Iron Sport

Heed the warnings

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 17:56:19 GMT

“Uhhhhh yeah, I just rented a truck from you a few minutes ago. I’m having a slight problem with it now….”

Like I said before, the intersection of Chester Pike and South Ave is NOT TO BE FUCKED WITH. First of all it is home to the wide warriors of Iron Sport Gym but it also is the location of a low bridge. When a sign says 12’ 6” it's not a threat, it’s a promise. If you don’t want the top of your truck rolled back like a can of sardines you better figure out a new route. Much like the sounds of jacked dudes screaming when they get their swole on here this truck carnage is a semi-daily occurrence at the gym. Sometimes the drivers get wedged under the bridge nice and tight and they come into the gym and ask me what they should do…like I’m the troll that owns that bridge.

Good times.

Back in the tube

Tue, 2 Sep 2008 14:07:12 GMT

Yep, in the MRI tube once again this morning. The Dr didn’t want to give the cortisone shot because there is a chance that I have an abscess under this mess on my foot. I have the films and have to go back to the foot Dr Friday morning and see what’s what. He put me back on antibiotics last Friday just to get rid of any remaining infection that might have been causing that pain. So if I get the cortisone shot on Friday that’ll be good because I have the Ligonier Highland games the next day. So it will be nice and numbed up for that.

Despite all this foot bullshit training is going pretty well. Paul Ferency came down this past Sunday for a throwing session and tried to tweak some form problems that I have been having. My lifting seems to really be peaking up still so I’m happy about that. If I can just be smart and stay injury free I should hit a good peak for Loon Mt in two weeks.

Labor Day weekend was super busy day here at Iron Sport. I was happy to see everyone training like champions especially Labor Day when the gym was packed all day. Summer is now officially over and it’s time to get back in the gym and hit it hard again.

Train through the pain

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:46:15 GMT

My training has been hitting an up and down situation due to my foot. I’m up when I’m training and then down for the rest of the day in pain. Stepping onto this knob-o-pain is like walking on a nail, the pain is just sharp and constant. This bunion/bone growth/whatever it is has been really inflamed and swollen. Dr Corwin, the Dr who is treating it, recently gave me a five day steroid pack to take to cut down the inflammation. During the five days while I was taking it I felt some slight relief but as soon as I was done taking it the inflammation came right back. Friday morning I’m going in for a cortisone shot and see if that gives me some relief. I’m just looking to get by at least until I’m done competing in these next two contests. After my last contest of the season on Sept 20^th who knows….it may require surgery.

This Sunday my buddy and throwing coach extraordinaire Paul Ferency is driving down to do some highland games practice. We will also have a strategy session for this pro masters contest I’m doing in New Hampshire on the 20^th. If I’m going to throw well up in NH I just need a couple good training sessions just to get my confidence back up. I really haven’t been throwing much at all. Loon Mt NH has always been a special place for me to throw. It is a great venue for a games as well as always being a happy hunting ground for me. I have been there five times going back to 1996 and have walked away with three wins and two runner-ups as a pro there.

Strength Feats.....On Demand

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:36:51 GMT

C’mon, how can you beat Iron Sport Gym? How many gym owners will do prodigious feats of strength on demand like I do? Pictured here you see one of Iron Sport’s female patrons in utter amazement as she holds up the souvenir I just presented her with. When the owners of Bally’s and other chain gyms are sitting around thinking of ways to trick you out of your hard earned dollars I am delighting and entertaining my members.

Business Opportunities

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:30:18 GMT

I received an email recently from a guy who recently graduated from Temple's Fox School of Business (Double Major: Entrepreneurship/Marketing). His name was Mark and wanted to turn his many years of toil and effort in college into Iron Sport gold. He wants to come in and pick my brain about what it is like being at the helm of a rogue gym empire such as I am. He wants to see if he can handle the responsibility of being the leader of hundreds of hungry and jacked iron warriors.

