: 4182
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I remember my first(new) barbell set was bought for me by my Dad and brought home on a PAT bus from Honus Wagner's Sporting Goods in Pittsburgh for Christmas 1966.
Hacksquat: I grew up in Pittsburgh and remember Honus Wagner's store well. In the 60's, we used to go up to Channel 11 on the hill and watch Bruno Sanmartino, DeFasio, and George the Animal Steel wrestle on Saturday nights. Bruno frequently trained at the downtown YMCA, where I had him autograph many programs and photos. He was built like a bull and liked to do push-ups with Bill Cardille, the ring announcer, and two other men sitting or crouching on his back. We really liked George the Animal, too, and I have lots of autographed items from him on the walls of my home gym.
I liked the post about "men who made steel by day and pushed it at night." That's how Pittsburgh Strongmen, like Bruno, were made!
God only made one George Steele. That's for dang sure. We went up Fineview Hill to watch Studio Wrassling and were waiting outside the dressing room for our heroes. The Animal came out and bought a cup of that nasty vending machine chicken soup. When he saw us kids watching him, he chugged the soup with noodles getting stuck in his chest hair. I'll repeat, God only made one George Steele.
As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.
Ernest Hemingway
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Laree
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01-16-07 11:34 AM - Post#256238
I haven't thought about that s.o.b. yankee until today.
I didn't mean to bring up *bad* memories! lol
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Laree
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I remember one day, Bruno and George(the Animal) Steele squared off in a competition to see who was stronger. The plates were gathered from all corners of the gym. They loaded their bars for warmup and we watched transfixed as they ribbed each other and approached the bars. The animal led off and hoisted his without so much as a groan. Bruno countered and smiled as he did. On and on the challenge went.
...snip...
My Dad came home around four thirty from his milk route and heard us banging plates on the concrete floor. ...snip... Instead of being mad he watched for a while and then effortlessly picked up a bar one handed and brought it over his head.
Jack, great additions! Whew, cool stuff.
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irondawg
Total Posts: 1999
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01-16-07 01:55 PM - Post#256313
It was great having the whole facility to myself.I had never seen a carpeted weightroom before and the air conditioning worked really well.It was all nautilus,the thing in the day.The coach that the guy chewed out was a real nice guy who later became part of the Denver Broncos organization.If "the yankee"had just gone and asked the coach in a friendly way "Hey,can I work out also?"I'm sure he would have let him workout but noooo this guy had to go and ruin it for everybody.I talked to him a few times and then I avoided him.He was a pretty good weightlifter and in real good shape,a few years older than the other students but I can still remember he always seemed pissed off at something,I guess he was.
| How often has bad management been mistaken for destiny? |
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gman
Total Posts: 4041
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Are there still gyms like these around, or is it just a fond wish/memory? Probably too many liability issues, etc for the little guys to make it any more.
There is one in our area (Va Beach) called Flex Gym, it's supposed to be a little more hardcore, for bbers, plifters and the like. The guy who owns it is a big, heavyset guy named Al Walke who supposedly knows how to get people ready for competitions, etc. I have never gone to check it out.
Start date 10-5-09: 215 lbs
current weight: 187 lbs, 15 weeks in
Goal: 175 lbs |
Edited by gman on 01-16-07 02:52 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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gem1
Total Posts: 825
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1978 I was working out at the old "Y" downtown Pittsburgh training for the Mr. Armstrong County contest. Sometime training partner was Steve Nesbitt (local Pittsburgh bodybuilder). Many local guy's there, characters all....what a good time. I trained chest with Bob Backland one day, got on Evening Magazine and just enjoyed the atmosphere. Other stories to tell at another time.
Guy
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PumpDaddy
Total Posts: 116
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That's what I like to hear,Guy: Pumpin' in da Burgh! Man, we should have a mini-bash "dahn tawn" to round up all the steel benders from our day. I know I could get Bruno to join us.
| "Squeeze life until it hurts" PD |
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Pete-LV
Total Posts: 2003
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The first "real" gym I ever lifted at was in the
basement (near the boiler room, etc) of the Hoboken (Noo Joysee) YMCA. Dave D. learned how to swim at this YMCA as a "yoot"!! ;>) Cramped, ramshackle equipment and beautiful in a way only the benefit of looking back 40 years can bring!
