The Golden Era

[alfresco]

I think it was @LATS that mentioned Platz talking about taking 200 mgs of deca per day in a locker room?

Tom said to me relative to how he got into his best shape; his heaviest, his biggest, he said he just ate more food. Period. (Don’t shoot the messenger.)

 

[alfresco]

I think it was @LATS that mentioned Platz talking about taking 200 mgs of deca per day in a locker room?

I would not doubt anything that LATS says but I do you remember lots of discarded syringes in the locker room at Golds on 4th. St, Santa Monica. I did pick up some steroids (did not look into the bag) for Pete Grymkowski once.

 

[thethinker48]

I would not doubt anything that LATS says but I do you remember lots of discarded syringes in the locker room at Golds on 4th. St, Santa Monica. I did pick up some steroids (did not look into the bag) for Pete Grymkowski once.

I think for Pete you prob didn't miss any valuable opportunity to look lol

The guy just took as much he found and put it in his body

 

[alfresco]

I love this topic, it's great that @LATS chimed in.
@alfresco
@LATS

Is there anyone from this era who made the biggest impression on you? Any sight that stands out in your memory?

Sergio Oliva was clearly the most impressive bodybuilder I have ever seen in my life, hands-down. I have seen him twice guest posing but never competing.
I was at a show in Oakland, California once where he was guest posing and a contest and a friend of mine was competing so I got to go backstage and see him. He must have pumped up for an hour and was the freakiest human being I’ve ever seen in my life. Ever. His proportions were unreal and is hands were the size of a baseball gloves and he the foulest mouth I have ever heard. And he pretty much ignored a young boy who asked for his autograph. Sad. But hey, we’re all human beings, nobody’s perfect, gotta take the good with the bad.

 

[alfresco]

I think for Pete you prob didn't miss any valuable opportunity to look lol

The guy just took as much he found and put it in his body

It was more like “hey kid” (I had been working out / hanging at Golds for a couple of weeks prior to the Mr. A in LA), . . . “I gotta leave for a while so would you mind picking this up for me?”

Pretty exciting huh?

That was the only time in my life that I had been mistakingly asked if I was a bodybuilder. The apartment we rented in Santa Monica had a swimming pool and I’d hang out by the pool after working out and people would ask me if I was competing in the upcoming contest. Flattered I was, but they must’ve been blind in one eye and couldn’t see out of the other.

 

[kadafi2]

It was more like “hey kid” (I had been working out / hanging at Golds for a couple of weeks prior to the Mr. A in LA), . . . “I gotta leave for a while so would you mind picking this up for me?”

Pretty exciting huh?

That was the only time in my life that I had been mistakingly asked if I was a bodybuilder. The apartment we rented in Santa Monica had a swimming pool and I’d hang out by the pool after working out and people would ask me if I was competing in the upcoming contest. Flattered I was, but they must’ve been blind in one eye and couldn’t see out of the other.

You certainly looked very good back then. We tend to see ourselves differently than others do.

I've heard about Pete Grymkowski's dosages many times; he was probably one of the first to really abuse his equipment back then. And, as you wrote, it was even visible in his skin. I assume he had a lot of pimples?

 

[alfresco]

You certainly looked very good back then. We tend to see ourselves differently than others do.

I've heard about Pete Grymkowski's dosages many times; he was probably one of the first to really abuse his equipment back then. And, as you wrote, it was even visible in his skin. I assume he had a lot of pimples?

His back looked like an erupting pizza pie.

I have an author friend that used to talk with him regularly (he was a source of valuable information on a book we were working on together) and last I heard he did have some health issues and if memory serves, it had to do with his ticker. But you know at “that age” shit happens, regardless of what you abused in your youth.

 

[alfresco]

• Sep 7, 2015

I met Frank Zane (cool name) early in the 70’s at Golds Gym when it was on Pacific Ave.
in Venice Beach, CA. While we were never on a first name basis, I have watched him
train and talked with him now and again. nothing personal, just neophyte training Q’s.

