How Times Have Changed!

Better yet I had the Atlas one too. Also remember a program that used Indian clubs.
First weight set I ever used a neighbor had, pre plastic weights. He made them weights with cartons filled with concrete.

Also remember the Hoffman protein pills, adding brewers yeast to milk eggs and honey. This was about the same time as you could convert your black and white tv to color by putting a film on the screen.

First muscle mag I ever saw had the strongman actor on it from the original Mission Impossible, guy was last name Lupus. Also the Dan Lurie stuff with it.

Slightly after those sluts Wilma and Betty broke up the training group I had with Fred and Barney. Just cannot believe Betty went for Barney and not me.

[quote]migman40 wrote:
When I was about 14 I bought a routine by Charles Atlas called Dynamic Tension. You did’nt use any weights. Basically pushing and pulling at the same time with differnt movements. Probably why I did’nt stick to it. [/quote]

For me it was seeing Dave Draper in comic book ads, working one of those Bullworker gadgets. I then saw pics of Arnold in sports illustrated, and I was hooked, I knew I wanted to be a " Musclehead" right then and there. I got the cement weights at 10 years old, and would challenge the babysitter to a weightlifting contest, I only lost once damnit!! I kept working the cement weights until my late teens, acquiring more of them whenever I could con someone out of the ones they weren`t using. I eventually had 180lbs. of cement weights and would use them until they were no longer adequate.

I would make protein shakes out of milk, ice cream, and eggs, and as long as you didnt think about the raw eggs before drinking the shake, it would taste real good and go right down the hatch. As I got older I started using Weider Meg-Paks, and lots of Amino Acids. It wasnt long after that, and the supplement industry evolved, and you all no the rest of the story…

I recently rescued/transferred/archived some Cory Bodyshaping shows from ancient VHS tape to DVD-R…

I loved my Bullworker, and I can’t believe they still exist. I had a set of very old cast iron weights that my mom bought me at a flee market in 1975, not to long after seeing Arnold win the O for the sixth time. I trained in my back yard or in the garage, and I would train until I couldn’t do another set. I am 43 now and I love the lifting as much as ever. Thank God for strength and power. George

I remember wanting to see her naked so bad! Just google her and you can see her photos!

OMG the memories. I’d forgotten about all this stuff.

Man, I STILL HAVE THE PLASTIC WEIGHTS! I saw them the other day, they’re in the corner with all my other weights. How long they been there? What are they worth on ebay I wonder? Give them another 10 years. I had to hold two dumbells in one hand coz they were so little.

Hot Stuff! lol! remember that!

I had an original bullworker, the green one, before they invented the super bullworker with double straps lol - it would work OK if it was a bit better designed. Maybe hydraulics instead of a spring?

I also had an original metal spring “chest expander” what a bastard that was, the springs would grab and pinch your chest. Strangely, I really enjoy the modern elastic versions, not bad at all.

My first barbell was made in a foundry and when I bought it, I got metal blown into my eye from the furnace as I stood handing over my cash in the “showroom”. I was a kid and had to catch the train home. With two 20lbs plates and a 5 foot bar (all I could afford, sigh). But carrying that thing home on the train (the engineer thought I was stealing train wheels - I wish) then walking 2 miles with it on my shoulders was the hardest shoulder workout I have ever done. Sure, it wasn’t a lot of weight, but that was a hard way to carry it.

Dessicated Liver tabs - loved them. The P-450 really worked for me. Or maybe it was the B vitamins in it. Still, bit wary of eating liver these days.

Weider Anabolic Megapack - I think that stuff might have actually worked. Don’t know though I was eating all his stuff at once. Had a can of protein powder once and I swear, it had bits of hair and shite in it, I think the protein source was not egg, not whey, but hoofs and heels, chucked in a bath of acid. Must have got the floaty bits on the top.

I liked the Weider chewable protein though, and chewable carb tablets. Expensive, but tasty.

NOBODY did roids. Or at least, it was not mentioned, admitted, investigated, tested for, nor talked about. EVER. Oh except for Eastern European lifters. They ALL used it, whatever it was.

The thing is, back then, even with no money, no good equipment readily available, no good supplements, all that was needed was some good knowledge. You can make a tonne of natural food and need no supplements. You can make or make do with the bare minimum of equipment, using household (or building site) stuff.