A motley assortment of gym lizards abounded. One that stands out in my mind was a fella who used to pepper his workouts with Spanish obscenities screamed out at intervals and always when you least expected. This only served to get the laughter & juices flowin' of course!
Fast forward to Las Vegas, Nevada circa early 1980's - Now I'm working out at the Great & Legendary George Eiferman's Gym at a place called Commercial Center. No frills but clean and many gym lizards in attendance each one with their own special quirks and idiotsyncracies(sic). George, he was a great and kind man and it felt good to have George around when you were working out, made you feel kind of special! In addition to his legendary Bodybuilding achievements, he also appeared in Mae West's Review in the 50's.
He could play a trumpet while pressing Mae West overhead (with one arm!) George kept the Gym well under control and never once raised his voice in anger that I know of. I loved to see a guy start bangin' the weights around and screaming primevally 'cause I knew what was coming. George would first poke his head out of his office and spy the miscreant. then he would casually and calmly stroll out and say
" Ya know.. if you have to drop the weights like that perhaps it's too heavy and too much for you to handle! Maybe you should try something lighter?!" Everyone in ear shot would laugh and good-naturedly kid the offender and that particular Lad would never reapeat this offense at George's place. I was very sad when he passed not too long ago and to this day, I think of him often God Bless him!! I consider those days at Eiferman's Gym to be my Personal Golden Age.
Now, I have a nice little gym installed in my garage. Well-equipped for what it is, a little cramped maybe, but, I love it. I've spent many happy hours in solitide for the most part in my "Lair" (except for recently when gman Mike worked out with me which I enjoyed immensely!)! That's it folks, that's my gym History, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing (er, typing) it!!! ;>)
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Chris McClinch
Total Posts: 8538
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That's what I like to hear,Guy: Pumpin' in da Burgh! Man, we should have a mini-bash "dahn tawn" to round up all the steel benders from our day. I know I could get Bruno to join us.
I'd make the drive up for that one.
The more I eat and the heavier I train, the better my genetics get.
If you're not paraplegic and not squatting, please kick your own ass for me."
"Do you really think that the reason most guys don't have big arms is purely because of a lack of doing curls?" --Alwyn Cosgrove
"There is only one gram of carbs in STFD and no carbs at all in STFU." --Byron Chandler
"Use meaningful loads to achieve results." --Big Vic
http://www.stoneagefitnessconcepts.com |
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gem1
Total Posts: 825
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That's what I like to hear,Guy: Pumpin' in da Burgh! Man, we should have a mini-bash "dahn tawn" to round up all the steel benders from our day. I know I could get Bruno to join us.
Bruno lived next door to my cousin....Fagnelli in Oakland before he moved to the North Hills. I'm up for getting together with whoever wants to.
Guy
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Laree
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1978 I was working out at the old "Y" downtown Pittsburgh training for the Mr. Armstrong County contest. Sometime training partner was Steve Nesbitt (local Pittsburgh bodybuilder). Many local guy's there, characters all....what a good time. I trained chest with Bob Backland one day, got on Evening Magazine and just enjoyed the atmosphere. Other stories to tell at another time.
Guy used to have a fitness show on tv. I don't suppose any of you Pennsylvania guys saw that?
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Zar
Total Posts: 225
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Agree with John, Vince's Gym. Another decent gym was World Gym in Kentfield Ca. It was owned by former Mr.America the late John Gourgott. Saw the late Kay Baxter in there once or twice.
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ccrow
Total Posts: 10055
Signature: The most important test a lifter has to pass
is the test of time.
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My first intro to weight training came when, one night, my parents returned from Woolco with a DP weight set, concrete filled vinyl plates and a hollow bar. A year or two later, they gave me a great Christmas present: a membership to what would be my all time favorite commercial gym, High Energy the Gym in Newark DE. Started up by two guys, Stacy and Chris, in a narrow strip of a defunct small factory or warehouse. I was member number 88.
The place was gritty but excellent. Tons of York plates and bars. The original equipment was all made by Stacy, an excellent welder - benches, weight stack machines, racks, etc. The weight stacks on the pulldown machines etc. were cut by torch from bars of pig iron and no two were alike, the weight stacks went up in increments of 8-17 pounds. If you wanted some other weight, there were pieces of wire around to loop on small change plates. The dumbbells were made from sleeves, 1" round stock, and York plates, washers welded on the ends with enough slack for a satisfying rattle.
