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Mine was Ted Williams Red, white and blue cement filled plastic. I found a pic of what they looked like on line. The bar was 3 piece and the ends came off and were used for dumbells. Had some kind of plastic collar that prevented the weights from spinning. I was 12 or so at the time and got them for Christmas along with a bench that is still in my friends garage. I need to get a pic of that.. LOL...
I always hated those red 15's because they were rounded like a balloon..
This was mine.
[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DejkECOX0AARXkl.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=Greybird2;1602395891]Mine was Ted Williams Red, white and blue cement filled plastic. I found a pic of what they looked like on line. The bar was 3 piece and the ends came off and were used for dumbells. Had some kind of plastic collar that prevented the weights from spinning. I was 12 or so at the time and got them for Christmas along with a bench that is still in my friends garage. I need to get a pic of that.. LOL...
I always hated those red 15's because they were rounded like a balloon..[/QUOTE]
I got a set of those when I was 10 or 11, but never lifted them.
[url]https://images.app.goo.gl/rcG3qtpqdmdmG91J8[/url]
Found the Sears ad. Too funny.
[QUOTE=Greybird2;1602401571]Found the Sears ad. Too funny.[/QUOTE]
Looks like a shower rod with doughnuts attached to it...No Excuses!!!
Just kidding, the first weights I've seen as a kid was an old standard York set in my grandparents basement that my uncle had along side an Everlast canvas punching bag mounted to the ceiling and speed bag.
The ones I first picked up off the ground to lift at home when I was real young was some weird shaped dumbbells (perhaps by Sears, or DP) they had red rubber handles with a grooved outer guard part and almost like a square round black weight block that screwed on the ends in different increments...I recall one time lifting them during shoulder presses as a kid and accidently cracking myself in the head with one (luckily I always had a hard head even as a kid lol).
Fast forward some years later and my first set that would start the realm of getting serious and hooked on the iron was when I got my standard Sports Authority set with spin lock barbell and dumbbells from my dad for Christmas.
[QUOTE=Greybird2;1602401571]Found the Sears ad. Too funny.[/QUOTE]
Sweet. Did you have the warm up suit too.
My set had a single black standard bar and maybe dumbbell handles. Circa 81/82
My father had a Weider bench similar to this one ([url]https://www.amazon.com/Marcy-Diamond-Standard-Adjustable-Capacity/dp/B0041NRDXO?SubscriptionId=AKIAJLED3XJOSH6WNO7A&tag=popular048-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0041NRDXO[/url]). Even had the bar to adjust the seat back for incline. That bar must have weighed a pound or less, probably not very strong.
Also had a 1 inch bar with the red collars (and the insert in the middle to make the area to hold larger. Had about 100lbs in Billard gold plates. I think I got two 25 plates for my 7th birthday and felt like a badass loading up the weight. Think the max amount I had with plates and bar was about 175
[QUOTE=Duplicitous;1602398411]This was mine.
[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DejkECOX0AARXkl.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
You have to give us some insight into what was on the include cassette tape.
My first gym, back in 1988..........OLD SCHOOL! :D
[img]https://i.imgur.com/XKCA7s5.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=cwcmac;1602405081]You have to give us some insight into what was on the include cassette tape.[/QUOTE]
It seems you really can find anything on the internet. :D
[youtube]pKkHQtmS01s[/youtube]
I didn't really use it much, but my first weight set was a Sears Orbatron set. I was in 7th or 8th grade. I went to school with Kirk Karwoski, who was already into lifting. I didn't really know him, but we had this mutual friend Jimmy. Jimmy really looked up to Kirk, and ended up getting a weight set because Kirk was into it. I looked up to Jimmy, so I asked my parents for one after Jimmy got his. I lifted for a month or two, and that was it.
I had a single 15 lb cap cast iron hex and a single vinyl 8 lb dumbbell both my dad bought when I was a kid. I still have them, I just use them for training older people.
