I HAVE often been asked what it feels like to press 350 pounds with one hand, and perhaps to my readers the different sensations experienced will be interesting. In the first place, immediately I start to press the weight away from the shoulder I become perfectly oblivious to everything except the weight that I am... Continue Reading →
Why Enthusiasm Matters. Bob Hoffman’s Sage Advice from the 1950s.
Enthusiasm means a wholehearted devotion to an ideal, cause, study, sport, hobby, or pursuit. If you have an enthusiasm, your success in all you undertake will be assured. Too few people have continued enthusiasm. They are interested for a time, and then the passing fancy passes. We say so often about weightlifting success, that only... Continue Reading →
Arthur Saxon, ‘What It Feels Like to Lift 350 Pounds with One Hand’, The Development of Physical Power (London, 1905), 23-24.
I HAVE often been asked what it feels like to press 350 pounds with one hand, and perhaps to my readers the different sensations experienced will be interesting. In the first place, immediately I start to press the weight away from the shoulder I become perfectly oblivious to everything except the weight that I am... Continue Reading →
Arthur Saxon, ‘What It Feels Like to Lift 350 Pounds with One Hand’, The Development of Physical Power (London, 1905), 23-24.
I HAVE often been asked what it feels like to press 350 pounds with one hand, and perhaps to my readers the different sensations experienced will be interesting. In the first place, immediately I start to press the weight away from the shoulder I become perfectly oblivious to everything except the weight that I am... Continue Reading →
Arthur Saxon, ‘My Ideas on Diet’, The Development of Physical Power (London, 1906).
Compared with his less fortunate brothers who box and run, the lifter has no restrictions as to diet. The man who boxes requires good wind and staying power, and he, therefore, has to care- fully limit his allowance of liquid, and has to exercise great care in his selection of foodstuffs, avoiding pastry, all starchy... Continue Reading →
Alexander Zass, The Original Modern Samson: The Toughest Man on Earth (c. 1930s)
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 →
Sarah Pileggi, ‘The Pleasure of Being the World’s Strongest Women’, (Sports Illustrated, 1977)
Katie Sandwina was a professional strong woman who performed in John Ringling's circuses in the early 1900s. She was celebrated for great feats of strength, such as carrying a 600-pound cannon on her back, and lesser ones, like executing the manual of arms with her 160-pound husband Max instead of a rifle. Sandwina was a... Continue Reading →