This is the final post in a long series about the remarkable weightlifting insights that we can learn from the oldtime strongmen.  The majority of the resources on the internet can be found at Sandow Plus and Maxalding so please do visit them and dive into the many books and pamplets that you will find there.

However, I have tried to find any other resources that I can (although I did give up after page 10 on Google) and refer to them as appropriate.  So if there is a Wikipedia page or a reference on a mainstream strength or fitness website than I will probably have it linked.

Who I’ve talked about

To look back and see who I’ve been rattling on about, you can follow these links:

• Eugen Sandow
• Apollon, Otto Arco, Edward Aston, Don Athaldo and Charles Atlas
• William Bankier Apollo, Sanford Bennett, Joe Bonomo, Zishe “Seigmund” Breitbart and H Broom
• Martin “Farmer” Burns, Ottley C Coulter, Louis Cyr, Alfred Danks and Don Dorans
• James Evans, Herman Goerner, The Good Brothers, George Hackenschmidt and Bob Hoffman
• Thomas Inch, Prof. K V Iyer, George F Jowett, Siegmund Klein and Earle Liederman
• Bernarr MacFadden, Antone Matysek, Staff Sergeant Alfred Moss, Lieutenant J P Muller and Adolph Nordquest
• Bobby Pandour, Harry B Paschall, W A Pullum, Tony Sansone, Arthur Saxon and T W Standwell
• Lionel Strongfort, Alois P Swoboda, Frederick Tilney, Al Treloar, George Walsh and Alexander Zass
• Max Sick (Maxick) and Monte Saldo

The Golden Age of Strongmen

As I’ve been going along, I’ve been trying to keep a record of when the various strongmen were alive.  This picture shows my representation of this remarkable generation.

What I’ve learned

I’ve learned a huge amount since I started this series and it’s hard to put it all into words.  I thought about trying to systematise all of the lessons learned and decided against it.

Here it all is in it’s messy, unadulterated glory.  Enjoy.

• Edward Aston was probably the most honest and upfront about the type of training he did;
• all of the strongmen probably trained with dumbbells and barbells at some point;
• the training was probably mostly pulls, presses, jerks and cleans;
• the training was probably lower reps and higher sets than most bodybuilders would use today;
• they ate meat, vegetables and fruit and drank lots of milk;
• the mind-muscle connection is important and I have probably been neglecting this;
• isometric training might be a way to improve strength and muscle gains (Christian Thibaudeau has written about this);
• marketing was just as much an issue in those days as it is today;
• bending steel is probably overlooked as a way to develop strength by many people (including me);
• the bent press probably gets a lot less airtime than it should;
• rope climbing is good for building big biceps (now I just need somewhere to hang a rope from);
• people quibbled over their measurements just as much then as they do now, if not more;
• if you’re going to drive nails into blocks of wood, don’t rest them on your knees;
• it’s very easy to focus on the success of a rival who has come before you but that’s not necessarily the best way to proceed, you just guarantee them more exposure;
• Zishe Seigmund Breitbart is probably my favourite strongman ever;
• 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;
• it could be quite fun to try and pick up some of my friends using one arm
• deadlifts of all kinds are probably a key to overall strength as well as grip strength;
• strength and fitness has been a big business for a very long time;
• 400lbs is a really, really, big bench press for normal human beings;
• Yorkshire seems to have had something in the water that creates strongmen.  If we can bottle it, we could make a fortune;
• the fascinating history and heritage of the vintage strongmen, like Inch, live on in modern times through our attempts to match or even surpass their feats;
• Mark Henry is a monster;
• I wish I could get my Roman Chair set-up to work;
• lifting people over your head (whether riding a bicycle or not) is cool;
• I want magical tattoos like Staff Sergeant Alfred Moss;
• you can be quite small and really very strong and in percentage terms it may be advantageous;
• it is possible to be in good shape and strong into old age;
• if you want to be really, really good at something, learn it from someone who has already been there and done what you want to achieve; and
• people are more likely to remember you for a small number of really good lifts than for a large number of mediocre ones.

Did I miss anything obvious?  Let me know in the comments.

Maxalding? What on earth is that anyway?

Maxalding is an exercise system of muscle control using isometrics, very similar to the dynamic tension technique championed by Charles Atlas.  The name Maxalding comes from the combined names of its founders Max Sick (usually know as Maxick) and Monte Saldo.  You can find copies of the original course here.

