Ellington Darden

Before he became the most popular strength author of all time, Ellington Darden graced the cover of several top bodybuilding magazines including the July 1970 of Muscular Development pictured here.

As an expert (not the armchair variety) in training, Ell Darden started asking the right questions very early on. He entered and placed very highly in a number of bodybuilding contests. Here's a look at the contests he won: 1969 Mr. Texas - AAU 1970 Mr. South - AAU 1972 Collegiate Mr. America - AAU

Ellington Darden on the July 1970- issue of Muscular Development

Ell Darden went on to author over 50 books on strength training. His latest can be found here: The New Bodybuilding for Old School Results

---

The Steel Tip Newsletter by Dr. Ken Leistner

Back in the mid 1980's Dr. Ken Leistner started his own newlsletter -- The Steel Tip -- which ran for 36 issues. The issue pictured is Volume I, Number 2 (February 1985) -- The contents include: Perspective on Strength Lower Body Power "Miracle" Supplement? Hand and Forearm Training Body Mass, Body Heat Specificty Side Bends and Twists Ankle Injuries

---

Oldtime Strongman Blockweights

Someday I may get around to putting together the Secret history of Kettlebells -- there's more to it than what most people would have you believe. Here's something that will make a good chapter: blockweights. These were an offshoot of the kettlebell "handled-weight" concept and used for many of the same exercises, at least in Strongman Lore (which is an important distinction.) The real function for blockweights is to provide ballast (i.e. just "weight") to hold down the scenery/props etc backstage in the theatre. My theory is that many oldtime strongmen noticed these unusual weights during their performances in various places and thought they would make an interesting impliment to train/lift with. The top ad is for a blockweight sold by the Milo Barbell Company circa 1926. The bottom two are vintage blockweights, weighing 50 and 30 pounds respectively.

---

Legendary Iron: Oldtime Globe Barbells

Gotta love those classic shots of globe barbells in action. There's just something about classic and unique equipment that makes training fun.

---

Sergio Oliva: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

They called him "The Myth" because he was bigger than anyone else anyone had ever seen before. - Sergio Oliva. Here's a shot that I certainly had never seen before -- from the cover of a recent Japanese muscle magazine, probably taken some time in the 1970's:

Sergio Oliva
While he was understandably blessed in the genetic department, there is no question that Sergio Oliva still benefitted greatly from his training. Find out what how he trained to reach his largest right HERE.

---

Strength From The Highlands

Our friend, strength author and historian, David Webster was featured in yesterday's New York Times article covering the "World Highland Games Championships" held in Inverness, Scotland.

Accoding to Webster:

"The earliest records of Highland games date to the 11th century when, as the story goes, King Malcolm Canmore of Scotland wanted to find the fastest man in his clan because he needed a messenger. So he organized a hill race and while the villagers waited for the runners to come down, they passed the time by throwing stones and weights.

Clan chieftains also used the games to find their strongest men, Webster said. That way, each chieftain had his champion and could challenge those in other clans as a substitute for battles."

Here's a look at two of the most well known of the "heavy" athletic events:

Tossing the Caber
A caber is a log, usually made of pine, which the competitor stands upright and then hoists end over end. Scoring is not based on height or distance thrown but how closely their throws approximate the ideal 12 o'clock toss on an imaginary clock. If successful, the athlete is said to have "turned" the caber.

Since cabers are made from natural wood, each one differs in length, weight, taper, and balance.

Thowing the Hammer
In the Scottish Hammer throwing event, a round metal ball (weighing 16 or 22 lb for men or 12 or 16 lb for women) is attached to the end of a shaft about 4 feet in length and made out of wood, bamboo, rattan, or plastic.

With the feet in a fixed position, the hammer is whirled about one's head and thrown for distance over the shoulder.

---

Indian Wrestler Sandbag Training

Chances are, you were probably introduced to sandbag training in Dinosaur Training by Brooks Kubik but sandbag training goes back a lot farther than that.

