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General Discussion / Interview to Jon Jon Park, by Steve Shaw
« on: February 28, 2012, 10:13:10 PM »
From www.regpark.net
My Talk With Jon Jon Park by Steve Shaw.
Steve Shaw: For those reading this interview who aren't familiar with your name, can you tell us a bit about yourself, and how you got involved with weight training?
Jon Jon Park: I was born in Johannesburg South Africa in 1957. My late father Reg had a chain of gymnasiums in South Africa & I used to spend as much time as possible hanging out in the gyms. As a little boy I used to go with my dad every Saturday & Sunday early in the mornings to his downtown gym & watch him & all the big guys train. He used to make me stand on top of the weight stack on the lat pulldown machine & do pulldowns & he would give me a few mostly non weight bearing exercises to do & I loved the ambience, the energy & the whole experience, you can imagine the impression it left on me as a young kid being around all these big powerful guys who were pretty hard core in those days there were some pretty tough guys South African martial arts, wrestling, numerous body building champions, street fighters, guys from all walks of life, the less affluent suburbs blue collar workers & affluent successful businessmen. Every body used to workout together & kibbitz around, there was great camaraderie & even though the guys used to joke around when they were doing an exercise, they were very serious. They used to have a board on the wall with the eighteen inch arm club the 300lb plus bench press club etc & I am talking back in the early sixties anybody who was serious about training in those days would train at Reg’s downtown gym. They used to have different periods where navy blue sweat suits were in & all the guys would wear Reg Park navy blue sweat suits & Reg Park v neck t shirts, then in the summer they would all wear white sweat suits. On Saturdays & during the week, after the work out session everyone would converge on mass to the local deli Plotkins & have a huge breakfast consisting of porridge or corn flakes with Reg Park protein powder, six poached or fried eggs, a beef sausage, steak & whole wheat toast. There was no such thing as watching your carb or fat intake in those days & the guys were all in great shape.
All the guys would make a huge fuss of me I used to look forward to these mornings all week I wasn’t much of a scholar at school I was only interested in playing outside & doing physical activities, so this was the highlight of the week for me. I also used to do judo from about age six as Reg had a judo & karate studio on the floor above the gym. During the winter when the gym closed on Saturdays at 1pm we would go for then stop at the local magazine store where I would buy soccer magazines & Tarzan comics & then we would go & watch the local professional soccer teams play. My dad was a big soccer fan & subsequently I became one. In fact he had his own Reg Park Sunday league team which was very competitive. On Sundays after workouts, the team would play all over the province which was also great fun as sometimes they would travel all together on a bus & sing songs, tell jokes & have a great time. The team ended up winning the league & were undefeated & were about to be promoted into the professional league, but were unable to do so as there were at least six professionals playing for the team & according to their contracts with there respective teams, weren’t really allowed to play for any other teams even non professional Sunday league teams.
These experiences really shaped my life & of course growing up with a father like Reg as a role model it was natural for me to get involved in sports I had a natural aptitude for swimming & started excelling from a young age I won the provincial championships for my age in the 100m & 200m butterfly & represented my province at junior & senior level in fact I still hold the boys under 14 200m butterfly provincial record it has stood for almost thirty years. I captained my province in the junior nationals at aged 16 & eventually won the senior nationals in the 100m butterfly three times, the third time I also won the 200m & broke the national record in both events. I also played soccer which was my first love & participated in track & field in my early teens I was quite a promising 100m sprinter but eventually I had to make a choice. I didn’t have much talent as a soccer player even though I loved the game & I showed the most promise in swimming which took up a lot of time I worked out six days a week during the week in the mornings before school & then again after school. I also used to do strength work specifically for swimming three times a week. My dad developed a special pulley machine specifically for swimming whereby you could mimic the different strokes with resistance & it was only a matter of time before all the coaches would send their swimmers to his gyms to do strength work. Prior to this it was pretty frowned upon like with most sports coaches & trainers had this archaic attitude that weight training slows you down which is ironic when today there is not a top athlete in the world that doesn’t do strength training. Reg however was a lateral thinker & ahead of his time & I guess my performances in the pool were pretty convincing as to the benefits of strength work. Reg used to train many athletes for rehab work after injuries & conditioning from all different sports. My swimming career culminated in me representing Great Britain in the Montreal Olympics in 1976 at aged nineteen. Unfortunately due to apartheid South Africa were banned from international competition but due to my dad’s birthright I was able to compete for the UK.