If memory serves (this is all here-say and not my style) he supposedly had an issue
with Ken Sprague (the then owner or Golds Gym) charging him a ‘membership fee' while
others such as Arnold or Franco, paid nothing. Ego or a lack there of . . . made him
move on. But some of the greatest physique photographs of him were captured at the
original Gold Gym in Venice Beach, on Pacific Ave., by Artie Zeller (a full timer Postal
employee at the time). The overhead, natural light skylights created the most beautiful,
iconic; easily the reproduced bodybuilding and inspiring images known to mankind.

Again, eventually I did, more than once observe him training at World Gym in Venice
Beach (?) and subsequently attended a paid ‘seminar’ at a hotel conference room very
close to the Oakland Airport in the late 70’ or early 80’s.

What I do remember is he would get lost in a crowd in his street clothes, but when
they came off . . . wow! That to me is most impressive.

I have observed him training (World Gym?) and while here he looked good, his symmetry,
balance and shape was mind boggling. Everything fit together perfectly and was pleasing
to the eye . . . not too much or too little in all regards. A truly beautiful body if there ever
was one . . .

Very few people (men or women) look better the more you undress them. But Frank
was one of those who did. And under stage lighting is where he really came alive,
when he was the most impressive. His physique was must have been ‘designed’ for
stage lighting because it was there there that his star shined the brightest . . .

 

[LATS]

I love this topic, it's great that @LATS chimed in.
@alfresco
@LATS

Is there anyone from this era who made the biggest impression on you? Any sight that stands out in your memory?

The biggest or most impressive was Tom prince.. he was 300 pounds at 5'8 and lean.. so wide it was comical..

 

[LATS]

That’s what I’m talking about! Glad you chimed in man you got some real gold on the on the Golden Era. Do post more even if a cut and paste. Love love love your stories (“Story time” . . . remember? I couldn’t wait for
your posts. They were priceless.)

Thank you buddy.. it was a great time in bodybuilding to be around as you know..

 

[LATS]

I would not doubt anything that LATS says but I do you remember lots of discarded syringes in the locker room at Golds on 4th. St, Santa Monica. I did pick up some steroids (did not look into the bag) for Pete Grymkowski once.

I can tell you that platz is full of crap on the dosages he now states he took.. it was pretty common knowledge that Tom was no angel in the gear dept.. many of them weren't.. I have told this story before but I have a notebook from a guy who lives just a town over.. he trained and was trained by Mike mentzer.. when I opened my gym in the 90s he came by to look at the gym.. he had stopped lifting but was thinking about getting back into... he brought a few photos of Mike and him and his old notebooks.. in the notebooks he had every reps and set he did with Mike etc. And his gear usage.. he said Mike really pushed deca and dbol.. 900mgs of deca a week and dbol up to 75 mgs.. he said it was also the same routine " give or take" of tom platz.. he said tom and Mike were pretty close friends.. I bought the notebooks from him lol.. ill find them .

 

[alfresco]

I can tell you that platz is full of crap on the dosages he now states he took.. it was pretty common knowledge that Tom was no angel in the gear dept.. many of them weren't.. I have told this story before but I have a notebook from a guy who lives just a town over.. he trained and was trained by Mike mentzer.. when I opened my gym in the 90s he came by to look at the gym.. he had stopped lifting but was thinking about getting back into... he brought a few photos of Mike and him and his old notebooks.. in the notebooks he had every reps and set he did with Mike etc. And his gear usage.. he said Mike really pushed deca and dbol.. 900mgs of deca a week and dbol up to 75 mgs.. he said it was also the same routine " give or take" of tom platz.. he said tom and Mike were pretty close friends.. I bought the notebooks from him lol.. ill find them .

Damn, you are a literal gold mine of information.

It makes me look like I’ve been living in a hollow log and drinking swamp water.

Love to see what you can share with us. Tx.

