My 'new year' starts a lot earlier than most. While many will count January 1st as the dawn of a new year, I usually see August 1st as my new beginning. Teachers, lecturers, and parents, will know my pain. As an adult, who has never truly left the education system, my sense of time is… Continue reading What I Learned About Lifting in 2024
In 2018 the strength and conditioning community lost one of the most creative, and controversial, coaches of recent memory, Charles Poliquin. Known primarily for his work with Olympic athletes, Poliqun's training methods and philosophies were often times at the cutting edge of the field. This is not to say that Poliquin was not without his… Continue reading Charles Poliquin’s Nausea Leg Routine
Nowadays kettlebell training is the staple of modern fitness due to its flexibility and effectiveness. Yet this form of unique strength training has a history much older than we originally thought, going far back in time and around the globe. The kettlebell, originally a tool of functional strength, is now a ubiquitous force in athletic… Continue reading Guest Post: The History of Kettlebell Training: From Ancient Strength to Modern Fitness
Three or four centuries ago, some lawyers in Europe decided that a man was legally of age when he became 21 years old. Apparently, the reasoning was that a youth of 21 had acquired sufficient experience and judgment to manage his own affairs. It is a peculiar fact that thousands of people today believe that… Continue reading Alan Calvert, The Man of Thirty: Can He Improve Physically?
How did I not know of this earlier? I had been planning to write about the history of bodybuilding forums this week (watch this space) but events overtook me. Listening to a wrestling podcast this morning (WrestleMe, and it is wonderful), I learned that video footage of a George Hackenschmidt match had been digitized and… Continue reading Pinch Me! Video Footage of George Hackenschmidt!!!
Today we discuss a bouncing deadlift done with heavy weights. Yes, really. Now before anyone loses their mind remember two things about this website It is interested in the history of fitness I am not a doctor (well technically I am a doctor of history but 'Big Medicine' won't let me give medical opinions) So… Continue reading Forgotten Exercises: The Hopper Deadlift
Lee Moran was the first man to squat 1,000 lbs. in competition and an absolute goliath within the sport. The following source, from a powerlifting magazine in the 1980s - annoyingly I've lost the source which so rarely happens it is worth mentioning - details his thoughts on a 3 month training split to bring… Continue reading Lee Moran’s Squat Workout
ONCE again cringing under your eye, non-human engine alongside of the human worker, my assertion that the working, cleaning up, cooling-down and fuelling of an engine correspond to exercising, the Bath, the Repose and the Feeding of the human body, recalls my statement that ‘Whilst the engine is at best itself in efficiency after its… Continue reading K.V. Iyer on Diet (c. 1930)
This short post brings together two twin loves of mine, Odd Lifting and the Indian Encyclopedia of Physical Culture. Published in English in 1950, the Encyclopedia details a variety of traditional and modern exercises used in India. Part of a broader effort to promote traditional Indian movements, like heavy club swinging, bethanks, dands… Continue reading 1950s Advice on Stone Lifting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0cYsrptV5c Earlier this year I had the pleasure of speaking with Marcus Kment of Barbell Films about Eugen Sandow's Curative Institute of Physical Culture. Marcus has previously made just a wonderful short film about Sandow's 1901 documentary that is a thing of beauty to watch. For those who don't know, Sandow created a series of… Continue reading New Sandow Documentary!
