Keith knew a lot about gyms because he trained in quite a few, owned some and managed others.
« Reply #2 on: August 25, 2006, 08:34:23 PM » Quote
That's not "old school". The 70's and early 80's.
CHrome Universal Machines, Nautilus was popular, 100 CIBA D-bol were $25, the bench press had those close stands so the bar bounced and bent when you took it off and put it back on, the only cardio was a bike that you twisted a little wheel to tighten the band around the front tire, index cards were the only things a front desk needed for membership, no personal trainers (you just ask someone to work in), gang showers (coed too), lots of clanging of weights (no plastic or rubber), deep knurled handles so you got nice big callasses, that leather band thing you put around your waist and it wiggle the fat off, the wooden seat that rotated around to make your ass small. Simple. Workout, sweat take shower. Your name shows up on the chalk board behind the front counter alongside Arnold S.,Lou F, Franco C. telling everyone in the gym you are late with your $150 per year membership.
The old gymI trained at back in 1973 or so some great inventions. The guy who owned was an older man who built a building behind his house for the gym. Had a ground level boxing ring too. He worked at a steel place. And allot fo the weight were gears and metal wheels that he would cutoff pieces to make them weigh what they should. Then he painted the wieght on them. So when you benched you could have maybe a couple 45's along with a gear and a steel plate and whatever else there was. The pulldown was a cable with a handle. The cable went up into the rafters and around a bicycle rim and then connected to a rod with a hook. To load weight, you would have to unclip the cable hold onto it and grab a weight and slide it on the rod then reclip the cable.
We also had a neat poster that had a picture of Arnold on it. It had his measurements too. In additon there was a chart that had different heights on it. What it did was it would tell you what measuerements you needed at your particualr height to be in proportion to Arnold. SO if you were 5'8" you could see how big your arms, chest, thighs, calves, neck, waist, forearms and other parts would have to be to be proportionate to Arnold. It was neat.
