Page 33 - Fire Your Personal Trainer and Kick Your Own Damn Ass

Fire Your Personal Trainer 30
And Kick Your Own Damn Ass

wrench. And one more thing that was just as important as the weights:
the April 1971 issue of STRENGTH & HEALTH magazine.

Even though York was the gold standard in Olympic barbells, I was
unimpressed by the quality of the Milo exercise plates we got from
York. The castings were noticeably sloppy. It didn’t matter at all, but I
noticed it. The York slant board and dumbbells came with courses and
wall charts. I read them over and over, cover to cover. I wasn’t blown

away by the content. I didn’t question whether the advice was good or
bad; it just seemed dated. No, they were dated! The York wall charts
had old timey photos of an unidentified athlete wearing really odd lifting
shoes demonstrating the exercises. He looked nothing like the massive
bodybuilders I saw in the York catalog.

It wasn’t until many years later that I learned the model for the exercise
photos was 181 pound Olympic weight lifting champ, Pete Miller, who

competed in the 1930’s. Bear in mind it was 1971, and York was still selling
courses with photos of a weightlifter from the 1930’s. Right there you
can see why York’s dominance was doomed, and why its demise was
both predictable and inevitable. Pete Miller may have been stronger by
a mile and a far better athlete than the bodybuilders in the catalog, but
that wasn’t the point. By 1971 those wall charts were an embarrassment!

For years, the York Barbell Company in York, Pennsylvania had been a

destination for world class weightlifters and bodybuilders from around
the world. The strongest and best built men in the world had passed
through the York gym. York could easily have recruited contemporary
bodybuilders from the pro ranks and updated its courses and wall
charts, but it didn’t. This kind of corporate laziness is the downfall of
many companies. I was just an inexperienced 14-year-old kid, but the
photos were an obvious red flag.