'Herculean torso, mighty shoulders and massive arms!', 'Washboard waist', 'Yard wide shoulders!', Mighty chest, back and legs!', 'For more Explosive Power on the playing field your muscles need this great new energy pill!', 'To win in any sport your muscles need...!', 'Knock inches off your waist fast!'

This sounds like the first few pages of T-Mag, Muscle and Fitness, or Muscle Media as they extol the virtues of 'cutting edge (fill in the blank with technology, training program, or supplement) 21st Century advancements'. But the reality is that these bites of ads come from the first 'Muscle Mag' I ever bought--All-American Athlete, July 1964!

As I started my journey to 'Muscle Nirvana' through resistance training, hard work, eating properly, and protein powder (that tasted like lifter's chalk) were the tools of the day to achieve the above quoted qualities of brawn and strength. Gyms were primitive-we had leg press machines made of railroad ties, 2" by 6" for incline benches, tons of free weight, and the only thing that resembled a machine was the leg curl/leg extension which was a poorly padded table with a couple of bolts to hold a weight arm!

In the All American Athlete, the articles on 'The Reverse Kip on the Rings-Stepping Stone to Top Olympic Feats'; 'Explosive Weight Training Builds Boxing Champions'; 'Power Spring Pole Vaulting for You'; and 'Mr. President-How about a Sports/Fitness Corps? Practical Suggestions for halting our Olympic Sports Decline'.

The examples for the Weider "Mr. America Home Gym Set and Course (at 325 pounds for $60.25!!) cited were: ' a barbell for a 'football player's mighty chest, back and legs; dumbbells for 'the Herculean torso, mighty shoulders and massive arms of a boxer, oarsman or weightlifter';; kettlebells for 'building the yard wide shoulders' of a lifeguard (Yes, Virginia, they did exist before Pavel-and in America, too!); the swingbell bar for 'a gymnast's classic torso' and leverage bells-for those 'hard-to-reach muscles' (Coach Sonnon's Clubbell is the scion of the adjustable swingbell and leverage bars!); ; and health boots for 'a trim washboard waist of a rope climber'. The examples of athletes cited were muscular; performance oriented athletes that trained the whole body as a multifaceted organism versus a collection of body parts. These athletes were combination bodybuilders, gymnasts, strong men who lifted to be better not looking at them selves in the mirror. They were strong and could prove it, agile and could show it, and lifted for 'mens sana in corpore sano'-a sound mind in a sound body.

Fast-forward a few years and the 'Nautilus Revolution' started and we have the 'be all and end all' of muscular development-machines that allowed us to maximize our muscular hypertrophy, but at what cost? We started breaking the body into separate bodyparts and training each one to the exclusion of the interaction of the other parts. The Frankenstein look was in! All of the training was either sitting, reclining, lying down or braced by a Smith machine for standing exercises. The interaction of the body and its stabilizing functions with the barbell, dumbbell, or swingbell was taken away for a seat belt to hoist more weight!

Fast forward a few more years and we now see the advent of the 'Ground Based' line of machines! Somebody in the Muscle Equipment Think Tank thought 'Since we play all of our sports on our feet, maybe we should train standing up!!' What a Revelation!! Now we can buy machines worth $1000s of dollars to do the work that barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells and swingbells did 40 years ago! What an invention!!

Somewhere along the line, the Machine Is Better Intelligentsia told us that you needed vast amounts of expensive machines, 'cutting edge supplements', and the '30 pounds in 30 day' mentality (either lose it or gain it!) to succeed as a strength trainer. 'We can show you how to get 10 years worth of gains in 30 days' was the promise-sign here and fork over the cash! They forgot the joy of exertion, the primal feel of iron being thrown around, and the camaraderie of working thru the blood, sweat, and tears (Churchill not Chicago).

Over a year ago, I first noted some strange writings of a 'Renegade' that advocated training programs like the ones I grew up on-ground based, rugged training with 'primitive' equipment like barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells coupled with overall fitness (GPP), agility, gymnastic movements and flexibility. Then there was a Commie in Minnesota that was hawking 'bowling balls with handles' as the way to 'mutant fitness'. Then, another Coach (obviously under the influence of those damn Commies again!) came up with a swingbell and leverage bar with a different name-the Clubbell! The circle has come back around to the 1960s again!!

It has been said that if you keep your old clothes for 7 years they will be back in fashion again-witness bellbottoms, hip-huggers, tie-died shirts, knee ripped Levis and platform shoes of the 1960s-now the rage in the 2000s
(I wish I had kept my white Polyester John Travolta suit!!). Now we have a return to the past with training as it should be-hard, intense, groundbased training that requires the trainer to concentrate on the performance. The trainer must be mindful of his/her body while training instead of talking to or gawking at 'Suzy Spandex Big Boobs' or 'Bob I Buy All My Shirts 3 Sizes to Small So You Know I Lift Weights'. Trainers are training in garages, outdoors, in small groups with the only thought on how to improve performance, exceed themselves, and enjoy the addiction of the 'Iron Game'. The circle is complete as the trainers are getting back to the basics- that in order to progress you must be diligent, work hard, and bring enthusiasm into the mix. The newest machine or supplement is not going to make you a champion-your own desire and the persistence to achieve your goals are the only thing that matters.

My hat is off to the new generation of 'Iron Gamers' that are discovering the 'old ways' and returning to the ways of the past that were on the verge of dying out like the Edsel and 'Twister'(oops that's back, isn't it). Keep training and listening to the advice of Coach Davies, Pavel and Coach Sonnon and their ilk-they recognize that the past has great 'secrets' that were in danger of being forgotten; exercise has to be hard work for progress to occur (no Washboard abs sitting on the couch!); progress takes time and applied effort; and most of all, enjoy the training because in the long run, the thrill of accomplishment will carry over to every aspect of your life.

Good Training!!