This is the final post in a long series about the remarkable weightlifting insights that we can learn from the golden age of 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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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!  In the meantime, don’t miss these articles about oldtime strongmen.

***

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!  And don’t miss all these great oldtime strongmen articles.

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!

***

Thomas Inch

According to Wikipedia, Thomas Inch was born in 1881 in Scarborough, England and died in 1963.  At various times, he held the titles of Britain’s Strongest Youth and Britain’s Strongest Man.

He was famous for the Thomas Inch dumbbell, known as the 172.  This was a dumbbell that weighed 172lbs and 9 ounces and had a very thick handle, 2”3/8 in diameter.  During his life, he claimed that no other man was able to even lift it from the floor, let alone put it overhead.

As with another colourful character, Herman Goerner, there is quite a bit on the internet about Thomas Inch.  Here are some of the best snippets:

• Modern strongman Corey St. Clair recounts the time when he lifted the Thomas Inch dumbbell.
• For an amazing collection of articles about Thomas Inch, including details of those strongmen who have tried to lift the dumbbell over the years, you can do no worse than to check out this remarkable compilation.
• Thomas Inch himself writes on The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban.
• This is a good summary of all those who have tried and failed to lift the Thomas Inch dumbbell.
• In the modern era, only Mark Henry has lifted a modern replica of the Thomas Inch dumbbell overhead.  His feat was reported here. 

***

Prof. K.V. Iyer 

Prof. K.V. Iyer was a striking figure. He was born in India in 1900 and died in 1980.  Relatively short in stature, he was 5’7.5” and weighed just 160lbs.  He attracted a great deal of attention for his remarkable physique in the 1930’s and was a successful gym owner and correspondence course publisher.

An excellent short article taken from Iron Man Magazine by David Chapman can be found here.

***

George F Jowett

George F Jowett was yet another Yorkshire strongman, who was born in 1891 and died in 1969.

A biography of Jowett can be found here.  A brief article by Jowett called “Footsteps of Yesterday” is reproduced here on Natural Strength and another short article called “Mining the Human Body” is reproduced here on Bob Whelan.

***

Siegmund Klein

Siegmund Klein was born in 1902 in Koenigsberg, Germany and died in 1987.  Many physical culture commentators see him as bridging the gap between the oldtime strongmen of the early part of the twentieth century and the modern bodybuilding culture of post-1950.

A short article about Klein can be found here.  An article on The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban written by Klein himself about the Bent Press can be found here and one on Brooks Kubik’s site can be found here.

***

Earle Liederman

Earle E Liederman was born in Brooklyn in 1886 and died in 1970.  He ran a successful correspondence course in the 1920’s.

Here are a few other resources about Liederman:

• an article called “Endurance” by Liederman has been reproduced on Natural Strength;
• an article by Liederman about other oldtime strongmen has been published on The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban;
• the original Liederman course is still available over the internet here!
• a short article about a typical Liederman routine can be see here; and
• David Chapman has written a brief biography that has been published on Bob Whelan.

***

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:

• Yorkshire seems to have had something in the water that creates strongmen.  If we can bottle it, we could make a fortune;
• I still like the idea of the bent press although I have not yet summoned the necessary spine to try it;
• 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;
• speaking of which, Mark Henry is a monster.

So that was Inch to Liederman.  Next time, I’ll write about McFadden to Nordquest!  See here for a collection of oldtime strongman articles.

***

James Evans

James Evans was the author of “10 minutes a day”, a short book published in Canada in 1944 on achieving health through muscle control.  He was a small man, only 5’3” and weighing just 148lbs but achieved a clean and press of 200lbs.

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Herman Goerner

According to Wikipedia, Herman Goerner was born in Saxony, Germany in 1891 and died in 1956.  He was a famous German strongman, particularly well known for his grip strength.

Amongst other feats, Goerner pulled a one-handed deadlift of 734.5lbs, pulled a two-handed deadlift of 595.5lbs using just 2 fingers of each hand, achieved a pinch lift of 111 lbs, and leg-pressed 24 men for a total weight 4123lb, on a plank with the soles of his feet.

Compared with other strongmen of the period, Goerner still gets a fair amount of press and is widely discussed on the internet, as you can see here:

• RossTraining has some more biographical detail about Goerner’s life and lifts. 
• Brooks Kubik has written about Goerner’s deadlift variations.
• Oldtime Strongman Training has some background and various details.
• Charles A Smith wrote a fantastic hymn to Goerner’s achievements back in 1986.
• Diesel Crew brings Goerner up to date with some modern comparisons.

