 Welcome to the 10th anniversary of the 21 convention, I'm Drew Bay and I am very excited to be guest introducing Jim Flanagan. Jim has been teaching people how to exercise properly, literally, since before I was born, and was fortunate to learn from two legends in the field, Milo Steinborn and Nautilus inventor Arthur Jones. He has worked with professional, even Olympic athletes, coaches, movie stars, has a massive amount of experience to share with you. So please welcome Jim Flanagan. Thank you. That was very kind of you. Thank you very much. First of all I want to thank Anthony for inviting me to participate. It's great to get out of what I usually do to come address a bunch of young people, but I see a little gray hair like mine out here so I guess we got a mixed-age population, but I've been very fortunate and I was kind of figuring out what I want to talk with you about, share some things with you, so I've kind of summarized this into, I hate to talk about me, but it's a journey and my journey is about over, but you are in your journey, especially you young pups in your 20s, and it's a different world today, and so all I can do is share with you some experiences that if I can, I can't teach you in one hour. I learned that a long time ago and I'll old enough to know better, but I'm still young enough to keep trying, and so what I'm gonna try to do is give you some things that can stimulate you to think outside the box, whatever your passion is, whatever career you go into, there's some key ingredients you may be missing or you may not know of, but anything I can put out there hopefully will help you look into that, and we will talk about exercise. I don't know a lot about a lot of things, but in this field, in my 46 and a half years of being involved in it, I know what not to do. Let me ask you a question, raise your hand. How many people work out today currently, work out over half, over half, that's good. Do you belong to a gym or are you being personally trained? Okay, a smaller group. Well, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do growing up. I never had a plan. The odds were against me. I didn't study hard. I didn't produce. I was a good athlete. Things were done kind of easy for us, you know. I did have a work ethic. I bagged groceries in the grocery store in the weekends. I mowed yards when I could. I had to get my own spending money. But my father being enlisted in World War II in military, 26 year veteran Army Air Corps Air Force, had certain rules. And I went by to see him before he died and thanked him for what he did for me. He cut my feet out from under me at the end of my freshman year at college. I came up here to Orlando at Osceola County. He was stationed at the Air Force based down here up to 59 and retired and went into publishing business. Never quit working. And I made the basketball team. And he told me, said, I will help you one year because it was a private junior college that was more expensive than most schools. Now it's Lake Holland Prep, which is a very great prep school in my middle of grandson as a freshman on the wrestling team there. So it's about 20 grand a year now. So that was 53 years ago when I went there and I didn't listen to my father. I didn't make my grades. So at the end of the year, the grades showed up. He cut my feet out from under me said, I told you, I might help you again, you're on your own. So I got a job digging ditches like construction work for the next year, year and a half. Then I got a job in the finance world doing the repossessing furniture and appliances. Then I got a job in the bank, repossessing cars. And I chipped away and saved my money. I never borrowed money and I worked my way through college. It took me seven years. I tell people I was on the Jethro Bodine College plan. You ever watched Beverly Hillbillies? Took me a long time to get there, but I did it. But along the way, I didn't really know what I wanted. I didn't I didn't know my calling. Well, one thing led to another. I decided, you know what, I want to coach. I want to help kids. And I got my two year degree still working to bank working 60 70 hours a week, making 400 bucks a month. That's big money back then and put your life on the line. We're going to get somebody's car. It's today. It's real dangerous. It was dangerous back then in 1968 to 70. The University of Central Florida opened up as Florida Technological University with five buildings and all the property, beautiful campus. And they started a basketball program, a wrestling program and a baseball program. Well, I wanted to go back and play basketball because I flunked out the first time and didn't make it. I got myself in shape. But along the way, I joined a gym called Milo's Gym on Orange Avenue here in Orlando, just up the road. I was six foot five, 190 pounds soaking wet. Because in my era, we weren't allowed to touch weights because the coaches believed that you can't do this. You can't lift weights and play sports that ruins your skill and makes you slow and makes you muscle bad. Well, we today is this as bad today as it was back then with some other things are doing today, which I'll get into later. So I walked into this gym kind of timidly. And there was Henry Milo Steinborn, you can lick him up. At one time, he was a world strongest man. He was held in jail in a determined camp in 19. Well, during World War One, he was in Australia as a German, and he couldn't get out. And he built his own equipment. And he worked out. And he gets out of there and becomes a stowaway into America in 1919 in the New York, Philadelphia area, and becomes a professional wrestler when wrestling back then was real wrestling. It was a it was a tuxedo formal affair on Friday night with a big dinner and a match. And he traveled all over the country and part of the world throughout the years of 20s is also the world's strongest man. He was the first man to take a 550 pound barbell tilt it unassistedly, put it on his shoulders and do five full butt to the floor squats. He was a tough guy five foot eight and a half, about 215 pounds of solid muscle, tough as nails. Well, he became became very successful in his own right. And he came to Orlando, Florida in 1953, and had the territory for professional wrestling in Central Florida. And he launched that sport for entertainment was very successful, open his gym in 1960. Well, he had a big wrestling ring in the back and I walked in kind of timidly, you know, I'm insecure, not too sure about myself and trying to make a career in the future here go back to school full time. I started working out was $10 a month, no contract. But Milo had rules. One of his rules was you better keep the place clean, you better not leave places on the floor, you better not drip outside the shower. And you better squat down to the floor. None of this sissy stuff and partial squats. I got long legs, but I didn't understand leverage. I didn't know about lever systems. I couldn't squat like this little guy over here. This guy's putting 300 400 pounds, he's doing five or six reps. I can barely squat with 150 pounds that far. They got to tore me up. Nonetheless, I hung in there three days a week. I did what they told me a good food. Got a little rest, kept my job, worked hard. A year later, I'm 240. Wow, I thought I knew something. I remember going back early on in the late 50s, early 60s, I picked up a strengthened health magazine. It was a peer article that had all the reporting information about who's who and who had the big arms and who looked the best. Then there was Muscle Builder, Bob Hoffman, Strength and Health, Joe Weider, Muscle Builder, which became Muscle Builder Power and Muscle and Fitness. And of course, the hardcore flex, which