Back in early to mid 2017 at the gym there were two guys who with half of their gym time played around (mind you they went hard) with the strongman implements.
At the time I’m 22/23, the two training partners are the young one who looks very familiar at maybe 30, and the elder is roughly 50.
One day I ended up talking with them, I asked the young one if his last name was “S”.
He went “yeah, I’m RS, oh man I knew I recognized you, but still can’t figure out how, who are you”.
I told him I played baseball with two of his younger brothers in 4th grade. (The younger of whom shared my birthday.)
I thought it was crazy that we recognized each other from ages 10/17 fast forwarded to 22/29. Apparently I looked familiar enough between 10 and 22 despite growing a beard.
Despite the twenty year age gap, the two weren’t father son.
The older, who seemed to have been a junkie hopefully in a former life, was his boss.
They worked together, coming in on lunch break or the end of the day depending on how long their shift was going. I can’t remember the trade. Though they almost always were car pooled in the work truck, a pickup with all the tool boxes built into the sides.
(It may have had a cherry picker box, but I’m not certain on that detail.)
The younger guy, first name “R”, would tell me how this guy changed his life. It implied he got him working, disciplined, away from a bad path.
I thought it pretty cool that boss and employee were doing yoke walks together during lunch.
Now, I’m not strong at powerlifting. My numbers are terrible if I was to compete without training and likely getting rid of mental blocks to make them nonembarrassing.
(A lot of weak people get official meet numbers for reasons I’ll never understand.)
That’s not to say I’m weak. I’ve always been stronger outside the gym doing stuff than in the weight room.
Over the years a lot of guys older than me verbalize their observations along the lines of my squat/bench/deadlift not representing the strength I have.
Around this time was when I first successfully hit my first ugly starfished officially as strong as a college football player 275lb power clean.
The two guys would see me going absolutely bonkers set after set on cleans every single time they saw me.
I’d actually trade cameramanning with them. I found out the younger one’s youtube. Hilariously I didn’t share the name of mine when the older guy asked, at the time and still just saying “I label videos accurately, if you find it you find it”.
The older guy decided that my name wouldn’t work.
He christened me “beastly” due to my being a beast.
It still cracks me up to recollect.
They left that gym by mid 2017, so I haven’t heard the name “beastly” in years. Heck, that gym is now out of business.
I can still hear his voice saying it, with a very slight almost imperceptible lisp, he’d always greet me.
Sometimes theatrically, he had no inhibition against yelling “what’s up beastly” across the gym floor, but usually it would be a normal greeting with a handshake.
The younger guy and I just greeted each other by first name. I just greeted the guy by first name.
While humorous, “beastly” struck me as a great gym floor nickname.
-Beastly