Unfortunately I retired from swimming too soon, much as I excelled in swimming, I always wanted to be a body builder & follow in my dad’s footsteps with all the influences I had been exposed to it wasn’t difficult to want to go in that direction. Reg used to hold an annual bodybuilding show the Mr South Africa & he would bring the top guy out to do a guest posing exhibition, guys like Pearl, Scott, Draper, Abenda, Sell, Zane, Corney, Columbu, Dickerson, Coe & of course Arnold who I met when he was nineteen & I was nine. These guys would come out during the Xmas holidays, summer time in South Africa, they would spend up to six weeks at a time staying in our house & besides the Mr South Africa contest Reg also arranged shows all around the country. We would travel around the country in concert to all the beach resorts with a whole crew all the guys who worked for my dad who were helpers & guys appearing in the various shows judo guys, comedians etc & all their respective families they were magical moments. There would be a show & contest in each of the provinces & the winners would compete in the finale the Mr South Africa which was held in Johannesburg. Reg would have all the guys who worked & trained at his gyms be involved in this event, selling tickets, being ushers working backstage etc. I vividly remember watching Reg pose at these various events to The Legend of The Glass Mountain & I decide there & then I wanted to be like him, the applause & reaction he received from the audience was sensational. He became my hero at a very young age. When I was twelve we the family traveled Europe & Reg did a number of exhibitions in the UK & the receptions he received, were even bigger than in South Africa it was like our boy Reg is home, this was all very powerful stuff for a young kid to be exposed to.
My Talk With Jon Jon Park by Steve Shaw.
Steve Shaw: For those reading this interview who aren't familiar with your name, can you tell us a bit about yourself, and how you got involved with weight training?
Jon Jon Park: I was born in Johannesburg South Africa in 1957. My late father Reg had a chain of gymnasiums in South Africa & I used to spend as much time as possible hanging out in the gyms. As a little boy I used to go with my dad every Saturday & Sunday early in the mornings to his downtown gym & watch him & all the big guys train. He used to make me stand on top of the weight stack on the lat pulldown machine & do pulldowns & he would give me a few mostly non weight bearing exercises to do & I loved the ambience, the energy & the whole experience, you can imagine the impression it left on me as a young kid being around all these big powerful guys who were pretty hard core in those days there were some pretty tough guys South African martial arts, wrestling, numerous body building champions, street fighters, guys from all walks of life, the less affluent suburbs blue collar workers & affluent successful businessmen. Every body used to workout together & kibbitz around, there was great camaraderie & even though the guys used to joke around when they were doing an exercise, they were very serious. They used to have a board on the wall with the eighteen inch arm club the 300lb plus bench press club etc & I am talking back in the early sixties anybody who was serious about training in those days would train at Reg’s downtown gym. They used to have different periods where navy blue sweat suits were in & all the guys would wear Reg Park navy blue sweat suits & Reg Park v neck t shirts, then in the summer they would all wear white sweat suits. On Saturdays & during the week, after the work out session everyone would converge on mass to the local deli Plotkins & have a huge breakfast consisting of porridge or corn flakes with Reg Park protein powder, six poached or fried eggs, a beef sausage, steak & whole wheat toast. There was no such thing as watching your carb or fat intake in those days & the guys were all in great shape.
