Every so often you find a piece of lifting history that makes the modern gym look like it has lost its imagination. And, in my view, the bench press is one of those pieces. The rack is so structurally central to the contemporary gym that its absence barely registers as a historical possibility. It is… Continue reading Before the Rack: How Did People Bench Press Without One?
Category: Basics
A Sig Klein Workout for People Who Like Their Fitness Slightly Ridiculous
Every so often you find a fitness booklet that makes the modern gym look like it has lost its nerve. This one is Sig Klein’s Super Physique: Body-Building Bar-bell Course, sixth English edition (c.1943), a small paper artefact from the old physical culture world where men in trunks demonstrated exercises with the confidence of minor… Continue reading A Sig Klein Workout for People Who Like Their Fitness Slightly Ridiculous
On Starting too Light: How 5/3/1 Made Strength Training Grow Up
For more than four years, Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program has been the quiet machinery inside my training week. I have run it while writing books, chasing deadlines, travelling too much, sleeping too little, parenting (results undetermined), teaching, and occasionally lifting Irish stones that seem to have been designed by rural Ireland to embarrass city… Continue reading On Starting too Light: How 5/3/1 Made Strength Training Grow Up
Have We Been Doing Gyms Wrong?
< div id="entry"> < div id="main" class="main typography use-theme-bg"> < div> < div class="single-post-container" role="main" aria-label="Post"> < div class="container"> < div class="single-post"> < div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"> < article class="typography newsletter-post post"> < div> < div class="dropCap-hcUVpW"> < div class="available-content"> < div class="body markup" dir="auto"> Walk into most gyms today and the experience is… Continue reading Have We Been Doing Gyms Wrong?
Vince Gironda, ‘Common Errors in Bodybuilding’, The Master Series of Nutritional Bodybuilding (Iron Guru Publishing, 1983), 5-7
Gironda is undoubtedly a site favourite. Known for his unique style of training and nutritional approach, Gironda didn't pull any punches when it came to giving his opinion. The below errors, 35 in total, may raise a few eyebrows. Nevertheless they demonstrated Gironda's willingness to give his opinion! Over training! (Anything over 45 minutes is… Continue reading Vince Gironda, ‘Common Errors in Bodybuilding’, The Master Series of Nutritional Bodybuilding (Iron Guru Publishing, 1983), 5-7
I Walked Like John Wayne for Four Days
Let me set the scene. Four days. A cascade of terrible decisions, each one made with the quiet confidence of someone who absolutely should have known better. Day one…walking lunges to failure with dumbbells. Not a few sets. Failure. As in, the point at which my legs simply declined to continue being legs. Who does… Continue reading I Walked Like John Wayne for Four Days
How P90X Turned Romanian Sports Science into a $120 Fitness Catchphrase
Who remembers P90X? As a teen growing up, P90X advertisements always seemed to promise the simplest and most effective way of getting lean. Honestly, it was marketed as a cheat code. Follow this program for a couple of weeks, at home no less, and suddenly you would have a six pack. Easy! Now forgive me,… Continue reading How P90X Turned Romanian Sports Science into a $120 Fitness Catchphrase
The Thickest Barbell Alive and the Lost Art of Odd Lifts
I am a big fan of novelty barbells. This is not news to anyone who has read my stuff for long enough. Give me an EZ bar, a trap bar, an earthquake bar, a thick bar, a homemade bar, or some bizarre object a strongman once claimed was impossible to lift and I am happy.… Continue reading The Thickest Barbell Alive and the Lost Art of Odd Lifts
Dressed to Pull: The Hidden History of the Deadlift Suit
As the inaugural Enhanced Games approach in Las Vegas this May, the deadlift has become ground zero for one of strength sport’s hottest debates. Hafþór ‘Thor’ Björnsson, the former World’s Strongest Man and current raw deadlift world record holder at 510 kg, will square off against Mitchell Hooper in a head-to-head max deadlift exhibition. Thor… Continue reading Dressed to Pull: The Hidden History of the Deadlift Suit
The Most Cited Squat in History Was a Marketing Stunt
“Tom and I worked for Vince McMahon… as a marketing gimmick, we were obliged to go head to head in a ‘great squat-off.’” That’s Fred Hatfield reflecting on the 1992 contest with Tom Platz, a moment that is still regularly circulated as evidence in debates about training. The footage is treated as a kind of… Continue reading The Most Cited Squat in History Was a Marketing Stunt