Max Sick 

Max Sick was a German strongman.  He was born in Württemberg in 1892 and moved to Britain in 1909.  He died in South America in 1961.  He maintained a remarkable physique and level of strength into old age, as can be seen in these photos where he performs a front lever on parallel bars.

His most remarkable lifting was said to be the double-bodyweight plus continental clean and jerks that he performed from the moment he set foot in the UK.  Excerpts from the outstanding biographers David Willoughby and David Webster can be found here. 

He was famously involved in a lifting competition with the up-and-coming English champion Edward Aston.  At the time, Thomas Inch was regarded as the strongest man in Britain but his time was passing and the young Aston was clearly ready to take the crown.  This article by Monte Saldo describes the face-off between Aston and Max Sick once Inch had surrendered the opportunity to contest the throne.  And here is Aston’s own perspective on the contest.

As usual, the site oldtime strongman has a number of short articles about the great man.

Monte Saldo

Monte Saldo was the stage name of Alfred Montague Woollaston who was apprenticed to Eugen Sandow.  He was born in London in 1879 and died in 1949.  Ron Tyrrell has written a brief but very informative biography here.

What have I learned from these two strongmen?

As I’ve been going along, I’ve been commenting on what lessons I have learned from these remarkable men.  While reading through this site, I have learned that:

• It is possible to be in good shape and strong into old age;
• If you want to be really, really good at something, learn it from someone who has already been there and done what you want to achieve;
• People are more likely to remember you for a small number of really good lifts than for a large number of mediocre ones.

No more legendary strongmen from now on!  But I will do a summary post of what I’ve learned next week.

Lionel Strongfort

Lionel Strongfort was born Max Unger in Berlin in 1878 and died in 1970.  He was a stage strongman performer and issued a correspondence course in physical development like many of his peers.

Oldtime strongman has its customary short articles here.  And Bob Whelan has a brief biography reprinted here.

Alois P Swoboda

Alois P Swoboda was born in Vienna in 1873 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1881 with his father, Adolf.  He died in 1938.  In between, he wrote and published a course that he called “conscious evolution”, amongst other works.

The emphasis of his training appeared to be on isometric exercises, typically using muscle groups against each other for resistance.  In this, he was similar to Charles Atlas and others.

Frederick Tilney

Frederick Tilney was born in Norfolk, England in 1895 and died in 1977, just a year before I was born.  He was a popular writer for various bodybuilding magazines and a ghost writer for correspondence courses in physical culture.

His autobiographical work “Young at 73” is a challenge to anyone who thinks that age must get the better of them.

Al Treloar

Al Treloar was born Albert Toof Jenkins in 1873 and died in 1960.  He was the winner of the first American bodybuilding competition, organised by Bernarr MacFadden.  Some commentators say that Staff Sergeant Alfred Moss should have won but was marked down for his (magical) tattoos.

Oldtime strongman has comments here.

George Walsh

George Walsh was a weightlifter and bodybuilder who trained under W A Pullum.  He wrote an article on the snatch in 1946, which is reproduced on The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban.  Here he is again, espousing the properties of the same lift.

Alexander Zass

Alexander Zass was born in 1888 and died in 1962.  He was a Russian circus performer and professional wrestler.  He was said to be physically quite small, at 5’5” and 164lbs (166cm and 75kg) but incredibly strong.

Zass favoured isometric exercises to gain strength.  Some of his strength feats are captured in this gallery (but the captions are in Russian) and this blog has some interesting background that seems to tie in with the gallery pictures.  His isometric system seems to have spawned a whole subculture of trainees using his methods.

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:

• it is possible to retain a great deal of strength and health into old age if you are prepared to put your mind to it;
• there is more in common between weightlifting and bodybuilding than many people today would care to admit;
• I still want magical tattoos like Staff Sergeant Alfred Moss.

So that was the last set of strongmen from the Sandow Plus site.  Next time, I’ll write about Max Sick and Monte Saldo from the Maxalding site!

Bobby Pandour

Bobby Pandour was born Wladyslaw Kurcharczyk in Poland between 1876 and 1882. He and his brother, Ludwig/Ludovic, were champion gymnasts and went to England in the early 1900s with a performance involving skills on the horizontal bar and hand balancing, as well as posing and muscle control.

