Before Bodyweight Training – The Dungeon in Gloucester City NJ

Back in the day when I was a hard-core weight lifter I had to leave the gym scene,
because of what was going on in gyms.

Even in the hard-core gyms there were guys that would talk and hang on the benchpress
for 2 hours. There was hardly anybody in the squat rack and if there was,it was used for doing
curls so they didn’t have to bend down to pick up the weights.

Dressing up,wearing cologne (perfume for men)and drinking protein shakes to go workout.
I had to leave. I traded that soft, pathetic environment for a dark,hot,cold, no air conditioning
and no fans and no mirrors a sweat box.

It was so hot in the summer all you had to be in there 2 minutes doing nothing and you would
start to sweat. In the winter it was so cold you needed to wear work gloves to hold the bars.

I loved it. Many people tried to train in this hell hole very few ever came back. In the summer
I called it Death Valley it was brutal. Even when I stop training with weights I still did my
bodyweight training in there when I wasn’t outdoors, it was a test and inside of 10 minutes
you drenched with sweat, I’m talking wring your short out sweat. But I loved it.

In 1994 I changed the way I thought about hard-core heavy training. I was in the “toughman” weighed
220lbs could hip belt lift 1,200lbs, squat 600lbs (low) bench press 350lbs and could push press 285lbs.

And I couldn’t hold my hands up for 3 – 1 minute rounds. I won my fights, but couldn’t go on because
of the horrible condition I was in. I changed the the way i thought for ever. I lost 85 lbs in 5 months and
it was the best decision I made in my life.

When I get back to New Jersey I still go to the Dungeon and hit a workout.

If you can’t breath, you can’t fight!

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube