Thank you all for your responses. I have enjoyed reading all your comments and experiences.
While I have written here in great detail about some of my experiences, I will add a few more
observations and comments . . .
I think it is fair to say that when I saw my first real bodybuilder (Arnold at Gold’s, Venice Beach)
I was totally unprepared mentally, was blown away by his size and shape. And generally speaking,
was also in total disbelief by their “loose” form and the amount of weight they used, which to my
thinking and from what I read and saw in the magazines at the time, was far less then I had anticipated.
That is not to say they were not strong, they were; far stronger that I was or would ever be. I
just anticipated, was led to believe the weights to be more in-line with their size. Silly me.
I also observed that they did not train as hard as I thought they would (or should?), which is also
to say, to muscular failure, though there were a few exceptions, which I will get to later. They all
seemed to have this innate ability to know just how hard to push themselves. Not too much and
not too little. And all appeared to have the ability to “connect” with their muscles while training,
knowing just what part of the movement produced the desired effect.
Arnold Schwarzenegger like I said above, was my first encounter and he was everything and
more than what I expected. He was very friendly and nice and trained with total concentration
and focus. I also attended one of seminars in Chicago, spent a day with him and a few other
people, and trained with him, with him critiquing. Special. Lance Dreher was in the gym at the
time and I watched him train also. Franco Columbo was very strong for his size. I did not talk
with him much. (Did not talk to any of the bodybuilders when they were training, only before
or after.) I seem to remember a language barrier or he was just not interested in talking to me.
Irvin 'Zabo' Koszewski was there too, doing his endless ab crunches. That is all I saw him do.
Tom Platz was a total animal in the gym. Probably one of the hardest training bodybuilders I
have ever seen. Unfortunately I did not get to see him do a leg workout. Serge Nubret was
probably one of the most “beautiful” physiques I have ever seen. Just stunning. I saw him train
many times, always doing many many “light” sets, never to failure, always pumping it seems.
Danny Padilla was one of the most impressive; densely packed, thickly muscled, with full and
round muscles, almost ridiculously so. Hard to believe anybody could have that much muscle
on their frame.
Charles Glass, very friendly and knowledge, sharing and working in with other bodybuilders. Peter
Grymkowski was another monster (with very bad skin). I met him when he worked / owned Gold’s
Gym in Santa Monica. David Johns I met while standing in line at the Mr. Universe contest in LA. Nice
guy, very friendly with huge arms which he had no problem displaying. The Pumping Iron film crew
was there, outside, filming all the people in line. I landed on the cutting room floor (the story of my
life, hahahah) as did the entire scene if memory serves. Ray Mentzer I saw training and was surprised
at the number of sets he did per body-part and lack of intensity in his training as I was led to believe
otherwise by his writings. Got a foto of him and my adorable female cousin, have been trying for
ages to get that from her. Oh well. Also attended one of Mike’s training seminars in Oakland, CA.
Casey Viator was another monster who trained very hard and very strictly. (There is foto of me
with him in Florida on this board somewhere if I haven’t deleted it. Standing next him I look like a
stick man, which I was as I had just returned from Africa, where I had been working of a game
preserve, having lost ~ 20lbs) Unfortunately I did not get to see Arthur put him through a workout,
which is what I was hoping for . . . now that would have been something to see! Ellington
Darden I met in Florida many times, he was never interested in talking bodybuilding, at least to me.
Bob Birdsong did the exact same forearm routine as outlined in a muscle magazine I had just read.
Wonder of all wonders . . . just as advertised! C F Smith another high intensity, low frequency training
guy with very impressive results. Nice guy. Very open and honest. Watched him train a couple of times.
He did an interview with Bill Reynolds when I was there. I read a copy of the interview later and he did
what he said he did training wise. Then there was Steve Davis (who I forgot to mention) who was then
known for his “transformation” from fat to muscular, which at the time was really something. A friend
and I spent an afternoon with him at a (his?) gym up in the Valley. He was remarkably open and honest
about drug usage and diet such as it was back the day . . . Lou Ferrigno, just a huge man is all physical
regards. Don’t think he was in his prime, maybe “Hulk” condition. Greg “Rocky” DeFerro, another very
hard trainer. I think he has since passed away.
Frank Zane, I attended one of his seminars in Oakland CA. He would get lost in a crowd in his street clothes,
but when they came off . . . wow! Robby Robinson was super impressive. The Barbarian Brothers (David
and Peter Paul) were crazy strong. Never saw any skin, they were always covered up, looked like monster
construction workers. Vince Gironda, met him at his gym, was friendly and nice contrary to what I had
expected. Met Dennis Tenerino there also though did not see him train, just talked with him and Vince.
Mike Dayton I met at bodybuilding show in Oakland where he guest posed and then gave a strength demo,
breaking a pair of police handcuffs. I then hunted him down, introduced him to my Karate instructor who
was somebody I told him he had to meet. They went on to become good friends, eventually taking Karate
lessons from him. I met Mike a year or so later at a Christmas party at my Sensei’s house where he proce-
eded to hang himself, literally, from his neck with a regulation noose, from a second story hand railing, a
demonstration of how strong his neck was, dangling among a crowd of onlookers. Amazing.
Chris Dickerson I saw train very briefly at Gold’s (after hours, he had a key, liked to train alone I guess) when
I stopped there to get a ride to a Tom Platz, pre-Olympia posing exhibition. Ron Teufel looked very young.
Ed Corney was super nice. Manual Perry I think had won the Mr. America when I was there. Tim Belknap,
just wow!, Roger Callard, movie star good looks with a great body. Ken Waller, very strong and a no non-
sense guy. Kent Kuehn, friendly and funny. Tony Pearson, great taper, no calves. Roy Callendar used sponges
in his hands for gripping, what’s up with that?
All were friendly and nice. I don’t know what the bodybuilding environment is like now a days, if the top dogs
are even approachable. Some are some aren’t like most people in life I suppose, but I don’t think we have
the same comradery or the same concentration of bodybuilders in same place at the same as it was back in
day.
My training “takeaways”, based upon my conversations and observations is this . . . they all trained hard, some
harder than others. Most all used a volume based routine, multiple sets, multiple exercises, with moderate reps.
All one would consider very strong. Their style of training would be considered “loose”, not perfect form (Casey,
Mentzer, and C F Smith being exceptions) but not sloppy or stupid. They all knew what worked for them, felt
right for them, and they did it with total and absolute concentration, a real mind / body connection.
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