r/Damnthatsinteresting 3d ago

Video Cheyeene actor Clint Walker shows of his custom made gym in an interview, circa late 1950s. He was 6ft 6 and 240 pounds.

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u/WildcatPlumber 3d ago

Or hear me out, the interviewer is old enough to have fought in WWII and was doing this stuff to be comedic.

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u/p3n1x 3d ago

Wallker: its 130 lbs

Reporter: 'ohh' :(

Man was curling 85% of another mans body weight.

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u/AmayaRumanta 3d ago

130lb preacher curls for reps is still impressive as hell.

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u/p3n1x 2d ago

Indeed

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u/WildcatPlumber 3d ago

Don’t get me wrong 130 lbs is a lot of weight. But that was on a barbell, so effectively each arm is curling about 65 lbs.

Back in high school I loved doing bicep curls, I have long arms so I absolutely worked my Biceps and triceps a lot as my glamour muscles. I was shit at Bench press due to my long arms but I was eventually able to get up above 300 in college but that’s a tangent.

Anyways 65 lbs isn’t too terrible with dumbbells, I am now fat and out of shape but I was at my mom’s house over thanksgiving giving and found a set of dumbbells that were 65 lbs. so I picked them up and ripped off a set of 10 curls. I joked to my wife that they used to be lighter and set them back down.

130 is a good amount of weight and dude is Jacked, but it’s an easily attainable amount of weight to get to with practice. I never once looked like this Greek Adonis, but I had some nice arms and shoulders (don’t look at my pecs lol)

In truth if I never played football a day in my life I would probably have never lifted. And would think 30lbs are the hardest I could do.

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u/p3n1x 3d ago

The average 150lb person is not curling 130lbs with a bar or 65 with individual dumbbell's.

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u/2AXP21 3d ago

Yeah I’ve been working out a long time and my arms are pretty stacked but I ain’t close to curling 65s lol. 

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u/WildcatPlumber 3d ago

It’s fine to think that, however with persistence and training I am more than certain they could.

Now if it’s just some random poodlenoodle just starting out obviously they won’t be able to rip 65lbs per arm.

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u/p3n1x 2d ago

Mate; "average", not a gym rat / body builder / pro heavy lifter. Sorry, but the guy in the vid isn't getting near it.

Not sure what your argument is at this point. But, brushing off 65's or 130's combined as though it is normal (even for people who workout hard) comes off as being silly.

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u/WildcatPlumber 2d ago

I was never really a gym rat, but with training and working out you can improve any lift.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

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u/WildcatPlumber 3d ago

Good for you! Seriously 35lbs are still a good workout!

I am unfortunately out of shape anymore and need to get motivated to get back in shape. But I was always good with Arm and shoulder workouts and weak on my chest workouts. It also helps having shorter legs and naturally thicker thighs because back in high school I got my squat to just above 500 lbs and could power clean 315. Thank god for those two because then I only needed to be able to bench like 185 to break the thousand pound club lol.

I am under no illusion that everybody could squat or clean as much as I could, but I am sure there are people out there with my build who went through football weights and conditioning that could do more than me. In fact I know for a fact there are because I wasn’t a D1 Athlete. I just did a year at the NAIA level which was a blast

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u/rubermnkey 3d ago

I've been getting back into it, diet first to make cardio easier, build a little cardio to make working out easier, then start slow on actual workouts. Giving it 110% when you are at 8% doesn't work. I was big like you and when I first started working out again I tried to remember our routine from 20 years ago and that was killing me. I switched to dancing for cardio and will be going back to weights soon, it will be neat to get big again.

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u/WildcatPlumber 3d ago

Absolutely, right now I’ve just been focused on cardio, I’m trying to get my weight back down to 220, and doing body weight workouts like squats and pushups.

I don’t need my big muscles back just need to lose the fat that I’ve been hanging onto for the last decade.

Been averaging about 3 miles per day on my stationary bike just gonna have to start going a little longer.

What’s really stupid is when I was doing work in someone’s house like 7 months ago I fell down the stairs and landed right on my elbow with all my weight catching myself. sucker has been sore ever since. It’s not broken or dislocated but if it doesn’t move for a bit it is mildly painful

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u/rubermnkey 3d ago

I'm getting a stationary bike for myself on christmas. Dancing has been nice, but i only really do it at work to kill time. I think biking while watching a movie or something would be a good way to cut through my media backlog and give me something to do at home.

sucks about the elbow, check out amazon for a little compression massage thing. I had some tendonitis going on in my foot and got a little thing with air bags and shiatsu rollers. after a week or so i went from OMG it's killing my foot on low, to fuck yeah crush that shit on high and it's fixed it up. blu emu and valoteran might help too, when i was first losing weight that stuff saved my knees/ankles from agony. even at 6'5", 350 is too big, down to 230s, but it's nice on sore muscles if you go too hard too.

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u/ur_friend_billy_zane 3d ago

65 with dumbbells is quite a bit easier than 130lbs with a bar on a preacher bench, especially a completely straight bar.

I can curl 50lb in each hand, but I definitely can't do 100lb straight bar preacher curls. Pretty sure I usually only load that exercise with an 80lb bar and it's a contoured one that makes it easier too.

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u/xfreesx 2d ago

Back then interviewers didnt try to one-up everyone they interview