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 Mark Bell, ‘One on One with Ed Coan’, Power Magazine, 1, no. 1 (2009), 28-31.
Alan Calvert was one of the most important strength entrepreneurs in twentieth-century America. The founder of Milo Barbell and Strength magazine, Calvert helped bring barbells and weights to the masses in the early 1900s. What makes him an even more fascinating figure is that in later years, Calvert became deeply disgusted with America's burgeoning fitness… Continue reading Alan Calvert, ‘Tricks of Lifting and Trickery of Lifters,’ Confidential Information of Lifting and Lifters (Philadelphia, 1926), 13-16.
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)
When was the first time you were exposed to a strongman or woman? Or, perhaps better put, when was the first time you were left speechless at a feat of strength? For my nieces and nephews, the answer appears to be the Marvel franchise and its various characters. For me, it was the grainy footage… Continue reading Childhood Memories of Vasily Alexeev
The basic concept of lying on a bench and taking a bar from arm's length to the chest and back is a very simple one. However, bench pressing with maximum efficiency and power is an extremely exacting art relying on many major and minor principles and utilizing the coordination of the many muscles involved. While there is… Continue reading Bill Kazmaier, ‘Bench Pressing Style And Technicalities’, Bill Kazmaier and the Bench Press (1981), 4-6
My love of the World Strongest Man Competition is obvious. If you don't believe, just check out some of our previous posts on the weird and wonderful of the WSM. In particular I am a huge fan of the early WSM shows. They were a time when the sport had not yet professionalized. In reality,… Continue reading Geoff Capes: The Car Salesman?
I have spoken so much of Louis' great strength that now I must tell you of his great weakness - eating. His excuse for eating so much was that his great expenditure of strength required it. That was just his joke, though, for he was a slave to the table all his life. He could… Continue reading How Much Could Louis Cyr Eat?
What we shall endeavor to do here in this section of Chapter 5 is to outline for you a few choice specialization programs which can be utilized by you in the training year, for whatever particular training goal you may endeavor to fulfill. These routines are not mere figments of my creative imagination, for they… Continue reading Anthony Ditillo, ‘Various Strength Specialization Routines’, THE DEVELOPMENT OF PHYSICAL STRENGTH
Who is the strongest man in the World? Ever since man began to lift heavy objects for fun, there has been an insatiable desire to know who is the strongest. It was this desire that led to the creation of the World's Strongest Man (WSM) Competition in 1977, a yearly event that has since become… Continue reading 1977 and the birth of the World’s Strongest Man
The year is 2008. Mariusz Pudzianowski has just won his fifth World Strongest Man title and I am in a heated discussion with my cousin about who the strongest man ever is. My cousin said Pudzianowski and I, being the strength nerd that I am, argued for Vasily Alekseyev. While we all know that I… Continue reading Why Strongman Trading Cards Are an Awesome Idea
