November 2014
Issue #22
Mike BonDurant, Publisher
Michele
Scott, Graphics EditorLachlan Scott, Internet Site Manager
Misty BonDurant Adkinson, Copy Editor
Tomi BonDurant, Head Chef and Photographer
Contents:
EditorialMuscle Museum Acquisitions
Mikie's List Gyms Home Gym Care & Feeding
Welcome to the twenty-second issue
of MUSCLE MUSEUM FORUM! Your humble editor had a bit of surgery to deal
with and we are a bit late (like...a year!) with this issue, kindly forgive us. Hopefully the titanium rod they installed in
my left femur will have me back at the squat rack one day soon. At any rate, we’ll try to be more regular
with future issues
Please direct any comments or
questions to us by email musclemuseum2@gmail.com Unlike many blog sites, we prefer more of a
newsletter format, however we encourage readers to comment by
email. We will publish these in the Muscle Mail department in
future issues. If a "chat-room" environment is desired, we
refer you to sites such as www.ironhistory.com that do a great job of handling individual
posts.
If you would like to submit an
article for publication here, please do so by email attachment. We will be
happy to review it for publication it in a future issue.
Here’s a
wonderful old cabinet card of Charles Atlas taken in the 1920’s. (Muscle Museum collection).
Recent Acquisitions at the Muscle
Museum:
We had a
pair of red ++Weider 1 ½” thick iron dumbell sleeves at one time and they got
away from us. Recently, one of our
friends in Canada sent us a replacement…shown here is the sleeves made up as a
45lb. dumbell. I really like the thick
grip – they have the same feel as the
York Aristocrats of old.
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MIKIE'S LIST: (With apologies to the nice folks at Angie's List...)
· Dave & Laree Draper have a great site and newsletter www.davedraper.com
· Joe Roark minds the helm for Iron History at www.ironhistory.com
· Jan and Terry Todd run a fantastic Iron History museum at www.starkcenter.org
· Great historical info from across the pond at www.sandowplus.co.uk
· Helpful tips on home gyms at www.home.bodybuilding.com
· All kinds of stuff about oldtime strongmen at www.oldtimestrongmen.com
· Tom, Ivan and Vinko Lincir at Ivanko offer top quality barbells and dumbells www.ivankobarbell.com
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GYM GEMS:
Appolon’s Gym in 19th
Century France is our featured gym on page one in this issue. What a fantastic place to train! And how much it looks like a good gym today!
(need photo here)
We hope our readers
will email photos for us to use here in this department.
HOME GYM CARE AND FEEDING:
Exercise
Bars:
We covered Olympic bars last issue, now a few notes on the simple, plain
old exercise bar. Exercise bars will
usually be 4’ to 7’ long and have a diameter of 1” – 1 ¼” thickness and be the
same thickness on the grip and the plate area.
Exercise plates will have a hole of 1 1/16” to 1 ¼” to fit these
bars. Inside collars will usually be
affixed with a set screw of some type and can thus be adjusted to the desired
width of grip area. Outside collars may
have an L-bolt or compression design to allow changing of weights without
searching for a wrench each time.
As you can see, plates are not
universally made to fit all bars so some care must be taken. I recall that in Army days in the 1950’s, I
often found base gyms that had many plates that didn’t fit the bars provided,
and nobody seemed to care. Bummer!
In my own opinion, the 5 ½’ or 6’
bars are ideal for home gyms because they save space. It’s a simple matter to adjust the inside
collars to fit whatever racks or benches one is using and still have enough
space for needed plates. Bars with a 1-1/8”
or 28mm thickness are closer to standard Olympic grip, but will require some plates
to be bored-out to fit. The alternative
is to turn down the plate area on each end of the bar to 1-1/1/16”.
A light coat of paint will keep rust
at bay but occasional repaint will be necessary on areas where the plates slide
on and off, as well as grip areas. Like
Olympic bars, hard chrome or stainless finishes are best in areas where rust is
an issue. I would avoid cheap shiny
chrome as it chips off and can often be slick - causing plates to slide
off. Having said that, I have an old chrome
YORK EZ curl bar that has maintained its finish over the years and is not slick
to the touch – however the chrome surface has peeled off a bit where the plates slide off and on..
