THE RADICAL GENETICS Five years ago, Adam Smith was heading down the wrong road of life. At 6-3 (190 cm) and a "sopping wet" 140 lbs (63 kg), Adam had severe scoliosis (curvature of the spine) which caused a serious curvature to his upper back, hips that looked displaced slightly to the right, and the… Continue reading John Christy, ‘Evening the Genetic Score’, Hard Gainer Magazine, September/October (1995)
Stone lifting has, thankfully, come back into vogue both in strength competitions but also among the general lifting public. While previously on the site we have spoken of various acts of weightlifting in the Ancient World, it dawned on my recently that I have, to my own shame, rarely discussed some of the oldest, and… Continue reading Stone Lifting in Ancient Greece: Bybon’s Stone
So admittedly I am a massive fan of the World's Strongest Man competition having grown up watching clips from the 1980s and 1990s. As a child I marvelled at the strength of Geoff Capes, the 'Viking' Jón Páll Sigmarsson and I even had a soft spot for Rick 'Grizzly' Brown. There was one strongman however, who… Continue reading Forgotten Exercises: Kazmaier Shrugs
Owing to the increasing popularity of powerlifting, cross fit and olympic lifting, chances are you either own a weightlifting belt or see them on a regular basis on the gym floor. A means of bracing the abdomen, weightlifting belts are a source of controversy in the weightlifting world between those who see them as legitimate… Continue reading The History of Weightlifting Belts
I grew up in the age of rotator cuff injuries. Whether or not the danger was as real as people believed, it didn't matter. I, like many others, spent the first five years of training involved a series of mind numbingly boring shoulder exercises as part of our warm up. Taking light dumbbells, we would… Continue reading The History of the Face Pull
Image Source. When beginning a book on physical training, I feel it is only natural to begin with the most basic concept used in any barbell endeavor. We all use this training aid in one form or another and its use makes possible the goals of which our dreams are made. By single and double… Continue reading Anthony Ditillo, ‘The Single and Double Progression Method’, The Development of Physical Strength (Wm F. Hinbern, 1982).
In 90% of the training you do the emphasis should be on picture-perfect form AND heavy weights. Cheating is undesirable, and while it SEEMS that you are working harder because you are lifting moreyou are, in fact, working less intensively since the “heavier” work is being distributed over many hefty muscle groups – instead of… Continue reading Bradley Steiner, ‘Partials, Rack Work And Isometrics’, POWERLIFTING (1972), 16-17
Today's short post comes primarily from Nigel B. Crowther's wonderful chapter on Ancient Chinese sport and physical education. Looking primarily at Chinese physical cultures, Crowther found that weightlifting, archery, weight throwing, tug of war, boxing and a host of other activities were practiced by Chinese men. Of interest to us today, was the use of Ding's as… Continue reading Ding Lifting in Ancient China
Almost a decade ago, a retired Soviet hammer thrower came to the conclusion that traditional forms of squatting were not the best way to strengthen the muscles of the thighs and hips. Many in the Soviet Union considered this heresy, as the squat was the king of leg training in that country just as it… Continue reading Dr. Terry Todd and Angel Spassov,’Bulgarian Leg Training Secrets,’ Muscle and Fitness (1989).
Strength sports, as an endeavour, are simultaneously a modern, and pre-modern, sport. Accounts of men engaging in contests date back to the Chinese practice of lifting heavy stones and cauldrons in 6000 BC (Hai-sheng, 2012). Likewise, Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, among other regions, had strength cultures (Crowther, 2007). That withstanding, strength contests and feats,… Continue reading A Brief History of Strongman