All the guys would make a huge fuss of me I used to look forward to these mornings all week I wasn’t much of a scholar at school I was only interested in playing outside & doing physical activities, so this was the highlight of the week for me. I also used to do judo from about age six as Reg had a judo & karate studio on the floor above the gym. During the winter when the gym closed on Saturdays at 1pm we would go for then stop at the local magazine store where I would buy soccer magazines & Tarzan comics & then we would go & watch the local professional soccer teams play. My dad was a big soccer fan & subsequently I became one. In fact he had his own Reg Park Sunday league team which was very competitive. On Sundays after workouts, the team would play all over the province which was also great fun as sometimes they would travel all together on a bus & sing songs, tell jokes & have a great time. The team ended up winning the league & were undefeated & were about to be promoted into the professional league, but were unable to do so as there were at least six professionals playing for the team & according to their contracts with there respective teams, weren’t really allowed to play for any other teams even non professional Sunday league teams.
These experiences really shaped my life & of course growing up with a father like Reg as a role model it was natural for me to get involved in sports I had a natural aptitude for swimming & started excelling from a young age I won the provincial championships for my age in the 100m & 200m butterfly & represented my province at junior & senior level in fact I still hold the boys under 14 200m butterfly provincial record it has stood for almost thirty years. I captained my province in the junior nationals at aged 16 & eventually won the senior nationals in the 100m butterfly three times, the third time I also won the 200m & broke the national record in both events. I also played soccer which was my first love & participated in track & field in my early teens I was quite a promising 100m sprinter but eventually I had to make a choice. I didn’t have much talent as a soccer player even though I loved the game & I showed the most promise in swimming which took up a lot of time I worked out six days a week during the week in the mornings before school & then again after school. I also used to do strength work specifically for swimming three times a week. My dad developed a special pulley machine specifically for swimming whereby you could mimic the different strokes with resistance & it was only a matter of time before all the coaches would send their swimmers to his gyms to do strength work. Prior to this it was pretty frowned upon like with most sports coaches & trainers had this archaic attitude that weight training slows you down which is ironic when today there is not a top athlete in the world that doesn’t do strength training. Reg however was a lateral thinker & ahead of his time & I guess my performances in the pool were pretty convincing as to the benefits of strength work. Reg used to train many athletes for rehab work after injuries & conditioning from all different sports. My swimming career culminated in me representing Great Britain in the Montreal Olympics in 1976 at aged nineteen. Unfortunately due to apartheid South Africa were banned from international competition but due to my dad’s birthright I was able to compete for the UK.
Unfortunately I retired from swimming too soon, much as I excelled in swimming, I always wanted to be a body builder & follow in my dad’s footsteps with all the influences I had been exposed to it wasn’t difficult to want to go in that direction. Reg used to hold an annual bodybuilding show the Mr South Africa & he would bring the top guy out to do a guest posing exhibition, guys like Pearl, Scott, Draper, Abenda, Sell, Zane, Corney, Columbu, Dickerson, Coe & of course Arnold who I met when he was nineteen & I was nine. These guys would come out during the Xmas holidays, summer time in South Africa, they would spend up to six weeks at a time staying in our house & besides the Mr South Africa contest Reg also arranged shows all around the country. We would travel around the country in concert to all the beach resorts with a whole crew all the guys who worked for my dad who were helpers & guys appearing in the various shows judo guys, comedians etc & all their respective families they were magical moments. There would be a show & contest in each of the provinces & the winners would compete in the finale the Mr South Africa which was held in Johannesburg. Reg would have all the guys who worked & trained at his gyms be involved in this event, selling tickets, being ushers working backstage etc. I vividly remember watching Reg pose at these various events to The Legend of The Glass Mountain & I decide there & then I wanted to be like him, the applause & reaction he received from the audience was sensational. He became my hero at a very young age. When I was twelve we the family traveled Europe & Reg did a number of exhibitions in the UK & the receptions he received, were even bigger than in South Africa it was like our boy Reg is home, this was all very powerful stuff for a young kid to be exposed to.
