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Guy and the IronMan's Gym

After reading Dave's column this week I got into a nostalgia mood. Now I don't profess to be a writer up to the standards of our buddies Bill and Bill, let alone Dave D. But I'm going to try and give you a glimpse into an experience of mine.

Back around 1983 I was working out in a gym called "Ironman's Gym." This establishment was located underneath a nightclub ( which had a motel connected to it ). It was appropriately named "Someplace Else". For $20.00 a month you got to walk into a block building about the size of a 3 car garage and test your will against all the iron you could handle. There were no windows just 2 metal doors on one end that you entered and exited. The showers (?) never worked but there was a small room where you could change, as long as you wore your shoes while changing because the upstairs bar would leak some disgusting stuff on the floor of this room.

As you walked in the scene was pretty much the same. Big Tony ( 6' 5"-240lbs.) was pounding out his benches, Big Karl ( 6'5"- 250 lbs. ) was pumping up his enormous arms. We would all nod to each other. As we got to the back of the gym to sign in, Pat, one of the owners whose favorite phrase was "don't nobody tell me how to train triceps - anything else I'll listen," would be sleeping with his arms folded across his chest ( he had a real job at night ). Of course if you didn't pay up for the month yet you wouldn't go in the back to sign-in, you would just hope that Pat didn't wake up till you were gone. Little Brad was always there hanging around talking about all the current bodybuilders and only training chest, arms and shoulders - he had the typical lightbulb build. It was a strictly hardcore gym, no fancy machines just powerracks, pulldowns, leg presses, etc. and lots and lots of Olympic weights. Pat never really ran the gym for profit; whenever he got extra money he would just buy more weights. The whole time I worked out there I only saw one woman there and I believe she got too much attention from all the muscleheads because she never came back.

Don't know if spandex was around yet but everyone wore gray cotton sweats and tank tops. We were cold in the winter and very hot in the summer. There was one small radio that someone would change the station on every 2-3 songs. Boy how I miss that place..... the atmosphere was always charged because of the closeness of everyone working out. We had local bodybuilders there, powerlifters and weightlifters all in our own little areas with the same intense concentration to just keep pushing and pulling the iron.

Many stories happened there before it closed in 1986. Maybe as time goes on I can relate some of them to you all.

Guy

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