I’m pretty sure when Mark was a little baby around the mid 1980’s his parent stood together and looked down at him in his crib. They had high hopes and big plans for their precious new baby. They took the forethought to seek the advice of professional financial planners and started putting money away for a quality education which hopefully would provide him for a sound fiscal future. Their vision was for Mark to grow up and make an impact on the world, probably in the field of medicine or science, make a lot of money and enjoy financial security long into his golden years.

Cut to a teenage Steve Pulcinella at that same time in the mid 1980’s. Lifting weights, grabbing ass, jumping his jacked up pick-up truck over the railroad tracks, not a care in the world and not a thought about his future. He was a wild eyed youth in his Levi jeans and flannel shirts with the sleeves cut off trying to look tough. Not really the kind of guy you want your baby child to grow up to be like. Who could foresee that Mark and Steve would someday be on a collision course to destiny?

I have gotten emails for years from lifters all over the country who’s ambition is to own a gym just like Iron Sport. Most of them ask me the standard questions….how did you get your start? What do I need to get started? Is it lucrative? What do you do when somebody drops off a stolen shopping cart on your property? You know the hard pressing questions like that. I try to answer them all as tactfully as I can telling them that having a small “hardcore” (a term a really don’t like) gym is a pretty rough existence. It’s not very lucrative at all and the hours are largely thankless. I don’t try to purposely scare them but owning a small business of any kind is really tough, that’s just the nature of the beast. It’s just not for everyone. But Mark is taking a different approach and seems really serious about coming in here taking a look at the gym, getting in a workout and picking my brain. Who knows, maybe he has a brilliant idea to generate more revenue out of a place like mine, I hope he does. Maybe he wants to franchise the Iron Sport name all over the world making me in return a multi-millionaire leaving me free time to pursue my dream of being a rich industrialist by day, vigilante do-gooder by night.

I’ll keep you all posted on our meeting and the outcome…..Unless he comes to his senses and decides to open up a Rita’s Water Ice.

Professional Dilemma

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:43:59 GMT

I kind of have a professional dilemma. The kind of dilemma that could only occur in a white trashy neighborhood like the Glenolden/Norwood area. Take a look at the photo below. Camouflaged in amongst the unkempt bushes, out of control weeds and the trash, just under the scenic rusty train tressle you see a shopping cart near the bus stop. This is the corner of Chester Pike and South Ave or as I like to call it the intersection of unemployment and desperation. Imagine the convenience of living in a world where it is accepted that you can shop, take the cart with you and just ditch it and jump on the bus. That’s the kind of world I want to live in.

The dilemma I am having is since it is my civic duty to remove the snow from the sidewalk is it also my job to remove and dispose of a random shopping cart?

Thus is the life of a small business owner.

Discuss.

Games we played

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:49:15 GMT

Much like two twelve year old girls, my childhood buddy Ryan Miller and I were texting each other and giggling last night. Were got to talking about the usual stuff, old times, old friends, how much we hate being adults, etc. We got on the subject of the games we would invent and/or modify as kids to suit the number of people and the space allotted. We were not rich growing up but we sure as shit weren't so poor that we had to invent stupid games that required little or no equipment like the Little Rascals. I think most of our games was born out of sheer boredom and necessity. I’ll run down a few of these games, feel free to pass them along to your children…..as long as you don’t mind them getting hurt or possibly arrested.

I know that around Philly, New York and Boston you have games like “half-ball” and “stick-ball”. I think most of the games we thought we invented at that time were influenced by these games because we lived in surburban Philly. If only someone would have invented video games a lot sooner all of the following shananigans could have been avoided.

Step Ball- This can be played with any kind of ball that has some bounce to it, a pinky, a pimple ball or tennis ball. You will need a set of concrete front porch steps. Player one throws the ball into the steps for an unpredictable bounce as player two tries to field the ball off of the bounce. The object is for player one to get the ball either over player two’s head or get it to bounce past him for a run. Simple game, hours of fun. Sometimes the ball would not bounce back but would bounce forward and hit our front door and my mom would scream at us.

