WHEN THE GOLD FADES
By John Romano
THE MECCA OF BODYBUILDING-AND THE 600 OR SO GYMS AROUND THE WORLD THAT BEAR ITS UNMISTAKEABLE NAME AND IMAGE-ARE UNDER A NEW MANAGEMENT THAT BELIEVES BODYBUILDING GETS IN THE WAY OF “GOLD”
“Don’t be sad it’s over, be glad it happened.” –Anonymous
I was reading an article today in Ad Age telling of the new marketing plan being adopted be Gold’s Gym International, and felt the color drain from my face. It was a good thing I was sitting down. Basically, Gold’s Gym-the name that embodies the very essence of hardcore bodybuilding-is saying adios to its core market: hardcore bodybuilders!
According to the article, Gold’s Gym wants to still capitalize on its experience in the muscle-and fitness-building field, but at the same time lose the perception found in its own company research that Gold’s is viewed as a place where bodybuilders workout and intimidate anyone else trying to exercise in the process. Gold’s feel that by shedding its image as a “muscle head” mecca, it can reach for a bigger part of the $16 billion industry by marketing itself in a kinder, gentler fashion-as a health and fitness center for everyone from babies to baby boomers.
Wow. I push my chair back and swung my feet up on my desk. I took a breath, and looked out the window between the two palm trees at the trickle of water that runs down the rocks between them, and into the koi pond. They are just glorified goldfish, thought as they swarm aimlessly. It was just like Gold’s Gym joining the ranks of Planet Fitness, prettying up something that’s just a little bit dirty. To them, “Gold” is nothing but a word.
How inconceivable it could be that one day, bodybuilders would no longer be welcome at the place where bodybuilding was born? How could that hardcore palace known as the freakin’ “Mecca of Bodybuilding” be turning its back on the very bodies upon which it built its 41 year reputation as the authority on building bodies? Well, it is. According to Gold’s Gym’s chief marketing officer, Joe Flanigan, “The bottom line is- and this is what we told the franchise system-the trick is to fully leverage the expertise and authority platform we have while minimizing the muscle head/intimidating factor”.
The “muscle head/intimidating factor?” I wonder if that’s a term you learn in Harvard Business School. Unfortunately, it’s not to say that we didn’t have it coming. I can think of several high-end bodybuilders who were notorious for being assholes with a capital “A” when they were training for a show, and they were no more or less an asshole than many other no-name gym rats on just a tad too high a does of Agro-Bolan. I mean, come on, if you don’t want to see naked bitches then don’t go to Solid Gold and stuff $20s in their thong. Gold’s is where bodybuilders train and sometimes, some of them can be real dicks. Those guys couldn’t have been that much of a deterrent. When bodybuilders ran the company, Gold’s grew to over 3 million members. Think about it.
However, the far majority of bodybuilders are pretty cool and helpful people, not to mention the original practitioners of what started this whole thing Gold’s is trying to capitalize on in the first place. Unfortunately, now that a corporation owns Gold’s, the corporate suits are going to dictate its direction to make the most of their nine-digit investment. They are not into bodybuilding, and it appears they don’t give a rat’s ass about bodybuilders. Just take a look at the Gold’s Gym website if you need to substantiate my claim.
Fat Lady Singing?
Let’s face it; it’s over. The symbols of the golden age of bodybuilding-Gold’s and World Gyms-have been retired. The famous logo of the blade dude lifting the bent barbell (designed in 1973 by Ric Drasin, one of Arnold’s old buddies) has been relegated to a less than a postage stamp on the Gold’s website. And, except for your old stash of World Gym T-shirts, that naked-ass ape is nowhere to be found, either. The book has been officially closed on old-school bodybuilding.
The two most powerful names in bodybuilding history, next to Joe Weider, have cast aside the entire culture that built their very existence. I couldn’t fathom another analogy any more obvious in depicting the absurd. I couldn’t ****ing believe it. I stared out the window some more, took a swig of the Trac Extreme I was drinking before I set off for the gym, and thought about the first day I walked into Gold’s.
