Experiences with John Grimek – Iron Game History – April, 1999

My first impression of John Grimek was a profound one, an event that jump-started my weight training that has continued unabated for 53 years, though I have been a priest for 37 years. It was early September 1945. I had been training for a few weeks with the old York Barbell Course Number One. At age 16 I toiled alone in my room anxiously waiting for muscles to bloom. There had been little progress with the freehand exercises, push-ups, and chins I had been doing the previous year to blow up my meager 105-pound frame. I had gained 20 pounds that year, to 125 pounds, but my biceps only stretched the tape to 11 1/2 inches, and my chest to 35 inches. I was not surging with confidence that I could do much better with weights, but I grimly pushed and pulled with and through the exercises three times a week.