***

Martin “Farmer” Burns

Martin “Farmer” Burns was born in 1861 and died in 1937.  He was a world champion “catch-as-catch-can” wrestler.  After his wrestling career, he started a wrestling school in Omaha.

Burns gained the nickname “Farmer” when he accepted a challenge to fight Jack Carleek at the Olympic Theater.  Turning up dressed in his regular farmer’s overalls, the announcer introduced Burns to the crowd as “Farmer” Burns and it stuck.

Early in his career, Burns lost a match to professional wrestler, Henry Clayton 1886.  This defeat by a stranglehold struck a hard psychological blow.  Following that painful event, Burns invested a lot of workout time into his neck development. Soon he had achieved a 20” neck with such strength that he could be dropped 6’ while wearing a hangman’s noose without sustaining any injury.  This became a signature performance of his at carnivals.

Having retired and become a trainer, Burns published a mail-order course entitled The Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture.

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Ottley C Coulter

Ottley C Coulter was born in 1890 and died in 1976.  He was one of the early documenters of the strongman phenomenon and the techniques that they used.  He wrote an extremely readable work on how to:

• tear phone books;
• bend nails;
• pick up people with one hand; and
• perform many other strength feats.

You can find it here.

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Louis Cyr

Louis Cyr Cyr was born in 1863 and died in 1912 in Quebec, Canada.  From an early age, he worked in a lumber camp during the winters and on the family’s farm in the summer.

In 1878, the Cyr family moved to Massachusetts, USA.  At the age of 17, he already weighed 230lbs (104 kg).  He was said to be 5’10” and 300lbs (136kg) at the height of his career.

In 1886, Cyr competed in Quebec against the reigning Canadian strongman, David Michaud. During the competition, he lifted a 218lbs (99 kg) barbell with one hand to win the title of strongest man in Canada.

Cyr was later documented in beating Eugen Sandow’s bent press record (and therefore the heaviest weight lifted with one hand) by 2lbs to a total of 273lbs (124 kg).

David Gentle has written a short biography of Cyr here.  As usual, David’s voice tempers the more enthusiastic reports.  A more substantial, earlier biography, was written by George Jowett.

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Alfred Danks

Alfred Danks was born in 1881 and died in 1959.  He wrote the Danks systems of physical culture, which focussed on various devices for strengthening the body, such as chest expanders and forearm strengtheners. 

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Don Dorans

Don Dorans was born in London in 1912 but spent much of his early life in Glasgow, Scotland.  He moved to Luton in 1938 and 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.  He was recognised with an award in 1996 for his lifetime contribution to bodybuilding by the Oscar Heidenstam Foundation Trust and he died in 1999.

David Gentle wrote his obituary, which is very much a short biography and you can find it here.

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So what have I learned so far?

In reading about these great strongmen, I have started to form a few opinions of my own.  They may be right or wrong but it will be interesting to see if I still hold them once I’ve worked through all the material on the Sandow Plus site!  Anyway, after reading through the works of these strongmen, I think that:

• wrestling is probably overlooked as a way to develop strength;
• if you want to be really, really strong, then it helps to be really, really big;
• the combination of good GPP and frequent sub-maximal, low rep lifting that comes with manual labour (like lumber work) is almost certainly the key to exceptional strength;
• I should probably try the bent press; and
• it could be quite fun to try and pick up some of my friends using one arm.

So that was Burns to Dorans.  Next time, I’ll write about Evans to Hoffman!  For more articles, see my oldtime strongman page.