This was the first "real gym" in the area. Monsters came out of the woodwork, leaving school weight rooms, basements, and YMCAs to train. A lot of top local bodybuilders and powerlifters trained there. I remember one quiet guy good sized, used to handle an awful lot of weight - one day I saw a clipping on the wall, he had won the AAU nationals in powerlifting at 220. I remember one day when I was new to the place I saw a huge man walk out a ponderous bar and squat it for a triple - I added up the weights three times to be sure, it was 735#. I saw a lot more huge lifts over the years, and did some of my best there.
Before long they took more space in the warehouse, and a couple years later built their own place just a block down the street. When they opened the new place, it was still hardcore, just cleaner. They built it with an outdoor weight pen, like World Gym in Venice. They added some brand name gear to the homemade equipment, but the homemade equipment was just as popular. The new place had an area set aside for the newest thing people were putting in gyms - cardio machines, Scwhinn Aerodynes, regular exercise bikes, and some new thing that simulated stair climbing. They added tanning too, three beds that were soon booked solid most every day. They started getting a college crowd and (I think) really making some bank.
I went away to school but always stopped in for a workout when back in the area. The last time I was there was a couple years ago, and the place was still doing great. When I was in school Stacy and Chris would often let me train for free. I'm sure they knew that the $5 day pass wouldn't exactly break even my starving student piggy bank, but they were nice enough to leave that mad money in my pocket for the dubious things college kids spend money on. Funny how enduring a memory generosity makes.
But, but! it will be just memories from now on. I thought when I saw this thread, I'd call the place and see if I caught someone I knew working, say hi etc. The phone number that rang there for 25 years (can it really be that long!) was disconnected. I called another gym, owned by a friend of Chris and Stacy, a ways down the line from High Energy.
He gave me the sad news - where my favorite gym was up until a year or two ago, there are now condos. F'ing condos! F'ing Progress! Does the world really need any more condos, or does it need the one and only HIGH ENERGY GYM?
The most important test a lifter has to pass
is the test of time.
-Jon Cole
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Edited by ccrow on 01-17-07 04:19 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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gem1
Total Posts: 825
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Guy used to have a fitness show on tv. I don't suppose any of you Pennsylvania guys saw that?
Ha....forgot about that show....and you should too :~) I have a couple episodes video taped around the house somewhere.
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Laree
Total Posts: 26002
Country: Z
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Last Login IP: 162.158.63.64
Last Online: 06-15-23
User ID: 3
Login Name: ldraper
Date Agreed to Rules: 12-09-10
Country: Z
Occupation: Website work
info_have_been_training_since: 12-31-79
Primary Training Purpose: Fitness and strength beats aging badly
Real Email Address: ld@davedraper.com
Homepage: davedraper.com
(Rhymes with Marie)
Full name: Laree Draper
Gender: female
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PumpDaddy
Total Posts: 116
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01-17-07 11:42 PM - Post#256794
Guy: If you find those tapes, load 'em up on YOUTUBE!
P.S. Are you going to the Arnold?
| "Squeeze life until it hurts" PD |
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gem1
Total Posts: 825
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01-18-07 06:41 AM - Post#256832
Guy: If you find those tapes, load 'em up on YOUTUBE!
P.S. Are you going to the Arnold?
I'll see if I can figure out how to load something when I get some time. I'm not sure yet on making it to the Arnold. Last year Corey mentioned he'd like to go but I have this unscheduled trip to India coming up in the same time frame (end of February/begining of March)so I need to see when I'm being sent there first.
Guy
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Stingo
Total Posts: 12873
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Yes Bash 2 was a trip. I can still draw a floor plan of Vince's. I guess I will never grow up and who cares. he he I liked the 60's best at Vince's. It started to change in the 70's to much for me. The Granite City ILL. Y basement reminds me of the old dungeon. Dark dingy and stinks my kind of place. Where all you hear is the clank of iron. No look at me types. Dave would be right at home there. The same cast of characters. Men and women who lift just for the fun of it. People handle iron as if they have no clue how strong they are.
From Bash02, Las Vegas.... CJ and pals....
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 Attachment: CJ.jpg (43.21 KB) 512 View(s) |
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~ Stingo ~
“A wise man once said nothing”
— a wise man |
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Dempsey
Total Posts: 97
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01-19-07 05:31 PM - Post#257526
My sister moved to Las Vegas around 1980. I spent a summer there and at first I went to the local Golds, but one day I was walking around aimlessly and stumbled on "Eiffermans Famous Las Vegas Health Club" owned and operated (of course) by George Eifferman.