Nearly a decade had passed since 1972, when I first stood, shocked and amazed in front of the television at who I would eventually learn was Sergio Oliva, flexing things I never knew existed. I was 12 years old and the image of Sergio’s traps rising up to nearly eclipse his ears when he hit a crab shot is so etched in my mind that my great-grandchildren will have dreams about it. That’s when it started, at the ripe age of 12, sending away for muscle-building programs out of the back of Boy’s Life Magazine, and striving from then on to see my muscles grow. It doesn’t get more natural than that.
And somehow, eight years later, there I stood. Right in front of what I have repeatedly come to learn was “the mecca.” Through the tall windowpane, I could see bodybuilders, many of whom I recognized from bodybuilding magazines. One was standing in front of the mirror next to the window doing shrugs with a pair of gigantic dumbbells. His traps munched up near his ears just like I remembered Sergio’s doing on television. ****ing amazing! I was here-I was actually standing on 2nd Street in Santa Monica right in front of Gold’s Gym! It was the place where I would spend the next 20 years finishing what I’d started when I was 12. All I had to do was walk through that door and my odyssey would begin…
And it did. Without a moment’s hesitation, I walked up to the guy at the counter, a beefy dude with gigantic arms like I’d never seen in person before, and bought one year’s membership. I stumbled around in there for the first few months. Then the gym moved to its current location on Hampton Drive in Venice. It was amazing who was training there in that big, loud warehouse space.
It was nothing for guys like Samir Bannout or Tom Platz to come up and discourage me from doing what I was doing the way I did it before I hurt myself. Those two, along with Chris Dickerson, Albert Beckles, Bertile Fox, Boyer Coe and Danny Padilla-who all trained there at the same time-were all competing against each other in the Olympia when Dickerson won, and then the next year is was Samir!
Then there were the guys training for the Universe, the Mr. America, the USA, the Nationals, the California Championships and all the big shows. Many of them trained there, right along with everyone else. If you were a serious bodybuilder, Gold’s Gym was undoubtedly our version of a mecca. It was where bodybuilders flocked like spiritual believers to the holy land. From literally all over the world, bodybuilders made the pilgrimage, if you will, to Venice to train among the giants-to be a giant.
History in The Making-And Some Competition
Those next 20 years-the ‘80’s and all through the ‘90’s-Gold’s Gym exploded. And, under the management of its third set of owners since Joe Gold opened the original Gold’s on Pacific Ave in 1965, it grew to a worldwide franchise operation with over 3 million members and 600 clubs in 25 countries. Who would have thought?
Gold’s Gym was not, however, the only temple operating a “mecca” during bodybuilding’s golden age that would grow into a worldwide franchise. The World Gym was the “cross-town” incarnation of the old school hardcore establishment run by the originator, Joe Gold. It also housed many rivalries. For instance, Mike Mentzer and Louie trained at Gold’s, while Arnold and Franco trained at World. The next two decades would see many more champs choose sides. A lot of us, myself included, had memberships at both gyms! Everyone knew there was no better leg workout to be had than on Joe Gold’s handmade equipment. Several guys I knew bought memberships at World just to train legs there.
To better understand the story of Gold’s Gym, we need to go back over half a century, to the very dawn of the muscle movement, and meet Joe Gold. Joe started training at the tender age of 12 with his brother. This was during the 1940’s, so naturally, they had to build their own equipment out of scrap iron. As a teenager, Joe headed for Muscle Beach in Santa Monica. He became a machinist and served in the United States Merchant Marines during the Korean War and World War II, where he was injured in a torpedo attack.
