I rarely, if ever, delve into self-promotion but every moment is an opportunity for change and all that. Recently, Common Ground Publishers informed me that my book, The History of Physical Culture, has been nominated for an internal publisher's prize. I've already detailed the book, and its contents, in a previous post. As a quick… Continue reading Self Promotion Time: Please Vote for My Book!
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.
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
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
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?
I rarely, if ever, delve into self-promotion. Anyway with a faint knowledge of the Irish psyche will know that self-confidence is one of the Irish deadly sins. Even worse is the idea that one be classed as 'someone with notions' for being too confident. With that proviso in mind, I am very happy to announce… Continue reading New Book Announcement!
One of the strongest men of the early twentieth-century, Thomas Inch was known in both Great Britain and the United States for his feats of strength. Unlike others however, Inch was hardly strict with his diet. In fact Inch was recorded as saying There is nothing so wearisome as having to be extremely particular about what one… Continue reading Thomas Inch’s Diet
Once in a generation, it has been said, a super-athlete arises whose prowess astonishes the world. Several generations have come and gone, however, since Louis Cyr arose and showed what he could do. Since that time nothing approaching his extraordinary performances has ever been seen. Louis Cry, French-Canadian, was born in the little hamlet of… Continue reading Recollections of Louis Cyr by W. A. Pullum
https://www.rawpixel.com/image/3566710/illustration-image-art-business-people It would be a grave understatement to claim that the COVID pandemic inconvenienced our day-to-day lives. Rather, at times, it felt as if this global health crisis was a roller coaster with no ending in sight. With that said, it appears most of us have taken one important lesson out of the pandemic –… Continue reading Guest Post: A Brief History of Fitness in Australia
“SANDOW, as a muscular phenomenon is of comparatively limited interest to the public, save as an exciting, and doubtlessly engaging, curiosity; but Sandow, as the culmination of a system which will enable even the weakest to attain a perfect physical development, is an object of stu- pendous interest to everybody.” The above forceful dictum is… Continue reading How Sandow Became Muscular (1894 Article)
