When I got back to LA I went right to Gold's Gym. It was no longer in Venice, it had moved to 2nd street in Santa Monica, right next to The Pussycat Theater. When I entered I felt at home. The gym had been greatly expanded. A huge bodybuilder named Ron Depolito, who had welcomed me into Gold's gym in 1971, greeted me. He had remembered me. He knew I had studied martial arts and he asked me about it. There was another top bodybuilder at the desk. Kent Kuehn. The three of us discussed martial arts and how weight training related to it. The three of us agreed that having muscles only enhanced any other athletic activity we engaged in. There on the gym floor were the same Nautilus machines that had been in the gym in the old location. I immediately incorporated them into my workouts. I felt like I had returned home. It was a great feeling. All the top bodybuilders were there. Bill Grant, Robby Robinson, Manuel Perry. Serge Nuberet came for a visit with his wife. It is rumored that in later years she murdered him. Wow!
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The Nautilus pullover machine
I moved to Glendale. I would go out to Gold's to train and I would also train at the Glendale Y. There was no longer a hard core basement gym anymore. Now they had a great big sports complex. It had a huge fully equipped weight room. So, as in the old days, I would divide my training between Gold's and the Glendale Y. In 1980 I began what would be a 32 year career with Glendale Water and Power. Changes were on the way. Ken Spraug had been the owner of Gold's when I got back in 1978. Then bodybuilding champion Pete Grymkowski and several partners took over. And they had big dreams. They began to franchise Gold's Gym world wide. When I would enter the gym I could see a big map on the wall with pins in it to show the locations of the gyms opening world wide. They added a Nautilus machine room. Equipped with the latest Nautilus machines. These were the blue chain drive machines with a weight stack. They also still has the two Nautilus machines that had been there from the beginning.
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The Glendale Y also was expanding. Now they had an entire area closed off by a glass wall that was all Nautilus. All blue chain drive weight stack machines. But there was a catch. You had to pay an extra three hundred dollars a year to use them. Not only that, you couldn't do your own routine, you had to follow the approved Nautilus protocol. There was this little asshole running the program and also the main floor. We all called him Adolf. A real control freak. Trying to tell members what training clothes were approve gym wear. Remember the Barbarian Brothers? Two gigantic bodybuilders who worked out at Gold's. They were famous. Well, there were these two guys, huge guys, that trained at the Glendale Y who styled themselves after the Barbarian Brothers. They liked to wear camouflage pants and combat boots when they worked out, just like the Barbarian Brothers. One afternoon they were at the squat rack doing sets with around 500 lbs. Really blasting out low rep power sets and Adolf comes walking up to them to give them shit about what they were wearing. They refused to back down in there camouflage outfits. "This is what we always wear when we workout," they said. Little Adolf walked away and nothing more was said.