is in the last 15, 20 years, all these magazines promoting and creating to sell you and me hope. That's all it was, but I didn't know any better. I believe what I read. So did everybody else in the gym. So I stayed there from 1968 to about the summer of 70. basketball season starts. I walk on out of 140 people. I make the team and they only had a limited scholarships. I got a work study deal. And I played and started at 235 pounds. It didn't mess up my shot. It didn't slow me down and I could take a beating. I could give a beating. I loved it. I thought I really understood it. So that year's finished. I get right back in the gym. In the March 71. I start working out again. I kind of worked out during the season didn't tell anybody because I didn't want to lose anything and didn't didn't affect my shot. I got this something these coaches must be wrong. Well, I get back in the gym and there's an article in Iron Man magazine owned by the Raider family. Perry Mabel Raider Arnold Schwarzenegger who we all know was on the cover and his prime and he was winning all the contests. And we're reading an article distance, resistance and speed by Arthur Jones. How many know who Arthur Jones is in here? Anybody anybody know who Arthur Jones is? Well, look him up. My world changed overnight. I met him on a Tuesday night. My workout partner was an architect. He's passed on now. I taught his daughter later on in phys ed. And we drove up one night up to Lake Helen, Florida near the land right off the Interstate four quarter and met Arthur Jones for the first time. It was a monologue. I didn't say a word. I was I was a little frightened. Not too sure about this guy. He was holding court and there was a Mr. A former Mr. American named Steve Cassanan who was I think was Mr. American about 1956 former Marine, great physique. He was he was there as a guest. And we stayed there to about from 430 in the afternoon to one o'clock in the morning and my world changed overnight. I saw something I didn't understand it. We went on to land high school. He had worked a deal with the athletic director where any machine he designed he would give it to coach Bill Bradford who at that time had been replaced because he went 0 and 10 and football. So Arthur Jones asked the athletic director if he could start a weight lifting team with Bill Bradford running that but Arthur Jones would train the athletes on the equipment and the guy agreed well today you'd never get that accomplished and this minutiae and red tape today in a school system is no way but they did that back then they had this Kwanzaa hut air conditioned with the basic equipment that he designed up to that point in time and he gave the machines to the coach Bill Bradford in writing if he got fired or retired those machines are his but every athlete that plays sports in the land high school got to use that equipment. That was a heck of a deal but it gave Arthur Jones a showroom. He was just starting his business at that time. It wouldn't even call Nautilus. It was called Arthur Jones productions. He wasn't sure he wanted to get in that business because of the past. He knew it. It's all about hope. Okay. Well continue I he gives us a routine the night before that he wrote a routine up with barbells and dumbbells. If you follow this routine you got to cut back your training time your amount and your sets. It's brutally hard. Well we thought we were training hard. We got good results. We go to the land high school to watch a workout. Unbelievable workout. I couldn't believe I never seen anybody train that hard in my life. Well you make blueprints you learn you don't forget these things. So we go back to the Orange Avenue gym I was Jim and we start training that way took us six weeks to get in condition to do this routine. All of a sudden we're growing. We're getting stronger and bigger. Everybody's noticed it. We drove to Lake Helen twice a week. He permitted us to work out for free. We drove 35 miles one way Mondays and Fridays on about eight or nine machines he had already built results for even more productive. And it's amazing to watch it but I didn't understand it. But then he started putting these articles out in an Ironman magazine. There were basically copy ads but it was full of copy. But the copy was to educate and teach you. So you read everything you could you couldn't wait for the next issue to come out to read the next article. So my workout partner I'd already gotten a job teaching elementary phys ed. I could not get a coaching job because I graduated in December and here's one this is something for you guys and ladies and gentlemen. If it ends up being negative that you don't get your way turn it to a positive. Find something turn it to a positive. So I'm thinking well I can't get a coaching job but I get a teaching job. I'm teaching phys ed. I'm helping kids and here's the I didn't know this. I wouldn't that sharp. They had limited budget. They had me coaching at Lake Mount elementary one week and in Brookshire the next week three miles away back and forth back and forth for one salary. I'm doing two people's job but I had to have a job. So I took that job right away and turned the negative to a positive went to graduate school at night start shipping away in that degree. I might as well since I got that free time I'm not coaching but it afforded me the opportunity to go up to the land and work out twice a week. So my training partner after about nine months is look I'll buy five machines if you put them in your big garage because I had an upstairs garage apartment built about 1920 and it had a five car stall downstairs of big beams you know and solid with the plumbing and the ceiling. I said you do that. He said absolutely. I said let's do it. Five Nautilus machines that's like gold to me. I couldn't afford I couldn't afford one machine. We put them in my garage put a squat rack in there a deadlift rack but chin up bar and a dip bar and five Nautilus machines and I started training high school kids for free for nothing to help these kids out and the football coaches and the basketball coaches are going what is going on these kids at that time they had no structured weight program because most of them didn't believe in it. You're kind of on your own. Well I taught school for two years had a summer job with Windermere Recreation to run a recreation program 2600 bucks graduate school at night. I was making it. I was I was climbing at slowly but then I realized education I don't know if I want to be here. It's a lot of bureaucracy going on. I don't know. I want to help people. I can't get a coaching job. I'm going to open my gym up. So I went out and raised the money and opened a gym with Nautilus machines. I put 11 machines in there. I had enough money for six months to pay the expenses if I sold no membership. Now what do I know about the business? Nothing. I was passionate. I was hungry. I was driven and I was starting to really understand this is some this technology is unbelievable and not counting what he was doing on a national level of marketing and advertising. Little did I know but if you're going to get in a fitness business don't ever open up during November or December that's party time and a holiday time and ski time. Little did I know. I learned a hard lesson. I was sweating bullets and I had to realize I got to sell memberships. So I took a three month membership short term against the one year and the two year and I sold I mean I sold a heck out of them to pay the bills and I pulled that off and I went in one year one physical year. I paid the debt off. I paid myself 10 times my teaching salary which really went a whole lot but it was back then and I was on a roll. So this you never