Good questions.

Chrome commercial gyms emerged in the 1950s, along with high pressure sales
tactics. In time, the State of California passed legislation allowing
consumers a 72 hour cooling off time! Those gyms were notorious for signing
people up to binding two and three year contract, working them out to
produce profound soreness in hopes they'd never come back yet maintain
monthly contract payments. The way it worked was a gym would be set up,
incoming cash used to show financial stability while incurring indebtedness
to finance another branch. By the later 50s bankruptcies blossomed. Johnny
Gibson in Tucson was the first to buy up equipment from failed gyms,
refurbish it, then resale. New him quite well at one time, published a bio
of him. In those days, gyms were MWF for women, TThSat for men, no coed
training. That was the emergence of franchise and chain gyms, aiming at fat
loss, 'toning', etc.

Private gyms go way back. Sig Klein purchased his studio from his
father-in-law in the mid 1920s in New York, running it into the 60s. Many of
the private gyms of those days centered around the coaching skills of their
owners: Leo Stern, Bill Pearl, Vince Gironda, Mike Graham, Ronnie Ray in
Dallas. Some excelled in body building (Vince's), some in power,
bodybuilding and athleticism (Bill Pearl). Those were the really serious
training gyms.

Olympic lifting and power lifting were under AAU sanctioning (as was
bodybuilding) until the early 1980s. With few exceptions, those sports were
centered at YMCAs. I trained at the San Jose Y for years, including the
early 70s when a good number of Olympians were preparing to win - including
Bruce Jenner. 

Other elements changed gyms: aerobics, especially with Jane Fonda, Nautilus
clubs, and the cultural revolution precipitated by the film Pumping Iron.
That film put Joe Gold's original Santa Monica gym on the road map - itself
a next generation from the old Muscle Beach Weight Lifting Club, Inc - a
cooperative run by its users. Gold's type gyms started popping up all over
the place due to demand created by the film.

Bill Pearl has said personal trainers came into vogue when gym owners quit
doing their jobs. Requiring maybe a high school diploma, surely $600-, it's
fairly easy to become a 'personal trainer'. Unfortunately training and
experience is on short supply, and what's missing is an apprenticeship
program. With the advent of 'functional training' (one you missed), the gym
industry went bonkers since it's an approach turning gyms into cash cows.
Another one with great fad interest these days is Cross Fit, aimed at
younger people.

Rooms 1 and 2 are purely exploitive, pure commodifications of exercise. Over
priced supplements, over priced gym clothes, usually black market
'performance enhancement drugs' (steroids, insulin, HGH, IGF-1,
anti-aromatase, cortisone inhibitors, estrogen inhibitors, etc.). Standards
for certification favor functional training, not because it works well, but
instead because it makes the trainer an entertainer of clients not disposed
well to work.


-----Original Message-----
From: Paleolithic Eating Support List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Keith Thomas
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 5:20 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Art DeVany's book: "The New Evolution Diet"

Subject:	Re: Art DeVany's book: "The New Evolution Diet"
From: Ken O'Neill <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2010 21:13:13 -0600

> If you watch my video at: http://www.sebringclinic.com/videos/
> I got into a lot more depth than is reasonable to type into an 
> email: ...

Another question, Ken, and it springs from your video chronology of male
muscle physique from the 1940s through to the 2000s. At some point the "Iron
game" and body building gave birth to an offshoot: exercise to (a) reduce
obesity and (b) secondarily, improve health with heart/circulatory health
featuring. Your own video does not show the audience, but I get the
impression most were there to learn about treating type II diabetes or
obesity. This list is heavily populated with posts discussing treatment
options for pathologies, with fewer about maintaining existing excellent
health. It reaches the stage now where there are three main types of
gym-goers and in many gyms there are three corresponding rooms: one for fat
reduction, one for body sculpting and 'toning' (these are referred to by
users of the third room as "chrome and fern rooms") and the third room for
heavy weights and olympic lifting.

This development has led to a tremendous expansion of commercial
exploitation of the users of rooms 1 and 2: special foods (especially
'shakes', sports drinks, bars and supplements). Late-night infomercials also
round out the sorry story.

When do you reckon this transformation began to bite? What do you think of
it?

Incidentally, you mentioned that you pulled out of competitive body building
in 1965. That's the year I began weights work.

Keith