All it takes is good knowledge.

But where the heck were you supposed to get it back then? Nothing but bullshit lying articles in self promoting mags steering you towards some gadget or supplement.

And that is true even back in the Atlas days.

Today, there is a tonne of great info. readily available yet people don’t go get it. How many people haven’t even dug through the GOLD articles in this site? And how many actually follow the advice? Hopefully everyone does, but people keep posting threads with questions that are easily answers with the search function.

Anyway great article, trip down memory lane.

[quote]visbuffed wrote:
Here’s a throwback for you:

How many of you remember the old Flex TV show on ESPN with Shawn Ray and Boyer Coe? I also remember the days of watching Cory Everson on Bodyshaping.[/quote]

Hell, yeah! Cory was schwing! Lee Haney had a show also. He always said “stimilate” (stim-ill-ate) instead of “stimUlate”.

Man this is a great thread. I started with my dad’s plastic and concrete weight set that he had in the garage. It was the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school. I didn’t have an exercise book but I did have a copy of a Black Belt magazine with an article and workout routine by Mike Mentzer. So I did that all summer.

I didn’t have a bench so I used a wooden patio set bench to do benches and pullovers on. It was old and weatherworn and shook as I did the workout. Which I did everyday with no rest between workouts. I didn’t know a thing about nutrition so I ate like crap and really didn’t gain a whole lot. But I loved working out in my backyard in the sun! That was the highlight of an otherwise unmemorable summer!

I still have my plastic weights too.

I have about 40 pounds stuffed into an old backpack and wear it on walks.

I remember using an old tool box as a bench. I was clueless back then. I think i eat as much in one meal now, as I did in 3-4 days back then LOL.

I remember the old flex show on tv. The horrible weider products…

THEN I recall fondly those magical pink pills …I think they were called d…something…

Started training by watching Jack Lalanne in the morning at 3-4 yrs. old and trying to do what he did.did push-ups, body weight exercises until I Gradiated Hi Skool.Moved to L.A. went to gold’s and watched the big boys train ,David &Peter Paul ,Grymko,Platz etc.tried their different routines and was wore out all the time.No roids,then tried to cut back on the sets ala mentzer,combined a Kal Szkalak routine with mentzer ideas and found a routine that worked for me.Never asked questions,jist watched learned and got some helpful advice from Tom Platz and Grymko,So’s I wouldnt injure myself.Great Experience learned alot about training and how things really work in LALA land.

It’s my understanding that years ago, a kid could start lifting weights CONFIDENT that he would get bigger and stronger, KNOWING that it would be HARD WORK.

Nowdays, it’s as if my gym peers look at it like a craps shoot, uncertain wether they have the “right program”, “right genetics” or whatever the hell else they worry about. Then when they get no results they quite and say that lifting weights “didn’t work” for them.

If you have any insight or comment about this I’d love to hear it.

[quote]conorh wrote:
It’s my understanding that years ago, a kid could start lifting weights CONFIDENT that he would get bigger and stronger, KNOWING that it would be HARD WORK.

Nowdays, it’s as if my gym peers look at it like a craps shoot, uncertain wether they have the “right program”, “right genetics” or whatever the hell else they worry about. Then when they get no results they quite and say that lifting weights “didn’t work” for them.

If you have any insight or comment about this I’d love to hear it.[/quote]
I agree,the guys i saw that were big and strong,did the big basic movements with heavy weight,ate a lot of meat and veggies,omelets,protein drinks and just grew.they didnt worry about all the silly crap they talk about now days.

I had the misfortune of being 12 years old in the mid 70s and a devout reader of Muscle Builder magazine. Yep…I was doing 2 hour workouts 6 days a week with a 110 lb concrete/plastic covered weight set in the 100 degree summer sun. Sometimes double splits.

No wonder I never touched another weight until I was 25.

Even in the last 17 years I’ve been training seriously, I’ve seen dozens of training/nutrition trends come and go. I think we’re fortunate now…theres much more science based training info available. And of course, the internet has changed everything (for better and worse).

In many ways we’ve gone full circle. What’s really bizarre (considering my age) is that I’d never tried 3x weekly full body training until this last year. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[quote]conorh wrote:
It’s my understanding that years ago, a kid could start lifting weights CONFIDENT that he would get bigger and stronger, KNOWING that it would be HARD WORK.

