Page 31 - Fire Your Personal Trainer and Kick Your Own Damn Ass

Fire Your Personal Trainer 28
And Kick Your Own Damn Ass

My father served in the Air Force in or near Roswell, New Mexico and
had been on the NYC police force before joining the corporate world.
He worked out in the basement doing calisthenics from the Royal
Canadian Airforce program and used a tensolator. How many old
timers remember the tensolator, which was marketed under the name
“Bullworker”? This odd-looking device (which is still around!) employed
a version of isometrics and it worked very well! I began using it in junior
high to try to get stronger after I lost at arm wrestling.

The tensolater didn’t seem like it had any effect because I couldn’t see
any changes in the mirror, but I kept at it and defeated the boy who had
beaten me in arm wrestling so easily I was shocked! I actually asked this
boy if he lost on purpose because his arm went down so quickly, and
he swore he hadn’t. There was no question I gained strength from the
tensolater and I enjoyed using it.

I strongly suggest you keep that story about the tensolater in mind
because it demonstrates how it is possible to become stronger without
gaining muscle mass and this subject confuses the heck out of people to
this day.

My father also had a set of light duty hand grippers with green, wooden
handles. I think they were from Everlast. I actually snapped one of them
from using it too much, too often.

My father was a paper salesman. He sold giant rolls of paper to
companies that converted it into all kinds of things like paper plates. He
was out of town a lot and his travels took him through York, Pennsylvania,
the home of the York Barbell Company.

On one of his trips to York he picked up a copy of a York Barbell product
catalog. Let me try to describe how I felt when I looked at the pages of