Circa – 2002
In my younger days I ran 30-50 miles per week. Wish I still had the time and the knees to do so. Four marathons, three in Washington and one in Philadelphia, were enough to wear out my knees and, although running outdoors was my favorite exercise for thirty-five years, the knees finally reached the stage (after two surgeries) where I could no longer take the pounding. Now I am content with indoor exercises plus hiking.
The indoor exercises are a combination of the True 500CI treadmill, SportsArt C53r recumbent cycle, the LifeFitness X5i elliptical cross-trainer, a Pacific Fitness Newport home gym, and a collection of dumbells. There is an infinite number of exercises that can be done — but a regular routine every other day seems to work well. By the way, it is a myth that people over 60 can’t build their muscles.
Back in the early days of the web I was looking one day for some wall pictures to help me learn the position of a particular exercise. I searched using Dogpile and found a tremendous amount of information but not the pictures I was hoping for. I left a posting at one Web site and quickly got a suggestion to visit another site. I visited that site and learned about another. I was getting warmer. The trail led me to the Global Health and Fitness site. Bingo. Pictures of exercises; video too. I posted a message and within the hour I got a reply from the proprietor of the site, Chad Tackett.
Chad told me all about the offerings of the site, suggested exactly how to get the pictures I was looking for, and encouraged me to subscribe to the Global Health and Fitness program for $49 per year. I exchanged several e-mails with Chad; asking questions, getting fast answers. He said that as a member I could email a question at any time and get a reply. I checked out his curriculum vita and looked around the site a bit. I was quite impressed and subscribed. Then I noticed on one of Chad’s e-mails that he was based in Portland, Oregon. Turned out I was going to be in Portland the following Monday to visit an IBM customer so I asked if I could perhaps stop by and meet Chad. I had already gained respect for him and it occurred to me that putting the name and the face together would be a good idea. Chad said that not only could I stop by but that he would give me a workout at the real gym he owns in Portland. He further offered to develop a custom exercise program for me that I could then take back and use with my new home gym.
After a full day on Monday I got a ride to Loprinzi’s Gym in Portland. It has been there for 50 years. I hadn’t been in a gym for many years and it was a colorful, real as it gets, experience. I changed into gym shorts and had an exhilarating hour of learning exercises tailored to my goals. I put pictures of the gym in my photo gallery. Recently I learned that Chad has sold the gym and now is exclusively a web business. That was ten years ago. Looks like they are doing really well.
