An Oral History of Gold's Gym

September 3, 2018 9:28 AM

Sex, steroids, and Arnold: the gym that shaped America The original Gold’s Gym was a squat sweatbox that Joe and a few of his pals built from cinder blocks. Gold himself crafted the equipment that he and his fellow “Muscleheads” used to shape their flesh into cathedrals of strength. The gym spawned Pumping Iron, one of the most popular and critically acclaimed documentaries in modern times; redefined the masculine look in everything from commercials to modeling to movies; helped establish Southern California as the nation’s fitness capital; and shaped the ascent of one Arnold Schwarzenegger.
posted by MovableBookLady (29 comments total)

Great post. Inspiring for those who have had cinderblocks kicked into their eyes.
posted by clavdivs at 10:10 AM on September 3, 2018 [4 favorites]

Lou Ferrigno (IFBB Mr. Universe, 1973-74; actor, The Incredible Hulk): Nobody could drop his weights in the gym. One time I dropped a dumbbell. He was like, “Yo, Louie, get outta here, you fat fuck.” Even today, if someone drops a dumbbell, I get upset because I learned from Joe.

Remarkable both because of the modern gym cliche of muscleheads dropping weights, and also that anyone would insult Lou Ferrigno to his face.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:40 AM on September 3, 2018 [17 favorites]

There are very few times I think it's acceptable to dump a weight and they mostly center around safety.

I despise the guys who clang weights when I lifting. The worst offenders seem to be those trying to deadlift more than they can control reliably, so they shorten the effort by going slack on the way down.

Also, the idiots who do Pendlay Rows. Argh! Had someone doing those behind me while I was trying to re-teach myself squats. Really hard to concentrate and not want to snap at someone when all you hear is big exhalation, **CLANG**, x10
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:54 AM on September 3, 2018 [4 favorites]

Dropping weight is a serious pet peeve of mine. I go to a climbing gym, so the weight room is smaller than a usual gym, and kind of in a corner space - most of the gym is you know: walls with holds. The users of the weights are also very much upper-body oriented, but sometimes they go for doing some deadweights (which good for them!). But still, STILL. It's a rep up: DROP THE WEIGHT, rep up: DROP THE WEIGHT. Being on the second floor and no bumper plates, the whole place emanates with that noise. The location of the weight room makes it a perfect amphitheater.

That kinda shite would note have flown at the boxing gym I went to, before. I don't know - I guess when I was teaching myself, being in absolute control of the weight with good form and doing the lowering slower than raising the weight was the definition of, "a good rep". We we're power-lifting.

Sorry for the vent.
posted by alex_skazat at 11:28 AM on September 3, 2018 [8 favorites]

People in the crossfit gym behind my house drop the weights constantly, making my house shake when they do.
posted by octothorpe at 11:30 AM on September 3, 2018 [3 favorites]

Also there is supposidely drama with Gold's Gym and who's poster is put up where - Arnold's was taken down for a time - there was another doc (revolving around steroid use) that touched upon it, and showed them bringing it down. Now it's up, I guess?

I find the culture of bodybuilding and powerlifting weirdly entertaining, although I would never do it myself. The normalization of steroid use by career youtubers (that lift) is doubly-weird. Many sell fitness programs, and show off their workout. But, uh: yer juiced.
posted by alex_skazat at 11:32 AM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

I ALMOST got a membership with the local Gold's franchise a few years back due to a sales promotion they had. I lasted 5 minutes with the person there. They were SO high pressure, I told them that and left.
posted by Samizdata at 11:45 AM on September 3, 2018 [3 favorites]

Well, steroids don't magically create muscle. Mainly, they make it possible to train harder and more often, which is where the gains come from. Those muscle-straining things that would usually take a long time to recover from? With the right juicing regimen, you can be back at it the next day. That's a huge advantage over the non-juiced muscles that need much more time to rest and recover, and it's why athletes are so often caught juicing in the months and years following significant injury-related downtime.

So, they definitely still need workout and fitness programs. They're just programs that are impossible to perform without steroids supporting your recovery times.
posted by rokusan at 1:02 PM on September 3, 2018 [7 favorites]

So if I took steroids I'd still have to go to the gym all the time?