The gym was not the fanciest and it always seemed the dumbells were never very well organized, but George met me at the door with a huge smile and treated me like a long lost friend for the rest of my stay there.
I remember he was so much like my high school football coach in looks and personality that sometimes I would think and react as if I were talking to dear old Coach Thomas.
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Tim Mendelsohn
Total Posts: 1557
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Hack
Total Posts: 4182
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Back in the earliest Steel Curtain days, before the weight room was open to the Steelers 'O' line year round, they met at Curinga's restaurant just north of Washington, Pa. The son of the manager was a dedicated lifter and had set up a darn fine weight room in the basement of his dad's restaurant. It served the young Steelers well before camp opened in Latrobe, Pa. I only got a chance to workout there some time later when the manager's son, who lived on the same floor as I did at Penn State and I shared a ride home for the holiday break together and he invited me in. It was humid,cramped and smelled of chicken fat and produce.You had to go down ten or so cellar steps and duck your head to get there. They had chin bars built in to the rafters and a thick bench made of butcher block. One old Hobart fan whirred continuously to move the stale air. You could walk in there completely clean and stink within minutes. Kinda makes you feel like you're cheating to walk into the antiseptic gyms that are popular nowadays.
As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.
Ernest Hemingway
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Steve Wedan
Total Posts: 2112
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The weight rooms I went to in college and grad school give me wonderful memories, if only for the muscle building I got done in mostly horrendous conditions. One of two exceptions to the dungeon-like conditions I faced back then was the new weight room we got half way through my college career, the one at which Arthur Jones came to tell us how stupid we all were: It was great.
The most romantic memory I have of a gym, though, was Beach Street Gym in Daytona Beach. It was across the street from the Intracoastal Waterway. Coming out of that gym on a summer night, puddles from a recent storm scattered on the sidewalk . . . man, that was hard to beat. I remember standing there, looking over the boats and the mangrove islands to the storm clouds piled above the Gulf Stream several miles away. Lightning flashed silently: It was too far to hear the thunder. The moon was rising behind those clouds, and the traffic on Beach Street, dense as always, seemed quieter somehow. Maybe it was just my mood. I was all pumped up and happy. I turned right and walked to the corner, where there was a pizza joint. I drove home sometime later in my 1970 VW, windows down, because that was my only air conditioning. I listened to the AM radio, singing quietly.
Nice gym.
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maskedworker
Total Posts: 255
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01-04-08 07:24 AM - Post#391779
When I was in high school I started buying equipment for a home gym. A York all in 1 bench. That was replaced by a Jubinville 7 in 1 bench. After were a calf mach leg ext. and homemade squat racks and lat mach. I had the stuff out in the unattached garage. The cold New Hampshire winters were fought off with a propane heater of unknown origin and questionable safety. The wind would cause snow to drift around the back end of the building all the way to the roof. I'd start the heater and in 10 min. it would be nice and toasty. The snow against the building would start to melt and run along the cement floor inside soaking the nasty old carpet remnants covering it. A great set-up for a 17 year old and a few of his buddies. After the workout when the heat was off the soaked carpet would freeze and all the plates would freeze to the floor. The next work out you would spend the first few min, while the heater did it's job, prying up the plates with a claw hammer. I'd like to return there for just one work out....absolute heaven.
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Ben Crawford
Total Posts: 1958
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01-04-08 09:03 AM - Post#391806
I got my first weight set (concrete filled plastic) from Sears in 1968. Bought it myself with paper route money. Used it til I went to college. First gym I belonged to was in my home town. Lots of chrome dumbells and barbells and universal machines.
Weight room at college first consisted of a 310 pound olympic set, something we called a hip sled and a set of parallel bars for dipping. My junior year we had a new player named Steve Maples who transferred in from a community college. He was about 5'8 and weighed 195 and was built like a a brick s***house. He played offensive tackle to boot(this was 1975 Division II football). He had a training partner named of Alex McNeil (a Jackson Ms policeman) and they trained in an old house that had so much stuff in it you could hardly move around. Steve or "Porky" as he was nicknamed asked me to go work chest with him one Saturday. I matched him set for set (not poundages though) and for two days I could hardly raise my arms to do anything.
Red Lerille is a legend around Louisiana parts. His gym in Lafayette, La was at one time one of the finest around.
