Basile is making new exercise machines

[FitnessFrenzy]

Vince this is very exciting news. Please tell us more:

Interesting that you say this. At the moment I am getting ready to build a piece or two of new gym equipment. A triceps machine and then perhaps a running machine with resistance, not anything like a treadmill.

I have to overcome the momentum problem with such a machine as athletes want to go full speed and they are quicker than the force of gravity. Still would be a good machine for most athletes to build

amazing leg strength. As Arthur Jones explained, you need an anti-kinetic device. The only current machine that I know of that has that property is the Keiser air leg press. Instant load for negatives.

Life Fitness had an amazing series in the 1990's working on electrical resistance. Also instant load for negatives. Using conventional resistance isn't so easy to design. Will give it more thought.

One of the old supinator mech warrior machines:

[Kwon]

Love how Basiles feet are pointing in different directions

[funk51]

   prototype

[JAGO]

The Rube Goldberg of bodybuilding.

J

[Teutonic Knight 1]

Vince this is very exciting news. Please tell us more:

FF's drone is flaying over B.Vince 24/7 

[Humble Narcissist]

  prototype

I wish we still wore suits to the gym.

[Marty Champions]

Id want to father vince the way hes done to me

[Montague]

The Rube Goldberg of bodybuilding.

J

 

[Tapeworm]

I proposed viable solutions to his "momentum problem" using inexpensive, off the shelf components and got no reply. He wouldn't be that rude so I imagine he suffered an angina attack, clutched his chest, stumbled around, and fell backwards down a flight of stairs.

[Henda]

Why waste what little years have left working on a machine to train a muscle which already hundreds of Ways to train it?

 If I even make it to basils age I’d rather be slowly drinking myself to death in whatever working mans club is still open by then

[FitnessFrenzy]

Why waste what little years have left working on a machine to train a muscle which already hundreds of Ways to train it?

If I even make it to basils age I’d rather be slowly drinking myself to death in whatever working mans club is still open by then

the momentum problem is a worthwhile intellectual puzzle for Mr. Basile.

[Rambone]

[Vince B]

Why waste what little years have left working on a machine to train a muscle which already hundreds of Ways to train it?

 If I even make it to basils age I’d rather be slowly drinking myself to death in whatever working mans club is still open by then

If one has the ability to both design and build something new then that would be a satisfying enterprise. The other day I succeeded in doing 10 reps with 130 pounds on my modified Nautilus triceps machine. That is a record for me and my triceps are still growing. So a new machine might assist me to get even bigger arms.

[FitnessFrenzy]

If one has the ability to both design and build something new then that would be a satisfying enterprise. The other day I succeeded in doing 10 reps with 130 pounds on my modified Nautilus triceps machine. That is a record for me and my triceps are still growing. So a new machine might assist me to get even bigger arms.

I applaud this and I look forward to hearing more about your new exercise machines 

[FitnessFrenzy]

innovate & supinate!

[IronMeister]

[FitnessFrenzy]

the supinator machines have turned against their inventor!   

[IronMeister]

the supinator machines have turned against their inventor!   

[FitnessFrenzy]

[The Abdominal Snoman]

lmao

[FitnessFrenzy]

It seems Basile overcame the momentum problem but now the machine is so advanced and intelligent that it wants to kill its creator! 

[harmankardon1]

This thread lol....

Serious question vince, how many hours went into the supinator? All up? Including planning time? I imagine it was quite a bit.

[jerseysilverback]

We should all be so lucky.  70Yrs old and still able to work on projects you are passionate about.  Mr. Canada,  who knows more about training than 99% of the people on GB.   Good on ya Vince. 

[Vince B]

This thread lol....

Serious question vince, how many hours went into the supinator? All up? Including planning time? I imagine it was quite a bit.

I showed Ray Mentzer a rough prototype of the mechanism for the supinator. That was back in 1987. I finally drew up plans and submitted them via a patent attorney in 1991. It took the US Patent Office until 1995 to grant the patent. Then there were annual fees in every country I applied for a patent.  Canada, USA, Gt Britain, Germany and Australia. Each country had to grant the patent. What an expensive, prolonged process. Thousands of dollars wasted trying to get protection. I had designed and equipped full gyms in NSW already but I didn't think I could build the machine with so many intricate parts. In 2001 I decided to do it and eventually completed the first working prototype. I installed it in my gym but it wasn't that user friendly. People had to be shown how to use it. When you see what people do on a machine you know it has to be changed. So back to the factory it went. I went through 5 major alterations to the machine trying to get the angles and movement right. Then I had to make it so I could take it through a door. It is amazing how much fine tuning goes into getting things right. I hoped that others would appreciate what was done. The bodybuilders didn't embrace it which was a worry. I always felt if bodybuilders didn't use a machine then it wasn't that good. We closed our gym a few years ago but I kept most of my best machines. So I have that supinator in my home gym along with another biceps machine plus a modified Nautilus triceps machines. That is all I use to train arms. One day I will find more space and set up the rest of my biceps machines. I did fine tune the machine for the last time and now it is user friendly. It is probably the most complicated bodybuilding machine ever built. It has 21 pulleys on it.

I would guess that we spent over $50,000 on fees. A complete waste of money applying for patents. I realised that the way to go is to sell the design and let the buyer patent it. If you are an individual and someone copies your design you have to find money to defend that design and that is going to cost too much. So the gym equipment industry is one big wank. You really can't trust anyone.

I did call Arthur Jones in 1995 after the patent was granted. We got along fine and it is a pity I didn't live in America because I would have enjoyed meeting him.

I tried to sell the design to Nautilus in 1992. I sent them photos but never got a reply. They had earlier sent a guy to look at the machine when it was in my gym. That was disappointing. I contacted Cybex in San Francisco in 1991 but the guy refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. He wasn't interested. He told me to make something 35 year old women would use!

