What happened to our gyms?

[Backfrominjury]

I'm and old(er) guy, turning 45 in a couple months. My first gym was Quads Gym, in Illinois when it was still in the old building near the quarries. Voted time and time again one of the most hardcore gyms in America. I was a 12 year old kid coming into a gym with massive bodybuilders, nationally known powerlifters....loud music, clanging iron, chalk dust everywhere. I loved it. Did something to the mood. Kind of like in the Rocky movies and they go to old school training to get the eye of the tiger lol.

I can emphathize with the OP. In those days being a kid, I watched everything. I learned. Three days ago I was supersetting in my new gym and a 20 ish year old girl walks over to the place I was supersetting a bicep exercise with a tricep exercise and just takes over the damn pully, changing the attachment and everything. Not a single word about how many more sets you got? The music is shit, there isn't a piece of chalk in the place, the talking centers on everything but training. There are girls dressed in yoga pants everywhere. You can be doing a set of 110 lb incline dbell presses and someone will walk right in front of you instead of around as to not mess with your concentration. Are we being grumpy old men? Yes. Should we just get over it and not be a pussy? Yes. Should we be focused enough on ourselves that we don't even notice this? Yes. But it is like everything else- times have changed and us old men wish for days long gone bye.

There was something about those old days, like in the old Pumping Iron where guys all had a similar goal, and would help one another, talk training, food and drugs, knowing they would all bring the intensity that made the gym a special place. Now its a place to just get in and get out.

 

[fitzchivalry]

Triggered.

Another brilliant response.

 

[Massive G]

Progress guys... progress.
I wonder if the bb'ers from the 1950's and 60's walked into Golds in the 1980's and felt the same way, with the music blasting on the speakers from the tape deck behind the gym counter and the shiny wimpy machines. LOL

These vids are kinda low quality but a real find on youtube .

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W0-szPo0d0"]Golds in the early 80s Part 1.m4v - YouTube[/ame]

I am kinda on the fence I'd be lying if I didn't say the younger guys and gals don't bug the shit outta me, but then again I am kinda happy for them to be involved in fitness, and hopefully not end up like the human cattle I see grazing on junk food and sodas.

I don't train at a commercial gym, we have one at work, and when I do train on the road on vacation it's usually LA Fitness, and kinda shocked to see how people are dressed and training but then adjust and get warmed up and move along. At times people look like carbon copies of themselves, and don't ever try to get near any machine used for glute training. they are never free.

Things have really really changed - you guys should watch the vid, many will find it boring but it's a treasure trove of who was who in bodybuilding back then as CA was the MECCA and knew a few guys that made the trek and lived out of their cars thinking they were gonna go pro.

I will say this everyone is in a rush these days more than ever and it's always been about hard work and consistency.

 

[blkhrt_jordan]

You guys take things too at heart. I could give 3 shits if you wear headset or do ridiculous exercises or trying to reinvent the wheels. I go to train and get out. I have a bunch of gym friends that we talk chat about all kinds of things and make fun of each other for fun and giggles. Some of us are big and old school and some are our ages which is over 40s and don't have a lick of muscle. I'm not there to train or teach anyone. If you ask me I tell you and help you with tips and techniques. But I don't come up to anyone to correct them. Actually me and my girl lauph at people when they are doing weird exercises and think they are the gym king. The only thing that bothers me is when you have like 4 or 5 teens using a machine and talking or messing with there phone and when you ask them how many sets they have left they tell you something like ahhh 7 each. Instead of blowing up I just move on and do something else. Shit sometimes me and my girl finish our entire workout and the kids are still in the same machine. But they pay membership like you do so what's the point in arguing with kids

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In one sentence you say you dont care what others do, in the next you state you and your gf laugh at them. I dont know whats worse, ppl doing strange stuff or ppl like you who care enough to make fun of them. You shouldnt cast that type of energy towards anyone.