Laree, your recollections of the DLI in Monterrey brings back memories of my visit there in 1985 with my ex-wife, Beth. Her cousin Steven Kulmala and his wife Lori were at the DLI as Polish language instructors. We ate at some really nice Italian restaurant there in Monterrey.
"Don't accumulate possessions, accumulate experiences!" Mark Batterson
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Steve C
Total Posts: 3799
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01-04-08 02:01 PM - Post#391954
My favorite gym in Illinois I went to was a powerlifting/weightliftin g/boxing gym...and it was a dream gym. No memberships, but you could workout there for $2 a workout, and often for free with the free passes the owner handed out at will.
All homemade equipment, uglier than sin, yet fine working. Still the best leg press I have ever seen to this day.
They had 200 pound plates as well as DB's up to 200 pounds.
This was in a horrible area in the housing projects, you would notice pistols in some of the guys' gym bags, yet nobody bothered you.
Something about this gym made you strive to live up to it...it inspired greatness. Many a PR was set there, yet it was not my regular gym (I only did probably 5% of my workouts there).
"It is not an uncommon experience for people to talk and argue a great deal about something without anybody bothering to define precisely what it is."
- Ross J.S. Hoffman
I would like to see the truth clearly before it is too late.
- Sartre
We must begin by a definition, although definition involves a mental effort and therefore repels.
- Hilaire Belloc |
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Scott I
Total Posts: 4485
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Macs Gym the only real gym I belonged to. Basement uptown Gillespie. $135.00/year IF anyone actually paid, everyone got a key too. about 20 feet wide, 60 feet long, held the largest collection of Nautilus equipment this side of SIU Carbondale. O and a freeweight section made up of a hodge podge of weights, bars and a few benches. Good times, I cut my teeth there, then he went upscale and moved it out to an old restaraunt a few miles out of town. I paid my membership fees by helping him set the gym up and worked as a night mamager there until he closed the doors. Added on an aerobics room, hot tub, TWO shower rooms down first floor anda, hair salon and life cycle bikes on top floor.
Lots of memories jammed in a short time there too. Havent been in a gym since 1988. Miss it though, but I got my dungeon.
"no hell, no high water, no drama, just preform your art." Kim Frazier
Desire, Dedication, Discipline
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Edited by Scott I on 01-04-08 05:07 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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RickV
Total Posts: 176
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In 1978, Centre D'Entrainement de Vieux Montreal opened on the sixth floor of an old building in a section of Montreal known as Old Montreal - took a workout there that summer with a fellow by the name of Mike Mcintyre who later played 5-6 years in the Canadian Football League, primarily with the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Following summer, signed on for three months, was the kind of gym that sadly rarely stays in business (closed year or two after) - owners were two school teacher / powerlifters - Lots of heavy equipment - two shot putters that both competed for Canada internationally - Bruno Pauletto and Bishop Dolegieiwicz (competed in 1980 WSM) took workouts there - was a pic on the wall from when the gym was first opening showing Bishop benching around 500 pounds on an old Weider lightweight bench - looked comical the way Bishop dwarfed the thing !! .
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has been
Total Posts: 1067
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01-20-08 12:27 PM - Post#398896
Raleigh's Powerhouse gym in downtown,by the tracks is as hardcore as any Ijioned in'85 fresh out of the marines. i was immediatley accepted by everyone.and was an awesome atmosphere.our most famous member was Lee James. silver med winner 1976 montreal that guy sure had a set of pins! i used to say ''i'm going to seseame street'' because of all the characters.all of them loveable.i visited before christmas still the same old place but different faces.except for Bob the original owner .greeted me like i just was there yesterday.it had in fact been over 15yrs.
no more play'n around.
support our troops. |
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Bill Keyes
Total Posts: 2558
Signature: Bill2
Integrity is what you do when you think nobody is watching.
Show User Page
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Last Login IP: 98.207.37.105
Last Online: 05-15-14
User ID: 7
Login Name: bilkyes
Primary Training Purpose: Health
Real Email Address: bilkyes@yahoo.com
Primary Training Style: Volume
Still Tryin'
Gender: male
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The weight rooms I went to in college and grad school give me wonderful memories, if only for the muscle building I got done in mostly horrendous conditions. One of two exceptions to the dungeon-like conditions I faced back then was the new weight room we got half way through my college career, the one at which Arthur Jones came to tell us how stupid we all were: It was great....