Wire Ball- This can be played with a hard ball and a glove or just bare-handed. Player one tries to toss the ball over the street wires and player one has to catch it. Runs are scored in accordance to which level of wire you can throw the ball over and make the fielder miss. We used to play this with a football once in a while too. We would eventually get bored with this and just try to throw the ball at the bulbs in the street lights until we smashed them. Darkness (and police) would fall over our neighborhood after that game.

Chink- I know it doesn’t sound politically correct but for some reason that was the name of the game. I didn’t name it that nor do I know who did but that’s what we called it. You need a “pinky” to play chink. A pinky was a cheap spongy ball that you could buy at a dollar store or in our case climb to the roof of Woodlyn elementary school and find. Two or three players could play chink but anymore than that got crowded. You need a brick wall and it was sort of like handball where you smacked the ball with your hand and first had to make it bounce of the blacktop, then off the wall and the next player had to smack it from there and keep it going. Let me get back to the roof of the school for a minute. That roof was pretty much the sole source of sporting equipment in our neighborhood. At any given time you could get any kind of ball you wanted by climbing onto that roof.

Ass Ball- It was exactly like chink except for the capital punishment aspect at the end. The player who bobbled and missed during his turn to “chink” the ball had to face the firing squad. He was sentenced to stand facing the wall, bend over and present his butt to my sadistic buddies and each of the other players got to haul off and throw the ball as hard as they could at his ass. Imagine a pinky in the butt from a range of about five meters. (oooh that sounds so dirty) The object was to inflict as much pain on the other guy as you could. Jolly good fun.

Curve Ball- Ryan’s yard and my yard together weren’t really big enough to play full-scale whiffle ball so we devised another game. It was exactly like whiffle ball and played with the same bat but we would use those little plastic practice gold balls. I don’t know remember how this twist by using the golf balls even got started but we used to have some wicked curve-ball games that would to last until it became too dark to see. The ball was hard to hit, hard to field and hard to pitch so over the years our skills got keen. I remember playing this game until my late teens in our back yard. We would put picnic tables and benches laid on their side as a home run wall for important games. As Ryan and I got older our younger brothers carried on the proud curve-ball tradition. I’m not sure if it’s played anywhere today though.

Hose ball- We only played this if we happened upon an old garden hose in front of somebody’s house on trash day. You cut the hose up in 6” long sections and put them in a bucket. Player one would use a broom handle for a bat and player two would pitch in the sections of hose. If you could hit that hose just right it would go a mile. If you were the pitcher and got hit by one of those blasts you would be running home to mom for Bactine and a taffy.

Muckle- when all else failed…. when you didn’t have enough guys for a proper game of football…. when you just wanted to cut out the strategy and gamesmanship of actual football….when you just had a thirst for tackling…. when there was a guy in your neighborhood that you just wanted to kill…. Muckle was the game for you! Also know as “catch and kill” or “smear the queer” (again, I know it’s not politically correct) Muckle was a very simple and primal game. You needed at least four and as up to maybe twenty players and a Nerf or real football. Somebody throws up the ball and whoever catches it gets chased down and subsequently creamed by all the other players. As that player is laying on the ground spitting up blood he then throws up the ball and around and around it goes. That’s it, very basic, no winners just losers. I have actually seen a kid break his femur playing muckle.

When all these games failed and it was just Ryan and myself, we would just make my younger brother Matt ride his bike back and forth in the street. We would then stand on either side of the street and try to nail him with a Nerf football. Somehow we would be trying to convince him to not go in and tell on us and that his participation in this game was somehow for his own good. Of course the object of this game was to knock him off the bike.

The official "Chink" ball....The Pinky

competing?

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:25:56 GMT

It’s about a month until my next scheduled highland games contest. I’m going to throw in the pro class at the Ligonier PA highland games. http://www.ligoniergames.org/ I have been competing as a master all year so far so I’m fixing to get trounced at this one. I’m at 270lbs right now and its way lighter than I have ever been in a pro meet. That is going to be a huge factor.