Nowdays, it’s as if my gym peers look at it like a craps shoot, uncertain wether they have the “right program”, “right genetics” or whatever the hell else they worry about. Then when they get no results they quite and say that lifting weights “didn’t work” for them.

If you have any insight or comment about this I’d love to hear it.[/quote]

This is an extremely important point. Back then most of the ads etc… were very positive - “do this and you WILL grow huge”. But in recent decades the articles etc… are really going on about breaking down your muscle, training to failure, blah blah blah many negative words, ideas, concepts that in my opinion setup a hypnotic suggestion (or autosuggestion or whatever you want to call it) that isn’t beneficial.

Could not resist this one…my Uncle built my first bench out of Plywood (covered with a lawn chair cushion) and 4x4 posts for the weights, damn thing was heavy as hell but he set the posts wide which allowed us to change weights without having to HOLD DOWN the bar. Had the plastic weights, the red collar locks, the little wrench (that would get lost weekly, then came the vice grips), had the Bullworker and of course the The Gripper.

Dessicated Liver Tabs were the norm, I swallowed so many my skin was beginning to look jaundiced.

Anyone remember PRE-DIGESTED ANIMAL PROTEIN…AAAAAAHHHHH

And how about Arnold and Sergio Oliva on the Tomorrow show with Tom Snyder. Sergio screaming at Arnold that he was stronger and grabbing weights and lifting like a madman, all the while Arnold sitting calmly and trying to explain that Bodybuilding is not Powerlifting.

Saw Pumping Iron when it opened in NY with a juice head that I was on the job with, Ed Corney posed that night after the movie and we met him backstage and talked for about an hour…then drove home and lifted till we collapsed!!!

AAAAHHHH good times, gooood times.

[quote]conorh wrote:
It’s my understanding that years ago, a kid could start lifting weights CONFIDENT that he would get bigger and stronger, KNOWING that it would be HARD WORK.

Nowdays, it’s as if my gym peers look at it like a craps shoot, uncertain wether they have the “right program”, “right genetics” or whatever the hell else they worry about. Then when they get no results they quite and say that lifting weights “didn’t work” for them.

If you have any insight or comment about this I’d love to hear it.[/quote]

Great post.

It seems that information overload can either help you create the perfect program just for you, or frustrate and discourage you.

So true.

Just found this thread and man, what a walk down memory lane! I started lifting in 1976 at the age of 14 and experienced a lot of what you guys said. Yes, I remember the Bullworker, the pre-digested protein, the “chest expander” spring cable set and Muscle Builder/Power magazine. I would mix MLO chocolate weight gainer in a bowl with my mom’s hand held mixer, as we didn’t have a blender. I thought the thicker I mixed it, the bigger I’d become. Many nights I’d go to bed bloated and belching this stuff. I trained in our garage using the 110# DP concrete weights and an old metal ice chest (no padding) for a bench. I had to roll the weights up over my torso to get them in position for benchpresses. There was also a piece of rebar that I would hang in the doorway for chins. When I turned 16 I graduated to the YMCA where the squat rack had no safety catches, the benches were made of wood (still narrow uprights) and a rack of homemade dumbells with some York dumbells mixed in. They eventually upgraded the equipment but I wouldn’t trade anything for the workouts I had with the old stuff. I then started working out at various gyms that would come and go and then sadly, the Y closed down. I’ve come full circle back to my garage where it’s packed with hardcore stuff (power rack, DB rack, calf machine etc.) and I’m the biggest and strongest guy in the gym!

[quote]visbuffed wrote:
Here’s a throwback for you:

How many of you remember the old Flex TV show on ESPN with Shawn Ray and Boyer Coe? I also remember the days of watching Cory Everson on Bodyshaping.[/quote]

When I was a kid I used to work out with Jack LaLane

[quote]heavythrower wrote:
speaking of old school training and nutrition, everybody here should get a subscription to MILO magazine. they have a lot of articles and pictorials on pre steroid and M&F lifting. i like to model my training after these guys. they were big muscular and could lift real weights.

squat pull and press, eat, rest, repeat. good stuff. [/quote]

Couldn’t agree more; the articles in MILO by Bruce Wilhelm and Bill Starr are always the first I look out for.

Did you read the article about Joe Dube in the last issue? His squat mumbers were amazing.

Regards Chris