 

[blkhrt_jordan]

I used to go to a 24hr rundown gym and it was great. Place to get the work in, lift in some dusy corner. Business guys boght it out and renovated it and it is so damn busy. I have some problems where i tense up around groups and people i am not familiar with, due to some past issues. I find i could not concentrate anymore. A few times i hought i even caught people snapping secret pics or video of me when i was doing my physio rehab exercises. I couldnt be sure but thats how it feels when someone is holding their phone up in your direction.

Anyways, the guy who works there ripped me off for a bunch of gear and then threw me out when i caught him in the lie. No big loss. I am going to the ymca and some gay ass commercial gym filled with chicks and ultimate vanity bros now until i can get my own spot and grt some of my own equipment.

 

[BigGame]

I just find it kind of comical how Monday and Tuesdays are ALWAYS the busiest nights of the week at gyms I go to and then once Wednesday hits, it’s like everybody hits a wall and the rest of the week it quiets down.

 

[LK3]

I'm and old(er) guy, turning 45 in a couple months. My first gym was Quads Gym, in Illinois when it was still in the old building near the quarries. Voted time and time again one of the most hardcore gyms in America. I was a 12 year old kid coming into a gym with massive bodybuilders, nationally known powerlifters....loud music, clanging iron, chalk dust everywhere. I loved it. Did something to the mood. Kind of like in the Rocky movies and they go to old school training to get the eye of the tiger lol.

I can emphathize with the OP. In those days being a kid, I watched everything. I learned. Three days ago I was supersetting in my new gym and a 20 ish year old girl walks over to the place I was supersetting a bicep exercise with a tricep exercise and just takes over the damn pully, changing the attachment and everything. Not a single word about how many more sets you got? The music is shit, there isn't a piece of chalk in the place, the talking centers on everything but training. There are girls dressed in yoga pants everywhere. You can be doing a set of 110 lb incline dbell presses and someone will walk right in front of you instead of around as to not mess with your concentration. Are we being grumpy old men? Yes. Should we just get over it and not be a pussy? Yes. Should we be focused enough on ourselves that we don't even notice this? Yes. But it is like everything else- times have changed and us old men wish for days long gone bye.

There was something about those old days, like in the old Pumping Iron where guys all had a similar goal, and would help one another, talk training, food and drugs, knowing they would all bring the intensity that made the gym a special place. Now its a place to just get in and get out.

lol
but dude...
the whole world has gone clean and shiny and safe. lol
i miss sooo many things that dont exist anymore!

dark smokey shady places are not the same without smoke! lol
wtf:banghead:

one of the things i enjoyed about gyms before was the host of interesting and arguabley more "hardcore" charecters like real old fashion juice head maniacs that were often genuinley scary people... lol

now all the juice heads are like tan n pretty and almost wearing make up. lol

 

[BoredStiff]

lol
but dude...
the whole world has gone clean and shiny and safe. lol
i miss sooo many things that dont exist anymore!

dark smokey shady places are not the same without smoke! lol
wtf:banghead:

one of the things i enjoyed about gyms before was the host of interesting and arguabley more "hardcore" charecters like real old fashion juice head maniacs that were often genuinley scary people... lol

now all the juice heads are like tan n pretty and almost wearing make up. lol

I do have ONE character like that at my gym, he's a cool guy but terrifying once he lifts. Just yesterday he was doing hack squats and I hear the loudest "FUCK YOU, DIE MOTHERFUCKER, DIE PIECE OF SHIT!!!!" Yell across the gym, so I knew he was there lol. Nobody minds, once he starts lifting it's loud cursing and yelling every lift. Guy is ripped to shreds and in his 50's probably. But again, he has a right to do that, even if it goes right through my headphones at full blast while I'm on the other side of the gym, and I have a right to wear my headphones and not want people talking to me and the next guy has a right to spend his whole hour working on the butt blaster, we are all paying the same hard earned-cash and your lifts or my lifts are NOT more important than the 90 year old doing 45lbs on the bench, it's his gym as much as it is mine or yours. That's the mentality I don't like, the "well I'm hardcore or I compete so I do my shit and everyone else comes second".... no, doesn't work that way.

