i AM VERY GOOD FRIENDS WITH DENIE AND HERE IS WHAT HE TOLD ME.
'The Pec Decks' in the cheap angle iron black and red versions were a rip off of the original horizontal Butterfly Chest Machines for women's spas.
Arthur Jones the founder of Nautilus took this horizontal machine, made it a vertical with a seat and a drive resistance system which worked with his Nautilus cam...added a press out second action-and called it his monstrous Nautilus Compound Chest Unit. And his was so excellent in quality and comfort it astounded most how it pumped your pecs to the blowout barrier-when used
to failure.
Ed Jubinville was the first to make a cheaper rip off copy called a 'Scorpio' (I think was the name, or that might have been the ripoff of the Nautilus Pullover Machine) of only the vertical action. I photographed that for Ed...and Bob Kennedy who distributed through adds in Muscle Mag.
Later Lurie who also distributed Ed's version...copied it-and manufactured it even more cheaply. This was also photographed by
me, along with designing the ad and using a name I created for the product.
Those who develop shoulder problems on any of these units cheap or expensive...are not muscle tracking properly, often using too
much weight, and momentum. In other words, they did not have the humerus upper arm bone placed properly in the correct angle
to the shoulder joint for correct natural range of movement. And that range is different for any and everyone using it.
Aside from that...the cheap versions of the unit were notoriously padded improperly for the arm contact areas.
The name Pec Deck later took off as many high scale gym equipment companies followed in lock step making mid ranged priced and luxury finely engineered quality versions of this pectoral isolation vertical machine.
The name Pec Deck was derived from a sign which used to hang over the bench press in Denie's Gym (1966-1971). And yes, I
was the first to use that term.
Thanks...Denie