My big dilemma right now is that I need to make new hammer boots. But I’m torn between doing that or just retiring so I’ll see how it goes. That’s how not into competing I am right now….I would actually rather retire rather than going through the trouble to make new hammer boots. Truthfully I’m just not feeling any more rush competing but still really enjoy training in the weightroom. When the driving, the super hot days, trying to get away from the gym and the pain afterwards just seems more like work than it does fun so I tend to lose interest.

I know this all sounds like i'm down but i'm not. I'm just far more interested in the gym buisness these days than I am competing.

The Innovator

Thu, 7 Aug 2008 14:06:34 GMT

One of the things that is always questioned in the lifting game is “What is the best kind of routine to use?” As a gym owner I get asked questions like that that a lot. But many years of lifting as well as many years of observing people lifting I have learned something. There are a million right ways to make gains and there really is only one wrong way.

Let me first explain the one and only wrong way….no effort. You could be on the most hi-tech lifting and diet program in the world handed down from the 1970’s era Russian Olympic team. But if you don’t work it HARD you won’t make one single gain.

Almost every person you see in the gym is using some different method to all reach pretty much the same goal. No two people in your gym right now are following the exact same path. Are some of them right and some of them wrong? That’s a difficult question to answer realistically. But I would have to say “no”. I’m not going to sit here and say that you should be doing box squats or that Louie Simmons’s or any other trainer’s ideas of training are right or wrong because it always ultimately will boil down to YOUR effort in the gym.

In my opinion getting stronger or developing a better looking body is simple and I like to keep things very simple. I always say if you work ANY routine long enough and hard enough, no matter how stupid it is you will eventually get somewhere. Bust your ass in the gym and be realistic about your diet and you can not go wrong. Don’t just show up at the gym and half ass it and expect magical results.

We had a guy in the gym we would call “The Innovator”. (Everybody who’s anybody at Iron Sport has a nickname) This dude never did one conventional exercise in his life. Every thing he did was something that he made up. He would sit in machines facing the wrong way and contort himself all up doing things all upside down and ass-backwards. The funny thing is The Innovator really looked like he knew exactly what he was doing and had a catalog of a thousand wacky exercises in his head. He would smoothly transition from one heinous move to the next while we all looked on in horror. BUT….in all this foolishness and wackiness he built himself into probably one of the most flexible people I have ever seen. His arms and shoulders would bend in ways I have never seen on another human before. So there ya go, something good eventually came out of this madness.

Of course I don’t suggest you start making up a bunch of stupid exercises. What you really want is a combination of a good routine and really solid effort over a long period of time. No matter what advances come along in training, equipment, nutrition and supplements EFFORT will still be the key thing that makes the results happen.

Any comments? steve@ironsport.com

This is what your hand should look like when you are done a hard workout

Teen Terminator

Wed, 6 Aug 2008 18:11:42 GMT

Although I had a slight scare with getting an infection in my foot last week that didn’t stop me from having one of the best weeks of training that I have had in a long time. Maybe i'm just strange, but I just refuse to let things stop me from training. I don’t stop for injuries, I don’t ever feel over-trained, I don’t go on vacation… I’m like a psycho mental patient that just has to train every day. I have no idea how this personal retreat into the weightroom became an obsession with me but I know it started when I was very young.

This story will give you an example of how early in life this sickness started….When I was the 15 year old child prodigy of strength I was riding my kick ass 10-speed bike to the gym. As I was nearing the gym, I was was crossing through an intersection. A teenage girl blew the light as I was crossing, I didn’t even see her but I could hear brakes screeching up behind me. The next thing I knew I had a ’79 Trans Am shoved up my ass. The car slammed me from behind, my bike went under the car and I was sort of tangled under there with it. As her car skidded she dragged me and the bike along the ground for about another twenty or thirty feet. When we finally came to a stop and I came crawling out from under her car like the terminator. I stood up and looked at the freaked out girl behind the wheel and I remember thinking….”My bike is totally mangled, my sweat pants are tattered, but I have no apparent injuries so I’m good to go.” I reached down and pulled the wreckage of my bike out from under her car and carried it away. I walked the rest of the way to the gym, threw my bike in the trash and worked out.