know what's going to happen. You don't know what door is going to open after you get one closed in your face. So this goes on for about a year and then uh every time I had a free moment and I was still working on my graduate degree I'd go see Arthur Jones. I'd hang around his company up there at Nautilus and be a sponge. I was a sponge all the time I wanted to learn and then he got comfortable with me and I was respectful to him and all of a sudden he starts calling me and said look we're sure to help. Can you travel to Atlanta with us for the weekend? Yes sir pack your bag we'll be back Sunday night. Can you go to Dallas? Can you go to Seattle? Can you go to LA? I never turned him down. Now my business suffered when I was awake as a cat when the cat's away mice play right? You got to be in your home base. Well I never turned him down and then he calls me up one day and said uh you know Coach Shula he knows you you've been around him many times in the jet uh there's an opportunity he's a spokesperson but he may be taking a territory would you be interested in going to work for him? Absolutely. Well he says he's waiting on you so I got a hold of him. I met him in Tampa the pre-season game in Tampa at the Sheridan Hotel on a Saturday afternoon well actually 11 o'clock in the morning and uh uh he we we basically had a handshake if he did the deal. Well three or four weeks later I get a call from Mr. Jones and Coach Shula's CPA directed him with some other investment and he didn't he didn't take this deal so he goes I'll tell you what I'll do if you get a lead you register that lead with a home office and if you sell it I'll pay you this commission you can work out of your gym in Orlando. I did it. At that time I was training a man who was 56 years old who was a senior VP of Burdines and he was a mountain climber he came in my gym the year before and failed and said I heard about the equipment and your gym uh I want to sign up my wife I want to we want to join up here we want to work out I gotta get in shape and beat that mountain. Well I personally trained him but back in those days personal training didn't exist and I wasn't smart enough to understand that you can make money doing that I just signed him up for a membership what did I know but I did it I was passionate so this guy trains with me for nine months and goes back and beats that mountain McKinley what's that tell you there's something here about uh getting stronger might help you I'll tell you one thing gentlemen at my age you better get a little stronger so you can hold up a little longer write that one down well mr. Fletcher had moved to Sarasota and I didn't know it they had he got transferred in 24 hours he had to be real right over there and he called me and he said can you come over to Sarasota spend the night my wife and I want to pick your brain and see how you put your gym together I need to put her in business so I have a place to work out I went over there spent the night had dinner and the man with with no quote no binding agreement wrote a deposit for a half of seventy five thousand dollars this is a in the 70s that's a big order of equipment but there was trust I helped him now he's going to help himself and I took that and delivered that check to Arthur Jones never said a word didn't thank me you never got to thank you for a good job but you knew his mind's thinking about something well I that gave me a little leverage and then I got a call from a high school up in Greencobe Springs one of the coaches in Orlando where I was training the kids his brother-in-law was a head coach and they couldn't get a hold of anybody can you go do a presentation to the booster club absolutely I took two boxes of literature I'm representing Nautilus on a part-time basis still building my gym I'm loving life this is great I'm helping people well I go up there do a presentation I get a p.o. for 22 grand for a high school order wow I push a hundred grand one month I was excited put the order in now I got more leverage well and I still traveled when it whenever Arthur Jones called me I went with him had he I didn't get paid a salary but I got my expenses paid I was getting on the job training I'm meeting all kinds of people doctors coaches at the top level the NFL the college I mean you name it we were with these people anybody here dick butkus remind me to tell you a story about him I just spoke to him last night we were we were together for eight years and we spent a lot of time on a highway together a lot of stories great guy tough as nails one of the few people that I ever saw work out to a failure and throw up and come finish how about that means tough probably use nails for breakfast anyway now I call up Arthur Jones I said Arthur I'd like to come up and see you what about I like come talk to you about maybe represent your product more often and more frequently and maybe full time meet me Tuesday morning at 11 a.m at the headquarters all right so I show up at 10 30 always show up a half hour early never show up late bad miss big mistake I'm sitting there he shows up at one o'clock in the afternoon the most people would have left he was very apologetic hair sticking straight up look like death warmed over been up all night says look I got I got a film we're doing dick butkus we're way behind it we got to finish this thing today bear with me I'll get with you when I can passion rules I'm not going to give us up I hung in there coming to studio I stayed all day long what time do you think we broke to finish that film take a guess anybody 11 o'clock in the evening 12 hours after my appointment now most people would belt out and say hey the heck with this but I'm a dumb Irish guy the weak mind strong back right I wanted that job I wanted that job I wanted that opportunity he goes uh you I never forget this you're hungry I said I'm starving you see you like quail I said Arthur I like anything I love meat yeah well my old my old cronies from reptile days are fixing quail over here at the trailer let's go get something to eat we go sit there at about 1 30 in the morning then we go upstairs to his apartment and he we walk up the steps it's a very narrow staircase he's had a big old home renovated there live a kind of makeshift department over the factory and he goes uh what are you here for I go Jesus he's a pretty tough guy very intimidating I said Arthur I'm here to see if I can't help you sell more equipment he goes if I didn't like you I wouldn't be wasting my time talking with you I've been a renter for two years going here going there I mean everywhere with him on weekends and you know wherever he'd call me in Orlando with clinics I took care I was with him all right so I'm side by side I said yes sir I appreciate that he said I'm looking for loyal people I said yes sir I understand you're looking for honesty I'm looking for loyalty I said well I was raised it you got to have both in your life to really do it right you need both and he goes this is I never get this he said all right start Monday 8 30 this is what I'll pay you and there's two things with me I said yes sir what's that don't ever yes me and don't ever second guess me how about that you know I knew where I stood right there that's pretty simple isn't it I mean well I got the job but there's no job description you better find something to do there's no titles I was a common laborer I loaded trucks I picked up alligators because he's in a reptile business I did that with the forum a couple times I did special assignments with trucks to deliver stuff deliver equipment and I sold equipment and I did all the trade shows at that time he had just cut a deal with a company called metalist industries and metalist industries was one