The Garage Gym Online

Recently, I did a series about some of the great oldtime strongman material that you can find on two websites, Sandow Plus and Maxalding.  In many of those posts, I mentioned biographies and articles that had been written by David Gentle, a physical culture historian.

David was kind enough to pay a visit to my site and commented on the post about Martin “Farmer” Burns to Don Dorans.  Obviously, I was completely star-struck and babbled some incoherent reply.  Unsurprisingly, I didn’t hear from him again.

Anyway, moving on.

So who is David Gentle, again?

David Gentle born in 1933 and was a successful bodybuilding and Maxalding practitioner, winning awards for both his physique and muscle control abilities.  He has his own website, where you can read about his life and see some of his articles.  He wasn’t a slouch in the strength stakes, either, hitting a double bodyweight bench press of 136kg (300lbs).

Perhaps more importantly for our generation, he is a prolific physical culture and bodybuilder author, having written over 2,000 articles for various magazines and publications, as well as a few books along the way.

David’s biographies and articles about oldtime strongmen

I’ve already mentioned these in my series about the oldtime strongmen but here they are for completeness, along with a brief summary about each man:

• Apollon - Apollon was born J C Tolson in Dewsbury, Yorkshire in 1903 and enjoyed a successful career on stage before writing a popular strength training postal course.  He took the stage name “Apollon” from the French strongman of the same name, Louis Uni.
• Louis Cyr - Cyr was born in 1863 and died in 1912 in Quebec, Canada.  At the age of 17, he already weighed 230lbs (104 kg).  In 1886, during a competitionagainst the reigning Canadian strongman, David Michaud, he lifted a 218lbs (99 kg) barbell with one hand to win the title of strongest man in Canada.
• Don Dorans - Dorans was born in London in 1912.  He won Mr Britain in 1943, followed by Mr Universe in 1950.  He ran a successful weightlifting school in Ealing in the 1950’s and his pupils excelled in various weightlifting and bodybuilding competitions. 

Some of David’s other articles

• Confessions of a mag swapper - Stop! Don’t flick over this one and go straight to “how strong are you?” or “a history of the bench press”.  I know you want to look at those more exciting articles but first take a minute to read this short piece about David’s first-hand experience of the early muscle-building courses and the early magazines and see what drives him as a collector and historian.  All I can say is, for the health of my wallet, thank goodness for the internet!
• How strong are you? David takes a look at what weights might be good targets for the “unassisted” lifter.  Some interesting numbers, some of which look a little low by today’s standards (like the maximum weight deadlift) and some (like the number of one-arm chins) really made me sit up, blinking.
• The ever changing face of strength and health - read David’s review of the evolution of the leading physical culture magazine, Health and Strength.
• Economy schedules - for those without a moment’s spare time to exercise, David provides the solution in the form of short, hard but effective workout plans.
• Increase muscle strength to gain muscle size - David gives some solid numbers for when you need to start thinking about isolation exercises.  Before that, stick to the big compound lifts.
• Leo Stern tribute - David takes a look at the large but underestimated influence of Leo Stern on the world of physical culture and bodybuilding.
• Who are you going to choose? - if you are curious about how judging bodybuilding contests works and are interested in hearing David’s first-hand account of how judging has changed over the years, this might be what you’re looking for.
• Workout recovery - read about the importance of rest and recovery.
• An inspiration to us all: Clarence Ross - David takes a long, hard look at the man who beat Steve Reeves, twice.
• The Legendary Steve Reeves: an obituary - speaking of Steve Reeves, here is David’s obituary of the great man.
• On John Grimek talking about squats - this is an article posted on the T-Nation forum (you have to scroll down a little way) that talks about John Grimek’s squat programme.  I like it when he mentions doing one-legged squats with 180-200lbs.
• A history of the bench press - OK, admit it, you scrolled all the way down to this link and clicked on it, didn’t you!  Go back to the top and read “confessions of a mag swapper” first.  But definitely come back and read this when you’re done.  Find out about the beginnings, with the floor press as performed by George Hackenschmidt and Joe Nordquest.  Follow the rollercoaster past the heights of Doug Hepburn and his record-breaking bench press of 500lbs right up to the great Bill Kazmaier’s lift of 661lbs.  If you’re interested in bodyweight plus feats, like I am, you’ll be most amazed by Marvin Eder’s dip of 435lbs plus his bodyweight.  I guess that must be triple bodyweight.  I thought I was the bees knees for hitting double bodyweight!

I hope you find these as enjoyable to read as I have.

If you would like to write a guest post, or if you would like me to write something for you please contact me here.

Tags:   David Gentle · historian · physical culture · writerNo Comments