Loprinzi's Gym

Loprinzi's Gym
A look at Sam Loprinzi and his famous gym in the Portland, Oregon area. Loprinzi took great care in the equipment selection and layout of his gym which is why it was known as one of the top gyms in the country for many years. (I hear it's still in business.)

The pro-wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura used to train there early in his career and mentions that he benched 500 pounds for the first time while training at Loprinzi's place.

Loprinzi's gym also was one of the very first gyms in the country with a full set of Nautilus Machines.

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The Nautilus Pullover

The Nautilus Pullover
1969 AAU Mr. America Boyer Coe pictured with a vintage Nautilus Pullover circa 1972.

The Nautilus Pullover took the strength world by storm in the early 1970's and it will work just as well today -- provided it's used correctly. A few hard sets (per week) will build incredible back and upper-body development, again, if it's used correctly.

There aren't many pullovers of this generation left these days, if you have access to one, consider yourself lucky.

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The Zander Machines

The Zander Machines
Gustav Zander was a Swedish physician who created over 70 different exercises "machines" at the turn of the century. His machines were very meticulously designed with a very intricate system of pulleys and counter balances in order to account for the physics of the human body.

These machines are from a 1906 catalogue. The machine pictured on the left was for forearm flexion/extension and on the right, a machine which trained leg flexion and extension.

Despite their obvious similarties in appearance, Arthur Jones had no prior knowledge of Zander machines when he designed his Nautilus Machines. (Which actually function quite a bit differently.)

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The Nautilus Cam

The Nautilus Cam
The unique advantage that the Nautilus Machines had over traditional freeweights is that they used cams like this one to manipulate the leverage of certain exercises effectively eliminating the sticking points and thus enabling a greater percentage of muscle fibers to be utilized during training.

The Nautilus Bulletins

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The Nautilus Squat Machine

The Nautilus Squat Machine

Casey Viator uses the Nautilus Squat Machine during the Colorado Experiment. You may recall that Casey put on 63 pounds of muscle over the course of the 28 day experiment and this machine was a big reason behind that. It has been well understood that intense leg work is the key to super strength. This machine allowed the hips and legs to be trained in a manner more intense than any other method created before or since. This particular Nautilus machine never actually went into production.

If you were to position yourself wrong in a fatigued state it could conceivably "catapult" you right out of it!

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The Nautilus Bicep/Tricep Machine

The Nautilus Bicep/Tricep Machine
I find it pretty funny that many people will not train on some strength machines for no other reason than because they are machines.

I find it even funnier than many people used to denigrate machines when they first appeared... but those same folks did a 180 and started singing a different tune when they started selling their own brand of machines.

Hmm...

The fact of the matter is that some machines provide training advantages that no barbell, dumbbell or kettlebell can even come close to. Pictured above is the Nautilus Bicep/Tricep Machine circa 1972.

You would be hard-pressed to find a better arm workout... if it's used correctly.

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