of the leading football gear for high schools the big helmets the whole deal and it was 50 coaching clinics a year and it's for high school coaches about the size of this right here 150 200 coaches sometimes 500 some of the big cities 1500 coaches and he Dr. Fed Almond who is the sports medicine guy at the time one of our key colleagues and allies and friends Dr. James Key Orthopedic Surgeon Ellington Darden who some of you know and Arthur Jones and Dick Butkus and Don Shula those were the speakers at first year we go through the full cycle 50 coaching clinics covering the varsity sports at the time football basketball baseball track and field wrestling and basketball you had in track you had two women's coaches coming to those two that those two sports so you had a mixed audience then we get through the football next year then the spring basketball season clinics the final four is over and I'll never forget this one this is how you this is how he dealt with you he puts in situations where you sink or swim and he comes to me says look this is a brochure I'm supposed to speak next Saturday I'm not going you're going you take my place and speak on my behalf 1500 basketball coaches that's kind of like shock theater you know you think oh my god you know well I pulled that off and he always told me he said when you speak to an audience look at the audience he said no matter where you are there's always going to be a bad apple on every barrel I use this piece of work so sure enough I'm introduced and there's 1500 basketball guys and the guy spoke before me you ever hear of Bobby Knight oh my god my heart's pounding and he's great what a speaker and I love the guy the media wouldn't fair to him this guy I'd want my son to play for him I wouldn't want to marry my daughter but he you know he's great I love the guys brilliant man then the guy speaking after me is John Wooden UCLA so we were some heavy cotton there so I get on the stage and sure enough there's a guy on about third row back that's starting to you know question what we're doing and Nautilus you can't get big on machines blah blah blah and hurt your touch and the whole deal so I got through the presentation I had a pretty good at that time Carol Sell slide presentation covering points and finally I I seek him out and I said could you please stand about what's your name coach and he tells me I said well it looks like you can still play basketball obviously you're a good athlete you're in good shape I respect that by the time I got through with him I had him getting on up on my hand I had about 200 coaches walk outside and started asking questions so I knew I I got the job done and that same weekend after that he quit going and I had to take over the whole division and run it supply of speakers do the whole thing that was just one job things just kind of fell in place there was no job description you did what you had to do to get the job done now I was blessed and cursed at the same time because that man there was no committees the politics were held at bay you focused on getting the job and I'm going to give you three key words all you people these I don't care who you are what job you're in what career whether you're high tech or you're in an aerospace or in what design or whatever real estate lawyer three key words to help you be successful put them in your wallet look at them every Monday morning number one commitment are you committed you can't be halfway or partial way in and halfway out it's all the way that's what commitment is all the way number two preparation I've read every article and everything this man ever wrote did I retain all of it no nobody really can but I know the basics I know what not to do in the field of exercise number three here's where we all get in trouble we get in trouble because we lose what focus you got to focus on what you're trying to accomplish and don't get sidetracked it that's easier said than done because I've been we all do that we're human beings but that's how I got in there and my world changed in 1971 when I met him and I really I've been blessed I met so many great people I met all the top coaches the legendary Bear Bryant I got to shake his hand in the elevator at the Biltmore Hotel in January of 83 at the association of fitness the national football coaches association big meeting he was being honored for his retirement and he won I think he won the Liberty Bowl he didn't win SEC that year but what a man this man you could you could see his aura you could feel it when you when he walked in the room and he knew how to handle young men he was he was I mean I've read every book he's made I mean I've seen everything I've studied him what a tough guy came out of more Arkansas on the back of a mule plowing they had to find they couldn't eat that's how poor he was and he had a fear factor there's a great story about one of his team mates you probably don't remember this name especially young guys but coach Frank Howard was the legend of Clemson they were teammates at Alabama when they played football there well the war breaks out and Bear goes into he goes to the Navy he's oversees the Pacific and coach Howard over in Clemson coaching football and the war is over they're best of buddies and Bear Bryant interviews at Clemson and he didn't hire him and so the media went all over that said coach Howard as your best friend from college why didn't you hire him he says you think I'm stupid if I hired to bear to work for me he'd have my job in six months so these guys they don't make them like that anymore there's something else and so I was real blessed to meet these guys so having come back to that my gym I had for 15 years it got me out of teaching school to another level I got to develop my people skills work with people help them lose weight put on muscle increase range of motion the whole deal I was I was just passionate about this and I got to be a speaker all over the world for this company Arthur Jones's first company in all this but he decides to sell it in 1986 well gosh what am I going to do he sold to a group out of Texas and it looked good on paper until they started getting into it and making changes and then he called me one day out of the blue and said I made a big mistake I have got the rights back to the medical designs I'm going to start a new company meet me at the ranch on Saturday morning I need to talk with you and that was in April of 87 and I met him and he goes I know you're my friend I hope you think I'm still your friend I made a big mistake but we're going to learn from it we're going to make some new mistakes are you with me here's what I'll pay you I said yes sir I'm with you all I had was a handshake but I trusted him he trusted me I was blessed we started MedEx in September of 87 we could not deliver the first medical back machine because of the FDA clearance had to go 90 days so that was delivered April 1st 1988 and he wanted me to bring people like yourself and the healthcare people you know you're in that field to come down to a seminar every single day which we did back at Nautilus the last year we did 200 consecutive similars with our planes flying picking people up into their big ranch with a big runway which is unbelievable I said Arthur I you're too old for this it'll kill you and I don't think I can handle it let's do one every two weeks where I can qualify good people get the if we're going to spend the money that's spending on the ones that really we could kind of narrow it down and that's what we did we did that for 10 years and we lost that company it was a spin off of Nautilus we uh he here's the thing about Arthur Jones and I'm gonna kind of get into this now I could talk about my career but I had to give