Joe opened his first gym in New Orleans in 1951, called Ajax Gym. But at that point, he realized he was not that interested in the business of running a gym, and he abandoned the venture. By 1954, he was back in Los Angeles, where he continued bodybuilding at Muscle Beach. In 1963, Muscle Beach still had no roof. There were no bodybuilding gyms and nowhere to train indoors. Joe negotiated with the Muscle Beach Weightlifting Club in Santa Monica to build an indoor facility. They could not make the deal work so, eventually, Joe went it alone. He opened Gold’s Gym on Pacific Avenue in Venice, California in 1965, and history was made. He designed ingenious machines that were precise for the needs of competitive bodybuilders, and he welded together most of the equipment himself. He called it “the first gym made specifically for bodybuilders.”
How ironic that his namesake gym would one day become a gym that specifically shuns bodybuilders.
Gold’s quickly became a landmark for local bodybuilders despite the dingy décor, and the incessant ranting of the owner. Don’t get me wrong, Joe Gold took most of us regulars under his wing, and he was never short of encouragement. But he was the master at delivering sarcastic jabs at your weakness. He even gave us all nicknames. Among Joe’s many privileged members, one who needed no nickname was his favorite-Arnold. Arnold showed up at Gold’s in 1968 shortly after arriving into the United States. Joe Weider had sent him there to train; Weider sent a lot of guys to train at Gold’s.
In 1970, Joe grew tired of sitting still and sold the gym to Bud Danitz and Dave Sachs, and returned to the Merchant Marines. Even with Joe gone, the momentum he generated made it easy for the gym to flourish in Muscle Beach. Then the gym got worldwide attention in 1975 when it was featured in the film “Pumping Iron.” The movie made stars out of Arnold, Louie and Gold’s Gym, too.
Gold’s grew, changed and evolved along with the new muscle movement it incubated inside its hallowing walls. Eventually, Dave Sachs sold his share of the gym to his partner, Danitz. Then, in 1977, a former bodybuilder named Ken Sprague bought the gym, and business and bodies continued to boom.
The Most Hardcore Gym Ever
But sometime during the gym’s rise to fashion in the mid’70s, the old-school hardcore guys, mainly Arnold and Franco, grew disenchanted with its direction. They missed the gym the way it was when Joe was there. When Joe returned from the Merchant marines in 1976, his old gym cronies descended him upon from back in the day, and they eventually convinced him to peon up another gym. Joe went to work and welded together what would become by far the most hardcore, bodybuilder-specific gym in the entire world.
Joe opened up World Gym in 1977 in a very industrial, two-story cement block structure on Main Street in Santa Monica, tow blocks from the Pacific Ocean. The parking lot and the showers were on the first floor; there wasn’t even a door to the locker room and you could see right into the shower on you way up the steps. But the best part was upstairs. There was almost as much gym outside as there was inside-all of it stocked with incredible, one-of-a-kind pieces of equipment Joe forged himself in the mental shop that ran alongside his house at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac just off what’s now Abbott Kinney Blvd. It was an extension of Washington Blvd, when Joe was there, welding together history. The most incredible thing about the gym was the outside deck in the back. It had an unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean! There were pull down machines, dumbbells, power racks, benches-bodybuilder heaven.
Gold’s Gym was just a few blocks south. But those few blocks made quite a difference. At World, Joe only turned the lights on when absolutely necessary, and although there was a big industrial heater hanging from the ceiling, I don’t think it was hooked up because it never turned on-not even when I’d train there at 4:30 in the morning in the damp, cold February fog, swearing my hands would stick to the iron, it was so cold. You couldn’t clank the dumbbells at the top of a rep; you had to tack your dumbbells in the spot where they belonged, break down the plates and there was no music! There wasn’t even a woman’s bathroom until Rachel McLish came along as Ms. Olympia. Before then, woman rarely climbed those stairs off Main Street.
