A Website Dedicated to the Study of Strength, Health, Fitness and Sport Across Centuries, Countries and Contests.
You cannot spend a third of a century around physical culturists and barbell men without coming to a few conclusions. You see many enthusiasts who thrive on their training schedules and attain a perfectly satisfactory degree of physical development. You see others work and strain without noticeable improvement for months or years. Quite often these... 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 →
The Westside Barbell club run by Louie Simmons, is one of the current institutions of the iron game. Known for producing champion powerlifters and even effective machines such as the Reverse Hyper Extension, there is little doubting the club's importance for lifters, whether or not they adhere to powerlifting itself. In today's short post, we're... Continue Reading →
Here are five exercises published in the New York Evening World for developing the muscles and improving the health and strength. No. 1 is a stretching movement for strength. Carry the left foot and leg backward, and the right hand and right arm forward, stretching from the hand to foot consciously through the length of... Continue Reading →
Written by D. Haddleton, of Sydney, Australia in Health and Strength Magazine, in November 1964, the following article presents an 'old school' method of training the abs. It features several exercises long forgotten by the modern weightlifter, making it both an invaluable piece of Iron Game history and valuable training aid. Really want to kick-start some ab development?... Continue Reading →
I was flicking through some old strength magazines during the weekend and came across a lift that I doubt many of us are familiar with. Called the 'Seesaw' press, it is essentially a standing dumbbell shoulder press but instead of pressing both dumbbells at the same time, you alternate between reps. As you lower one dumb-bell, you... Continue Reading →
Having previously discussed the history of the squat exercise, today's post examines the creation of the Rader Chest Pull, an exercise that Peary Rader, one of the Irongame's biggest names in the twentieth-century, often used in conjunction with the squat. Typically Rader would inform trainees to perform this exercise directly after a set of twenty... Continue Reading →
Training Strategy for Evander Holyfield The time-honoured -- but unfortunately ill-conceived -- practice of long, slow distance work as a conditioning regimen for boxers is what Evander learned from the training dinosaurs of his youth, and had continued with for years. When I was brought aboard his team, prior to his fight against Buster Douglas... Continue Reading →
This website has been pretty vocal in its appreciation of Frank Zane. A three time Mr. Olympia, Zane privileged a level of conditioning and aesthetics that, even today, is still admired by bodybuilding fans. Zane's training diaries, and later books highlighted a clearly meticulous and determined attitude to training. It wasn't enough to move the... Continue Reading →
Training Strategy for Evander Holyfield The time-honoured -- but unfortunately ill-conceived -- practice of long, slow distance work as a conditioning regimen for boxers is what Evander learned from the training dinosaurs of his youth, and had continued with for years. When I was brought aboard his team, prior to his fight against Buster Douglas... Continue Reading →