My dad's Orbatron/hollow bar/rickety bench with leg curl thing on it. I remember being home alone when I was early teens and getting pinned by 100 pounds on bench, doing the roll of shame to get free. I also remember that the whole bench would shift/splay when my 120 pound ass sat on it. My dad is a fairly big guy and used it with a lot more weight. I've always been impressed that it never collapsed when he was using it.
[QUOTE=jlsnyderTypeR;1602405591]My first gym, back in 1988..........OLD SCHOOL! :D
[img]https://i.imgur.com/XKCA7s5.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Great pic! Love the posters. You had the best cement weight setup ever.
[QUOTE=Greybird2;1602415081]Great pic! Love the posters. You had the best cement weight setup ever.[/QUOTE]
It's a great memory of where my journey started!
[QUOTE=jlsnyderTypeR;1602405591]My first gym, back in 1988..........OLD SCHOOL! :D
[img]https://i.imgur.com/XKCA7s5.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Epic! Imagine still living in that same house and taking every upgrade shot of equipment from then to now.
I had. 110 pound “Challenger” set. Grey plates with grey and black bar and annoying collars you needed a special little wrench to tighten. Here’s a pic of the dumbbells that I found online.
My uncle got them for me when I was maybe 14 and it sat under my bed until I turned 16.
After high school I went in the army and when I got out I got an apartment across the street from a bowling alley. I still had that weight set, but had long outgrown it and was working in a gym...so one night (sober) a friend and I hauled it across the street and carefully placed it in the back of a random truck.
We were just LAUGHING thinking about the look on someone’s face when they were trying to figure out why the f**k they had a weight set in the back of their truck.
Who knows...maybe they gave it to their kid and it started someone else on a love affair with the iron?
[img]https://i.imgur.com/aGwgTkw.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=Deep-Voiced-One;1602423441]Epic! Imagine still living in that same house and taking every upgrade shot of equipment from then to now.[/QUOTE]
Actually this is a open loft over looking the warehouse of an Auto Parts Store where I worked at during HS.
Never a living space.
My first home gym didn't start till late '12. Had Valor stands + Sports Authority 300lb set. Flipped the stands a year later and bought a DSG Rack(yeah I know, gotta start somewhere). Flipped the DSG Rack to some trainer who was training a Padre athlete lol and got a Rogue RML-3. Sold the Sports Authority weight set and bar then got Ivankos. I've since reduced a lot of clutter since it was a hassle moving equipment just to work out.
[QUOTE=Duplicitous;1602398411]This was mine.
[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DejkECOX0AARXkl.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
I legit had that. That's crazy.
No one else's dad bought them that plastic weight set at K-Mart that your dad filled up with sand from the garden supply? It had a little wrench to tighten the collars with little bolts, and a poster that you stuck to the wall that showed the exercises. My little brother and I used those things for years, until finally the sand started leaking out and our mother complained. By then we were headed off to college anyway.
When I was in high school and asked for a weight set, my dad got me a cast iron set (100 pound “Dan Lurie” brand). In my twenties, I added four 25-pound plates. Getting serious in the past three years, I bought two powerlifting bars, a pair of 50-pound plates for my deadlift setup, and a bunch of used smaller plates so I can have three bars and a few dumbbells set up.
So, I’ve stayed with standard plates, and still consider those “Dan Lurie” plates as my lucky plates for hitting PRs. <snerk>
Mine was a set of miscellaneous craigslist 1" plates, a mix of york, bollinger, ferrigno and no-name standard.
Came with a crappy weider bench press setup, a relatively nice spinlock curl bar, and the world's worst barbell. This bar was just a smooth 1" iron rod, which wouldn't have been so bad, but it had an aluminum sleeve in the center to provide some knurling. The aluminum sleeve wasn't fixed in place, and used to slide and pinch the webbing between my thumb and finger when I was setting up; super painful. It also had no inner collars, so the aluminum sleeve was the only thing holding the plates in place.
I sold all of it when I upgraded to an Olympic setup, except for the curl bar. I never found collars that fit that bar, as it is 1.25" diameter, but I clamped it to a 90 degree intersection between two of the I beams that hold the house up. I've used it as a pullup bar for 9 years now, must have done over 50,000 pullups on it by now.