Marcy History with Walt Marcyan

Last Updated on January 19, 2018 by marcypro17cybertegic

The Marcy brand and Marcy fitness products originate from the founder, Walter Marcyan, born August 24, 1913 in Chicago, Illinois.  He was a well-known competitive weightlifter, bodybuilder, performing Strongman hand-balancing acts. Marcyan committed himself to a life dedicated to exercise, physical conditioning, and agility.  In order to further his understanding of physical conditioning, he became a doctor of Chiropractic Medicine, which led to the development of an early multi-station weightlifting machine.

     

At age eighteen, Walt received his first set of dumbbells, and began competitive weightlifting soon after.  At 165 lbs. and 19, he won his weight class in the Illinois State Championship and the Central AAU Championship for two consecutive years, 1933 and 1934.  He then went on to win the Pacific coast Championship in 1937, and the California State Championship and the Golden Gate International Exposition Championship in 1939 with official totals of 775 lbs. and 785 lbs. respectively.

Marcyan holds records in lifts that include 133lb. pullover and press 400 lb. clean to the shoulders, and a 205 lb. one arm snatch.  However, his personal best in the three Olympic lifts, at 190 lb. body weight, were 282 lb. Military Press, 262 lb. Two Arm Snatch, and an incredible 330 lb. Clean and Jerk – totaling 874 lbs.  He also trained as a contestant in the first Mr. USA contest where he placed sixth in his division, which marked the beginning of the bodybuilding profession.

In 1946, Marcyan then opened his famous House of Health, the first of seven gyms in the Los Angeles area, offering personal training to assist members with full amenities that included a juice bar, sauna, wet steam, and game room.  During this time, he began to design fitness equipment, which led to the opening of his production facility for the “Marcy Gymnasium Equipment Company” in Glendale CA.

Bruce Lee’s Marcy Multi-Station Home Gym Machine

In 1959, Marcy introduces the first ever All-In-One Gym multi-station gym for the home, designed by Marcyan.  Marcyan then publishes the Physical Power magazine, where he is the first to promote weight training as a way to enhance athletic performances to high school and college coaches, and athletic directors.

“The primary goal of our physical education and athletic program should be’ that every American boy and girl should be stronger and healthier and that they should have attained the knowledge to maintain these blessings through later life.”

He wrote on youth fitness.

In 1965, Walter Marcyan graduates from the Los Angeles School of Chiropractic Medicine, which led to the development and introduction of a sophisticated piece of equipment called the Circuit Trainer.  The Circuit Trainer is a multi-station weight machine that allowed as many as sixteen people to work out simultaneously moving from “station” to “station” and exercising all the muscles in the body after completing each circuit.  These machines were used at universities, military bases, high schools, police and fire departments, as well as professional gyms throughout the United States and around the world.

Amongst other things, Dr. Marcyan was well-known man, making major contributions to the weightlifting and physical fitness community.  After the assassination attempt on President Reagan, Marcyan equipped a state-of-the-art gymnasium at the White House and Reagan’s private home in California to help with his rehabilitation.

 

In the late 1970’s and 1980’s, Marcy Fitness Products became the leader for home gym equipment bringing innovative quality exercise equipment into the comfort of any home.  Compact multi-station machines that fit easily into the average size room, or garage.  As the years pass, his company then led to the development of the following products:

Dyna Gym – multi-purpose home gym

Mach-1 – an automated barbell station

Master Gym – first selector weight stack, multi-station home gym with continuous loop pulley system and wall mounted design

Brawny – high-end line of home weight benches and abdominal boards

Body Bar – first affordable home gym available to the public

Monster Bench – first single leg weight bench and leg developer

Pro Max – first reverse incline weight bench with front loading positioning

EM-1 (Exercise Module 1) – revolutionary home gym system with cutting edge designs of a pivoting press arm pulley, leg and arm curl station, and sliding incline bench.

The Wedge – wrist and forearm developer

Apex – brand name line of commercial single and multi-station machines

Impex Inc. – Company who purchased the Marcy brand in 1998

Image source: https://i-sports.ch/marcy-the-brand-and-its-development

 

Dr. Marcyan, 94, died of complications related to old age on September 9, 2007 at his Escondido home in San Diego County of California.  He was married to his wife, Betty, for 51 years, who died just twenty-two hours before him.  He leaves behind four children, and sixteen grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The vision for this brand was to simply make strength and fitness training increasingly accessible to the entire nation.  Succeeding with drive and determination, Marcyan quickly transformed this type of training into a mainstream pastime, creating a solid foundation for Marcy Fitness products as a bench mark for all home fitness equipment.  This Legacy lives on.

Marcy offers a wide variety of home exercise equipment produced to compliment the human body’s natural movement, promote correct form and technique for all ability levels.  See the best home gym exercise equipment Marcy has to offer at http://www.MarcyPro.com

 

Resources [1], [2], [3]