Tales from the Fitness Factory

[ArchAngel'73]

I know this is a long read. Don't read it if you don't want to. I make no claims that this is worth your time but I wanted to write it so I did.






The 1st time I stepped into my high school gym I saw an old multi-station Nautilus machine. I was immediately drawn to the leg press portion of it. After doing a few reps I learned I was kinda strong on this thing and kept lowering the weight stack pin. I decided I was going to do this until I couldn't lift it anymore.
To my surprise, that time never came. I eventually lifted the whole weight stack which was 1,100 lbs.. I was inexperienced with lifting, never read a book on it, and really had no idea what I was even doing.
After I moved to my current city (Edmonton) my new high school opened up a gym. It was rather limited with a few DB's, 2 benches, and a leg press machine. I had been lifting at home with my concrete filled plastic weights for under a year by now but this gym was much different...it had metal plates and sturdier equipment. The benches were full when I paid my first visit but I was thrilled to get in the leg press, lifted my first ever 45 lb. plates and loaded one on each side of this contraption.

I got up to 4 plates a side that day, I was so thrilled I actually started laughing in the middle of my set and got my fair share of stares from the rest of the guys. My damn knees hurt of days after and I had to skip basketball practice but I was hooked. This beat the heck out of my weight set at home!

Fast forward to my days at the 'Factory...complete with 2 leg presses, 5 squat racks, a hack squat machine, 2 leg extension machines, and a lying hamstring curl. I was in heaven.

Visions of Ed Corney flashed through my mind in “Pumping Iron” where Arnold badgered him for more reps while squatting and after the set Corney collapsed. I wanted to do that. I couldn't bench worth a sh*t, my shoulder presses were crap, and I never did like BB curls. I wanted my piece of notoriety at that gym.
So I squatted.
and squatted
and squatted.

One day I decided after reading getting an idea in Musclemag International that I was going to squat for hours on end. Stupid in hindsight, but hardcore to me at the time.
The 3 hour session really wasn't that bad. Did many many sets, worked my way up to 405 for 10 straight sets of 10 reps, pyramided down and called it a night. That was Friday.

Saturday I had to work. My legs weren’t sore, but they sure were tired...NUMB as I recall. I was wondering when the soreness was going to start and began to wonder if this had even done anything.

I woke up Sunday morning and tried to get out of bed. “Tried” is the operative word. My legs could move but the PAIN was more than anything I've experienced in my life even to this day. Thank goodness I had a bottle of Aspirin in my duffel bag at the foot of my bed to go along with my ECA stack and I manoeuvred around to get them. God help me. 2 Aspirin got the pain down, 4 Aspirin and 40 minutes later I was able to walk down the stairs to get breakfast.
Sundays and Mondays were my days off from work then. Monday I had to do some shopping...by shopping I mean the new comic books were issued to the stores then and I had to go get the new instalments of Spiderman and The X-Men. This was my other “addiction” and off I went. Every step was a new experience in pain. My hams, my quads, my a$$ all throbbed every step I took. Like a real trooper I took it all in stride and caught the bus to Whyte ave (where the comic book stores were).

Going down the stairs of the bus was worse than going up. Across from the bus stop was a convenience store called Mac's, and beside it was a Robin's Donuts. I limped into Mac's and bought the new Musclemag. Then I limped into Robin's and bought a dozen Boston Cream donuts ( I loved them things) and a pop.
Then I ate the whole damn works while reading my bodybuilding magazine.

Hot damn I was stupid.
But...it did relieve the pain.
And I bought my comic books.

I had 5 days of pain from that session and couldn't walk without limping until the next Friday. I never did that again, squatting like that nor eating 12 donuts while reading a bodybuilding mag.

Within a year and a half after joining the 'Factory I could squat 405. I liked doing 20 rep sets. I remember my 2nd best squatting session very vividly.

I had done my pyramids and warm ups, I knew I could do 405 for 20 but my mind always stopped me from doing more reps.
Today was going to be different, had to be different, I was gonna break my 20 rep marker. Like a fool, I took the safety pins OUT of the squat rack for added incentive.
I found just the right song on my Walkman and paused it.
Got my knee wraps laid out, put on my belt but kept it one notch from being tight.