you a little bit of foundation because there's certain things that we all make mistakes on and I made my share but you just never know what's gonna happen but Arthur Jones was a unique individual the day I met him I saw his log books he had almost under 18,000 log dollars as a pilot in his own airlines because he went all over Mexico South America Africa New Zealand and Australia and caught fish primates reptiles and cats and sold them to the zoos in America wow it was a navy pilot in World War II he produced film how many uh some of the guys are a little gray like me color tv came out in the late 50s and if you if your parents had a color tv you saw one or two programs a week because ABC, CBS, NBC didn't have the tools to the format to show color Arthur Jones went into syndication with over 400 wildlife documentary films one called wild cargo one called capture and did several feature link movies for the networks on wildlife and made a killing in color in the late 50s early 60s he also started the first rattlesnake roundup in Oklahoma which was famous for years and years he was also a mercenary he did a lot of things this guy was a real deal he was a free man in my world from what I from what I knew of him and anyway he looked at exercise from a different perspective from the scientific community at the academic level most people tried to take the barbell and copy it now the barbell came into America in 1903 it was over in Europe before that and a barbell represented a major quantum leap in the field of exercise compared to things prior to that which was very crude and on orthodox and basically not as productive it was a refined too with balanced resistance it gave you more variety of exercises but Arthur Jones identified it only works a small percentage of the muscle in a small range of motion because the barbell only provides resistance in a straight line and you're a rotary animal how many times have you heard this guys and girls in the gym where you know you know you can't get big on machines you gotta use free weights have you heard that before you met a moron stupid all right he always looked at a problem from a logical standpoint trying to look at solutions and I'll tell you what he did one year he built a knee testing machine in the early 70s 74 75 and 76 that looked like a Sherman tank at that time there's another company out there had sold every exercise physiology lab in the colleges every physical therapy facility in orthopedics their knee testing machine and it looked like a tinker toy in fact his was solid but it had a 60 degree error in it compression on the pad change slack you have to weigh the limb all these things nobody ever knew about that to get accurate measurement but we did get measurement and I had a baseball player who was a league hitter in an American league you may remember the name we got to be good friends with the Minnesota twins Tony Oliva he walked into my gym one day limping and he was in spring getting ready to start spring training came in two weeks before and his knees by them so I'm not gonna touch this guy he's a pro athlete and I mean I'm not a doctor I'm not I mean gee I better so I called Arthur Jones up and he says bring him up here bring him to the headquarters let me see him brought him up there and he tested both knees individually at a pre-test told me what to do and I took him through a modified rehab program on our leg extension machine leg curl machine 30 days later he's walking straight bingo well came back to do a post test we learned something from that I only worked the good the bad leg I didn't work the good leg at all no good leg got weaker I think about in therapy and rehab when you go to have you have to have a knee redone how about the good leg how about the upper body we're very proactive in our rehab programs well Arthur Jones took a lot of the problems and solved them by designing the machines around muscle functions and let me tell you right now I've been doing this since 1971 46 years muscle functions don't change but right now today there's probably 50 companies out there that basically have copied or tried to do this they missed a whole boat that whole process was basically because of the foundation of muscle function now most of you probably work out a couple of days a week if you're spending more than 45 minutes in the gym with even with conventional equipment you're wasting your life away you're wasting your time away my last workout was Tuesday I had two of my college buddies who would go back 53 years ago they trained my house I've got 39 machines in there in fact I'll give you a if you want to look at it I got a website here I'm not trying to sell anything here but it's called the it's called facebook.com the real hit experience they'll show a footage of my whole room there which I put together in my house so it's kind of my playhouse I figured I might as well go down with the bang because that's how I started in my garage when I was broke so anyway you have to take baby steps you can't just start running it but you got to take steps to build yourself up and what I've noticed most people don't keep records there's two things primarily there are key factors in getting results number one you must have a source of overload I'm gonna ask a couple of you guys don't don't be bashful tell me what is what is exercise to find it for me what is what do you what do you think exercise is working your body in such a way to build strength okay what I'm sorry what well okay that's good all right anybody else over here this side yes sir that's good that's good yes sir okay the best exercise I ever saw was came out of Arthur Jones's mouth was proper exercise is movement against a source of resistance no resistance no stimulus exercise does one thing and one thing only provides the potential stimulus to trigger a positive change in your body now back in the day in the physiology books and some of you probably had physiology courses in your college days I did and it had all aerobic based activity aerobic this and aerobic that anaerobic was about two pages the anaerobic threshold which is using oxygen in the system the other one's a lower intensity with a more steady state activity getting oxygen and utilizing it so Arthur Jones pulled off an open door study at the United States Military Academy in 1975 May and he tested muskier strength flexibility cardio vascular ability and neck strength because you design three neck machines to train the seven functions of the neck for contact sports and we use the west point football team well I got a friend of mine has been around almost every division one program in the country and less than two percent of the coaches today in the weight room are training the neck of a contact sport what that's how bad it is that's something to think about that study was eight weeks with two weeks of learning so six weeks 17 workouts and why west point because they do exactly what you tell them to do they will go after it and they get it okay they had a good attitude the results were stunning on the control group that trained on Nautis under supervision they increased the strength of 19 players by 59 percent on 10 exercises and 17 workouts phenomenal the other group they were on their own not much significant change because they just they weren't keeping records they were doing what they do in front of the mirror and lifting weights and taking a 20 minute break all right that study put us on the map it was open door people from all the country came in Arthur Jones rolled the dice because what if he hadn't got that kind of results he'd eat crow that would hurt sales but he pulled that off and it was quite a study and it's still out there on the internet you