Collars should be wide enough inside
to stabilize the somewhat loose plate fit of exercise plates. Outside collars will be more useful if they
are of the wrenchless variety...better yet, compression type collars will
prevent damage to the bars often caused by over-tightening of set screws. As a collector, I have accumulated a large
variety of collars over the years that I greatly enjoy using in my gym just for
the fun of using different designs from time to time.
I have a similar supply of old
exercise plates that are a pleasure to use.
The collector in me always tries to acquire a complete set of any brand
that I take a liking to. Mix them as you
desire, just remember that some may not fit certain bars and it can be frustrating - I’ve
been known to have plates bored out by a machinist at considerable expense
because they won’t fit my favorite bar.
I hope to hear from you with
comments and suggestions. We'll publish these in the "Muscular
Mail" section each issue. Be sure to check out the Classified Ads
tab at the top of the page for want lists and neat selling/trading items!
Fin
O=O
More next time...scroll down for previous issues.
August 2013 Issue #21
Mike BonDurant, Publisher
Michele Scott, Graphics Editor
Lachlan Scott, Ass't. Graphics Editor
Misty BonDurant Adkinson, Copy Editor
Tomi BonDurant, Head Chef and Photographer
Recent Acquisitions at the Muscle Museum:
We've been looking for a pair of York Stubby collars for years. This is perhaps the rarest York collar of them all.
In 1947, York Barbell discontinued their flimsy Hold-Tite barbell collar that was expensive to make and tended to stretch with use making it unusable on the 1 1/16" bar it was designed to fit. The replacements were what is now known to collectors as the Stubby and the Long Neck L-bolt collars. These were much heavier than the Hold-Tite and more durable. Photo below shows ad showing the compact Stubby on the four foot bar at the top, and the longer - much longer - Long-Neck on the five and six foot bars.
Both
collars were made for only about two years before they were replaced by
the venerable toggle-bolt collar we all grew up on. The same collar
with a simple set-screw was used as an inside collar...making for more
efficient manufacturing.
We recently finally acquired a pair of the rare York Stubbies - our pair
had the YORK machined off - likely York sold the discontinued examples
to other barbell companies and therefore removed the brand.
Now, if we can just find a pair of the ramped inside collars to match...ah, the ever-present iron collector gene kicks in...
Charles Atlas' Many Addresses:
Charles Atlas began selling his famous
muscles-by-mail course in the early 1920's and it continues today though
Atlas died in 1972 at age 79. Here at the Muscle Museum, we have
several of the course lessons, including the one your curator ordered in
1954. Although the course, mostly written by partner Fredrick Tilney,
has remained virtually unchanged over the years, the address for the
office has changed many times.
1923 - Temple of Health, Woodcliff on Hudson, NJ (ad at right courtesy Reuben Weaver)
1924 - 96 5th. Av., NYC
1925 - 226 W. 47th. St., NYC
? - 133 E. 23rd. St., NYC
1935 - 113 E. 23rd. St., NYC
1968 - 115 E. 23rd. St. NYC
Anyone have corrections or other addresses for C.A.?
I've always had a active interest in Charles Atlas since I began my exercise
career with his course. Actually, I started with a pair of clock weights,- you
know, the kind that look like pine cones? Anyway, I graduated briefly to barbells
in high school and then took the Atlas course when he convinced me that
Dynamic Tension was better. Although that wasn't exactly the truth, I did get
pretty good results, and it lit the spark that became a lifelong passion for health exercise..
How Much is it Worth??
I've been collecting Physical Culture items since
1970 when I purchased a complete BUR barbell set along with a pair of
Jowett Fulcrum dumbells at a garage sale. I didn't really intend to
start a collection, but recognized the age of the items and thought they
were interesting.!
Several years later, my sweet wife gave me a pair of wooden dumbells for
Christmas...something clicked, and I was hooked. For example,
originally I thought it would be cool to own a copy of Strength &
Health from each of the years it was published...soon I had every issue published up to 1960 - well over 300 magazines! And this was well before the internet and ebay...
Point here is that in recent years I've met many fine collectors and our
numbers have grown greatly. Lately, I've seen evidence of a different
kind of collector in our midst. Some have little interest in the
history or details...just want to know "how much is it worth?"
I think these people are missing the point.
Heck, we're preserving these items - keeping them away from the
landfill. I've always believed that I'm just a caretaker, not an
owner. Now, I'm happy that many old items have appreciated in
value...but when the time comes to thin down the collection, as I've
done in the past, I try to pass the items on to someone who will
appreciate the historical value...not just what they will bring in dollars.