I haven't approached any company since.

[Vince B]

We should all be so lucky.  70Yrs old and still able to work on projects you are passionate about.  Mr. Canada,  who knows more about training than 99% of the people on GB.   Good on ya Vince.

I will be 78 in September. Way back in 1963 I remember sitting in a Geography class at UBC in Vancouver and dreaming about building new gym equipment. I finally got around to building some gym equipment in 1975. Richard James, a welder, showed me how to weld with a stick welder. So I bought a 9 inch angle grinder, pedestal drill, primitive power hack saw and away I went. I converted a small room in the gym and built a leg extension machine. First one that I knew of that had both adjustable back and leg position. I have to tell you holding a 9 inch angle grinder is a real experience. That thing spins at thousands of rpm and acts like a gyroscope. You have to know what you are doing and have a good grip!

In 1980 at the Olympia I met Dan Howard who was trying to sell gym equipment. I got some of his photos and thought to myself that I could build that stuff. So I quit teaching PE at high school and opened a factory with another bloke in early 1981. He left soon after as the expenses were mounting quickly. I bought a lathe, power band saw, radial drill and other equipment. Plus a Mig welder. Had to learn quickly how to use one of those. I called myself "Lifetime Gym Equipment". A gym owner said he just wanted stuff to last for 15 years. That is a lifetime for most gyms I thought. Well, building for gym owners was hugely disappointing. Most didn't want to pay the sales tax! Wtf was that? Arthur Jones said that criminals were a better class of people than gym owners! I soon found out he was right. All of my designs were original. I told people that if they found a copy of any equipment that they could come and remove it from my gym. A lot of time was spent designing. The biceps-supinator took way over 100 hours of design time.
Making gym equipment was a challenge because people varied as to height and length of limbs. A real nightmare getting pivot points right. Eventually I could sit down and design most pieces and get it right the first time. That is called experience. A couple of years later I changed my name to Vince's Gym Equipment. I talked to Vince Gironda in 1980 and he said it was okay to use the name Vince's Gym.

Anyway, think about all the bodybuilders out there who consider themselves smart. Who has designed anything new re bodybuilding? I can't think of anyone except Joe Gold. Zane has a primitive leg blaster than he copied from someone else. Nope none of those guys like Arnold or the Mentzers ever came up with anything new. Let alone actually design and build it. Larry Scott had an engineering background and I respected his knowledge about training and equipment. I taught myself to do engineering by reading text books. I am not an engineer but I can build complex machines. Not bad for a guy who graduated in philosophy and geography at UBC. I got an MEd from Sydney University in 1989. I studied the philosophy of science for that degree. An interesting subject that wasn't available in the sixties at UBC. I was impressed with Karl Popper and his ideas about falsification.

By the way, I built a Smith Machine using linear bearings in 1982. I believe it was the first that used linear bearings. Those bearings solved the friction problem. I also used linear bearings for leg presses, etc. I even use them for weight stacks which is way more than what is needed. The trick about weight stacks is the cable has to be attached exactly in the center. The bushings or bearings keep the plates horizontal. Using 4 linear bearings was overkill but very efficient and almost noise free. A guy I shared a factory with in 1986 came out to my gym in Blacktown one night. He sat there and watched people train. Later Dave told me how impressed he was because those machines had moving parts and were almost silent. He said that was impressive from an engineering point of view. 

A bit about Joe Gold. He and Zabo built the equipment for the original Golds Gym. I trained there in October 1968. First bodybuilding gym I trained in other than Western Gym in Vancouver. In 1980 I was in LA and visited World Gym. Joe let me take a couple of photos of his equipment. He came to my gym in West Ryde, Sydney, while he attended the Mr Olympia contest. He looked around my gym and could see some custom made equipment. He said, "As long as they are smooth!" So that was always a standard. Get them smooth. In 1991 I visited Joe at his World Gym and showed him photos of some of my equipment. He didn't seem in the slightest interested which disappointed me. It took me a long time but eventually I built better equipment than Joe did. One of my standards was that there was no metal to metal contact except for bearings on my machines. It would have been nice had Joe complimented me on what I had built. I have never been featured in any bodybuilding magazine as a designer and builder of gym equipment.

Photo shows a machine from Life Fitness that Paul Graham gave me. It had no internal parts and was at an Expo in Brisbane years ago. I finally put a frame and weight stack on it. Then I had to move the arm rest a couple of inches to get it in the right position. Engineers don't always get it right re gym equipment since most do not train. For example, there should be no pads on biceps and triceps machines than contact the elbow joint. Why? Well, there is a sensitive sheath that crosses that joint and heavy friction can damage it resulting in sore elbows. I see that almost all gym equipment companies copy each other and put pads under the elbows. Nope, not a safe thing to do.

Middle photo is my leg press. Still the best ever made. It has shock absorbers. I always hated when the sled banged when lowered. Gym owners hate loud noises! My design allowed both a seated and lying position. I also have a woman's version that has a counter weight so it can be used by anyone. My design has been copied by other makers. In 1986 a company in Adelaide flew me down to help them make a leg press. The one they built didn't work well. I went over and measured the distance between the shafts and found it not parallel. No wonder if was scoring the shafts! They also used a 1 inch shaft which bent under heavy loads. So I brought my design with me and we built a leg press in a week. On the Friday I was supposed to be paid $5000. The accountant was out of town so I couldn't be paid. I was also supposed to get $200 for each leg press they sold. What did I get? A trip to Adelaide and I hate flying. So no wonder I don't trust gym owners or equipment companies. Too many crooks out there. Alan Maynard is a thief. He had all his assets in his wife's name.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-maynard-a7795b14