can read it but this guy really worked at it and I've read everything he's ever put out it's still out there on the internet arthurjonesexercise.com it's all categorized but along the way I've met a lot of great people I'm going to give you a good quote this guy Frank Lehigh was a former Notre Dame coach who played for Newt Rockney I didn't get to media he passed away in the 70s but a great coach and a great quote egotism is the anecdote that basically is a buffer for stupidity all right keep your ego down be humble be respectful stand tall get into the field of exercise I wouldn't work out more in two days a week when in doubt move slower never move suddenly or ballistically against the source of resistance here's the problem how many people have you ever used a barbell most of us all right here's the problem the barbell was used to compete in three different sports number one Olympic weightlifting which is a very dangerous sport probably one of the most dangerous sports on the planet all right acceleration forces are phenomenal skill is phenomenal and you're using heavy poundages for one-time lifts well the other sport is powerlifting which evolved into the 60s that's three lifts bench press squat and deadlift well you're doing a single one-time maximum lifts the other sport was bodybuilding which didn't come into a vogue to the late 30s that's the physiques with the biggest muscles and the biggest thighs so the general population sees a barbell and they associate the barbell with those kind of people well the average population they ignore it they stay away from it because they have a perception and an opinion about or an impression or an impression that's going to happen to them why would I want to do that well the barbell it was a great innovation do you know the single best exercise you do if there's one exercise you can do the barbell what would it be that's right but what kind of squat full squat with no bouncing at the bottom do you know why you bounce at the bottom because well it's too heavy at that point you may be you may be strong enough to support 600 pounds standing straight up until you rotate that hip knee and ankle but that lever changes and the resistance doesn't change to accommodate your strength at that degree of angle and that was a whole evolution process of him designing cams each muscle group has a different size cam to regulate the resistance to match where you're where you're stronger you're going to be it's going to be heavier where your wicker is going to be lighter but you're going to have on a single joint full range exercise okay so that was a whole premise of it and it was it made exercise safer harder and more efficient better results in less time all right now the second company medx was predicated on a back machine which we built several models of back machines at nautilus the nautilus hip and back machine the nautilus geared hip and back the nautilus duo poly single leg hip and back then we started doing testing with a prototype and realizing the guy what is a strong back we don't know but we realized he realized you have to lock the pelvis to allow the lumbar to go flex and extension if the pelvis rotates the back floats along for the ride genius wow I was at a medical meeting showing the big medical machine $50,000 unit computerized accurate measurement testing repeatable like a like a fingerprint and rehabbing the soft tissues of the low back in isolation and a man walked up at this orthopedic group he looked at me as an older man and I looked at his tag on his badge thomas delorm md if you've ever had physiology courses that name is famous because he in World War II was a captain in the army and he had to discharge paratroopers for blown-out knees from jumping and he built an apparatus to work the quad and get the quad back and he didn't he did not discharge him he kept them in the military which you could have got court-martial and put them back to work and that's called PRE progressive resistance exercise a study he did that's still a reference today years later 70 years later he I said are you the thomas delorm yes I am I said well I've read about your literature I know I feel like I know you got your book and at that time he was the medical director for a big big insurance company in the northeast which was the second pair of workers comp in the country and he goes I want to learn I've been looking for this my whole life because he was a sick kid growing up and they didn't they didn't expect him to live past 18 and he you got to lift weights to build yourself up now think about that everybody stays away from it but the doctor said you need to build yourself up he did he did so well he became a Olympic weightlifter and qualified for the 1936 Olympic team and hurt his back on his ship over to Munich and didn't compete so I got a hold of him the following week flew him down first class took him to meet Arthur Jones he spent nine days with him I want that machine right now and we stopped production got him a machine without an order and put it up there and as you may know I'm sure you people in corporate America you deal with people sometimes things don't work out to what it's supposed to there was a group of people that weren't included in the decision-making process they didn't like it so they sabotaged the whole project and he got sick and went to the hospital he had to retire you never know you never know but tell me what I'm going to do let's open up for some questions about some of your personal routines and things and we'll do a little talking here I'll try to answer some questions for you because I'm losing my voice anybody got any questions yes sir sir do you advocate if you're primarily doing free weights and you've always done free weights would you then advocate switching over to the modelist would that be a question I'm sorry the question was if you're doing free weights barbells and things are you saying would you advocate switching over well you know you do it works for you sometimes you can't find the equipment you know it may not be available but you can apply the protocols and principles which Drew Bay probably cover Saturday because he's been doing this I think every year with you and he's very good at what he does and I would cut down here's what I do cut your training back you're probably training too often how many days a week okay cut it to two write your routine out keep records pick your exercises work larger muscles to smaller that stimulates the overall body it's called indirect effect we don't know why but we know this we did this years ago we would train your legs for six weeks when no other body worked take the measurements your arms and your neck would be a quarter to half inch bigger with no direct exercise because the squat or pressing movement is working so much muscle mass and there's such a metabolic effect from it the overall body is responding but I've seen on the other side of the corn guys in the gym will work out and they just they're pump artists they're pumping their upper body up all the time and get a little bird legs and they look weird but they they stop growing and until they work those legs hard they don't thicken up I'm sure you've seen that does that answer your question I guess one more follow-up absolutely would you advocate using the same rep schemes with a nautilus machine as you would for a week? I would yes sir I would and the guidelines were basically for safety and we know you've got to tax the interrobic threshold in about 60 seconds to 90 but select a weight that you can in good form now that you can handle at least eight reps for that's safety if you can't get eight it's too heavy but if you exceed 12 or 15 for lower body 12 go up five