Gold’s, on the other hand, was a mess. Plates and dumbbells all over the place, nothing put back where it belonged. It was as loud, colorful and obnoxious as many of the characters who trained there to thundering rock music. Gold’s was a scene. World was a serious workplace by comparison, and serious people worked out there. Arnold and company would have none of the shenanigans going on at Gold’s. But Gold’s was so crazy it became an irresistible attraction.
For bodybuilders around the world, its reputation was so deeply ensconced in the bodybuilding culture that it possessed an almost magical attraction that eventually made anyone who was anyone in Los Angeles a member-right along with the new guard who took over after Arnold and his brethren faded from the posing platform. World Gym would also enjoy worldwide franchising, but Gold’s Gym was the ultimate freak show and it got most of the attention. The aura at Gold’s grew to a point in the mid ‘90’s that was absolutely addicting. I couldn’t even stay out of there on my day off. I was afraid I’d miss something!
That was in large part due to the trio who bought Gold’s from Ken Sprague in 1970-Mr. World, Pete Grymkowski, Mr. Empire State, Tim Kimber and a brilliant architect, Ed Connors. This marks the point in the time when Gold’s Gym set its sights on the global market. Its clientele had grown so impressively, that it became almost automatic that it would popularize the image and benefits of hardcore-gym training in the minds of the businessperson, housewife, actor, athlete and other noncompetitive, but health-conscious people. Once Gold’s Gym’s reputation was established in the consumer’s minds, the gym moved on to a larger audience. In June 1980, Ed Conners became the first Gold’s Gym licensee by opening a Gold’s in San Francisco. And while that number would swell to 620 gyms in 25 countries, the client list at “Mecca” was starting to rumble. The ball was rolling and there was no telling where or even if the Gold’s thunder would stop.
The original gym had become a regular stop for bodybuilding tourists to train alongside Mr. And MS Olympias. Ironically, the driving concept of Gold’s had always been that there was no stereotypical muscleman, that working out should be open to people from every walk of life. “Fitness for every body” was their slogan. And it was true. On any given day, you could find yourself training next to the likes of Lyle Alzado, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mych Thompson, Ken Norton, Reggie Jackson, Charlie Sheen, Richard Dreyfus, Judge Reinhold, Carrie Fisher, Linda Ronstadt, Jodie Foster, Michael Landon, Carl Weathers, David Lee Roth, Janet Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Magic Johnston and Hulk Hogan-not to mention the front line of the IFBB and NPC-and an assortment of characters Pablo Picasso couldn’t have imagined tripping on acid. Anywhere else you could possibly train in the entire world was a very distant second.
And that’s how Gold’s plowed toward the 21st century. It had more muscle behind it than any gym chain on the planet, and the fitness boom was at a worldwide fever pitch that seemed impervious to whatever the economy could throw at it. But, even with this solid growth, because Gold’s Gyms were owned by franchisees, not the economy, Gold’s admitted it sometimes had trouble keeping up with its large competitors. Some Gold’s franchisees even sold their gyms to rival companies.
Two brothers, Kirk and John Galliano, who owned eight Gold’s franchises in the Washington, DC, area, were alarmed to see fellow franchisees sell out to rival companies because they did not have enough capital to expand. The Galliano brothers bought Gold’s Gym-the parent company-in a deal that was estimated to be worth between $50 and $100 million. Their plan was to grow the company through acquisitions and through new company-owned gyms. The Galianis also hoped to take the company public at some point.
Instead, five years later, the company was sold to TRT Holdings, a privately owned, diversified holding company in Irving, Texas, with assets that include Omni Hotels, for close to $160 million. This is indeed a milestone unfathomable to anyone slinging iron back in the day. However, it also sounded the death knell. With its inclusion among other nine or 10-0digit assets, in a portfolio managed by executives of a 12-digit company, the image of Gold’s Gym at this level must preclude bodybuilding’s odious association.