MIKIE'S LIST: (With apologies to the nice folks at Angie's List...)
- Dave & Laree Draper have a great site and newsletter www.davedraper.com
- Joe Roark minds the helm for Iron History at www.ironhistory.com
- Jan and Terry Todd run a fantastic Iron History museum at www.starkcenter.org
- Great historical info from across the pond at www.sandowplus.co.uk
- Helpful tips on home gyms at www.home.bodybuilding.com
- All kinds of stuff about oldtime strongmen at www.oldtimestrongmen.com
- Tom and Vinko Lincir at Ivanko offer top quality barbells and dumbells www.ivankobarbell.com
GYM GEMS:
I love photos of old gyms...the photo at the
beginning of this issue is an example. Sure, it's a bit fuzzy, but it's
Prof. Attila's Studio of Physical Culture in the very early 1900's.
This was before Sig Klein took over in the 1920's. Will you look at
the old globe weights? Not a plate in sight! No treadmills, no
Stairmasters, not even a lat machine. Now, that's a gym!
Now, here's a photo of a much later gym, but it still qualifies as a real gym. It's my own Key Gym
in Boca Raton, Florida shortly after we opened in 1972. Pretty sparse,
but it was all you needed to get a good workout. If you look closely,
you can see part of a Nautilus pullover machine on the lower right...a
preview of things to come.
HOME GYM CARE AND FEEDING:
If you're reading Muscle Museum Forum, you likely know your way around a gym. So we won't get too basic here, but let's just assume you have a home gym or are considering setting up one. What I would like to do with this column is to begin at the beginning and build a great home gym by giving a few hints on selecting your equipment, show some photos of great home gyms, and discuss maintenance issues and the like. Most of us homegymers are passionate about our training facilities and I welcome your input as we continue from month to month.
To begin, lets consider what you need to start. In my opinion, and I've had a home gym for forty years - even when I owned commercial gyms - is that you need first of all to cover the essentials.
Barbell, bench, and squat rack. With that, and a small room or garage to put it in - you're in business! You need not spend another dime ...unless you want to.
We'll cover "want to" later...but let's concentrate on those three essentials for now.
The barbell bar is your most important purchase. If you intend to use heavy weights, your bar should be the best you can afford. This bar will have to be at least as strong as you ever hope to be. Whether you choose an Olympic or standard bar, it should be from a respected manufacturer - if you can, choose a brand with an earned reputation for quality. This said, discount store items will be fine if you don't intend to use really heavy weights.
Olympic Bars:
Many trainers today like to use Olympic bars because they are sexier, and also often don't require collars...and they are quieter. They tend to be thicker and therefore more comfortable to many. I would stay away from shiny chrome which tends to peel or flake over time, and these shards of chrome can cause injury. Instead, go for hard or industrial hard chrome which is thicker and much more stable because it is applied directly to the metal instead of on a copper layer like shiny chrome. Black oxide is like gun bluing and is a good choice as well...as is stainless, the top choice in my opinion, but stainless is much more expensive. Bare metal bars are a fine of course, if you don't mind wiping them down after each use.
Seven foot bars are the standard, but if your gym is small I suggest you look into a six foot bar that will save a surprising amount of space. Just make sure the bar has a standard 50", or wider, grip space so you can use it on wide support racks. That still leaves enough sleeve length - 8" or 9" on each end - for a load of 400lbs. or so. If you need more, then you will need a seven footer. Check that the knurling is grippy without wanting to take your skin off...make sure it isn't just a few useless scratches applied just for looks. If you are buying a used bar, check it for straightness, knurl wear, and smoothness in spinning.
If your bar is of questionable manufacture, take the sleeve off and be sure it has bushings or bearings inside...if not, it won't revolve smoothly.
Finally, make sure the bar you are buying will fit your plates. Some China bars have 2" sleeves and will not accept higher quality plates like York, Ivanko, Eliko, etc. High end plates have a hole of 2" and require a bar sleeve of a tad less that ...
More next time...
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I hope to hear from you with comments and suggestions. We'll publish these in the "Muscular Mail" section each issue. Be sure to check out the Classified Ads tab at the top of the page for want lists and neat selling/trading items!
Fin O=O