percent that's in the books you know it's just it's a guideline but use your and keep the records what you do and do one set to failure if you add another exercise over here drop something else over here don't make it a longer workout and I know this from my life in my training back in the day I had to have a workout I'm not gonna miss my workout well I'm stupid I gotta travel I got I got time zones I gotta take people to dinner I'm gonna be a half in light what am I working out for maybe an airplane catching germs your resistance is down spread it out get that recovery you need to have rest because exercise does one thing and one thing only provides a stimulus to trigger growth and you do not want to exceed that reserve recovery ability you have the ability as a young man training to start now to increase the strength of muscles about to 300 percent but that recovery over here slightly increases because you're conditioning up to about 50 percent so the stronger you become the less you need of it I worked out yesterday 27 seconds in 10 minutes nine exercises they put me through a brutal workout my last workout was 21 days ago I needed that recovery I'm in a restaurant business by the way steakhouse called Christianers over here and Lee Rhodes so I help operate that I got involved in that that's another thing about life you never know what's gonna open up I was a big customer the first customer years ago and the owner came to me in 2003 and asked me I come help him I say well I'm out in this I'm out in this business I'm in another business I trust you you saved my business the first year and I want to settle down and tone down and I said I gotta talk to my wife about this that's a big commitment because it's every night five or six nights a week he said I'm counting on you because I'm terminally ill and I knew right then I couldn't turn him down so my world changed again at that age I've been here 14 years it's a great gig great steaks I get to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in years and we take care of business just like I did in the old days so you never know what's gonna open up for you so how about another quick anybody else yes right there right here sir right there there you go yes if I'm if I'm finding that I'm not gaining in a particular exercise let's say leg press I'm hitting a plateau would I go to a different machine or do more reverse well that's a good question the question is I'm not gaining I'm not going up I'm in a plateau here's what you probably need if you're not going up and waiter reps are both because you want to be double progressive to get meaningful stimulation every time you go in that workout room you either increase the rep or the amount of weight or both without giving bad form okay so what I would do is back off take a little more rest you need recovery unfortunately today there's a lot of things out there but there's a couple books all the Arthur Jones stuff is out there on the internet but Dr. McGuff who I only met one time I've never really spent any time with him and John Little have put out body science and questions and answers they're good books they're good reference books they got some good data now I haven't said that and I'm going to give you an opinion my experience in my workout room my home I have a 39 machine package of mixed nautics that I had restored so I had in the gym 44 years ago and all medics I don't have any free weights in there I don't need them because I can take that jet from Orlando to Atlanta every time now instead of riding out of the horse or that buggy or that car we can get results with all the tools you have as long as you got overload but I got what I want all right I've been doing it a long time and I realize this I can take you through a workout two workouts a week in my gym at home that's 104 sessions in one year and never do the same workout twice how about that for variety how about that for CrossFit and all the stuff these people are doing do not move suddenly against the source of resistance you're going to hurt yourself I did over 400 demonstrations on a force plate with an oscilloscope back in the day for seminars with Arthur Jones at his property jogging in place and my body weight back then was three to five g's I don't care how good a shoe what brand you wear g-forces at g-force acceleration forces are going to hurt you those forces are vectored right up your spine then I had to throw a barbell up and jerk it real quick and catch it within 30 days I had none missing my fingers when I woke up in the morning so I had to cut the weight from 145 to 100 while still slanging it I still got to catch it I finally said Arthur I got quit this this is I'm going to end up crippled here you know and that's what they're teaching that to people like you out there in the audience slow down be careful but Arthur Jones always said this that comes at time you don't want to move suddenly ballistic clear explosively but don't move too slow and what that means is you're going to work a certain percentage of fiber on each rep all right strict form keep breathing and as you do fatigue sets in these other fibers going to bring brought in there you're going to you train all the fibers that you can within a given DNA all right working hard as you can you may be as hard as you can go but you're not going very fast because those fibers are shot all right and when you can curl that bar you're done exercise to be meaningful has got to be hard it's got to be of high intensity what does that mean put your hand like this real quick put the other hand like this how much force is that top hand pushing on the bottom hand none right how much left hand lower hand pushing on the top hand none right all right when I say three one two three push as hard as you can one two three pushes hard as you can back off that was 100 effort by going 100% that's guaranteed stimulation they give me 66 and two-thirds percent we can't measure that momentary muscular failure your workout must be hard it must be brief and it must be infrequent you take the animals in the wild and then we're homo sapiens right arthur jones used to call us homo locos because we're the only ones that have a brain to rashly make decisions but the wolf the bear and the mountain lion north america those are three distinct separate animals that have unbelievable muscle mass they're very strong very powerful and very fast what's their workout routine well they work out when they gotta eat they gotta kill it and they gotta fight off the alpha invader it's very hard very brief and very infrequent they don't take steroids they don't take protein powder and they'll do split routines and multiple sets do they they get muscle so we need to learn from those animals by the way steroids that's another thing this whole thing about male hormones and all this stuff be careful there's not enough research out there all everybody's making money on it it may be it may be your butt in trouble be careful there's not enough long-term studies about all this stuff I know the females they have therapy in that but be real careful the drug culture started in about 1958 york barbell company believe it or not and I believed all I read in the magazines they were taking steroids dianna ball which came out of seba pharmaceuticals out of new jersey promoted by Dr. John Ziegler who's an md third generation going back to the civil war mds and the family his heart was in the right place when he died he was he was saddened and embarrassed in which he had never done it but he got him all taken dianna ball and he hit the west coast in 58 goes back to research in the 30s in switzerland five scientists had the patents filed on this and there's evidence talk I