After I got done I called my mother for a ride home and started off by telling her I had been hit by a car and she got all freaked out and said “oh my god what did you do?” and I said “First I did squats, followed by some leg presses, some stiff leg deads and then really burned it out with some leg curls”. I assumed she meant what did I do in the gym that day. Needless to say she started screaming at me for being an idiot. Yeah, tell me something I DON’T know mom.

More positive feedback- Tony

Mon, 4 Aug 2008 12:54:46 GMT

If you think you are too old to learn new tricks in the gym. If you think that health club machines are the way to go. If you think that a highly experienced personal trainer can’t make a difference in your training. Just read this letter from one of my training clients I just received.

“Steve,

I have been reading your blog and enjoying your sense of humor. Your foot situation really has me concerned and I wish you the best on your recovery. As a 62 year old, I know you are at the point that you need to start recognizing that, although you are one strong dude, you are not invincible. But seriously, take care of that foot. On the subject of personal training, my four sessions with you were a real eye opener. We were doing really light weights but the squat, bench and dead lift really are a quantum leap from the machines I have been using at LA Fitness. I now have different goals for the next 12 months which include more free weights and the power lifts. So I agree with your feelings about PT and the squat. It sets a tone for working with you and helps the student to get a sense of perspective as far as training goals and how much effort the student might be willing to put into training. I am sure that you recognize that you are at a totally different level than other trainers and from the standpoint of what is commercially popular, you are at an extreme. For me, due to my age and realization of my limits, it has been good. For others it might be overwhelming. Maybe you are cutting me a break due to my age, etc. but I think your rates are really low for the knowledge and experience you offer. I was quite surprised when you quoted your rate. Best regards and good luck with your foot and the business. I will see you soon. I have enjoyed working with you.

Best regards, Tony”

Tony is a guy who doesn’t even belong to Iron Sport Gym as a regular member because of a long commute. He contacted me because he was training at LA Fitness and got bored with sitting on the same old machines just pushing and pulling mindlessly. When he made up his mind that he wanted to step up his strength levels he asked the trainers at his gym and nobody could help him. He searched the internet and discovered Iron Sport Gym, after reading and looking at the photos he soon realized that this was the place he had to be. His first workout with me was really an eye opener for him but he hung tough and welcomed the humbling experience. Tony knew that the things I was teaching him were the next logical step in his training and the path to achieving his goals. He has since progressed both working on his own and by stopping by here and there for more workouts with me. I really didn’t cut him a break on price for training, I don’t feel the need to charge an arm and a leg for that kind of stuff.

If anyone that reads this wants to do a training session with me just email me at: steve@ironsport.com and we’ll set up a time.

Thanks Tony!

Foot Fester

Fri, 1 Aug 2008 17:15:34 GMT

So there have been some recent updates to my general health and well being lately. My right foot that has been killing me for a month has gotten worse and worse. The knob that we thought was a bunion growing on my foot has turned red and the pain underneath was getting unbearable. The skin eventually broke open and it was all weepy so it was apparent that it was some kind of infection. I tried to self treating it with hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin but it kept getting worse. “Why didn’t you go to the doctor right away?” you are asking yourself. Because I have this belief that I really don’t think that anything I can’t see can actually harm me. Things like: germs, radiation, cancer, spirits and most of the inert gasses. The feeling of superiority all goes along with the invincibility package. I had myself upgraded back when I started lifting weights as a youth.

