Powerlifting USA Magazine

HARDCORE GYM #94

 

February 2010 - Vol. 33 No. 4

AUSTRALIA'S APOLLO GYM

by Rick Brewer | rick[at]houseofpain.com
www.houseofpain.com

 

Hi Rick, as a long time reader of PL USA I am always interested in reading your Hard Core Gym section in the magazine.


I was pleasantly surprised to read about the Body Matrix Gym in the Vol. 31 No. 10 edition of PL USA. A few months after the article was published I saw Leya at a bodybuilding show (in Australia) and told her that I saw the article in PL USA. She was very excited to see it in print!


In a few weeks, I will be returning to Melbourne and will visit the Apollo Gym. This gym could best be described as Australia’s version of Louie’s Westside Barbell gym. Apollo Gym is stacked with chains, bands, and all sorts of lifting equipment and bars—and the gym has produced some of Australia’s strongest lifters. Several professional athletes also train there.
If you like, I can submit a report about this gym during my visit next week. Can you please let me know if you are interested?


All the best,
Darren Burns
Senior Mine Engineer
Newlands Coal Pty Ltd

 

Darren, I’m interested in any group of strong lifters, especially if you read my PL USA column and then offer to help! I’m excited that you found a new Hard Core Gym. Tell me more about kangaroos and koalas!


The bar is loaded,
Rick Brewer
House of Pain

 

Note to readers: Darren did an awesome job reporting on the Apollo Gym, so I’m just going to provide topical headlines for his info below:

 

Melbourne Sports and the Strongest Gym in Australia
Melbourne has long laid claim to being the sporting capital of Australia. This is not the ‘outback.’ Major sporting events include the Formula One Grand Prix, the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final, the Australian Tennis Open and the National Rugby League (NRL). These events are okay, but the city may also have the strongest gym in Australia!

 

Australian Athletes Have ESP in Apollo Gym
Located within the historical Dockland’s Cotton Mills warehouse in the working-class suburb of Footscray, is Apollo Gym. Apollo is equipped with machines that, although possibly common in US powerlifting gyms, are rarely seen in Australia. The diverse range of EliteFTS equipment includes a Monolift, Glute-Ham Raise, Reverse Hyper machines, and Power-Racks—as well as an extensive collection of sleds, resistance bands, chains, boards and kettle-bells. Operating within Apollo Gym is Elite Sports Performance (ESP), which is a strength-and-conditioning consulting group consisting of some of Australia’s leading athletes and sport performance coaches. (ESP? RB)

 

Paul Anderson is Still Alive in Australia!
Paul Anderson is the owner and manager of Apollo Gym. (Wow, I thought he was dead. RB) This Paul Anderson has a degree in Physical Education, and he has been involved in sports ranging from the Decathlon and martial arts, to powerlifting. Paul’s father was the ‘Young Apollo,’ who later changed his name to the Mighty Apollo. The Mighty Apollo was a famous Australian strongman, who often performed feats of strength—such as pulling railroad cars with his teeth. With over twenty years experience in personal training, Paul and his team at ESP are constantly in demand from those individuals and sporting teams looking to gain strength and speed for their chosen sport.

 

Can Australians Really Play Football?
Two men who assist Paul in ESP are coaches Martyn Girvan and Daniel DiPasqua, both of whom regularly compete in Australia’s top powerlifting competitions. Martyn has been a fireman for more than twenty years, and is currently one of the strength and conditioning coaches at the AFL’s Collingwood Football Club. This (ESP training assistance) enabled the club to minimize soft tissue injuries to their older players. The club’s Sport Science Director, David Buttifant, explains that following a review of the club’s program; ESP was able to identify several key problems. Collingwood has been able to address these trouble-spots, and this has resulted in an improvement in the team’s on-field football performance.