The Suits Who Run It Today
Today, the suits who pull the marketing strings at TRT are leveraging Gold’s Gym’s $30 million ad budget with a print, TV, radio and Internet campaign featuring the tagline: “Change Your Body. Change Your Life.” The images they promote include a senior citizen lifting little, teeny weights and a woman in a lap pool, among others - none of who exhibit any recognizable muscle. Certainly there are no bodybuilders and that’s because, apparently, we are “bad for business.”
According to the International Health, Racquet and Sports club Association (IHRSA), between 1995 and 2005, U.S. health club memberships rose 71 percent to 41.3 million. The number of clubs that opened nationally in 2005 jumped to nearly 29,000- up 21 percent from 2004.
Gold’s had $1.2 billion in revenue last year form its 620 clubs, including 500 in the United States. Bally Total Fitness had $1.05 billion from 361 clubs, and 24 hour Fitness had $1 billion form 340 clubs. In a booming gym economy, the competition is making more money from fewer gyms. Gold’s is also losing out on the age55-plus crowd. According to IHRSA, health club memberships in that demographic have increased a whopping 265 percent in th4 past 15 years. Gold’s Gym memberships from those 55 years and older is only 7 percent, compared to an industry average of 25 percent.
The suits at Gold’s corporate see the inequity, and their won research puts the blame on us intimidating meatheads. They want our cheap, judgmental, self-absorbed, ab-shootin’, troublemaking, pimply asses out of their gyms to make way for soccer moms and 50 year olds with money to blow on personal trainers, Gold’s Gym gear, smoothies and bottled water. In the very gym where bodybuilding was created, today, bodybuilders are recognized as bad for business.
But what if you are a Gold’s Gym owner who bought his Gold’s franchise because the company was promoting a reasonable facsimile of the attitude fostered in Venice? I never went to a Gold’s Gym that wasn’t hardcore. North Hollywood, Pacific Beach, Syosset – they all rocked. You know why? Because in North Hollywood, everyone knew it was Angle Banos’ gym. Pacific Beach was Rick Stevens’ place. Syosset was Bev and Steve’s gym. Those were some of the most incredible gyms you could ever train in. Because, like the greatest gym owner in the world, Joe Gold, the owner is a bodybuilder and he lives in the gym.
What does it feel like to be one of these gym owners face with a corporate mandate to burn you roots? “It made me sick,” sad Steve Weinberger. As most of you may know, Steve is the husband of world champion bodybuilder Bev Francis, and together they owned the Gold’s Gym franchise that could arguably be referred to as the East Coast Mecca. They have since divorced themselves of Gold’s Gym and operate their world-class operation under the aegis of Powerhouse Gym, the only real hardcore gym chain left in the free world.
“Midas Mufflers?” Steve went on, “What the **** does a guy from Midas Mufflers know about running a gym?” Steve was referring to the chief operating officer of Gold’s Gym once it had been purchased from Pete, Tim and ED in 1999. “I know business is business,” Steve said, “but it’s not. Not the gym business, Joe Gold was the man, the best gym owner-period. He was in that gym-in a wheelchair-right up until he died.”
“What about the new owners?” I asked.
“Omni Hotels?” Steve answered, referring to the Irving, Texas investment group that owns the Omni Hotel chain that recently purchased Gold’s for almost $160 million. “They don’t know shit about running gyms, either!” Steve fumed. I could tell his shade of red all the way down in Florida. “It makes no sense. Gold’s Gym is supposed to be a bodybuilder’s gym. That’s what it is. Why would they try to be like Bally’s and 24 Hour Fitness? I would never change my gym to go along with what Gold’s wants now. We let out contract expire and we never looked back. We should have gone with Powerhouse form the beginning.”
“Don’t you feel like something died, Steve? I mean, the logos are gone. It’s like they stamped out an entire culture.”
“It’s really sad,” Steve said. “You’re right, it’s like something we could all identify with has been taken away.”
“So, it’s up to you,” I said. “It’s up to the individual gym owners like you and Bev to keep it real. You guys run one of the best hardcore gyms in the world.”
