Where does the time go...

[BrotherIron]

I sit here writing this, wondering, where did the time go? I've been on the boards longer than many and shorter than some, but it amazes me how things have changed over the decades. How I've changed. I remember thinking that the only thing that matters is the weight on the bar, the total I put up, and the admiration of my peers. Things were different back then. People worked, bled, and crippled themselves for lifts, glory, and accolades.

You traveled to get coaching. Hell, you watched VHS's to learn techniques if you couldn't make the drive. You spoke on the phone. There was no face time, no social media, and no library of references to draw from. You learned from making mistakes and some of them would cost you dearly in torn muscles, ligaments, herniated disks, etc.

I also remember a community of lifters laughing, talking shit, and helping one another into gear before trying to load every 45 they could find onto the squat bar or the deadlift bar.

I guess it's not all bad, though. I see facilities available now with equipment that was never available in a commercial setting. A plethora of squat racks or even squat cages, platforms lined up one after the other, etc... What I don't see is the burning desire to get stronger and fight for every additional pound on the bar. Instead, I see kids worrying more about the outfit they're wearing and who is watching them rather than grinding that bar up their shins as the steel bends to their will or taking that bar for a ride, knowing it'll go down, but will it come back up?

I am grateful that I'm still able to train the way I want. I may not lift what I did, but I still make progress in other ways and still lift enough to be happy... just never content.

What are your thoughts? Has lifting changed, and did it change for the better or for the worse?

 

[Diesel59]

What I don't see is the burning desire to get stronger and fight for every additional pound on the bar. Instead, I see kids worrying more about the outfit they're wearing and who is watching them rather than grinding that bar up their shins as the steel bends to their will or taking that bar for a ride, knowing it'll go down, but will it come back up?

I think social media is fully to blame for this, particularly Instagram. Most guys would rather look cool for a picture than do something truly impressive in the weight room. Both get clicks, but buying expensive gym clothes is easier than the other thing.

That leads to a lot of guys nowadays having a different motivation for training in the first place. They're viewing the gym as more of a social club where they can meet sexy women in skimpy outfits. That comes first, and the desires for strength and side finish a distant second.

Do you ever talk to these guys at the gym?

What are your thoughts? Has lifting changed, and did it change for the better or for the worse?

I enjoyed reading your post for the same reason I enjoy watching old bodybuilding movies from the '90s and early '00s. I find myself nostalgic for an era that I wasn't even a part of.


Here's what I can say though....even just in my time of working at Gold's Gym (2018-present), I've seen things change quite a bit. The Instagram culture was a factor 6 years ago, but now it has completely taken over. Back then, it was still taboo at our gyms to set up a tripod and film. Nowadays, there are tripods at almost any gym unless they ban them. I've been training at a local bodybuilding gym and some days feel like the only one with no interest in being an influencer.

Anyone who got into lifting in the past 5-10 years was quite possibly inspired to do it by Instagram.

 

[andy]

down the drain

 

[Yano]

Stopping at 7-11 to grab the new PL USA magazine on the way to the gym.

Room full of animals , posters and pictures up but no mirrors no cameras no bullshit. Just freaks trying to put more n more weight on the bars.

Conversations about Ed Coans latest meet or Anthony Clarke and his crazy reverse bench numbers

I had a cell phone back then for work ,, it was in a black leather bag and weighed like 12 freaking lbs. 4 bucks a minute for incoming and outgoing calls haahahaha

Good times.

 

[BrotherIron]

Stopping at 7-11 to grab the new PL USA magazine on the way to the gym.

Room full of animals , posters and pictures up but no mirrors no cameras no bullshit. Just freaks trying to put more n more weight on the bars.

Conversations about Ed Coans latest meet or Anthony Clarke and his crazy reverse bench numbers

I had a cell phone back then for work ,, it was in a black leather bag and weighed like 12 freaking lbs. 4 bucks a minute for incoming and outgoing calls haahahaha

Good times.

Anthony Clarke was definitely different in his approach and lifting style. I remember having the stackable chairs next to the cage or the monolift so you could rest in between sets. The strongest lifter picking out the music that we would all have to listen to and most times it was something we all hated just to show that he could. Those guys and girls would take a bullet for each other and give each other the shirt off their back if someone needed it. There was loyalty and honor. It was a community in the truest sense.

 

[BrotherIron]

I think social media is fully to blame for this, particularly Instagram. Most guys would rather look cool for a picture than do something truly impressive in the weight room. Both get clicks, but buying expensive gym clothes is easier than the other thing.

That leads to a lot of guys nowadays having a different motivation for training in the first place. They're viewing the gym as more of a social club where they can meet sexy women in skimpy outfits. That comes first, and the desires for strength and side finish a distant second.

Do you ever talk to these guys at the gym?

No, they steer clear of the crazy older guy who stacks the 45's on the bar and then either adds chains, bnads, or both depending on the effort for the training session. They don't want to dirty their skimpy lil outifts with my chalk. I also don't have the most pleasant look on my face either, lol. I'm at war when I lift and it shows. Most only stop by to make a comment as I'm finishing and packing up everything. They wonder how did I learn that and what the hell is that I'm doing. I do indulge some of the people and talk, help share my knowledge, and pay it forward. I don't indulge the skanks who want to flirt. I'm there to work, clock in, and collect my paycheck in the form of PR's and numbers worth writing down.

 

[snake]

Ok, you're fuukin old!

You hit on one of the big things I always said. We had no one to really guide us, just Arnold who back then said he was natty. So we learned our trade on our own. In that, we learned what worked and what didn't for us, tapping into our body. In the long run, it made us better than the kids that want to be spoon fed these days.

Everyone seems to want the fast track in a marathon sport. I tell the youth these days, Learn the trade, then learn the tricks of the trade.

 

[TomJ]

I dont think liftting culture, as youve described, is gone or has changed. I think lifting and the gym in general has just become a far more common thing, and naturally as an activity/hoby gets more prevelant, youll get different social groups approaching that hobby.

I think there's definitely and influx of the gym fashion show, wanna be influencer kids, but i attribute that to the overall popularity of training, powerlifting, and bodybuilding in social media.
I dont think these types of people have replaced the oldschool, hardcore lifting community, i think they just live beside it.

Lifting used to be a small pond, with the hardcore lifters as big fish, well over the last decade that pond has gotten pretty damn big.
The big fish are still around and there are just as many, if not more now, but theres just a lot of water inbetween them than there used to be

 

[Yano]

This popped up today. Dave n Matt talking about where info came from and how you learn over 30 years and from who and where did they learn it from ... Matts coming out with a new book.

 

[69nites]

Honestly nothing has really changed.

The next generation always trying to reinvent the wheel. The cyclical trends of dosages, the giving of advice we didn't follow when we started, the getting bad advice from 10 idiots before you find a mentor that actually puts you on the right path.

We're just the old men yelling at the cloud now.