OK, nevermind then.
posted by ryanrs at 1:05 PM on September 3, 2018 [14 favorites]

Natural body builders may not ever reach the mountainous builds of steroid users, but they sure have a safer and healthier outlook when they stop powerlifting for competition. Organ failure and morbid obesity are not a good look.

On a lighter note, they filmed Pumping Iron in Birmingham, and I got to see the shot of them on top of the bus get filmed, as well as the scenes on the rotating stage at Birmingham Southern College. The 70's were RAD, y'all.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 1:06 PM on September 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

Well, steroids don't magically create muscle. Mainly, they make it possible to train harder and more often, which is where the gains come from.

Well, actually...

I'm not going to source it because I don't have access, unless they're public now, but there was at least one study I remember that basically concluded that for previously UNTRAINED (meaning, non bodybuilders) folks, taking supraphysiological levels of testosterone and sitting on the couch would build as much or more muscle as the group who were not taking testosterone injections and instead going to the gym 3 times a week doing proper strength training with free weights . So actually... yeah.
posted by some loser at 1:53 PM on September 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

I had a membership to the Hollywood Gold’s Gym in the early 2000s. I learned a lot there, notably

1: never drop the weights
2: Ron Perlman looks way taller on screen
3: James Avery and Joseph Marcell from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air used regular speaking voices completely different from their voices as Uncle Phil and Geoffrey
4: always have juice and protein between cardio and lifting
5: the annual White Party sounds like a lot of hassle and isn’t really for me
6: if you don’t write down your sets you might as well have not done them

I followed the advice in Arnold’s book and dropped forty pounds and got engaged, so yeah, lifting helps. Arnold and I both agree that diet helps more.
posted by infinitewindow at 2:49 PM on September 3, 2018 [17 favorites]

My only addition is that I live with two guys who took HGH and they were jacked but also turned into fucking assholes.
posted by Grandysaur at 3:17 PM on September 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

Joe Gold, a crusty Merchant Marine from East Los Angeles

That would mean the guy was, by himself, the totality of merchant ships of a certain nation.

In reality, he was a bosun, a merchant mariner.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 3:35 PM on September 3, 2018 [14 favorites]

There are very few times I think it's acceptable to dump a weight and they mostly center around safety.

I agree. The whole fundamental point of weightlifting is battling against the forces of gravity. If you drop the weights, it isn't a victory. "Time under tension" is the magical muscle-building mantra! (apparently)

I haven't lifted for almost a year and I got rid of my barbells, weights and rack because we moved into a new house that doesn't have an appropriate space for such pursuits, plus I was plagued by injuries. I've recently started (super-light) kettlebell training again, which is much more convenient.

Yeah, flailing a couple of 16kg kettlebells around isn't quite as satisfying as lifting a 180kg barbell (and placing it back down, not dropping it), but it's easier on my brittle old bones, white-anted joints and cartilage, and rotten tendons. There are still plenty of useful and beneficial movements you can do, or they're good for just getting your pump on if that's your thing. Hell, just carrying the damn things around the block a couple of times leaves me as spent as a solid deadlift workout.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:16 PM on September 3, 2018 [4 favorites]

I went to a Gold's Guy in Tucson in the 1970s. I just wanted some basic weight lifting instruction. It was a nice basic gym, no frills at all, bunch of guys who stopped dead when I walked in the first time and goggled at me (look! it's a ... a...woman!). The owner guy was pleasant and told me they'd set up a nice area for woman to train. It was a room off to the side with a curtain for a door, small selection of weights, and pink walls. I pointed out that I'd be in there by myself and no sightlines so I didn't think it would be safe. So I worked out in the main gym. All the guys were very nice in a very shy way but were very helpful. I was driving a Subaru 360 at the time and one day had a flat tire; three guys came out and lifted the car during the swapping procedure: "no problem" they said. Nice memory.
posted by MovableBookLady at 6:07 PM on September 3, 2018 [42 favorites]

There's a Joe Weider biopic called Bigger opening next month. (Steve Guttenberg plays Joe's father, Louis.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:35 PM on September 3, 2018

I've always loved this monstrosity outside the local Gold's Gym. I worked out there for a while in my teens.

