My Half-Century In The IRON GAME

Part 4 of a series

By John Grimek

THINGS BEGAN TO CHANGE after my father died in July of 1933. I was still out of work and had no means of keeping up the household...so it dissolved. A younger sister went to live with my eldest one, a younger brother went into the CCC's, and I stayed with my older brother.

He had enough expenses, however, with his own family so I began to think about moving. Training for the time being had to be forgotten. I didn't really have a place to train anyway, except for a shed in the backyard, and it wasn't conducive to any inspiration.

Still, I longed to train under Sig Klein. That proved to be a hopeless situation, however, but on one of my visits to Sig's gym I talked to Ray Van Cleef who gave me some advice about modeling.

He was well acquainted with all the art schools and artists in New York City and suggested that I try it to earn some money. So, we made an appointment and he took me to a number of art schools and sculptors around New York.

I was asked to strip down. I did. They all seemed impressed. I remembered, however, how embarrassing it was for so many women to study me at such close range. But, I had no problem getting several immediate engagements and, hence, my modeling career was launched.

Van Cleef also supplied me with addresses of art schools around the country to which I sent snapshots and wrote for engagements. Thankfully, I received enough to keep me busy for the rest of the season.

After I fulfilled my commitments in NYC, I went up to Syracuse University. Up to this point all my engagements consisted of 25 minutes of posing and resting five...but Syracuse demanded 50 minutes of holding a pose with 10 minutes rest.

For a novice such as I, this proved to be pure murder! Being inexperienced, I didn't always assume an easy, relaxed pose. So, after awhile it seemed as though I were in a torture chamber. Consequently, I broke the pose two or three times. One instructor really got annoyed at this and told me a story about an old-time strongman, Otis Lambert, who could remain in one pose all day without moving. Although I knew Lambert, I tried to be funny by saying that maybe he was a zombie and didn't know any better, and that I was an active athlete.

He wasn't too happy with my comment but during my intermission I explained that I hadn't been modeling very long and that I lacked the experience of a man like Lambert whom I knew and respected.

Actually Lambert and a partner--Adolph Nordquest--had a fine stage routine. Both men were well-built and strong but apparently due to the tough depression times they couldn't get enough bookings. So the agile Lambert decided to make some quick money by offering his services as a model...and he was readily accepted. Unfortunately, I never met him on the posing circuit...he was either just leaving as I was due, or arriving after I left.

All this posing made it difficult for me to keep up with my training. In fact, there were times when I would go for months without a good workout. And the worst part of it was that after making "like a statue" for eight to 10 hours a day it was really depleting.

So, I carried a set of aristocrat dumbells with me and occasionally went through a drill with them. Even with this lack of training, however, a few months later I entered and won the first New Jersey Championships ever staged. My light dumbell drill, plus tiger bends, handstand presses, pushups, etc., kept me in fairly good shape and my periodic tensing for the students--when they wanted me to isolate a certain muscle--kept my muscular definition quite sharp.

My bodyweight at this time was controlled by my food intake. Although I could have eaten twice the amount I usually settled for, I ate just enough to maintain my weight at just under 200 pounds.

After my stint at Syracuse I headed for New Haven, Connecticut and Yale University. It was a pretty cold winter but I still wore only a regular suit coat or thin sweater. These suited me just fine as I couldn't stand to wear an overcoat...I never could even as a kid...and I guess I never will, as I've never even bought one for myself yet.

The people of New Haven would all "bundle up" against the cold but when seeing me walk around in just my thin coat or sweater they would turn around to look. I can imagine that they thought I was some kind of a nut, no doubt.

However, I can't imagine what they'd have thought if they'd have seen me after one of my walks to the local supermarket. There I would buy some rich cream (real cream) puffs, usually eating a dozen or so before dinner. Talk about cholesterol! That little snack contained over a million grams of it!

As you can tell, I had no knowledge of what to eat in those days...all I did was try to fill the cavity in my stomach that always seemed to be empty no matter what or how much I ate. In retrospect, I only wish I had some knowledge about food; I think I could have made some radical changes in my physique.

Even with a lack of training and poor dietary habits, however, I did make some gains in my legs during this time. The art department at Yale was situated on the upper level of the building and the men's room was on the basement floor.

My habit of visiting this area at each rest period proved to be great exercise and an excellent way to stimulate blood circulation. Within weeks I found my legs getting heavy and when they were measured I found that my thighs grew over two inches and I also made gains in my calves, which were then up to about 20 inches.

And walking up and down these three long flights of stairs was solely responsible for my gains. One student, upon noticing my legs, remarked that I should go in for wrestling. I thought about it briefly but I wasn't really too keen about such a vocation...after all, modeling provided me with money and travel.

While I was at Yale some fellows from Hartford came down to see me and invited me to come to Hartford on weekends to work out. I was glad to accept! It was this training that helped me get into shape in order to win that New Jersey Championship. I enjoyed the company of these guys and I really appreciated the opportunity to exercise fully once more.