 

[LK3]

I do have ONE character like that at my gym, he's a cool guy but terrifying once he lifts. Just yesterday he was doing hack squats and I hear the loudest "FUCK YOU, DIE MOTHERFUCKER, DIE PIECE OF SHIT!!!!" Yell across the gym, so I knew he was there lol. Nobody minds, once he starts lifting it's loud cursing and yelling every lift. Guy is ripped to shreds and in his 50's probably. But again, he has a right to do that, even if it goes right through my headphones at full blast while I'm on the other side of the gym, and I have a right to wear my headphones and not want people talking to me and the next guy has a right to spend his whole hour working on the butt blaster, we are all paying the same hard earned-cash and your lifts or my lifts are NOT more important than the 90 year old doing 45lbs on the bench, it's his gym as much as it is mine or yours. That's the mentality I don't like, the "well I'm hardcore or I compete so I do my shit and everyone else comes second".... no, doesn't work that way.

idk dude...
that guy just sounds off...
in the places im thinking of we would probably look n laugh n he would be called weird fred or something... lol

screaming is not hard core or cool

 

[maldorf]

idk dude...
that guy just sounds off...
in the places im thinking of we would probably look n laugh n he would be called weird fred or something... lol

screaming is not hard core or cool

I screamed a couple of time doing sets of triples in the squat with like 545 lbs. But it was more of a loud grunt and I didn't say anything. I think that is a bit annoying that he screams curse words. Really no need for that.

 

[Durro]

A bunch of Snowflakes at the gyms I go to!


www.PharmaComStore.ws

 

[johnjuanb1]

A bunch of Snowflakes at the gyms I go to!


www.PharmaComStore.ws

Snowflakes, pencil necks, and horse faces.

 

[johnjuanb1]

I screamed a couple of time doing sets of triples in the squat with like 545 lbs. But it was more of a loud grunt and I didn't say anything. I think that is a bit annoying that he screams curse words. Really no need for that.

He should stick to, YEAH BUDDY, LIGHT WEIGHT, and NOTHIN’ BUT A PEANUT.

 

[AllLoadedUp]

I don't go to the gym to socialize. Period. I go there to workout. Period. I put on my music and get it done. Now i will talk briefly to friends I have there or to spot or yell at them during a heavy set. That's it. I have my gym where I live that is a mile away. Its smaller and a little more of a hardcore type. But theres only a few of us hardcore types there at all really.

On weekends I train legs at Golds. They have better equipment than my local gym in town. Golds is only about 15 miles away. Much bigger and therefore a lot more people. I do see the cellphone thing a lot more. The only time I care is when they are just sitting on a piece of equipment I want to use. More than once I have walked up and said "Can I work in"? They say "I'm done" and leave. Being this size does have its advantages.

 

[LK3]

I screamed a couple of time doing sets of triples in the squat with like 545 lbs. But it was more of a loud grunt and I didn't say anything. I think that is a bit annoying that he screams curse words. Really no need for that.

letting go with a grunt or whatever is one thing but yelling repeatedly in a comercial gym is just corny.

its also a time n place sorta thing...
in college for sports you had like 50-100 guys in the gym oat once, that is an environment where some yelling/grunting?loud cursing is ok. also if youre at a real beasty gym prob ok too. but a comercial gym with semi normal ppl....

thats like up there with being the smelly guy or the old nakend guy in the locker room.lol

 

[BoredStiff]

I screamed a couple of time doing sets of triples in the squat with like 545 lbs. But it was more of a loud grunt and I didn't say anything. I think that is a bit annoying that he screams curse words. Really no need for that.

Yeah I've never seen anything like it, either on video or in person. He's a sweetheart of a guy though, I've spotted him more than a few times which was.... interesting because I've never seen anyone with that intensity, I was totally out of breath just spotting him, he was going for 8 with 150lb incline dumbbell press and force repped around 33 negatives. It's just on the big compound lifts but yeah he screams out the craziest stuff, I can just imagine an older lady walking in and hearing "AHHHHHH!! I'll rip your fucking heart out motherfucker!!!!"

