Category: Basics

Resources by Conor HeffernanJul 1, 202010:35 pm

Naim Süleymanoğlu and the Importance of Public Histories

As part of my writing with Barbend I’m currently in the middle of an article on Naim Süleymanoğlu, the great Turkish weightlifter from the 1990s. Naim’s story is one of Cold War politics, individual athleticism and raw feats of strength.

The above video, found on the Olympics’ own Youtube channel is such a wonderful idea and something I’d love to see more of in the history of sport. In trying to express Naim’s amazing career and importance to others, the above video gives a succinct, and entertaining example.

This led me to wonder about how the strength community is currently preserving its legacy. As someone who grew up at the very beginning of the internet age – a time when bodybuilding and powerlifting forms were in their infancy, I have always been fascinated with how the history of gym culture – in all its forms – is discussed among weight trainers.

As a historian of physical culture, I am perhaps overly interested in this topic but as the past few years using this website have thought me, the public’s interest in this history is very real. So in today’s post I want to highlight some of the places where this history is being preserved, as well as ruminating on the future of lifting history in the online age.

Resources by Conor HeffernanJun 26, 202010:03 pm

Ronald Reagan’s Presidential Workout (1984)

Not long ago, the editors of Parade asked whether I would write an article on how I try to keep in shape. I said I would be delighted because I am a great believer in exercise, not only for reasons of fitness but also sheer pleasure. So, move over, Jane Fonda, here comes the Ronald Reagan workout plan.

Exercise comes pretty naturally to me, since I’ve done it my entire life. When I was younger, I was a lifeguard during the summers, and I played football in high school and college. And for all of my adult life, I have enjoyed horseback riding and working outdoors.

Over the years, I have learned that one key to exercise is to find something you enjoy. The other key is to keep the exercise varied. Using those two principles, let me explain my fitness plan, and perhaps you can see ways in which this could help you in your own exercising.

Resources by Conor HeffernanJun 24, 20209:33 pm

Anthony Ditillo, The Adaptation Principle in Strength Training

Finally, we come to the Theory of Adaptation, which will close out this section on useful training principles in the quest for physical strength. What we are going to try to do here is to […]

Training by Conor HeffernanJun 22, 20209:31 pm

Eugen Sandow on Heavy Weightlifting

A point previously discussed on this website was the regularity with which early physical culturists promoted light weight training as opposed to heavy lifting. The reasons for this are numerous. In the first instance, light weightlifting is easier to promote to the general public than heavy weightlifting. It requires less equipment, can be done in the comfort of one’s own home and can be done with relative ease. It was for this reason that individuals like Eugen Sandow, Professor Attila and a host of other physical culturists promoted light weightlifting for their followers. A few, like Arthur Saxon, bucked the trend and argued that heavy lifting was needed to build a strong physique.

With that in mind, today’s brief post examines the brief words Eugen Sandow gave to heavy weightlifting in his seminal book, Strength and How to Obtain It. Published by Sandow first in 1897, Strength was, for many, Sandow’s most important work. It came at the height of his popularity, sold widely and was more accessible than some of his later works which were far more medical in composition. Thanks to the British Library in London, I was able to consult Sandow’s 1897 edition, as well as his third edition published in 1905. Sandow did not expand greatly on how to lift heavy but nevertheless provided an insight into the progressive training practices of the late 1890s and early 1900s.

Training by Conor HeffernanJun 17, 20209:31 pm

Wrestling and Weightlifting: The WWF and Fitness in the 1980s

I’ll admit it, although born in the early 1990s, I was a Hulkamaniac. Aside from growing up during the WWF attitude era, where individuals like Triple H, The Rock, Mark Henry and Stone Cold were living embodiments of strength, I regularly went through back catalogues of old wrestling shows. There I’d see Jimmy Superfly Snuka’s iconic finishes, Jimmy Hart’s unmatched smack talk and everything weird and wonderful that wrestling offered from the 1980s onwards. I, like many others, was enthralled by the athleticism of the wrestlers. I suspect that my initial interest in training came from my love of wrestling where the heels and the babyfaces sported muscular bodies in equal measure. In that vein, today’s post examines the WWF’s crossovers into health and fitness in the 1980s.

Resources by Conor HeffernanJun 15, 20202:03 pm

Guest Post: The History of Meditation

While millions of people have found inner peace through meditation, it is hard to say they know where it originated from. The history of meditation is saturated; as some of the world’s earliest religions, the […]

Resources by Conor HeffernanJun 12, 20209:30 pm

Guest Post: “Weight Training Women Stay in Shape Without Getting Muscle-Bound,” Jet Magazine, 1 September (1977)

For a long time, men have dominated the sport of weight lifting. But tucked away at a YMCA in the small Midwestern town of Canton, Ohio, some 150 women are pumping iron, straining and twisting their feminine physiques, trying to smooth those flabby curves.

They bench-press, lift barbells, dumbbells, do chin-ups, situps, leg extensions and numerous other body exercises until their bodies ache with pain.

And all for what?

For some it’s just to stay in shape, but for about 20 others it’s a competitive sport and a rapidly developing one at that.

Resources by Conor HeffernanJun 5, 20209:30 pm

Ding Lifting in Ancient China

Today’s short post comes primarily from Nigel B. Crowther’s wonderful chapter on Ancient Chinese sport and physical education. Looking primarily at Chinese physical cultures, Crowther found that weightlifting, archery, weight throwing, tug of war, boxing and a host of other activities were practiced by Chinese men. Of interest to us today, was the use of Ding’s as feats of strength.

Resources by Conor HeffernanJun 3, 20209:29 pm

‘Speed and Power Exercises for Wrestlers’, a Soviet Documentary from the 1980s

Admittedly a little bit longer than the normal videos I post here, the following film is too interesting to pass up on. Produced in the late 1980s in the final years of the Soviet Union, […]

Resources by Conor HeffernanJun 1, 20209:29 pm

The Long History of the Medicine Ball

Few pieces of equipment have a century’s long history. Aside, perhaps, from the Indian club, most of the machines or devices we exercise with today count their origins to the eighteenth or nineteenth century. Sure some may argue that dumbbells have long been used by trainees but a simple look at Ancient Greek halteres makes clear that the modern dumbbell bears little resemblance.

The relatively new nature of exercise equipment obscures the fact that there is one piece of exercise equipment, used in almost every gym, that has a centuries long history. Enter the humble medicine ball. No other piece of equipment is treated with as much disrespect as the medicine ball. It is slammed, thrown, lifted, kicked and, at times, even hit with sledge hammers. Our relative ill treatment of it aside, the medicine ball is also one of those few devices that serves a variety of goals and training methods.

Few of us, myself included, acknowledge the long history of the medicine ball. With that in mind, today’s post tracks the long history of the medicine ball, beginning with its time in Ancient Greece, its re-emergence in the nineteenth century, right up to its modern day use.