 

[LATS]

I asked Greg deferro about drug use in his era.. he said the only real difference he coukd tell was they used less test as they were worried about gyno.. but they still pounded dbol etc so it seemed a bit hypocritical.. when I talked to him he said he was using test and deca at the time.. he was older but still very large to say the least.. he said he was doing 600mgs of test and 400mgs of deca and he was " retired".. he stated the size difference between this era ( mid 90s) and his era was that they vastly over trained and over dieted..
Joe meeko used to state at Ironage web site that he only did 200mgs of deca and 200 mgs of test cyp.. but he did let slip once that he ran " alot of deca and dbol" in the offseason.. you don't get to a shredded 230 pounds at 5'8 and train with 30 sets a bodypart and only use 400mgs.. sorry.. but one thing they did do was push the food.. it was ok for them to get a bit " fat" in the off season.. they didn't worry about being " instagram " ready.. they just put on baggy sweats and got the job done..

 

[LATS]

Now just to be clear I'm not saying all the ironagers pushed alot of gear.. im saying that many today try and come across as angels in regards to gear and are flat out lying.. not all.. but they are out there.. there will always be outliers he didn't do much .. maybe 5oo to 700 total mgs .. I know that for certain.. but there was also many pushing the envelope.. thats human nature.. that hasn't changed.. and we have to remember the complete lack of knowledge in this regard so the possible dangers aren't known.. Dave Ross ( look him up .. a well known ow ironager) once said " I took gear until my nose bled then I'd back off".. and that was the 70s and 80s.. and that was printed in a magazine lol..

I have a friend.. I'm trying to get him to come on the board. . He was a fixture in the wabba and nabba in the 80s early 90s. and did very well.. but he was one that pushed hard in the gym and hard with food.. AND .. hard with gear.. he admits he pushed the gear.. he always admitted he was " that guy" who pushed hard.. the funny thing is he told another top nabba competitor what he was using and he about shit lol.. this other guy never went over a gram total before a show.. said it scared the hell out of him. Both were successful.. but human nature hasn't changed and neither has the desire to win from the 70s to now.

 

[alfresco]

I asked Greg deferro about drug use in his era.. he said the only real difference he coukd tell was they used less test as they were worried about gyno.. but they still pounded dbol etc so it seemed a bit hypocritical.. when I talked to him he said he was using test and deca at the time.. he was older but still very large to say the least.. he said he was doing 600mgs of test and 400mgs of deca and he was " retired".. he stated the size difference between this era ( mid 90s) and his era was that they vastly over trained and over dieted..
Joe meeko used to state at Ironage web site that he only did 200mgs of deca and 200 mgs of test cyp.. but he did let slip once that he ran " alot of deca and dbol" in the offseason.. you don't get to a shredded 230 pounds at 5'8 and train with 30 sets a bodypart and only use 400mgs.. sorry.. but one thing they did do was push the food.. it was ok for them to get a bit " fat" in the off season.. they didn't worry about being " instagram " ready.. they just put on baggy sweats and got the job done..

I spent an afternoon with Steve Davis (remember him, popular because of his “transformation”) and he said exactly the same thing, testosterone was not really used, or used at all at that time. But the other stuff they were all in.

 

[Mufasa123]

The biggest or most impressive was Tom prince.. he was 300 pounds at 5'8 and lean.. so wide it was comical..

I worked at the same gym as Tom Prince for a while. Good guy. Good brain. Fucking massive and strong as hell. Huge and stayed lean. Funny, he said that when he was done with competing he would be done with it all...followed up on that for sure. Was sorry to see him pass. Chris Duffy came in a few times. Mike Quinn. Probably others I didn't recognize.

Not going to name them but good friend that would become a solid US OL trained at that gym too. He put 450 overhead from behind his neck (push press) and jerked 550. Did his Olympic lifting separately of course as commercial gyms had no place for it, no platforms and no bumpers back then. He's passed now. Crazy. Another PL I'm close with was the best bench presser in the world (SHW) holding the world records for a while. Guys knows everyone. Kaz, Ken Pantera, etc. Great guy.

 

[alfresco]

• Dec 10, 2008
  
  I'm showing my age here and do not claim to have been a
  regular at any of these gyms but . . .
  