 

[nothuman]

Progress guys... progress.
I wonder if the bb'ers from the 1950's and 60's walked into Golds in the 1980's and felt the same way, with the music blasting on the speakers from the tape deck behind the gym counter and the shiny wimpy machines. LOL

These vids are kinda low quality but a real find on youtube .

Golds in the early 80s Part 1.m4v - YouTube

I am kinda on the fence I'd be lying if I didn't say the younger guys and gals don't bug the shit outta me, but then again I am kinda happy for them to be involved in fitness, and hopefully not end up like the human cattle I see grazing on junk food and sodas.

I don't train at a commercial gym, we have one at work, and when I do train on the road on vacation it's usually LA Fitness, and kinda shocked to see how people are dressed and training but then adjust and get warmed up and move along. At times people look like carbon copies of themselves, and don't ever try to get near any machine used for glute training. they are never free.

Things have really really changed - you guys should watch the vid, many will find it boring but it's a treasure trove of who was who in bodybuilding back then as CA was the MECCA and knew a few guys that made the trek and lived out of their cars thinking they were gonna go pro.

I will say this everyone is in a rush these days more than ever and it's always been about hard work and consistency.

This video is awesome! Filmed right before I was born. Funny hearing the music they were playing. I love videos this like from the recent past

 

[trainlikeaboss]

Golds in the early 80s Part 1.m4v - YouTube





Things have really really changed .

Love the video. Good example of what I’m talking about. You see the environment there? You “get in and get out” guys are telling me you wouldn’t be more inspired and make better progress in a place where there’s a lot more people serious about lifting, and even some legends like Platz walking around?

I walked in to deadlift today and there was a couple guys already doing top sets around 600 lbs on the platform. One of them throwing some tape around his bleeding shin. You telling me you wouldn’t rather walk in to that in your gym, than a couple of kids cat backing 135 and hogging a squat rack cause there isn’t even a designated place to deadlift?

Anyone who’s committed should be able to put their head down and put in work no matter what gym they are at. But I still see a significant advantage to being surrounded by people who want to get stronger/bigger/better.




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[11111]

I just find it kind of comical how Monday and Tuesdays are ALWAYS the busiest nights of the week at gyms I go to and then once Wednesday hits, it’s like everybody hits a wall and the rest of the week it quiets down.

interesting... i've noticed this too at my gym... didn't realize this was somewhat commonplace...

i guess people develop high hopes over the weekend and once the week actually starts they say "fuck it." lol...

 

[Fa Seeshus]

Progress guys... progress.
I wonder if the bb'ers from the 1950's and 60's walked into Golds in the 1980's and felt the same way, with the music blasting on the speakers from the tape deck behind the gym counter and the shiny wimpy machines. LOL

These vids are kinda low quality but a real find on youtube .

Golds in the early 80s Part 1.m4v - YouTube

I am kinda on the fence I'd be lying if I didn't say the younger guys and gals don't bug the shit outta me, but then again I am kinda happy for them to be involved in fitness, and hopefully not end up like the human cattle I see grazing on junk food and sodas.

I don't train at a commercial gym, we have one at work, and when I do train on the road on vacation it's usually LA Fitness, and kinda shocked to see how people are dressed and training but then adjust and get warmed up and move along. At times people look like carbon copies of themselves, and don't ever try to get near any machine used for glute training. they are never free.

Things have really really changed - you guys should watch the vid, many will find it boring but it's a treasure trove of who was who in bodybuilding back then as CA was the MECCA and knew a few guys that made the trek and lived out of their cars thinking they were gonna go pro.

I will say this everyone is in a rush these days more than ever and it's always been about hard work and consistency.

What is the deal with the gym chewing at 5:10? Was it considered sexy to chew gum like that in the early 80's?!?