Tickets to the gun show?
This weekend, my wife and I watched Pumping Iron (25th anniversary edition) for the first time in a long time. Man these guys looked great. Sure they had size, but they looked great year round. They weren’t fat most of the year and then super ripped like today’s bodybuilders. I found myself asking “Were these guys the original Primal behemoths?” They actually almost look like primal/paleo in a symetrical, healthy physique way… just supersized (possible probably due to the steroids).
You may immediately discredit this argument but hear me out.
First, food. During the course of the movie and the making of documentary… you get to see Arnold eat 2 meals. The first meal (during the actual movie), he eats what looks like 6 fried eggs and a cup of coffee for breakfast. The second meal (during the making of feature), is at a restaurant where he eats what looks like 2 large hamburger steaks, a couple eggs and a leaf of lettuce. These sound like pretty primal meals to me. I also remember hearing Arnold quoted once as saying “bread is poison”.
Second, Training. Sure these guys were able to train in a volume that would be considered overtraining for most due to the steroids that they were taking but look at the WAY they trained. They would lift super intensely for a while and then they would relax and all hangout and practice posing or chat it up for a while and then they would train super intensely again. I would even argue that it was almost a form of super interval training on a grand scale.
Third, Play. These guys played. They would go right out to Venice beach and frolic and play and swim in the ocean. They would lay in they park and just heckle each other for fun. They would compete with each other in posing and feats of strength all in the nature of good competitive fun.
Pumping Iron is credited with starting the booming fitness industry we have today. So, it seems that these guys had it right… where did the message get skewed? Well you can blame business guys like Joe Weider in my book but thats another post all together. The original guys were just living the life they enjoyed. Originally they weren’t doing it for the money… lets take the TRUE healthy messages that can be learned from Pumping Iron.
January 12th, 2009 - 9:38 am
Hilarious! I almost watched this yesterday for the first time (thank you netflix!!), but got distracted by too many other Sunday things.
Can’t wait to watch tonight! And I easily believe Arnold was primal- and look how far it took him!
January 12th, 2009 - 11:47 am
Awesome. Haven;t seen the film in years and last time I watched it was defintely in my pre-paleo/primal days. I remember the lunch though it was pure meat and fat the good old fashioned way. Arnold even did us proud with eggs and coffee for breakfast……How things have changed since then a breakfast of oatmeal and egg whites is now the norm….
January 12th, 2009 - 11:50 am
It’s funny seeing how much the drugs have advanced since Arnold’s day as wall. Compare some of the Mr.Olympia guys from his era to the modern one. (Say Ronnie Coleman and Dorian Yates).
Personally, I don’t like any of them aesthetically, but I do think the difference in a few decades is striking.
January 12th, 2009 - 11:56 am
Bee,
Enjoy it. We got it on Netflix too but i have long wanted to buy it!
Chris – Zen To Fitness,
I definitely looked at it from a new perspective being primal now!
Chris,
I don’t actually think that the drugs have changed as much as maybe the quantities and mixtures. Hormones have always been hormones, the drugs that were popular in arnolds time are still popular just now these guys are taking more of them and mixing them. I think a lot of it can also be contributed to heavy HGH usage in modern bodybuilders… I doubt Arnold and his buddies did that back in the day. You didn’t see the distended guts and stretched foreheads you see today.
January 12th, 2009 - 1:00 pm
Good positive vibe from this post SOG.
And that’s exactly what the movie was too, a good positive feel good vibe. I liked the look of the guys back then….I don’t like the look of the guys today.
This just remninded me that I wanted to comment on your recent post where your standing in your new jacuzzi. I was going to comment and forgot.
I think that part of you still wants some of the bulk. Not the super lean look. So my advice to you is, start lifting some heavy shit again
Look at Keith form Theory to Practice. He’s got the lean AND built look. He desribes his work outs really well.
And to Chris Zen to F.
LOL my man, good call on the egg whites and oatmeal!
Marc
January 12th, 2009 - 2:13 pm
Hey Marc,
Thanks! The movie did have a very positive vibe… especially once you learn that the drama was all mostly faked and that they were all really good buds. Just a bunch of guys hangin out and doing what they loved… sounds like how surfing got started too! I think you are right, part of me still hasn’t gotten over that “get huge” mantality. I am loving being lean though.
January 12th, 2009 - 6:06 pm
For love of the game, intrinsic value, just do it…. these all have a little star by them nowadays, but that’s just the world that we live in. If you can embrace the true meaning behind these ideas for yourself, than you’ll be doing okay!
All the Best,
Andrew R
January 13th, 2009 - 7:12 am
Andrew,
They don’t just have a littel star next to them… they have a trademark symbol too! lol
January 13th, 2009 - 7:42 am
I HAVE THAT PICTURE HANGING IN MY OFFICE.
January 13th, 2009 - 8:44 am
Miz,
love that pic.
I know… thats where I got it from. lol j/k
January 13th, 2009 - 10:25 am
Very interesting, but even more was ‘Venice beach’. I wasn’t aware that overhyped, stinking, but interesting town had a beach.
January 13th, 2009 - 10:33 am
Rambodoc,
I think a large reason the area is overhyped is BECAUSE of this movie. That area was pretty bad for a very long time. I have heard recently that they have put some money into going in and fixing and cleaning it up and that it is not so bad anymore. Have not been there in many years though so I can’t speak from experience. Thank you for the comment!
January 13th, 2009 - 11:21 am
Rambodoc,
I just had an epiphany. I realized that you may be referring to Venice Italy, whereas this post is referring to Venice Beach, California! that was the original home of these 70’s bodybuilding greats.
The SoG
January 14th, 2009 - 8:52 am
Oh, I was wondering about that! You Americans! More than one Londons, Washingtons, and now Venice!!
January 14th, 2009 - 8:57 am
Lol, we will name anything after anything!
January 17th, 2009 - 1:20 pm
SOG
I hung out with bodybuilders in a gym near Pike Place Market Seattle in the late 70s and the only time that people were not minding their business was a day Arnold showed up. He used the phrase ‘gym lizards’ for the yuppie types who showed up periodically to want to belong in their world. Lots of serious lifting and very little talking there usually. Most lift 4-8 hours a day. All free weights, protein powders, eggs, and lots of steroids.
The fun was outside the gym. The owner put on competitions and was a former Mr. USA or America himself as i remember. I spoke to him late 80s and he had become a middle school teacher
I think that movie was both a curse and a blessing for most of that gang. They did it because they loved it and it was not mainstream. You would not catch one of them in a hoidy-toidy gym until they opened one themselves to cash in or be promoted for money.
Money does talk. But as you say – that is another story.