I walked over the Sean, the skinny basketball playing personal trainer that I eventually “stole” his client Al (my future good friend) from.
Sean asked me “What's up?”
I looked at him and like a neanderthal told him “22” and pointed to MY squat rack.

I walked over to that sucker, cinched up my belt and wrapped my knees.
I paced all around that rack, stared at the bar and talked to it (yes, I really did talk to it).

“You're mine, you're mine, you're mine” I told those eight 45 lb. Plates...”ALL MINE”

I got under the bar, set it in just the right place on my shoulders...you know that “sweet” spot where it doesn't pinch anything.
Up I go.
I started counting in German, just like Arnold did but had to convert back to English after “11” 'cuz I don't know German and “Elf” was all I could remember. Every rep I hissssssssssssssssssssed out my rep count as I exhaled.
I got to 15 and knew I had this in the bag, I was going to beat my record!

There were lots of mirrors at the 'Factory...I spotted Sean walking over to me as I hit the 18th rep. He looked kinda stunned.

Niiiiiiine teen
twen-tee
twent-tee one
twent-tee two!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and that was phuckin' it!
Legs wobbly, lungs burning, dizzy, and Iron Maiden had long ago reached the climax in the song I was listening too (Run to the Hills)...I couldn't hear anything at that point any way except the pounding of my heart.
I racked it.
I laughed like a freakin' maniac as I undid my knee wraps.
As the wraps gave way I guess the stabilization effects they were having went away and I collapsed on the ground.

I fell over.

Just like Ed Corney did.



I beat my record 6 months after the Fitness Factory closed in a recreation centre. I hit 23 reps with 405. I was stoked before I started the workout. I even remember the person I made a pay phone call (ya remember those things??) to right before I walked into that gym.
I may have beat my record that day but it was nothing like the 22 I did at the 'Factory.

[Do_Somethin]

I swear a book is needed!

[SHOWTIME]

MORE!!!


That is all.

[hochspeyer]

This is good stuff.

[djflex]

excellent!!!

[ironwill2008]

This is a great thread, Brian!

[freebirdmac]

Love your stories!

[68Grip]

Repped.....good stuff!!

Battle with the Iron, the constant push to do more, to be better, why some are drawn in. The generations pass by, but there will always be those who take this path, to constantly put themselves under heavy weight, to shape and mold. Iron sharpens Iron. Majority of people don't understand, but those who share the fever, can relate to every word!!

[mslman71]

I know this is a long read ...

Great story, thanks for sharing.

[KenpachiZaraki]

What's a Walkman?























Kidding

[nvrstopworking]

Bumping this back up for anyone who hasn't read it yet..... and hoping that Brian might get inspired again and add some more!

[SoulCatcher78]

Just read this start to finish and I'm wanting to read some more. Great stuff!

[Whiskeyjack]

Bumping this back up for anyone who hasn't read it yet..... and hoping that Brian might get inspired again and add some more!

I hadn't read it so thanks for that. These are great!

[Whiskeyjack]

And this is not, to my mind, 'Misc.' I can think of few types of posts more relevant to the main O35 (and others).

[ArchAngel'73]

I'll see what I can do over the next few days.


If anyone knows where I can submit this to a credible e-book company or whatever they're called please PM me. Then maybe I can include some of the real good stuff without breaking bb.com's rules.

[SoulCatcher78]

I'll see what I can do over the next few days.


If anyone knows where I can submit this to a credible e-book company or whatever they're called please PM me. Then maybe I can include some of the real good stuff without breaking bb.com's rules.

Check with Guyjin...he's published so he probably has a better idea of how to go about these things.

[mrmrbill]

Quite an entertaining read! Q: What's with the prohibition on calling EZ Skullcrushers, "French Press"? (page 1)

[LisaSkinnoble]

Good to see this thread bumped again.

Anxiously awaiting next chapter!