My time at Yale terminated, and I headed back to New York to fulfill another commitment. This also gave me some time to take a couple of good workouts in Klein's gym and to meet some old friends before I headed for Princeton.

Weights were lacking in the otherwise excellent gym at Princeton so I hitchhiked the short distance to my hometown and picked up some of my own heavy plates. I didn't want to keep them at the gym, however, since I figured someone would probably abscond with them. So, I had to keep them in my room even though my landlady wasn't too keen about me exercising there.

Consequently, I indulged in some very conservative workouts. In the campus gym, though, I worked on the horizontal and parallel bars, and the flying rings. My workout consisted mainly of dips on the parallels, pull-ups or kips on the high-bar and rings, and occasionally some chinning. I also did leg raises and "frog kicks" on the rings and parallels. So, even though I wasn't able to do much actual lifting, I did manage to stay in hard condition.

At a diner near my apartment I met a very friendly, retired professor. As we engaged in conversation we got around to talking about exercising. He told me that he had some dumbbells--one each of 25, 40, 50 and 65 pounds--in his room and that he handled them in various ways. One look at him and you knew he wasn't blowing smoke because even though he was well into his 50s he was very rugged and strong looking.

He also had a very pleasing personality and he told me of his meeting the "Great Sandow" and of the respect he had for him. He also mentioned other strongmen but his real forte was prizefighting, as he himself had done some. He knew such old-time fighters as Jim Jeffries, Jim Corbett and others, and he told me some very interesting "inside" stories about them and about the boxing game in general.

During my stay at Princeton I also met another interesting professor--Dr. Albert Einstein. He was teaching and doing research there at the time and one could often find him walking around the campus (after classes), hands clasped behind his back and watching and talking to the birds and squirrels.

On occasions as I greeted him, he always responded with a brief bow and replied in a rather heavy German accent. When he learned that I was a model in the art department he complimented me on my robust, athletic appearance and asked me about my training.

He was truly a humble man who always tried to make everyone in his presence feel at ease. He appeared to be liked by everybody and although I never got the chance to sit in on one of his classes, due to my modeling hours, I can only assume that he was very likable in class as well.

After Princeton I headed for Indianapolis where I met a number of friends while I worked at the John Herron Art School. I ran into a problem there, however, as some of the students argued that (circus) strongmen and men with muscles were slow, clumsy and not very agile.

They were willing to admit they were wrong, however, as they saw me do a number of standing broad jumps on the hardwood floor. I made several jumps--all over nine feet and several over 10 feet by actual measurement.

I ended up paying the price for winning the argument, though. I injured myself on an attempt to exceed 11 feet. I came down hard on my already battered heels and I felt a sharp squish in them--I ruptured both bursas!. It was a very painful injury and, to this day, if I stand solidly on my feet, it nearly kills me! Walking, of course, is no problem but at the time of the injury, doing certain poses proved quite painful and utterly impossible to hold for any prolonged period.

From Indianapolis I headed to Chicago. I liked the "Windy City" very much and lived there for quite a while. The 1935 Senior Nationals were being held in Cincinnati and I decided to enter.

Although I hadn't been training regularly on the lifts, whenever I did have time I would take a workout at the Chicago Weightlifting Club operated by Paul Gilette, and I felt strong enough to finish in the top echelon.

So, I took my first plane ride from Chicago to Cincinnati, thus making me probably the first lifter to fly to a weightlifting meet. Getting started (flying, not lifting) was something else, however! We played "musical chairs" for almost an hour before the plane finally took off. They shifted the passengers around until they were certain the weight was equally distributed before taking off. It took about three hours to make the short flight and we never got over 6000 feet...but it was a novel experience.

At the meet I placed 2nd in the heavyweight class, with Bill Good taking top honors. After the contest I drove to York with Bob Hoffman and some of the lifters who had come out with him.

I wanted to "check out" York to see if I liked it enough to train there for the upcoming '36 Olympics. Not surprisingly I liked the town and I liked all the fellows too. They were the friendliest and most enthusiastic bunch one could find anywhere.

I spent a few days there and vowed to come back to train for the Olympics. During that summer of '35, however, I spent my time in my hometown in Jersey where I lived on the beach: swimming, playing, rowing, canoeing, etc.

Other than my "water sports" activities, I did very little weight training...except for occasionally lifting people and cars. By the middle of September, I hit the road again, first back to Chicago and then down to the University of Illinois.

Although I wasn't a student at the University I traveled with the gymnastics team and took part in exhibitions. They provided me with a locker in the faculty room and I enjoyed many other privileges.

At football halftime shows I lifted weights, while others performed tumbling and handbalancing routines, etc. About this time I also started doing a perch pole act.

This involved an aluminum pole in 10-foot sections that went up to about 50 feet. I held it in a special loop around my waist while a partner shinnied up to the top where he did a handstand.

In the gym, it was easy...sometimes I didn't even have to hold it...all I had to do was move my hips slightly to maintain the balance. So, we decided to try it at the next football intermission.

The day came and I did my lifting exhibition first. I did several presses with increasing weight, then quickly did another eight or 10 snatches and finally about three clean and jerks.

