Mr. New Hampshire Gets His Start

It was back in the mid 1950s. My mom confiscated my red beach towel and forbid me to watch Superman on TV after she caught me about to take a dive off our porch.

It always amazed me that Superman could put his fist through a brick wall by tapping it with his fist. Then he'd turn around and pop one of the bad guys in the chops with a vicious right cross without doing any permanent damage. Plus, he could fly, change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands.....You know the rest. I wanted to be that guy!

Then I started eating a lot of spinach, reasoning that if it had worked for Popeye it could work for me too. It didn't.

By 1959 my neighborhood was abuzz in wonder over the exploits of yet another hero. This time it was Hercules. "This guy is for real!" I recall one of my friends explaining at that time, "Hercules has real muscles. He ain't some fat guy in a padded suit like Superman." My cousin filled me in on some of the details concerning the actor who had played the title role in the film. "His name is Steve Reeves. I think he used to be Mr. America and he got that way by lifting weights........ you know, barbells and dumbbells and stuff like that." To me it didn't seem possible that someone could get to look like a Greek god by heaving around a bunch of iron.

A few years later, while staying at my aunt and uncle's house, I was awakened at 1 AM by the sounds of clanging iron and heavy breathing. "Hey, what's that?" I asked my cousin Joe, waking him from a sound sleep.

"Oh, uh......that's just my brother Jerry out in our garage," Joe explained, "He lifts weights in his spare time."

My cousin's revelation got me thinking. I started working out the following week. I may not have had access to weights, but instead I did pushups, situps, ran, and rode my bike, ultimately working my way up to 100 mile treks. I also stopped eating junk food, but didn't gain much muscle. In fact, I looked more like a Civil War veteran who'd done too much time at Andersonville.

It wasn't until the fall of 1967 as a college freshman that I was able to join the Manchester, N.H. YMCA and start a regular lifting regimen. The 'Y' weight room was the only place around to train seriously. In 1963 an American Health Studio had gone out of business, as they had a habit of doing, and all of their equipment had been donated to the 'Y' . This was just what I needed. There was a lifting platform, squat rack, combo leg extension/leg curl machine, calf machine, Smith machine, hack squat machine, lat machines, olympic weights, and gold dumbbells going from 5 to 100 pounders. The place was decades ahead of its time.

On my first foray into the place, weighing a rock solid 110 lbs, I spied a fixed 130 lb barbell lying on the floor and attempted to press it overhead for a few reps. It was most distressing to discover that I couldn't even budge it, suspecting that some wise guy had welded it to the floor as a joke. I failed to see the humor. About all I could handle was bench presses with a pair of 5 pound dumbbells. Perceived deficiency can be a powerful tool of motivation.

There are a million stories in the world of fitness... This has been one of them.

Jim
Mr. New Hampshire 1977

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