  In my opinion, no gym compares to the original Gold's
  on Pacific in Venice Beach, CA. I visited and worked
  there many times during the "Golden Years", the 70's.
  Maybe it was because it was my first time to ever
  see a real bodybuilder or for that matter, set foot into a
  real gym, but there was something magical about that place,
  the lighting, and all the great bodybuilders that worked out
  there. It was small by today's standards (does that tell you
  anything about what it takes to build a champion physique?)
  and you were free to move around at will or just sit down
  out of the way and let the feast for the eyes begin. And it was
  inexpensive to work out there. I don't recall exactly what
  the day rate was, maybe 5-7 dollars. Not much.
  
  When it was sold and moved to Santa Monica, I visited
  and worked out there many times. It was far bigger then the
  original, had some fair light but it just did not compare favorably
  in my opinion. Many of the same guys worked out there.
  I remember before one of the Mr. A's all the contestants work
  out there. It was like a mad house. It was here that I was
  asked to do a "pick-up" for one of the famous bodybuilders at the
  time. Boy of boy did I feel special but it never occurred, his
  source failed to show.
  
  World Gym when it first opened in Venice Beach
  was close thanks to Joe Gold. Some great bodybuilders
  who trained there. Joe tried to duplicate the same look and
  feel, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
  
  When Gold's Gym opened in it's current in Venice Beach, I
  visited and trained there a few times but it has been a few years
  so can't really comment on how it is now but at the time,.it
  seemed like a business them gym. You could not just walk in
  the front door and stroll around the gym floor, were restricted to
  the observation deck if my memory serves. Maybe things have
  changed, but at the time, I was not impressed, but that's just me.
  If you go, maybe you will see some monsters, but monsters
  are not in as short supply as they were back when, or at least
  in such a concentrated area.
  
  On my first visit to New York City, I visited Tom Minichiello's
  Mid-City Health Club (or should I say dungeon, I believe it was
  in the basement). Dark and dank, I did not stay and workout,
  could not wait to leave.
  
  Vince's Gym in North Hollywood was a nice small gym that
  received no small amount of attention due to some of the
  notables in bodybuilding that had worked out there. It was before
  my time when these guys were working out there. Vince, whom
  I met very briefly, seem like a decent guy, without the chip-on-the-
  shoulder that I had heard and read about in advance. And it was
  one of the few gyms that the owner / operator had any real body-
  building knowledge and had no qualms about sharing his opinions.
  I have no clue what has happened to this gym since Vince died.
  
  Another gym in which the owner was present and made no
  bones about the proper way to workout, was in Deland, Florida
  where Arthur Jones was using a quonset hut out back of the local
  high school to train people in. Though I was never privy to what
  actually occurred there, the stories about Arthur and those that
  trained there are legion.
  
  In the early 70's I did pay a visit his next gym, or laboratory, in Lake
  Helen, Florida where Casey Viator was the resident bodybuilder.
  Many notable bodybuilders worked out there for brief periods of time
  but it was not a commercial gym, though if you wanted to work out
  you could (all machines), free of charge. It was a no frills gym if your
  definition of a gym is a place where once could work out. But I really
  think it was more of a show room for his latest inventions.
  
  The attached photograph is of Casey Viator and I back in 1979
  in the Nautilus gym, in DeLand, Florida. I do not know what Casey
  weighted at the time but I do know that I'm 5' 10" tall here, weighting
  150 pounds soaking wet, having recently lost about 15 pounds as a
  result of summer being spent in East Africa traveling around, eating and
  sleeping very little, just trying to stay alive. So I'm not exactly a big guy,
  that is if you can take your eyes of Casey's arm. Not bad.
  
  I have some other photos of bodybuilders from when I was at various
  gyms in LA but I need to get them all back from my cousin and scan them.
  And never under estimate the power of good looking woman to wrangle a
  photo from a bodybuilder. She, my cousin, had a body that could drag
  the moon out of orbit, and a personality and face to match. And when
  she asked for a photo, they were always happy to oblige.

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[lookslikesausage]

The biggest or most impressive was Tom prince.. he was 300 pounds at 5'8 and lean.. so wide it was comical..

