Jay's First Days

My first day in a gym was probably some time in the mid 70s as a toddler following a relative into a Bally's or something like that in New York.

My first REAL gym experience: Some time in the late 80s, during the end of high school.

For the first couple of years of lifting (ages 16 and 17), I worked out in my bedroom with a ricketty old bench press (before the bench press, I used to take an EZ-Curl Bar with weights and lay down on the floor to bench press!).

Eventually, my friends and I graduated onto the "The Summit Fitness Center" in Chestnut Ridge, NY. The owner was this BIG (I mean obese) powerlifter named Dom Corrado, who was a kind guy but tended to push the local high school football players to powerlift until they bled.

This intimidating guy Dom stood about 6 feet and weighed close to 400 lbs. He sucked down meatball subs by the dozen, and would then deadlift an unruly amout of weight. He then moved his gym to a more "upper crust" neighborhood, but ultimately, I think his gym shut its doors because it was just catering to the wrong crowd in the wrong location. There was nothing fancy about The Summit -- just hardcore lifters and some excellent tunes -- Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, etc. Perhaps the best music I've ever lifted to. Dom had that part right.

I kind of miss that old gym. Now I belong to a big city 24-Hr. Fitness in San Francisco, which can be a real circus in comparison.

Jay Foreman

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