From 1969 to 1973 USF's (the 'original' USF, Univ of San Francisco) weight room was very basic: a six station Universal Machine, a homemade power rack for benches and squats, a 400lb York Oly set with an extra pair of 45's, a rack of set DB's from 10's to 40's and that was it. Over the four years I attended, they added set barbells from the empty bar to 120# by 10's, and additional db's. It was located in the basement of the Memorial Gym.
In the 80's the University converted the former St Ignatious H.S. location into the Koret Center with a true state of the art fitness facility.
Just doesn't have the same cachet of the old spot, though.
Bill2
Integrity is what you do when you think nobody is watching. |
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Gregthebody
Total Posts: 2949
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01-20-08 04:11 PM - Post#399007
I loved the Leaning Tower YMCA. Snuck in so many time, for free workouts as well.
We had great bbers as well, Rock Stonewall, Dave Walters, George Mendes, and me !
Norm Zale ran the place, he had no clue !!
Greg
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Jack Stein
Total Posts: 353
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01-20-08 08:06 PM - Post#399121
My friends and I back in the early 70's worked out at Rock Stonewall's gym in downtown Chicago. We would take the train to his place. Rock was a great guy with an unbelievable physique back then and a few of the other big dudes were very inspirational to us young high schoolers. I remember being Rock's guy for donkey calve raises. Not something I admit to easily in mixed company. Many years ago when my weight training was in its infancy.
| TRAIN HARD, EAT RIGHT AND TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WISH TO BE TREATED! |
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Ed Stalzer
Total Posts: 970
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01-23-08 09:46 PM - Post#400523
Back in the late 70s and early 80s I trained at a Gym called McDougals. It was located in Hollywood FL. One of my OL coaches recommended this gym because he knew the owner. It was a great classic gym. All York plates and bars. And most of Benches, racks etc were built at a York affiliate in Miami. The only bad thing with this place was, the owner didn't like OL lifters training there. He didn't mind me so much because of our mutual friend. But I remember him yelling at me if I hogged the squat rack. Still miss that place. Another great place was locate down in Biscayne FL, on Biscayne Blvd. I wish I could remember the name. That gym was another great classic, and the owners had an OL platform built in the back. We even got to train there for free. Loved that gym, but it was far for me to drive down to each week.
"my joints are squealing like a truckload of pigs on their way to the Spam factory."
Dave Draper
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Budhi
Total Posts: 552
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01-28-08 08:19 PM - Post#402163
Over the years I've trained in many gyms. The first was the San Jose, CA YMCA around 1960. By today's standards it was primitive - an old lat machine suspended from the ceiling, an Iron Stair Case made of pipe - same for dip bars - but it rocked. There were few other gyms in San Jose at that time.
In the 70s one opened on Bascom Avenue not too far from West San Carlos by the name of Ironworks. Lot of home made equipment and exceptional place. In time they moved over to a far bigger building on Winchester Blvd in Campbell, and in time Scott Connelly bought it while still experimenting with the development of MetRx. It was to San Jose what Joe Gold's World Gym was to Venice, both in equipment and those training there. Lots of homemade equipment.
These days I have three favorites in Central Texas. Two are the work of Mike Graham: his old Hyde Park Gym, and his current Old Texas Barbell Company in Lockhardt - in the same building as one of the best BBQs in the world. Mike is a genius equipment maker.
The other has produced five Mr Texas winners, the little fully packed San Marcos Athletic Club - SMAC by name. Terry Todd introduced me to that one in 2003, recommending that I get a session in while travelling in Centex at that time. I couldn't believe the place I stepped into. Like a fully equipped weight room in a submarine - really packed tightly. But what a place.
House of Pain's website (in Fate, Texas) includes a section on small gyms throughout the country - some old houses with the various rooms of the house for different equipment/body parts. I always find that fascinating as an alternative to the big corporate gyms, a strong return to the gyms of yesteryear. I actually worked on in one like that in San Jose for part of the 70s, a place off Hwy 17 and Camden Avenue, near Bascom. Can't recall the name anymore. What it lacked in equipment it m ore than made up for in spirit and commarderie.
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LeePinac
Total Posts: 687
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01-29-08 01:02 AM - Post#402229
Hyde Park Gym and SMAC (hopefully still run by Bobby Warren) are two great neighborhood gyms. I miss living down the street from both of them, which I did at different times in my life. I can smell them both now.
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