Bodybuilding (seventies and eighties)

[total-recoil]

I never said that my "special interest" used to be bodybuilding. I know a lot of people will automatically think negatively on hearing the term "bodybuilding" but I should point out that back in the seventies bodybuilding wasn't quite the freak show you witness today. In the seventies, the people who were involved were sometimes quite well educated or just plain interesting. Like Frank Zane, for example, who taught mathematics and had degrees in psychology and chemistry.
To understand what bodybuilding was about back then you need to see the movie Pumping Iron, produced by Charles Gaines and George Butler. I should add that both of those latter have now become discouraged by how bodybuilding ended up (drug abuse and premature deaths) but back when they made the movie the situation was very different. The bodybuilders themselves made no money out of the "sport" or "art" but many viewed the human body as a form of art that could be shaped and developed. I think the idea behind it was like an attempt to grasp Olympian ideals of how we could look (or seemingly live forever).
I myself was attracted to bodybuilding back then, probably because I wanted to be different and perhaps catch attention. The eighties and seventies was a really fun time for bodybuilding before it turned sour in the nineties.
These days I decided to start up again, mainly doing weights as a form of physiotherapy and for well-being, as opposed to image.

 

[Loomis]

I enjoy working out with weights and have used weights on and off my whole life to keep in shape. I am convinced it is the best type of conditioning for me. Unfortunately I have some rotator cuff tenderness now and cannot do very many of my favorite routines. I do not think it is a tear just some tendinitis. I'll see a doctor in October when I become eligible for Medicare. In the mean time I am doing high intensity interval training on the elliptical. It is not as enjoyable as lifting weights but it does keep me in shape.

 

[Soup]

You're not alone, Total Recoil: Smith is also into working out & building muscle. So long as nothing you're doing is injurious to your health & well-being, knock yourself out!

 

[total-recoil]

I've suffered for some time with really bad hip pain, as well as knees and lower back. I have a significant tightening of the quads that pulls against the lower back, hips and knees and has dogged me all my life. Only recently have I discovered ways and means to counter the problem. I do some stretches and have started massaging hips and lower back with a solid rubber ball. I resumed squatting but am going carefully. My focus now needs to be on rehabilitation before I start attempting to go heavy as in the past.
My best era was in the very early nineties where I was training very hard and quite big (without use of steroids). I followed the teachings and thoughts of a bodybuilder called Mike Mentzer who was the first actual bodybuilder to apply science and medicine to weight training. In short, Mentzer taught the key to development of larger, stronger muscles was "intensity" and not duration. Prior to Mentzer, bodybuilders believed "pumping" and "volume" training was the way to go but Mentzer argued muscles get bigger and stronger through intensity of effort and progressive use of heavier loads. I myself likened the example to a diesel engine that will only start up if compression is high and that no amount of low compression turn-over will create ignition.
It irritates me if I ever go onto forums and people just call Mentzer a crank, outdated or wrong. These folks haven't read any books on physiology or biology or medicine whereas Mentzer did read a lot. Another point that is often raised is Mentzer at one time had a complete mental breakdown which happened some years or months after he competed in the 1980 Mr Olympia but didn't place as well as he figured he should have done. My take on that is a lot of academic types are prone to anxiety or even depression but that doesn't mean their approach to a subject was ever wrong. Anyway, Mentzer did recover but sadly died young after developing a kidney problem.
As to seventies/eighties bodybuilding, I actually met Robby Robinson once. You can see him appear very briefly in Pumping Iron where he was playing football. In fact, Robby looked just like a pro-footballer in his tracksuit but when he took his shirt off onstage he looked amazing, as if sculpted and I recall he posed to Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty).
Also a fan of Tom Platz who I'm told no longer bodybuilds but got into banking and finance.

 

[total-recoil]

I found it helps to not press as often so the shoulder is allowed to fully recover. I'd check for any muscle imbalance and also try using machines to stress the shoulder less. I did once have a rotator cuff injury myself.

I enjoy working out with weights and have used weights on and off my whole life to keep in shape. I am convinced it is the best type of conditioning for me. Unfortunately I have some rotator cuff tenderness now and cannot do very many of my favorite routines. I do not think it is a tear just some tendinitis. I'll see a doctor in October when I become eligible for Medicare. In the mean time I am doing high intensity interval training on the elliptical. It is not as enjoyable as lifting weights but it does keep me in shape.

 

[smith2267]

Don't baby it. I have the same problem with my shoulder, I just work through it. I never use anything but light weights FWIW. and lots of reps.

I remember Frank Zane. Steroids have been a disaster for the sport.

 

[total-recoil]

Don't baby it. I have the same problem with my shoulder, I just work through it. I never use anything but light weights FWIW. and lots of reps.

I remember Frank Zane. Steroids have been a disaster for the sport.

Zane is still doing personal training at his home in California. Tom Platz got into banking and there were some pics of him looking as if he'd never picked up a weight in anger. Ken Waller retired long ago to be with his family and Mike Katz I think maybe still a teacher.