***

The Good Brothers

The three Good Brothers, Harry, Walter and Bill, were weightlifters and strongmen from Eastern Pennsylvania.  There are several short articles about them and their business, the Good Barbell Company, on Oldtime Strongman.

Bill was the most successful of the three brothers and won 7 Senior National Weightlifting Titles from 1930 to 1937 and competed in 2 Olympic Games in the 75kg weightlifting category (1932 in Los Angeles and 1936 in Berlin).

Walter Good competed in the 1936 Olympics as well as his brother Bill and Harry wrote books (which can be found on Sandow Plus here) and established the “Good Barbell Company” in the late 1930s.

***

George Hackenschmidt

According to Wikipedia, George Hackenschmidt was born Georg Karl Julius Hackenschmidt in Estonia in 1878 and died in London, England in 1968.  You can read more about him at the Art of Manliness here

Hackenschmidt is credited with two remarkable innovations, the professional wrestling version of the bear hug and the hack squat.  He is also credited with holding the bench press world record from 1898 to 1916 with a lift of 361lbs until Joe Nordquest pressed 363lbs.  It was not until Doug Hepburn that the 400lbs mark was passed.  And as you know, everything went a bit weird after that…

***

Bob Hoffman

Bob Hoffman was born in 1898 and died not that long ago in 1985.  He founded the hugely influential business, the York Barbell Company and was a prolific writer.  His writings can be found here at Sandow Plus.  There are one or two short articles about him on Oldtime Strongman.

You can find some interesting articles about the York Barbell Company and how it has affected York County, Pennsylvania here.

***

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:

• 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;
• wrestling is probably overlooked as a way to develop strength.

So that was Evans to Hoffman.  Next time, I’ll write about Inch to Liederman!  For all the articles, see this collection of oldtime strongman articles.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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. 

***

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.

***

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.

***

William Bankier (a.k.a Apollo, the Scottish Hercules)

William Bankier was born in Banff, Scotland in 1870 and died in 1949, having been involved in a number of sports in addition to performing as a strongman on stage.

He was particularly famous for lifting an elephant.  He did this as a belt squat, using a sling so that the animal could be suspended beneath him.  It also seems he was something of a gymnast, being said to be able to do a backward somersault over a chair holding two 56lb weights in his hands.

His arm strength and biceps development, he attributed to rope climbing.

Bankier lived much of his life in the shadow of Sandow and this comes across very obviously in his book, “Ideal Physical Culture”.  Bankier details how he challenged Sandow, discusses his methods and even criticises the measurements that he claimed.

Sandow claimed to have been 5’9 and 202lbs but Bankier alleges that he was only 5’6” and 176lbs.  Moreover, with the measurements Sandow claimed for his chest (48”) and arms (19.5”), Bankier asserted that Sandow would have had to weigh 252lbs and it’s easy to see where he’s coming from…

***

Sanford Bennett

Sanford Bennett (born in 1841 and died in 1926) was a curious character who devised a sequence of exercises to be performed before rising each morning!  He started exercising late in life but it was said that he seemed to grow younger with the start of his programme, rather than older.

***

Joe Bonomo

Joe Bonomo was born in Coney Island in 1901 and died in 1978.

Early in life, he befriended Charles Atlas, who also worked on Coney Island, and who became a good friend and mentor.  After winning a physique contest, he began to work in the early action cinema films, doing stunts and feats of strength.

In consequence of his screen work, he received a lot of fan mail, some of it inquiring after his secrets to strength.  He capitalised on this as his predecessors had done with postal courses.  Injured during an action sequence, he was forced to retire and began a successful career as a businessman, marketing his own persona to sell a range of different products.

Miriam Linna has written a brief biography of his colourful life and how as his star waned, the star of Joe Weider came into the ascendant.

***

Zishe Seigmund Breitbart

Zishe “Seigmund” Breitbart was a famous Jewish strongman, born in Poland in 1893.  He died tragically at the very young age of 32 following an injury he sustained driving a nail into a block of wood in 1925.  He was buried in Berlin.

His stage performances were more theatrical than the British strongmen of the same time.  Rather than lifting weights for numbers, he bent iron bars into floral patterns, drove nails into oak beams with his hands, supported vehicles on his chest and held ropes attached to heavy objects with his teeth.  He even demonstrated the ability to bite through steel with his teeth!  You can see more of this sort of thing here.

