A Website Dedicated to the Study of Strength, Health, Fitness and Sport Across Centuries, Countries and Contests.
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 →
Undoubtedly we've all been faced with the question, who is stronger? As a teenager it emerged when those weighing 150 lbs. or less sought to square up to their heavier brethren. Was it more impressive bench pressing 200 lbs. at 150 or 280 lbs. at 200 lbs. bodyweight? While our adolescent selves often solved this... Continue Reading →
Ed Coan entered his first powerlifting competition at 16 years old, he went on become one of the best (if not THE best) powerlifters in the world. Here is my candid conversation with The Legend, Ed Coan. POWER: How did you get into powerlifting? ED: I saw Kaz [Bill Kazmier] on TV. That was the... Continue Reading →
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 →
So often in today's world of World's Strongest Man, Olympic Weightlifting and Powerlifting, the assumption that strength is defined by maximum weight lifted goes unchallenged. It is as if we accept unquestioningly that the person who can lift 500 pounds once is stronger than the those who can 'only' lift 400 pounds for reps. It's... Continue Reading →
Paul Childress said that a big squatter is not always a big deadlifter, but a big deadlifter is al- most always a big squatter. How do you build a big deadlift if you weren’t born with one? Ernie Frantz always said that to increase your deadlift, you should just deadlift. Westside has always relied on... Continue Reading →
So often in today's world of World's Strongest Man, Olympic Weightlifting and Powerlifting, the assumption that strength is defined by maximum weight lifted goes unchallenged. It is as if we accept unquestioningly that the person who can lift 500 pounds once is stronger than the those who can 'only' lift 400 pounds for reps. It's... Continue Reading →
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 →
Constant practice is the only way in which one may succeed in raising a heavy weight in this position. It will, no doubt, be useful to read below how the lift is performed, but it will be no use to expect an immediate increase in your present lift simply by reading my instructions as to... Continue Reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr9yUmYF7T4&list=PLOLn97IoZOb7WhKxje0uP7BYOB8QDbCr4&index=4 My love of old British Pathé footage aside, the above video marks a rather remarkable insight into the still existent world of strongmen training in 1960s Britain. Harold Cope, our Derby lifter shown here, is still doing many of the strongman feats found at the beginning of the century. What impressed me most about this... Continue Reading →