haven't seen written evidence that Hitler used those on his superior race and probably killed a lot of people taking them but it's a no no there's no shortcut to getting results but hard work somebody in the back had a question yes sir it took you a couple of years of working for for someone for free before it paid off what would you say to a generation who might expect instant gratification and think it's a waste of time and what is the value of an apprenticeship well as I said my journey's about over and I hate to be your age today I'm sorry I lived a great life met a lot of great people shook a lot of hands and people stood up tall and they back to work but having said that there's a few people I wish I hadn't met we'll all say that you'll say the same thing 30 40 years from now but to answer your question there's no free lunch nobody owes you young people nothing it's up to you to go get it toughen up Arthur Jones taught me one thing and I had like hey I was on I lived in fear I wasn't sure what's next you know you have to you have to toughen up and work smart and if you're opportunity only comes by a few times in your life grab it and one thing may lead to another thing it's like connecting the dots but I mean it's all based on experience Arthur Jones I don't he's he used this quote I didn't I don't know who said this but he said this always similar success comes from a good judgment good judgment comes from experience experience comes from bad judgment that ain't the truth but Barry Bryant had a great quote everybody has the will to want to win right but very few have the will to prepare to take what it does to get to win that's tough practice as you know back in the back my mother she's 67 she works out consistently like I like an animal she can you know get on the bike I miss you no my mom she can she can get on the bike and knock out 26 miles she goes to the gym works out consistently my father he's he's obese possibly morbidly obese it's two different complete lifestyles yes sir I'm consistent right now to be determined to to live the life that my mother lives you know healthy and strong at 67 but you know as time goes on sometimes things slow you back what's what's kept you focused what's kept you consistent well there's three words I gave you and if I'm going to walk it or talk it I better walk it and uh you know we have a we have a our society has become so sedentary today in the last 30 years because of the high tech everything's computerized and this and it's just we're sitting too much and I'm a fizz head guy first I always I mean physical education is first and uh you're doing the right thing you see two extremes here and you're caught in the middle of it and you're you're young and now you got you got to take the ball with the horns and make sure you don't get in a situation your mom's probably grossly overtraining because she gets that euphoric feelings she feels good about it but she's wearing a joints out all right you got a brief exercise stimulate recover and go play your sports or your activities your recreation recreation is different than exercise but you have to be active and you need everything's in moderation diet for example hey there's only one diet that really works I don't care what they tell you but look at the impulse buying on tv every night weight loss fat loss bam bam eat this food or this food it'll ship in 24 hours you're gonna have this this and this you gotta try this since 1860 26,000 fat loss weight loss diets have been introduced in America and only one works what is it reduction in consumption cut the food down and what's the balanced diet carbohydrates fats and proteins it's simple I'll confess in January because of the business I'm in late hours come for food at night not much sleep trying to stay in shape I want the 280 I go I know better so I regulate my diet I cut portions down I started eliminating certain things like sugar and bread instead of just cutting down drop 22 pounds since January I'm where I should be but it was getting out of control it's easy to get out of control I lost focus that ain't gonna happen ma'am you know trust me it's discipline self-discipline anybody else yes sir what do you think about these programs like a strong lift and starting strength I could I couldn't get it what do you think about these programs like a strong lift and starting strength that make heavy emphasis on just five exercises oh okay okay five the big five or something yes okay well okay let me see in my experience people get bored especially Americans get bored quick they want quick fix impulse and they lose interest quick it's just us they want it now and I was in that gym business 15 years I've been to gyms all the world there's no saying variety is the spice of life you gotta keep them you gotta get retention now if those guys are doing that and that's and it's working for them that's great I'm not gonna bad mouth that I don't there's no reason to if that's their model they're promoting it that's fine but uh I change it around in fact sometimes I take people through and uh I don't tell them what they're gonna do because they anticipate what's next they'll slack off on this I don't want them to know what's next it's even better but uh your style of performance very important you need good supervision your form's the key you don't want to get hurt but just you know just moderation and uh train hard and get out yes sir so uh how much hang on a second go on so uh how much does drinking hinder our progress in what ways okay drinking alcohol how does it hinder progress drinking well I mean studies are showing now that red wine is very healthy for the heart you know there's Mediterranean I mean there's a lot of stuff out there but uh personally in my life I've seen two of my friends get uh the monkey on the back puts them they have a lot of problems with alcohol become alcoholic uh I tell young people I will swear in a stack of bibles I've never done a drug in my life and I know what's going on out there today I know marijuana is 48 times more potent than it was in 68 it is a gateway drug to something else you're rolling the dice alcohol is another problem it's legal you have to use common sense and look at your history and your family and use moderation I mean I mean a good glass of wine or a beer is not going to hurt you once in a while I tell young people instead of this culture over here get high on life live it right make something of yourself wait in the back I hope we're not taking up too much time here but I'll if you've got questions I'll try to fire something at you I'm not you're hurting at home sir can you talk about motivation and specifically how to get out of kind of a rut you know when you haven't worked out in a while you have a training partner no you're trained by yourself yes okay take a few days off don't train them the next day you think you're gonna train throw some body off a little bit and maybe maybe take a week off where you really want to come back in there and train that changes your attitude a little bit I've done that all time sometimes I'll go three weeks I'll work out but then I can't wait to get in there and I can't wait to get out either so but I do it so I just go by out and talk to Jim oh yeah if you can find I'll go ahead and finish if you find a training partner that will work you and kind of motivate you I mean you don't scream in your ear I don't care all this raw raw stuff just working me God I'm through it and you focus on what you're doing those three keywords I gave you that's working out too you're committed you're prepared to do it and you're focused to get it done it applies to everything in life yep thank you Jim we're done okay thank you appreciate it