He was taller than many of the other old-time strongmen, at 6’1” and weighed 225lbs.  More about his statistics and history are available here.

***

H Broom

H Broom (whether Herbert or Harry, I can’t be sure) came from Hull (yet another Yorkshireman!) and trained under Max Sick and Edward Aston.

As a middleweight, he lifted 225lbs (102kg) one-hand-anyhow overhead for a world record and pressed 170lbs (77kg) with two hands for 29 reps!

He developed a large business out of physical culture, including (of course) postal courses but also dumbbells and other devices.

***

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 have learned that:

• bending steel is probably overlooked as a way to develop strength by many people;
• the bent press probably gets a lot less airtime than it should;
• rope climbing is good for building big biceps;
• 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; and
• Zishe Seigmund Breitbart is probably my favourite strongman so far.

So that was Bankier to Bennett.  Next time, I’ll write about Burns to Dorans!  See  my dedicated page for more of the oldtime strongmen articles.

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Apollon (a.k.a J C Tolson)

Apollon was born 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.

He was not a large man, being measured at 5’6” and 184lbs but in 1927 he pulled 551lbs (250kg) and in 1928 performed a standing press of 214lbs (97kg). 

Apollon suggested that the key to strength was to force a strong contraction in the muscle, while concentrating on that muscle as hard as possible.  In this regard, his approach is similar to the proponents of isometric exercises, including Sandow, Charles Atlas and Alexander Zass.  As regards diet, he advocated plenty of meat and vegetables, washed down with milk.

David Gentle has written a brief biography of Apollon here.  David suggests that the postal course emphasising muscle contractions for building strength were essentially toned down versions of Apollon’s own training routine, which was a more typical weightlifting regime.

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Otto Arco (a.k.a Otto Nowosielsky)

Otto Arco was born in 1881 and died in 1960.  He was also a proponent of what he called “muscle control”, the practice of deliberately flexing a muscle without accompanying resistance from another object.  He described it as creating a contraction without the accompanying motion.  Using this technique, he believed, was enough to develop significant strength and muscle mass.  His stage performances focused on gymnastic hand balancing and posing.

A very small man, he was said to weigh just 145lbs, and from the pictures I have seen, his muscle mass would suggest that this was accompanied by fairly short stature.

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Edward Aston

Another Yorkshireman, Edward Aston was a contemporary of Thomas Inch and Max Sick and competed against them on several occasions between 1909 and 1911.  They competed against each other in a number of different lifts, including two-handed jerks, cleans, clean and jerks and one-handed snatches and jerks.

Aston wrote extensively about weightlifting and explained how his routine of low-repetition presses, jerks, cleans and pulls was the way to increase strength most effectively.  He talked disparagingly about higher repetition work as a way to increase muscle size without corresponding strength.

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Don Athaldo

Don Athaldo was born Walter Joseph Lyons in New South Wales, Australia in 1894 and died in 1965.  It is said that he worked as a blacksmith before fighting in the First World War.  He performed on stage as a circus strongman and published several works on physical culture.

Like Apollon, he was said to be not a large man, being measured as only 5’4” and weighing somewhere between 154lbs and 168lbs.

He had a showman’s flair for capturing the public imagination and carried out his performances well-dressed, in a leopard skin and leather boots.  His most famous feat was pulling a touring car with six passengers more than half-a-mile up a hill.

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Charles Atlas

Charles Atlas was born Angelo Siciliano in 1892 in Italy, moved to New York in 1905 and died there in 1972. 

In between, he created what was probably the most famous advertising campaign for muscular development that the world has ever seen: the 97lbs weakling has sand kicked in his face by the beach bully, goes home in anger and orders the Charles Atlas strength course before returning to exact his revenge. 

Talking about his strength gains, he claimed to have found no benefit from lifting weights but advocated an isometric technique, which he called dynamic tension.  This approach involved using the different muscles of the body to resist each other and was very similar to methods discussed by Sandow, Zass and Apollon, amongst others.

He worked as a strongman on Coney Island but was predominantly famous for his build and appearance rather than his strength feats.  He was said to be c. 5’10” and weigh around 184lbs.

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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, so far, I think that:

• Edward Aston was probably the most honest and upfront about the type of strength training he did;
• all of the strongmen probably trained with dumbbells and barbells at some point;
• the training was probably predominantly 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); and
• marketing was just as much an issue in those days as it is today!

So that was Apollon to Atlas.  Next time, I’ll write about Bankier to Bennett!  For all of the articles, check out my page on oldtime strongmen.