A number of readers have reached out in the past month asking for book recommendations on the history of physical culture. As someone who has spent several years researching the topic, I've read my fair share of good, and not so good, books. Thankfully today's book, the first of our 'Brawny Books' book club, falls… Continue reading Brawny Books: David Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent.
I did not go looking for F. A. Hornibrook. He turned up while I was chasing something else, which is usually how these things happen. A name in an advertisement. A reference that did not quite make sense. A photograph that looked familiar in a way that was hard to explain. He never arrived all… Continue reading When Did Everyone Start Looking Like This?
How many times do you eat a day? Do you eat carbs after 3pm? Post-workout protein shake? Such are the questions faced by the modern day strength enthusiast. Are we overthinking the way we eat? In a world faced with a growing obesity epidemic and continuous production of low quality foods the answer may appear… Continue reading What did Eugen Sandow Eat?
Next month my new book When Fitness Went Global: The Rise of Physical Culture in the Nineteenth Century is published with Bloomsbury. It has been ten years in the making, and, in truth, a lifetime in the thinking. I began the project trying to understand why my obsession with lifting and movement felt so personal,… Continue reading How Fitness Conquered the World (and What It Still Teaches Us)
In 1907, Eugen Sandow opened what he called a Curative Institute of Physical Culture in London. That moment captures something essential about the fitness entrepreneur. This is not the sports retailer selling boots or the coach guiding a team. The fitness entrepreneur trades in belief. Their product is the body, but their business is persuasion… Continue reading All Muscle and No Brains? What Makes a Fitness Entrepreneur
This is one of the odder products examined on this website, and that is really saying something! One of the great issues facing parents and schoolmasters is how to get kids excited about exercising. Well, a century ago, Eugen Sandow claimed to have the solution. What do kids love more than anything else? Candy! With… Continue reading Eugen Sandow’s Combined Toy and Physical-Culture Apparatus (1913)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0cYsrptV5c Earlier this year I had the pleasure of speaking with Marcus Kment of Barbell Films about Eugen Sandow's Curative Institute of Physical Culture. Marcus has previously made just a wonderful short film about Sandow's 1901 documentary that is a thing of beauty to watch. For those who don't know, Sandow created a series of… Continue reading New Sandow Documentary!
So much has been written of the great old timers, that I will barely touch upon their deeds and confine most of this article to the strongest men of the present. If all the great strong men of the past, many of whom have gone from this earth, could meet in a contest, what a… Continue reading Bob Hoffman, ‘The World’s Strongest Man: Past & Present,’ Strength & Health, 5, no. 10 (1937), 32-34 & 42-45.
Earlier this year I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with Marcus Kment, who runs the highly popular Barbell Films account on Instagram. While I'm not on Instagram (I know... I know), I have been aware of the account for some time because of friends and family members who excitedly show me his latest posts.… Continue reading The World’s First Bodybuilding Competition Documentary
On December 14, 2023, my latest book, Indian Club Swinging and the Birth of Global Fitness will be published by Bloomsbury. This is a work of love that began in 2015 and has slowly progressed in the background. A link to order the book is here. And, more excitingly, you can preview the first chapter… Continue reading New Book Announcement and Preview!