Tom Prince looked like an alien in the mid and late 90's. Shame he didn't compete more and a real shame there isn't more footage of him training. I've read and heard many times the poundages he used were insane. Probably came back to bite him in the arse as I recall he talked about having to use a lot of anti-inflammatories for injuries. He was definitely one of the more intelligent and articulate pros of the 90's. I believe he was a teacher at one point.

 

[LATS]

Tom Prince looked like an alien in the mid and late 90's. Shame he didn't compete more and a real shame there isn't more footage of him training. I've read and heard many times the poundages he used were insane. Probably came back to bite him in the arse as I recall he talked about having to use a lot of anti-inflammatories for injuries. He was definitely one of the more intelligent and articulate pros of the 90's. I believe he was a teacher at one point.

Yeah.. when he did chest he did only the middle range.. but very heavy but higher reps.. he was having shoukder issues even then.. but he did the middle range only but that was pretty common for even guys like dillet etc.. his favorite machine to use chest wise was the seated flex leverage.. its a hard machine weight wise but he coukd plate it out.

 

[lookslikesausage]

I asked Greg deferro about drug use in his era.. he said the only real difference he coukd tell was they used less test as they were worried about gyno.. but they still pounded dbol etc so it seemed a bit hypocritical.. when I talked to him he said he was using test and deca at the time.. he was older but still very large to say the least.. he said he was doing 600mgs of test and 400mgs of deca and he was " retired".. he stated the size difference between this era ( mid 90s) and his era was that they vastly over trained and over dieted..
Joe meeko used to state at Ironage web site that he only did 200mgs of deca and 200 mgs of test cyp.. but he did let slip once that he ran " alot of deca and dbol" in the offseason.. you don't get to a shredded 230 pounds at 5'8 and train with 30 sets a bodypart and only use 400mgs.. sorry.. but one thing they did do was push the food.. it was ok for them to get a bit " fat" in the off season.. they didn't worry about being " instagram " ready.. they just put on baggy sweats and got the job done..

Wasn't Joe an inventor and owned a few patents? Another sad story was the end of Joe's life. Seemed like a very bright guy.

There are some old vids of Platz on a talk show and also some guest posing in Europe I believe from the mid 80's, might've been his comeback, but he looked a lot bigger and had some gyno going on. Now I know there are a million reasons why he could've gotten gyno but my point is he didn't look like a 200mg/week of Deca guy as he often claimed. I get the impression that he tried or tries to put out the responsible messaging for bodybuilders and drug use, for the sake of not harming themselves, but that he's also full of it sometimes.

I've seen a few pros in the gym. The only guy from the 80's though was John Hnatyschak. It was right before his last Master's O competition. Nothing remarkable to note; I think he was depleted, using very light weights and just trying to continue that process as he so close to his show. He was very impressive though. Not the biggest guy I've ever seen but one of the most complete and I recall his calves being ridiculous. Very few guys that I've seen ever had that level of completeness. A guy who trained w/Hnatyschak told me that he actually tore his abs in the 80's and needed surgery for it and was afraid his career would be derailed but that he was shocked when saw all the different procedures available to bodybuilders (this was in the 80's). He also said that back then if none of his friends were in the gym it was 50/50 if he'd actually train. It was more of a social thing for him (Hnatyschak). In other words, he wasn't one of these diehard gymrats. Guy did pretty well for himself as a bodybuilder for someone who worked as a full-time cop.

Another interesting case was Chris Cormier. Didn't look huge or thick at all in street clothes (could've possible been "off") but looked like he had such small joints and incredible shape. Of course, we know what he looked like on stage (incredible) but was interesting that he wasn't the thickest guy or even as big as I had imagined for being one of the best in the world. He looked like an insanely lean running back. Met Lee Priest in the gym and shook his hand and it was like grabbing a water balloon. The biggest and squishiest hand ever; never anything like it before or since. He wasn't getting ready for anything and he wasn't fat either like in those stupid Muscletech ads where he's eating fried chicken and donuts.