Old Texas Barbell Company
Old Texas Barbell Company
By: Dennis Rogers
Mike Graham’s first experience and knowledge of weight training came from a George Jowett booklet that he picked up in 1955 (and he stills has today). He began to follow Jowett’s coaching and used it as strength training for boxing. His coaches however felt that weight training would make you muscle bound, so they were totally against it. Unaware that Mr. Jowett had retired and sold the institute to a company in New York, the teenager wrote him for advice. Eventually the letter reached the Jowett home in Canada, and before long Mike received a detailed hand-written letter from George who wholeheartedly supported his efforts to use weight training as a means to condition his body for boxing.
Mike says “It always impressed me, and of course the older I get the more I reflect on it. Here’s a guy who is retired, living up in Canada, who would sit down and hand write a letter to a 17 year old kid down in Brownsville, TX. That to me has been my guiding principal as far as what I do with coaching and training people.”
Even today, at 67 years old, you will find Mike at the Old Texas Barbell Company coaching individuals for the asking. He is the lowest paid strength and conditioning coach in the world ($0), and that’s the way he likes it. He truly does what he does because he loves it and cares about people. What George Jowett gave to him, he has spent a lifetime passing on to others.
Mike got into the gym business in Austin, Texas in 1973, after taking over a local gym that had fallen to hard times. Since he didn’t have any money to get it going, he worked as a night-time security guard in an office building downtown to make a living, so that he could roll the revenue from the gym back into the business to make improvements. He did this for five years, keeping the gym open 7 days a week.
Then in 1983, after being told that the building the gym was in was going to be sold, he decided to purchase another gym- which he kept until 1995. By that time Mike was well established, owning the gym and a home that was only a block away- however, he had a desire to get back “to a small gym like I had originally, in a small town and doing more hands on, where I run the whole thing. Don’t have any employees just work with people.” So in 1995 he bought a building in Lockhart, Texas, and established the Old Texas Barbell Company. Mike says “it gives me a place to put all my collectables, weights, books, and magazines and equipment so other people can enjoy them to, rather than having them stuffed in a closet or a garage someplace, people can use them and enjoy them, and I can also train people.”
The Old Texas Barbell Company is more than just a gym, it is a museum. If you want a real blast of what the old-timers trained with, then you will surely want to pay a visit to Lockhart. Mike is always willing to talk shop. Check out these pics-
Nerves of Steel
168 lb Jowett Anvil On Loan from U.T.
Various Dumbbells and Milo Kettlebells
A Corner of the Gym
Dennis Rogers and Mike Graham
The Old Texas Barbell Company
Mike Graham
212 South Commerce, Lockhart, Texas 78644
512-398-3677