The Westside Barbell club run by Louie Simmons, is one of the current institutions of the iron game. Known for producing champion powerlifters and even effective machines such as the Reverse Hyper Extension, there is little doubting the club's importance for lifters, whether or not they adhere to powerlifting itself. In today's short post, we're… Continue reading Forgotten Exercises: The JM Press
In a rare turn for this website, today's post focuses on a 2023 reseach article which recently crossed my path. Published by Tor Söderström, the article focuses on twenty years of interviews with gym-goers at a Swedish gym and, in doing so, highlights the changes in both exercisee's motivations, as well as their training patterns.… Continue reading Research Corner: How Has Fitness Changed in the Past Twenty Years?
Trainee One: "Drink a protein shake within 30 minutes of training or else" Trainee Two: "Why, what happens?" Trainee One: "You'll lose all your gains and the workout will be wasted." Yes, this was a conversation I encountered multiple times as a teenager training in the 2000s. Sometimes I was Trainee Two, asking good questions… Continue reading When Did ‘Anabolic Windows’ Become a Thing?
How did you become a strength performer in the early 1900s? It's not a trick question but something that I've become fascinated with in the past two weeks. This was a time before mainstream competitions. This was a time before social media and it was a time when to be strong was to be truly… Continue reading How did you become a strength performer in the early 1900s?
Owing to the inquisitive nature of a PCS reader, I've finally gotten my act together, or at least come close enough to some semblance of normality, to go down the rabbit hole once again. The topic of todays post, is the rather more niche but nevertheless effective Glute Ham Raise (GHR) machine. Having spent years… Continue reading The History of the Glute Ham Raise
This program's purpose is designed to produce quick size by working non-specifically (four different aspects of each muscle) – in other words, it is not a shaping course. Now, the muscle to receive the most work is the muscle you start with. I always start with the arms. So, this is how I will set… Continue reading Vince Gironda, ‘Biceps: A Six-Week Bulk Course’, Vince Gironda Six Week Bulk Course (c.1968), 3-4
For reasons that I will happily discuss later, I was recently in London with my family and had a to-do list of physical culture-related materials that I wanted to check out. First, there would be a meal at the German Gymnasium. This was one of the first public gymnasiums to open in nineteenth-century London and… Continue reading Why I Wanted to Visit a Dead Man’s Grave
Written by D. Haddleton, of Sydney, Australia in Health and Strength Magazine, in November 1964, the following article presents an 'old school' method of training the abs. It features several exercises long forgotten by the modern weightlifter, making it both an invaluable piece of Iron Game history and valuable training aid. Really want to kick-start some ab development?… Continue reading D. Haddleton, ‘It takes guts to chisel out the Abdominals’, Health and Strength (1964)
Outside the auditorium, or Pavilion, as it's called, it is a gorgeous Sunday afternoon at the Mountain Park amusement center in Holyoke, Mass. A roller coaster clatters up and down a wooden trestle. Children fly around in little whirly things that look like boats with wings. There are clam bars, pizza stands, dart throws, cotton-candy… Continue reading Charles Gaines, ‘Cutting Some Fancy Figures, Sports Illustrated, 10 July (1972).
It’s been a while since I posted an old-school workout on this website. This was unintentional and driven, largely, by my own interest in stories as opposed to sets. Nevertheless it is good to return to the well every know and then and where better to go than the Trainer of Champions himself, Joe Weider.… Continue reading Joe Weider’s Advanced Split Routine
