Few bodybuilders and weight trainers are unfamiliar with the dip exercise. A favourite of Vince Gironda, albeit with some modifications, the exercise is a prime builder for the chest and tricep muscles. Done correctly, the exercise is for my money, up there with the bench press. Done incorrectly, you're just flopping up and down. While… Continue reading Marvin Eder and the Four Hundred Pound Dip
Some exercises prove so simple and effective that we often take their existence for granted. The goblet squat has for me, been one such exercise. Over the past five years I've helped numerous friends begin their journeys into the lifting world with the aid of this trusty mechanism. While not everyone is as enthusiastic about… Continue reading The History of the Goblet Squat
Heavy training for the hips and thighs gives the trainee the most return for the effort expended, but is usually not at the top of the list of "Favorite Modes of Training" due to the discomfort one is subjected to if the training is intensive enough to stimulate gains. The earliest lifting advice I received… Continue reading Dr. Ken Leistner, ‘Hip and Thigh Power’, The Steel Tip, Vol. 1, No. 12 (1985).
...Have you ever noticed all the people who come into the gym and do the same training every time? You know who they are. They are the skinny guys in the dingy T-shirts, sans belt and with baggy cargo shorts that come down to their shins. ...These misinformed wannabes always do the same exercises, the… Continue reading The Planet Muscle Growth Squad, ‘Growing Muscle’, Planet Muscle, Volume 4 (2001).
Weightlifting supplements, despite their ubiquity nowadays, are a relatively new addition to the realm of weightlifting. While the practice of eating mystical substances in the hope of improved athletic performance dates to Greco-Roman times, the marketing of explicit 'body building' supplements is a far more recent phenomenon. Dating really to the emergence of physical culture… Continue reading The First Weightlifting Supplements
The following extract comes from a fascinating twelve page pamphlet I recently got my hands on. Written by the Strongman and Powerlifter Bill Kazmier, the pamphlet details everything a budding strength enthusiast needs to learn to perform on the platform. Over the next few weeks we'll be dissecting Kazmier's advice for the Squat, Deadlift and the Bench Press. In the meantime,… Continue reading Bill Kazmier, ‘Competitive Squatting Style and Techniques’ from Bill Kazmier, The Squat and Deadlift (Crain Power-Plus, 1981)
This article may make for uncomfortable reading. It’s been included to illustrate why it’scritical that you’re always sensible and conservative in your training. No matter how experienced one may be, the rules of sensible training still apply. Properly done, weight training is very safe and healthy, but take liberties and it becomes a dangerous activity.… Continue reading Fernando Vallejo, ‘Things Happen, and Lessons to Learn’, Hardgainer Magazine, September (2002), 32-33.
I have, I believe, been fairly open about my love of the World's Strongest Man, specifically the opening decade of the competition. Whereas today's competition is professional, modern and scientific, the contests of yesteryear were undoubtedly more tongue-in-cheek. This is not to say that the contests were no less contested and the competitors impressive but… Continue reading Deadlifting Cheese at the World’s Strongest Man (1983)
Many years ago, before most of today's weight trainees were even a gleam in their daddy's eye, a fellow named John Y. Smith used to specialize in the one-handed deadlift. The late Harry Paschall, who used to write quite regularly for Iron Man Magazine in the 1950's, had met Smith several years earlier and, in… Continue reading Michael H. Brown, ‘Developing an Iron Claw’ (1974)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG7vDgWX0G8 Much to my own shame, we have yet to discuss Alexander Zass on this website. Known as Samson for much of his stage career, the following footage, taken from Pathé, shows Zass performing some typical strongman feats from the early twentieth-century. What I love about this is that not only do we get a… Continue reading Alexander Zass, The Original Modern Samson: The Toughest Man on Earth (c. 1930s)