“Thanks, John. It is up to us. All I ever wanted was to have a really good gym. I have them all right around me here-Bally’s, 24 Hour Fitness, Equinox-but people still come here. The serious people. That’s what we are, a serious, hardcore gym where everyone is welcome.”
“But what about the ‘musclehead-intimidation factor’ Gold’s corporate insists is the root of their image problem/”
“That’s bullshit,” Steve said. “If anyone causes trouble in my gym I throw them out. Everyone here is respectful and helpful. No one has ever complained that they couldn’t train here because they felt intimidated.”
“Yeah, that’s because your gym is in New York and no one can intimidate a New Yorker,” I said, “What about in other place?” People came from all over the world to train in Venice. It was so entertaining! That gym attracted people like crazy. It wasn’t for everyone, but man, look at the list of celebrities with memberships. Gold’s was the place.”
“But,” I insisted, “The new guys have the demographics to prove their point.”
“What? A bunch of suits?” Steve replied. “So they are going to read their reports and some ****ing bean counter, pencil-neck geek is going to tell them what to do, and all they will accomplish is turn the most hardcore gym name in the world into a health spa for retired people? They are going to turn a Mac truck into a minivan. It doesn’t make sense.”
Well clearly, the intention is to make dollars and that’s where the divide becomes pronounced. Gold’s corporate is going to get its way, but only with those gyms it can assimilate into the collective. And, apparently, that numbers is quite pleasing to the suits. Naturally, there would be fallout. Most of the true hardcore incarnations of Gold’s heave either lost their hardcore owners through sales, or set themselves free-as Bev and Steve did-of their Gold’s association. It really comes down to who’s running the gym and what they want to do. Bev and Steve could have no sign at all on their building and it would still the hottest hardcore jungle on the East Coast.
In the end, we’re going to have to look at it like this:
Back in the day, Gold’s Gym, and later World Gym, were nothing but local, hardcore gyms. The neighborhood just happened to have been Muscle Beach during bodybuilding’s golden age. Hardcore was all there was, and as far as hardcore goes, Gold’s was the most hardcore spot on earth. That’s why it was called Mecca; it was the central spot in the world where they very best bodybuilders in the world trained every day. And any “Joe Meathead” with enough cash for a membership could find himself training right next to Mr. Olympia, Dennis Hopper or Steven Perry, the lead singer of Journey.
There were high-powered lawyers and top-ranked porn stars trading elbows with 7-foot-tall basketball stars and top ranked bodybuilding champions from all over the world. That concoction of spirits created a certain hallowed sense about Gold’s that felt right. What Gold’s meant during the golden age is something we must all never forget.
Indeed, bodybuilding’s golden age has come to rest in Venice. The good old days are just that. At least they are for World Gym, and now for Gold’s Gym. The current direction is more interested in brand building than bodybuilding. I’ll never forget the conversation I had last summer at the Muscle Beach Classic with my old friend and neighbor, former Gold’s Gym owner, Ed Connors. While Pete Grymkowski and Tim Kimber represented the muscle behind Gold’s, Ed made up for it with the vision. Ed is also a man of impeccable taste and style, and for sure understood how to market hardcore fitness.
On top of co-orchestrating the design of the largest and most successful gym chain in the world and owner of its first franchise, he also designed some incredible buildings. Ed is an amazing architect; that glass skyscraper featured in “Die head: With A Vengeance” with Bruce Willis is one of Ed’s more recognizable designs. I know Ed, and it’s safe to say that he could have written the book on conceptualization. What said it made his reaction to the embodiment of Gold’s new direction all that more venerable. When I asked him what he thought of Gold’s new direction and how the new owners projected tat image in the remolded gym, Ed responded, ”I stepped inside, looked around, went back outside and vomited in the bushes-I vomited.”
