Hi there muscle addicts, I know how a lot of you guys just love bodybuilding and learning how to get big muscles but today I have something new and interesting from the history of bodybuilding, even more way back than the Arnold Schwarzenegger era!
Yeah, It’s all about the ultimate gym in bodybuilding history, Bob Zuver’s gym, a place which is so famous that, if you somehow stumble upon a legendary weight plate with Zuver’s logo on it (an original one), you can sell it with as much as 40 $ per lb.! Let’s see how it all started!
Robert Zuver grew up in a family of 16 brothers and sisters in Akron Ohio and little did he know that in the future, he will become a bodybuilding legend who creates most of today’s gym machines! Yes, Bob Zuver is the one who invented a lot of the gym equipment on which you spend your workouts.
At the age of 10, every boy would find a job to provide for the family and as soon as he was old enough, Robert Zuver joined the Navy and he became one of the first UDT Navy Frogman or better known as the modern Navy SEAL.
But how did Robert Zuver made his famous Zuver’s Gym and why did he do it?
Since he was a teenager, he was working out in different ways and he was getting pretty inventive, especially when he first discovered a homemade gym at an old neighbour who taught him the basics of weightlifting.
After he went back home from the Navy, he trained a little more and then he won The Mr. Norfolk Physique Virginia, his first bodybuilding competition!
I’m skipping some phases here but, after Robert Zuver moved with his family in Costa Mesa, some teenagers found out that he was a bodybuilder and they convinced him into teaching them how to work out! That’s when it all started, in a little 10 X 12ft garage and grew out of control in a few short months. He then bought the property across the street with a two car garage and the rest was history; Zuver’s Hall Of Fame Gym was born!
Everything in Zuver’s gym was hand built by Bob Zuver: the dumbbells, the chin area, the odd but wild looking, sometimes frightening and dangerous machines, the benches, the specialized pulleys etc. Even the names for the gym machines were chosen by Bob Zuver and man oh man.. the funny names they had: “The big blob”, “The big barrel”, “The big green thing” (but don’t be fooled by the amusing names, they were pretty darn heavy, powerlifter style!)
No gym ever provided such diversity in terms of equipment in that bodybuilding era..The man invented all the modern gym equipment which today’s pro bodybuilders use and train at! He’s a legend and the bodybuilding world owes him a lot!
The benches were adorned underneath with cut-out and painted steel rhinos that had been welded on. Large movie-prop rocks sat in the corners and every piece of weight, dumbbell, machine and gym decor was outrageous, fun and manly like!
Next, you’ll have the chance to see a video from a gym equipment collector, this guy has it all when it comes to antique gym stuff, from antique dumbbells to anvils and Zuver weight plates!