Like many gymnasts, he was not a large man, weighing only 160 pounds at 5’6″ in height.  Despite his small stature, he had an impressive physique as can be seen in photographs.

He had a reputation for only using small, 10lb dumbbells.  The reasoning being that it was the concentration behind the movement of the weight and not the weight itself that caused the resistance.

Harry B Paschall

Harry B Paschall was born in 1898 and came to strongman by watching the performances of Saxon and Sandow.  He was most famous for his cartoon creation, Bosco.

W. A. Pullum

W. A. Pullum was born in 1888 and died in 1960 and was widely regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound weightlifters in the world at that time.  He achieved a number of records, wrote articles and was a successful teacher.  His name lives on in the strength equipment business, Pullum Sports. 

Tony Sansone

According to Wikipedia, Tony Sansone was born in New York City in 1905 and died in 1987.  He was a successful bodybuilder and model.  To the best of my knowledge he did not write a correspondence course but there are various articles about him on Sandow Plus.

Arthur Saxon

According to Wikipedia, Arthur Saxon was born Arthur Hennig in 1878 and died in 1921.  He was famous for the bent press (with a record of 370lbs) and the two-hands anyhow (with a record of 448lbs).  He often performed with his brothers Herman and Kurt as the Saxon Trio.

T. W. Standwell

T. W. Standwell sold a mail order correspondence course for bodybuilding in the 1920s.  Otherwise, I have not been able to find much more out about him.

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:

• the bent press is a fascinating lift.  For a one-handed lift to be so close to a two-hands anyhow just amazes me; and
• you can be quite small and really very strong and in percentage terms it may be advantageous.

So that was Pandour to Standwell.  Next time is the last in the series and it’s about Strongfort to Zass!

Bernarr McFadden

According to Wikipedia, Bernarr MacFadden was born in Missouri in 1868 and died in 1955.  He founded the magazine Physical Culture and built a successful publishing business.

In addition to the extensive material on Sandow Plus, there are a lot of resources on the internet about MacFadden.  Here are just a few:

• The Bernarr MacFadden official site;
• Bob Whelan has found two interesting books on Bernarr McFadden;
• Modern lessons from Bernarr MacFadden from National Geographic;
• Oldtime Strongman has a brief entry; and
• Clarence Bass weighs in with quite a long article reviewing Mark Adam’s book about MacFadden.

Antone Matysek

Antone Matysek was born in 1892 and died in 1963.  He won the Strongest Man in America in 1922 and appeared regularly as a professional strongman.

He is credited with devising dumbbells that could be loaded onto barbells by having holes in the handles.

This extensive series of posts on Oldtime Strongman show Antone:

• doing a Roman Chair exercise holding a man above his head,
• lifting a kettlebell bigger than his head,
• lifting a three-person bicycle over his head with one arm; and
• performing a reverse curl with a 3” diameter bar.                                                                         

Staff Sergeant Alfred Moss

Staff Sergeant Alfred Moss was in the British army but little is known about him.  He won the British Army Gymnastics Competition in 1900 and in 1902 he was a contender in the British preliminaries for Bernarr Macfadden’s Best and Most Perfectly Developed Man” competition.  It is said that he was marked down for his extensive tattoos.

Oldtime Strongman has a few posts on Moss but I find it interesting that their photos show Moss with his tattoos on his left arm but the photos Sandow Plus show them on his right arm.  Perhaps they were magical tattoos?

American Bodybuilding makes the connection between Moss’s army career in India and Indian club training. 

Lieutenant J.P. Muller

Lieutenant J. P. Muller was a successful Danish athlete who was born in 1866 and died in 1938.  He established a system that attracted a great deal of attention from various parties, including Chess Grandmasters.

Adolph E Nordquest

Adolph E Nordquest was called the “young Sandow” because of his remarkable resemblance to Eugen.  He was born in 1882 and died in 1960.  He had a substantial build, weighing 200lbs at just 5’8”

Bob Whelan has an easy-to-read version of Young Sandow’s story.

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:

• I wish I could get my Roman Chair set-up to work;
• lifting people over your head (whether riding a bicycle or not) is cool; and
• I want magical tattoos like Staff Sergeant Alfred Moss.

So that was MacFadden to Nordquest.  Next time, I’ll write about Pandour to Standwell!