And, as far as bodybuilding goes, blowing chunks pretty much sums up how we all feel about this whole movement to shun the foundation upon which the shiny fitness empire is securely perched. Yeah, we started it. And for a while there was a bodybuilding Camelot between Venice and Santa Monica. For those of us lucky enough to call Gold’s their local gym, we should not be sad that out sacred temple has been desecrated, but happy that it once stood out as the beacon which drew so many of us it the fold and cast us all as brothers.
It is probably a better thing Joe Gold’s spirit and remains are adrift peacefully in the Pacific today. I don’t think he would ever have imagined that his namesake gym enterprise would be run by a bunch of suits who think reps are people you assign territories to. Bodybuilders and muscleheads no longer hold the reigns. Soccer moms and baby boomers are the focus of marketing; just look at the Gold’s Gym website. You can’t find a bodybuilder anywhere. Just a barely recognizable icon of the old Gold’s Gym logo stuffed into the lower corner amid all the others. That little, two-square centimeter piece of virtual real estate is all that remains of what the name “Gold’s” use to stand for.
Gold’s Gym is still there on the corner of Hampton Drive and Sunset in Venice. What’s left of it, anyways? Sure, it’s a huge, cavernous, 40,000 square-foot space packed with all kinds of the latest state-of-the-art gym equipment and pictures of all the champions from the IFBB and the NPC adorning the walls. But his spirit is gone. Once, in a space less than on-forth the side it is today, Gold’s was a thunder dome. It was where most of the top bodybuilders in the world built or honed their champion physiques. Those guys are looked at as the true pioneers of our sport and it is only fitting that there is a famous picture taken of them back in the day. The group huddled around the front door-Mike Mentzer, his brother Ray; Tom Platz; Don and Rita Ross; Lou Ferrigno; Danny Padilla and the rest of that original band of Iron Brothers-thankfully, such a shot exists.
So I guess you can say Gold’s grew up, as much in the same way as Arnold became the governor. It got civilized. And while the company that owns it today proclaims it should not lose track of its core foundation, they are losing it. They are really not promoting anything more than Pilates and chrome dumbbells fitness. Oh, yeah, and swimming.
Growing Up, Moving Away
The evolution our world has experienced has drawn in far more than hardcore bodybuilders, and today we are outnumbered. You can still get a good workout at Gold’s Gym, but not like you could when half the competitors in the NPC and IFBB were training right next to you. Now it seems like everyone grew up and moved away.
And you know, that’s OK. There are still bastions of hardcore bodybuilding refuge, and you don’t have to look too far to find them. In fact, if you look on the MD website, you’ll find “The Hardcore Gym Registry” suck on our “No Bull” discussion board. Hardcore is still very much alive, and in the places it is, it is off the chain. Today, the hardcore movement is alive in dungeons around the world, not just in one spot in Southern California. There are still places where champions throw down like did back in the day. It’s even more unleashed and brutal today than it ever was. It’s just not at gold’s and not a World … not like it was.
If aggressive businessmen and sharp marketing can haul in the soccer moms to a Gold’s Gym and have them not only sign up, but actually go to the gym and get in shape and get healthy and improve their lives, then who could argue that isn’t good? Unfortunately, it comes at quite a price-at least as far the reverence to hardcore bodybuilding is concerned. However, unlike many companies that don’t live much longer than the headlines of their demise, Gold’s Gym, in its true hardcore iteration during the golden age, will live on the bodies built there. If progress means bodybuilders should be swept aside like redheaded stepchildren because our intimidating nature is keeping timid, unhealthy, older folks out of the gym, then by all means they should have the space. We can find someplace else to train.
What those of us lucky enough to have been members of the original took from Gold’s can’t be bought, restructured and sold, at any price. It was a slice of what makes America real, and a culture that’s unique and alive. Those thousands of mismatched people who walked through those doors to Mecca and ground out their grueling routines will forever be connected; no matter what a bunch of suits in Texas do to our temple, they can never take away what happened there. You, my Venice brothers and sisters, are part of history.