Then I grabbed the pole and as the top mounter climbed up I started to tremble slightly from my whirlwind lifting exhibition. I began to feel unstable and just as the top man started pressing into his handstand, the pole began falling.

The coach and some other fellows ran over to break the top mounter's fall. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt although the top man did come down on the coach's foot. Poor "coach" limped around for weeks. After that we never combined lifting exhibitions with the perch pole act, although I think if we had done the pole act first I would have been able to lift afterwards without any trouble.

Because I remained at Urbana for the entire school year, I brought my specially-made Olympic set with me so I could train. I got permission to put it in one of the corners of the running track. No one bothered it there although there were many students and faculty members who used to watch me lift.

One day an argumentative student began bugging me about how people who use weights are muscle-bound. I told him this was a misconception and I pointed out that I had been training for about 10 years and that I had actually become more flexible.

Of course he had seen me working on the various apparatuses in the gym so he knew that my flexibility was better than most of the other fellows he saw working out.

To shut him up I told him that I could lift more weight overhead with one arm than he could lift off the floor with both hands. Then with a vengeance I quickly grabbed the barbell with about 280 pounds, brought it to my shoulder, adjusted it and started to press it overhead.

As I started to press this weight overhead, his jaw dropped and he quickly walked away in disgust at me proving my point. If he had stayed around awhile longer, however, he might have been smiling because as I pushed the weight to arms' length and started to come up from a side press position, I lost balance. I strained to hold the weight and in the process I severely pulled my right deltoid.

Had I completely lost control, the weight would have gone through the floor and down onto the gym floor and possibly causing serious injury to anyone working out below. As it turned out, I maintained enough control so that it fell to the floor with my shoulder being the only casualty.

For the next few days I had trouble doing some of my poses in class and I wasn't able even to comb my hair. The excellent medical personnel of the University's athletic department rectified my problem through a series of heat treatments and massage.

Early each spring the University held a Gymkhana and an Interscholastic Circus. In the Gymkhana I was asked to do my muscle control and posing routine.

The posing platform was raised about 15 feet but due to a lack of space I wasn't able to do too many poses. Nevertheless, the muscle control portion of my act went over very big.

Because of the pressures of work and a lack of practice I didn't take part in the circus although I was capable of doing such stunts as tightwire walking, handbalancing on a slack wire, and just about everything else except riding a unicycle. Try as I might, I was a total flop on the one wheeler...it was my nemesis.

I did, however, practice with the fellows on the aerial act. At first, I wanted to be a flyer but I was still weighing over 190 pounds and that was too much for the fellows to catch...so, logically, I became a catcher.

I really enjoyed all these activities and I wanted to continue but I had to move on...to York--the Olympics were not far off.

Most of the faculty members urged me to stay on. They offered me a scholarship and an easy job so that I could make a little money. I gave it some thought, but I was bent on going to Berlin. I thought I might return to Illinois after the Olympic games...but I never did.

Instead, I went to Chicago, California and various other places before returning to York. The "little city" seemed so peaceful after all my running around and after living in so many metropolises, I enjoyed the change.

York gave me the inspiration I needed...and the fraternalism of the men there was such that I found in no other place...I stayed! MD

PHOTO CAPTIONS

- As part of the "Hall America Program" in Philadelphia during the 40s, John Grimek gave a lifting demonstration. He cleaned and pushed (on very slippery grass) 345 pounds to the roar of the huge throng!

- A pose that was often done in art classes. Most students found it interesting and many finished a complete drawing for framing. he knows. He autographed a few.

- Holding the 1940 Mr. America trophy. It was donated by Bernarr Macfadden, the Father of Physical Culture. he was also one of the judges at this contest.

- A pose of John Grimek that many readers voted as the most dramatic and graceful of all poses for shape and mass to appear on S&H.

- The top and bottom pictures were Grimek's first attempts at indoor physique photography, taken after about two years of training. Center: Taken in 1934 at the time he posed for Mark Berry's book: Physique and Its Culture.

- Otis Lambert hoisting his partner, Adolph Nordquest, in the "One Arm Get-up" stunt which they included in their stage routine. As can be seen, the physical development of these men was superior, and both occasionally did some life class modeling. Left: In art class at the Art Institute in Chicago. Note the clear-cut oblique development that ties in with the serratus group. No abdominal work was ever done, just an occasional flexing for the art students...It kept the abdomen trim and muscular.

- An arm flexing pose in a semi-relaxed position to approximate "The Thinker".

- More recent photos. The posed attitude was one of the last taken to date. The clothed picture was more recent - taken January of this year.

- Training outdoors on campus behind the old gym in Urbana whenever the weather permitted. Grimek is posed preparing to "dive" for the weight.

- On board the Manhattan steaming towards Berlin in 1936 as some of the US lifters try taking a workout. Bill Good is shown lifting the weight while other team members await their turn. Lifting on board wasn't all that easy due to the swaying of the ship, so training was quite tricky.

- A pose of John Grimek that was used in LIFE magazine (early 40s) under a wrong name. Later they retracted the error and credited John Grimek.