It made it easy to give directions to my junior high "2 blocks past 'El Monstro', on the left"

It was forced to change name recently, now it is just called Gym.
posted by Dr. Curare at 7:10 PM on September 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm not going to source it because I don't have access, unless they're public now, but there was at least one study I remember that basically concluded that for previously UNTRAINED (meaning, non bodybuilders) folks, taking supraphysiological levels of testosterone and sitting on the couch would build as much or more muscle as the group who were not taking testosterone injections and instead going to the gym 3 times a week doing proper strength training with free weights . So actually... yeah.

I would definitely like to see this study. Even the abstract. Were activity levels the same? How much muscle did it actually build? Because I guarantee nobody looks like Mr/Ms Universe from sitting around on the couch. You don't even look like a fitness model.
posted by Anonymous at 7:55 PM on September 3, 2018

It was all untrained people and it was like a 12 week or 16 week period so no, no one was looking like Mr/Ms Universe in the end. Activity levels were not the same because one group worked out and the other did not. They did muscle circumference measurements of the participants as I recall. I'm not sure what the diet component was like, I don't remember it jumping out at me as a confounding factor though. It was probably ten years ago now. I do not have any notes, only my memory of reading it. I'm pretty sure it wasn't published in a quack journal, otherwise I would have dismissed it and promptly forgotten about it. If you (or anyone in the field with access) find it, please do post it here. Probably some journal of endocrinology or Kinesiology ?
posted by some loser at 8:45 PM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

I may be remembering incorrectly, but the infamous Patrick Arnold, designer steroid guru, *may* have talked about it in an online forum somewhere when it was originally published. My memory is hazy though.. It could have been more than ten years ago, and most if not all of the forums he frequented back then are shut down now.
posted by some loser at 8:51 PM on September 3, 2018

Well, steroids don't magically create muscle.

Check out women who are into powerlifting, or bodybuilding. It's either juice or GTFO. Here's one video. It's quite startling when she admits some of the long-term side-effects of her drug use (example: voice change). As far as I understand, most everyone juices for bodybuilding (even for physique), and there's two main powerlifting feds - one that's freestyle w/drugs; one that drugs are not allowed (but no one gets tested, so...).

Even as someone who labels themselves as an, "Athlete" (*cringes*) my idea of what a fit, muscular body is, is super skewed by seeing these muscle-bound physiques. For these people to call these activities "sports" is beyond weird (to me, looking outside of it all)
posted by alex_skazat at 9:27 PM on September 3, 2018

I think a bit more attention needs to be focused on Sergio Oliva and the fact that, you know, his marketability (shhh, race) closed him out of bodybuilding in the early 70's.

I can remember thumbing through Weider mag's in the late 80's. The article's mention of Oliva's name tipped a circuit in my brain; I remembered seeing photos of him in those old competitions and thinking, 30+ years ago, "WTF this guy is huge/cut." (google search 'sergio oliva 1972 mr olympia') It's subjective criteria, and I'm a non-bodybuilder, but I could detect something suspect in those results.

In this (entertaining!) story of bodybuilding, the effects of culture are unavoidable. I'd encourage the oral history to meet those social conflicts head-on -- instead, I'll wait for someone else to bring the full story of Oliva, or anecdotes about side hustles for gay patrons to light. In the meantime, forgive my tiny violin on Gold's need to design a second logo for his new gym. I've seen that movie before.
posted by Theophrastus Johnson at 9:40 PM on September 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

Peopke who clang weights are the worst. Yeah, we're all super impressed.

This was a great read.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 11:15 PM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

I carefully avoid any gym where no one drops weights or makes noise.
posted by Shutter at 8:44 AM on September 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

I should also add that what rokusan said orirginally is entirely true when we're talking about trained persons, athletes, etc.. I can see how my response might have been interpreted to say they were WRONG but they were not wrong. Just, there are cases where steriods are indeed magic muscle juice, to some extent, with certain caveats, if my memory is correct.
posted by some loser at 10:58 AM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I mean, you know what trenbolone does to cows right? and cows don't lift.
posted by some loser at 11:12 AM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Corticosteroids have nothing to do with muscle-building. When people talk about "steroids" with respect to athletics, they're usually talking about a wide range of performance-enhancing drugs, some of which may not be anabolic steroids at all.
posted by Anonymous at 1:53 PM on September 4, 2018

For what it's worth, the two bank robbers who started the North Hollywood shootout first met in the Venice California Gold's Gym.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 8:54 PM on September 5, 2018