Strong Roots: A Group Memoir of George Williams College an excerpt from published works by Sandra Alcorn
©2008 All Rights Reserved
Bob Gajda, student ('69, '73)
At age eleven or twelve I would read the Charles Atlas ads. I wanted to excel at something. When I played baseball, they wouldn't let me pitch; I had to be the catcher. I wanted to excel in football at Gordon Tech High School. I wasn't that big, and so I played safety. I thought weight training would increase my efficiency and strength. My coach discouraged it. In fact, my coach, along with my mom, forbade it. The coach brought me to the nuns and made me promise in front of them that I would stop lifting weights. I promised not to life weights (but I crossed my fingers secretly adding "in the house"). I continued to lift outdoors. When I ended the football season, and things worked out pretty well for me, the coach reminded me, "Aren't you glad you didn't stay with that weight lifting?"Bob felt his body, strength, and performance was improving, and with it came a fascination for understanding the physiology of the human body.
I was disillusioned with the so-called "science" of some of the body development programs out there. I once went to visit their so-called "research clinic" that I read so much about. I found the door with the sign reading "Research Clinic" led to a broom closet! I met the real thing when I attended a lecture by Arthur Steinhaus on strength and bodybuilding. Bob Hoffman [icon of the York weight-lifting dynasty and the York barbell industry] was there, too. Steinhaus introduced us to isometrics, and we went crazy with it. From then on I knew I wanted to follow the teaching of this man, Steinhaus. I first served in the air force, and when I cam back, I worked as a program director for the YMCA. That earned me a scholarship to attend George William College, and I majored in physiology under Arthur Steinhaus. My first year I was disappointed, because Steinhaus was in Japan doing research. But when Steinhaus returned, I soaked up everything I could get from him. At the same time I was learning everything I could about physiology, and I was also competing in contests. I did it for the simple thrill of excelling at something.
In the competition area, from 1956 to 1969, Gajda won more than one hundred physique competitions and more than twenty-five weight-lifting titles, including Mr. U.S.A. in 1965 and Mr. America in 1966. He was a Triple Crown winner of the Mr. America, Mr. U.S.A., and Mr. Universe contests. In 1966 he beat Arnold Schwarzenegger for the world's most well-developed body as Mr. Universe.
In the physiology area, Bob learned from Arthur Steinhaus a training concept called Peripheral Heart Action (PHA). Gajda is recognized for this contribution to the science of fitness training, and he always gives credit to his mentor, Steinhaus.
Two familiar names related to fitness training are Bob Hoffman, founder of the York weight-lifting mecca, and Bruce Lee, martial arts expert and actor. In the book Muscletown USA, a biographical tribute to Bob Hoffman and the York, Pennsylvania, barbell center, Gajda is recognized...
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