[mrmrbill]

Good to see this thread bumped again. Anxiously awaiting next chapter!

It's like "Lifting w/ Jack Kerouac" ... a sort of "On The Road", spontaneous prose style.

[tsoden]

Would love to hear more stories Brian, if you got em...

[Frnkd]

So I was turned on to your life story by a good friend. The first thing I thought was "this is three years of reading!" Because of your amazing talent sir, I could not stop and finished three years of writing in less than an hour.

I am impressed with the fact that you have made me realize that with every gym rat i see at my gym there is a real life story that got them there and continues after they leave. Now when I go to the gym I'll wonder what that persons story is, , or her story.

I will ponder too the pain or joy of their lives that motivates them to work harder or further than they believed they could. And, as each of these gym goers achieve their workout goals how will it transfer in them seeing that they can achieve their own personal life goals because of it.

I am looking forward to more entries.
Thank you for sharing.

[ArchAngel'73]

And this is not, to my mind, 'Misc.' I can think of few types of posts more relevant to the main O35 (and others).

I had it moved when Fitty was a mod and the misc. section created. I did not want it deleted as was the prtocol at the time.
Besides, I think more people read it in this section.

Quite an entertaining read! Q: What's with the prohibition on calling EZ Skullcrushers, "French Press"? (page 1)

We thought they were the SAME exercise back then, using "French Press" as opposed to "Skull Crusher" was ****gy and not hardcore enough.




I read and appreciate all replies even though I do not respond to many.
ITT I am the "author" and not a forum member.

[ArchAngel'73]

I shall preface this part of my journey with honesty. I used to use training as an excuse to eat anything I wanted. I have been “nutritionally challenged “ for many of my bodybuilding years and had a stubbornness about me that just refused to acknowledge that I ate like crap.

With that out of the way let us continue.

At this point in time all my knowledge about nutrition came from gym mates and magazines. There were no studies and alot of word of mouth. If anyone had questions about nutrition Dr.'s referred us to the Canada Food Guide (which is useless for bb'ers) and weight was judged using the Body Mass Index ( BMI) scale. Also useless for bb'ers.

But then you had guys like Dan Duchaine talking about keto diets and big Vic Richards was somewhere in The Mecca chowing down on 10,000 cals/day. When the pics of Lee Priest came out hoarking down on KFC during the off season that didn't help matters much neither.

“You wanna get big, you gotta eat big!” was turning out to be the motto of the day.
But eat what?
I turned it into everything I could get my hands on.

I was in school, and usually broke. My parents ate their sh*tty food and I had no real choice but to eat what they had or go hungry.
But I had my go-to foods and restaurants.
Ichi-ban noodles and tuna, egg sandwiches, eggs and hashbrowns, and ice cream!
And whenever I had extra money I had my favourite buffet place.

It was simple back then.
You wanted to gain weight, eat everything.
You wanted to lose fat eat nothing but protein and veggies and do cardio.

The big guys at my gym, the guys I wanted to be like, were fond of Arby's roast beef sandwiches.
Moose and Igor were all about going for steak and eggs after training.
Rob was always eating something or taking copious amounts of glutamine as an experiment.
The guys in good shape most of the time like Kevin and the stripper were the ones who didn't ascribe to the current days eating patterns. They tended to be sane unlike the rest of us.

My favorite thing to do back then was set up leg day as a good excuse and plan out a food splurge.
On many a leg day I would hop on the bus to a buffet called Royal fork, God bless 'em they're still in business!
Skip the salad bar crud and head straight over the the soup and real food. Roast beef, chicken, pasta, potatoes, gravy, I hated fish but they had that too.
And dessert.
This was a 45 minute endeavour and good for at least 5,000 cals.

I have a theory when cramming in food on a full stomach...
the intestines are full of nooks, crannies, and spaces, even when filled with food. In between those spaces more food can be fit it.
Food that melts, like ice cream.
You could theoretically ( and I have done this practically) fit in another 1,000 cals or so on a full stomach by indulging in ice cream.
I stand by that to this day...if you're objective is to get fat.