 

Rugby, plus Stronger Kicking, Boxing and Dribbling
Likewise, Daniel is also involved in strength and conditioning at the elite level and is currently involved with the 2009 NRL Champions, the Melbourne Storm. The Storm credits ESP with having “...an excellent understanding of all aspects of training needed to improve an athlete’s strength, power and reduce injury risk. They implement cutting edge methods to elicit maximum gains.” As well as the Melbourne Storm, he has also developed programs for kickboxing, boxing and basketball. Aside from the practical experience gained by working with such teams at the elite level of Australian sport, Daniel is also continuing to gain more knowledge by adding to his Exercise Sports Science degree, with his current studies toward a Masters in Exercise Rehabilitation.

 

Strongest Bench Press in Australia!!
Apollo Gym is also home toShaun Bostock who is currently the strongest bench presser in Australia with a 325 kg. (715 lb.) BP which was performed at the 2009 CAPO Professional Bench Press Competition. Shaun is also a regular competitor at this event which is held each year in conjunction with the IFBB Pro Bodybuilding Grand Prix, and he is always a favorite lifter with the audience.

 

More Westside Disciples in Australia
Many of the lifters at Apollo base their training upon the methodology used by powerlifting legend, Louie Simmons, and have earned his endorsement: “ESP has a full grasp of the Westside system. They have integrated the contrast Method, the Maximum Effort Method and the Repetitive Method to near failure, through the conjugate system to improve all their training.”

 

Max-Effort Day on BP
I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to train with the morning crew at 6:30 AM on a Saturday morning. This day was dedicated to Maximum Effort on the bench press. The day’s ME exercise was the board press, with lifters opting for boards ranging from four boards through to one board. Despite this being my first time at Apollo, and training with the morning crew, I was really pleased that I was immediately made to feel part of the team. I was also fortunate to see Australia’s strongest bench presser, Shaun Bostock, who is training to further increase his bench press record.

 

Group Hugs Make You Stronger
The support and encouragement that these guys gave each other during training was really inspiring. Following board presses, the crew moved onto pin presses out of the power rack with the pins set a few inches above chest height. Again, the intensity that the crew was able to generate was really inspirational and provided a fantastic training environment. With such a supportive training atmosphere, it would be hard not to be motivated to improve and develop into the best lifter that you can be.

 

Round Two of Max-Effort Day
As the morning crew was nearing the completion of the training session, another crew began arriving. Like the early morning crew, it was also ME day for the bench press and their morning’s session also consisted of board presses. Following on from the board press, the earlier team divided into several smaller groups and each went to work on an exercise that was specifically selected to increase strength in their particular area of weakness. Some performed bench presses with resistance bands and kettle-bells, whilst others performed dumb-bell work for the chest, shoulders and triceps.

 

Uniquely Strong Without Bad Breath
To my knowledge there is no other facility like Apollo Gym in Australia; with its unique range of lifting equipment, all of which has been designed to improve the strength and conditioning of an athlete. Apollo Gym is the home of some of Australia’s best lifters and coaches, and the facility is also used by some of the elite teams in Australian sports. As the sport of powerlifting in Australia continues to grow, the Apollo Gym will continue to produce top quality lifters and will remain the strongest gym in Australia.

 

It sounds like Darren hit the Australian powerlifting jackpot at Apollo Gym! He found a really cool place to train, with everything a powerlifter needs to become a champion in Australia! PLUS, he got to work with some of the strongest Aussies ever—in a gym owned by Paul Anderson. The fact that there are two different historic strongmen with the same name is amazing. I guess some names are just strong names; no matter who wears them. Maybe I’ll change my name to OD Wilson and see what happens. I figure if I try to call myself Garry Frank, Andy Bolton, Donnie Thompson, or Scot Mendelson; these big guys who are still alive might come kill me.


Anyway, thanks to Darren for the lowdown on Apollo Gym! Next month, we’ll go back to the USA and see if we’ve uncovered a new powerlifting state to add to the ‘Iron Triangle’ states—which are full of hard core gyms. It turns out there are a lot of powerlifters in a whole new area! Come back next month and see if we visit YOUR state!

 

*photographs courtesy of Darren Burns/Apollo Gym