In 1894 Eugen Sandow, alongside G. Mercer Adam published Sandow on Physical Training. This was the first training manual/biography which Sandow published but it was not his last. Over the next twenty years, Sandow published a multitude of books covering everything from working out to alternative medicine. Sandow on Physical Training was published during Eugen… Continue reading Sandow as a Strongman in Holland (1894)
In 1894 Eugen Sandow traveled to the United States. While this was not the birth of Sandow's celebrity, it marked an intensification of interest in the Strongman's life. Under the tutelage of Flo Ziegfeld, Sandow's time in the United States, which lasted from 1894-1896, was spellbinding. It was in America that Sandow reinvented his posing… Continue reading Eugen Sandow’s Physical Training Leg Machine (1894)
It has frequently been remarked that men of the present day are not so strong as those of times past, and there are many reasons for this assertion. An inspection of ancient arbor is sufficient to convince one of the truth of this statement. In looking at specimens of ancient armor, we are at once… Continue reading G. Frank Lydston, ‘Muscle Building as Illustrated by the Modern Samson, Sandow,’ Journal of the American Medical Association, 1893, 419-422
While many credit Eugen Sandow as the father of modern day bodybuilding, very little is said about William, 'Billy', Murray, the world's first recognisable bodybuilding champion. Today's post will look at the interaction between Sandow, the unofficial father of bodybuilding and Murray, its first official king. So who was William Murray? How did he win? And why… Continue reading Bodybuilding’s First Champion: William Murray
Theoretically, at least, we all pay tribute to the value and importance of physical education. We admire physical strength and beauty, and recognize, though only faintly as yet, the inter- relation of mind and matter. We know, moreover, that a healthy, active brain is sadly handicapped by an ill-developed, sickly body. We see around us… Continue reading Eugen Sandow, ‘The Jar and Fret of Business Lift,’ Sandow on Physical Training (New York, 1894).
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
At the end of the nineteenth century a new interest in muscle- building arose, not muscle just as a means of survival or of defending oneself, but a return to the Greek ideal-muscular development as a celebration of the human body. The ancient tradition of stone-lifting evolved into the modem sport of weightlifting. As the… Continue reading ‘History and Evolution,’ Arnold Schwarzenegger Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding (New York: 1987), 30-38.
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.
One of the things which always fascinated me is the diets of those early physical culturists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. At a time when gym culture was in its infancy, these men and women experimented with their training, their diet, and their mindsets to achieve maximum results. For some, like the… Continue reading C.F. Langworthy, ‘Dietary Study of Sandow, The Strong Man.’