I also used to buy a 24 carton of eggs and a family size bag of hashbrowns. My old man used to b*tch at me for wasting eggs so I bought my own.
That made one serving.

18 whole eggs, 6 whites, and butter...and all them freakin' hashbrowns.

Another fond and embarrassing memory was picking up a 2 litre container of ice cream at the grocery store close to home. Counting that the 'rents didn't have anything good to eat for supper I plopped myself down in the middle of the soccer field by my house and broke out my tablespoon (I carried all sorts of utensils in my duffel bag, including a can opener!).
I ate that whole phuckin' thing right there! Passerbys were actually staring at me and my spoon in a big bucket of ice cream wearing my Gator's gym shirt and a pair of Gold's baggies.

No wonder society thought of us as goons. I sure lived it up.


I bought my one and only mail order diet from Dan Duchaine. In retrospect it was carb cycling. I think it went something like 4 days no carbs, 2 days of carb loading and then back to the beginning of the cycle with no carbs.
I dreaded no carb days but has a back up plan. Folks said they got all weird and couldn't think with no carbs and this made sense since I recently read at the time that the human brain needed 50 grams of carbs/day to function properly.
I had that bugger hooked with the effies. The ephedrine would speed things up a little in my head and cut the cravings while still allowing me to think.
Oh yeah, I had this sh*t by the ballz.

Well, I didn't do so good with this diet as it required consistency and that's something I just didn't have back then with food. I lasted less than a month on this sucker and never bothered to look at my diet seriously until years alter.

When it was time to lose fat I went back to my old stand by eating once/day.
I was doing this well before reading in MuscleMag that IFBB pro Serge Nubret ate this same way...
---a side note, when Serge was alive and posting on bb.com I asked him about this. He did say he ate like that for a short while but found it to be ineffective. Dumb younger me took that magazine article for the gospel truth--

Lesson #1
Never follow a pro's eating or nutrition plan.

My eating habits both hurt and helped me.
They helped me in that I was able to fuel my training and recovery...not properly...but I had alot of cals to build on. I credit my overeating and crazy training to the base muscle mass I carry around today
It hurt me in that I already had eating disorder-like symptoms, I was already too fat, and all of my former ways sure in the phuck were not healthy.
I was turning out to be like Bo, but with food.
I didn't get my eating straightened away until many years later...AFTER joining bb.com.
A few forum members pointed me in the right direction, I hired a prep coach, and FINALLY learned to eat properly.

After a year or so after being a member on on bb.com some “young buck” came out of the woodwork and had this neat little signature that spoke volumes to me.

“You can't out-train bad nutrition.”

I thought to myself....”No sh*t Sherlock. I tried it, I lived it, and you're absolutely correct!”

That young buck is IronWill2008, a man close to 25 years my senior.
A man who learned what I could not and did not want know.

And my tip for all you starting out or in the middle of your weight training journey, what you do in the gym is only 20% of the work.

Go here;
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=121703981

and quit wasting your work and sweat like I used to.


“You can't out-train bad nutrition.”

[tsoden]

Great update Brian!

[Frnkd]

Love that last line. I too have seen amazing results with my weight and subsequent results of weight training because of the change in my diet. Nice writing once again.

[mrmrbill]

Bravo writing and loved the Serge anecdote!

[Dr.Griefo]

Bravo writing and loved the Serge anecdote!

Great journal, stories. I remember Serge from photos in Beef It! and Reps (by Robert Kennedy) that I used to build my first workouts back in the day. I didn't realise he died until reading your thread and after googling it, sad circumstances re: the alleged poisoning. True of false, he deserved a better legacy without that question mark.

[rendylee]

I can't believe that I sat and read this all in basically one reading. I agree with the many other's, this was great, what an amazing recollection you have...and so much to share with others. I was always curious why competing bb's were so tanned, now I know, lol....I have so much to learn hahaha!!

[ArchAngel'73]

Shameless bump.

[djflex]

Shameless bump.

Legit bump, i always liked this thread.