Three or four centuries ago, some lawyers in Europe decided that a man was legally of age when he became 21 years old. Apparently, the reasoning was that a youth of 21 had acquired sufficient experience and judgment to manage his own affairs. It is a peculiar fact that thousands of people today believe that… Continue reading Alan Calvert, The Man of Thirty: Can He Improve Physically?
How did I not know of this earlier? I had been planning to write about the history of bodybuilding forums this week (watch this space) but events overtook me. Listening to a wrestling podcast this morning (WrestleMe, and it is wonderful), I learned that video footage of a George Hackenschmidt match had been digitized and… Continue reading Pinch Me! Video Footage of George Hackenschmidt!!!
My name is Conor and I suffer from TBD. That is training boredom disorder. It is a serious condition that seems to impact 1 in 5 gym goers each month and at least 3 in 5 home gym owners each month. Other descriptions include 'f**k around-itis' or 'spinning your wheels.' More seriously, I get bored… Continue reading Forgotten Exercises: The Siebert Press
Who is the strongest man or woman in the world? A more important question to ask is how do we test them? Do we rely on the Olympic lifts (snatch and clean), or the powerlifting lifts (Squat, bench and deadlift)? What about strongman/strongwoman events like timber carries, max deadlifts using straps, Atlas stones or yoke… Continue reading What is Strength? A Question of Philosophy
ONCE again cringing under your eye, non-human engine alongside of the human worker, my assertion that the working, cleaning up, cooling-down and fuelling of an engine correspond to exercising, the Bath, the Repose and the Feeding of the human body, recalls my statement that ‘Whilst the engine is at best itself in efficiency after its… Continue reading K.V. Iyer on Diet (c. 1930)
This short post brings together two twin loves of mine, Odd Lifting and the Indian Encyclopedia of Physical Culture. Published in English in 1950, the Encyclopedia details a variety of traditional and modern exercises used in India. Part of a broader effort to promote traditional Indian movements, like heavy club swinging, bethanks, dands… Continue reading 1950s Advice on Stone Lifting
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!
Under this heading, I would include the consumption of alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and similar substances. In my opinion, alcohol is a nerve poison that is not assimilated and requires a great expenditure of energy for its excretion. Furthermore, it decreases energy and deadens certain inner forces, which, although we may be unconscious of them, could… Continue reading George Hackenschmidt, ‘Hindrances to the Acquisition of Strength.’
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.
Why did the first era of bodybuilders have flat chests? Two common explanations I see online are that lifters in the 1890s and early 1900s considered large chests to be feminine and thus wanted to avoid it or that lifters modelled their own physiques on Ancient Greek statues and, thus, wanted to build their physiques… Continue reading Why Did Bronze Era Lifters Have Flat Chest? A Serious Answer to a Stupid Question