Eventually things did get so bad and I was forced to make an appointment to see Dr Corwin who is my main man and the doc that did my most recent ankle surgery. He took one look at it and pretty much confirmed that it was a very bad infection right away. So bad in fact that he wasn’t sure if we caught it in time. He dug into the festering skin and peeled away layers of damage to get to the puss and let it ooze out. He then dug a little something out and held it up and asked me if I have a white dog. I do have a large white dog. He told me what had happened was that a while ago I stepped on something that punctured my skin and a dog hair had gotten in there and the skin healed over it. The bacteria from the dog hair infected the whole thing and that’s what caused it…..FUCKING BUSTER!

Since I was an idiot and waited too long to seek medical help I’m now involved in a whole world of fucked. I needed to get a heavy antibiotic in me ASAP to even have a shot at containing this thing. I already went and picked it up and took the first pill in my car as soon as they gave it to me. If in two days it doesn’t get better I will be off the ER to get hooked up to IV antibiotics for god knows how long. I also need to put some anti-bacterial ointment on it and pack gauze around it twice a day.

But, at least the intense pain in my foot wasn’t not enough to keep me from doing something really stupid in the weightroom and hurting myself yesterday. After doing all my cleans, high-pulls and squats I was doing some high rep box jumps and when fatigue finally set in on the last set I completely bit it and didn’t quite make it high enough. I came crashing into the lead edge of the box and tore a nice chunk out of my shin. All my precious infected blood came pouring out all down my leg. Picture my doctor just shaking his head when I showed him that open wound.

The worst part about all this going to the doctor crap was that while I was gone something really funny happened in the gym and I missed it. My brother Photo Joe was watching the place for me and he said that what appeared to be a hooker came into our vestibule. She took her top off and changed her shirt in full view of the guys in the weightroom. Unfortunately Photo Joe totally dropped the ball and failed to get a picture of that. You guys know I would have gotten one though if I was here!

Dr Chris Corwin working on my festered foot. Looks happy doesn't he?

My busted up shin after a failed box jump.

Discuss...

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:39:28 GMT

If you hire me and pay me good money to personal train you, I reserve the right to make your first workout a leg workout....and it will include squats.

…..discuss.

Allentown Highland Games

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:28:34 GMT

The Allentown Highland Games were pretty much a total bust. Very light turnout of competitors this year. I was looking for a lot of guys to really push me along but that didn’t really happen. I more or less threw like crap too. I was all over the place with my weight throws. But I did well in the caber and was really on with the sheaf. I easily went over 30’ in the sheaf but had to stop there again due to this weird thing that is going on with my neck. From the very first warm up throw my neck just spasms up. That weird motion of throwing the sheaf is the only thing that ever hurts it like that. I don’t think I have any meets now until early September so I really should practice between now and then. Any takers? I hate practicing alone.

Iron Sport will unveil a new part time employee tonight. Her name is Emily and I’m really hoping she will be a big asset to the place. She is super friendly with a great personality. I’m sure it will take about two days before all the single guys down here swear to their buddies that they have “a shot” with her but just try to calm yourselves. She will be working Tuesday and Thursday nights for now but I hope I can get her in here a little more as time goes on. I’ll try to get a picture of her to post on here tonight.

cut loose and relax...

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:18:10 GMT

The weekend is coming up and I’ll be at the Allentown Highland Games tomorrow. I guess I’m ready to participate but I actually haven’t thought about anything throwing related since the last weight hit the ground in my last contest. I don’t know why, I have just been focusing on other stuff. Who knows, maybe not even thinking about will give me a big performance tomorrow. My training in the gym has really been lackluster the last couple of weeks too. I think sometimes I get caught up in a mode where I just worry about my business so much that just keeping the place from burning to the ground uses up any focus that I have. What hopefully will happen tomorrow is that I sleep well, wake up not thinking about the gym, drive up there and just cut loose and relax. If I’m relaxed everything will fall into place. My good highland games buddy Paul Ferency is coming out to watch and he always keeps the mood fun. Plus, if I don’t do well Ferency will heckle me mercilessly.

Full report on the weekend happenings on Monday.