I loved this movie. That's it. Review done. Watch it here. More seriously, Marc Martinez has created a documentary about bodybuilding's Golden Age that manages to do what so many Iron Game documentaries struggle with - he captures the wonder of bodybuilding. This is a movie centred on California and bodybuilding from the late 1940s… Continue reading Movie Review: Dream Big (Marc Martinez, 2022)
What teen or young lifter hasn't been seduced by the idea of bigger biceps? Indeed in the bodybuilding universe of both males and females, no pose is more iconic that the front or back double bicep pose. A difficult set of muscles to grow, except of course for the genetically gifted, the biceps have been… Continue reading 21s in Bodybuilding Lore
This website has been pretty vocal in its appreciation of Frank Zane. A three time Mr. Olympia, Zane privileged a level of conditioning and aesthetics that, even today, is still admired by bodybuilding fans. Zane's training diaries, and later books highlighted a clearly meticulous and determined attitude to training. It wasn't enough to move the… Continue reading Forgotten Exercises: The Zane Leg Blaster
I HAVE often been asked what it feels like to press 350 pounds with one hand, and perhaps to my readers the different sensations experienced will be interesting. In the first place, immediately I start to press the weight away from the shoulder I become perfectly oblivious to everything except the weight that I am… Continue reading Arthur Saxon, ‘What It Feels Like to Lift 350 Pounds with One Hand’, The Development of Physical Power (London, 1905), 23-24.
For those of us whose bodybuilding heroes are from the IronAge, finding our place in the land of modern bodybuilding has been tough. We feel out of place. Our heroes and our IronAge ideals often seem incompatible with the world of bodybuilding. As we struggle to reconcile bodybuilding's past with its changes, it is our… Continue reading Robert Paris, ‘Defining the Iron Age’, Ironage.us (c. 2003)
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… Continue reading Eugen Sandow on Heavy Weightlifting
The following workout comes from the wonderful A Portrait of Dorian Yates: The Ultimate Bodybuilding Guide from the Ultimate Bodybuilder by the late Peter McGough. For those who don't know, Peter was one of bodybuilding's most authoritative journalists for several decades. He was intimately linked with Dorian and it was Peter who bestowed Dorian with… Continue reading Dorian Yates’ Olympia Winning Workout
I love feats of strength. Admittedly that's not the most surprising admission given the purpose of this website but it is one worth stating every now and then. It doesn't matter if it is someone lifting a barbell or a bale of heavy. Make it heavy enough and I will watch it or, if I… Continue reading A Few Sandovian Stage Feats
The following Chapter comes from Mark Berry's wondeful book from the 1930s Physical Training Simplified. In it, Berry addresses one of the biggest questions from his era, is lifting safe? Enjoy! Bar Bell Exercise is Different Than Competitive or Record Lifting. But Does the Weight Lifter Run Any Risks? In the minds of some persons… Continue reading Is Heavy Exercise Dangerous?
Okay, I admit it. I have become, for want of a better word, a home gym fetishist. What began out of necessity during the Covid-19 pandemic has now become a delightful, but expensive, obsession of mine. We recently moved home and, for the first time in two years, my home gym now has a roof!… Continue reading What did a Home Gym Set Up Look Like in 1950s America?