Here's a rare shot from the turn of the century of an Indian wrestler getting ready to train. He is pictured lifting, throwing and carrying the sandbag. As a combat athlete, lifting or carrying heavy, awkward and sometimes off-centered objects can be much more useful than simply "lifting weights."

Would you want to mess with this guy?

---

Don't Try This One At Home!

I don't know what you would call this one but I have never seen anything like it. When you're "strong" you can pretty much do whatever you want... something George Jowett called "The Thrill of Strength."

---

A Unique Chest Expander

I was flipping through the November 9, 1928 Issue of Health and Strength (With Thomas Inch on the cover!) and found this pretty cool picture. Over in the UK, chest expanders or "Strand pulling" is much more popular and many of the fitness magazines from over there feature some kind of chest expander workouts, new, updates etc. Obviously this was an attempt to figure out a way to put a "number" on someone's chest expander performance by putting some sort of tensiometer on the cable. I've captioned it exactly as it appears in the magazine: P.S. You should be doing this movement in your chest expander workout.

A.W. HOWE 9 stone amateur Champion of the World, a Warwick pupil, performing a World's Record Right Hand Military Press using the "Machine Expander"

---

Sig Klein

Sig Klein was one of the most recognizable of the Old Time Strongmen, because of his classical physique as well as his great strength.

Though he ever tipped the scales over 150 pounds, many of his strength feats still stand the test of time and would be impressive if he weighed twice that.

Here's a look: 1. Two arm pullover and press off his back with 288 lbs. 2. Two arm military press from behind the neck with 206 lbs. 3. Two arm dumbbell crucifix: 63.25 lbs. left hand, 63.5 lbs. right hand 4. One arm stiff-legged side press, 174.25 lbs. 5. Ten reps each arm 'see-saw' press with a pair of 100 lb. dumbbells

Sig Klein

---

Joe Bonomo: Hercules of The Screen

Joe Bonomo
Joe Bonomo was one of the early "Mail Order Muscle" stars and a contemporary of Charles Atlas.

As a young boy Joe he met a Polish strongman named Ladislaw who taught him how to train. Soon the boy they used to call "toothpicks" became a star football player, gymnast. Right out of highschool Joe won a talent search contest in the Daily News for "The Modern Apollo" -- which led to a role in a motion picture.

He went on to star in dozens of movies as both an actor and a famous stuntman. His performances in serials and adventure films earned him many fans, many of whom wrote in asking how he had developed his rugged physique.

Joe created a form letter detailing his training and sent it to anyone in need of advice. The demand became so large that an outright mail-order business soon followed. In addition to his work in Hollywood, Joe Bonomo inspired millions of young men around the workd with his strength building courses.

You can own a copy of his original Strongman Chest Expander training course right here.

---

Mysteries of Chest Expansion

From page 51 of 'Super Strength' by Alan Calvert:

"The chest and lungs are the storehouses of your power. A big rib-box means plenty of room for the lungs. Big lungs are of immense value to the super-strong man. They enable him to keep up for many minutes at a time of exertions which would exhaust an ordinary individual in the course of a few seconds.

Therefore your first aim should be to increase the size of the rib box; and even if you do not intend to try for super-strength, or if you are not interested in any other kind of exercise, I most earnestly recommend you to practice the movement described in the following paragraphs.

A few months daily practice will increase the girth of your rib-box by several inches. As the rib box grows larger, the shoulders will get proportionately broader, the lungs will get bigger and you will find that you will have vastly endurance as the size and power of the lungs increases. Furthermore you will find that you arms and legs will develop automatically. A big-chested man can get arm and leg development at a much more rapid pace than can the man who has a small rib-box and correspondingly small lungs." If you don't a few chest expansion movements in your training - you should! To learn more about how to expand the chest and enlare the rib-box, I recommend the following resources:

Lionel Strongfort from 1931 - You sure don't see chest development like this these days

1. The Key to Might and Muscle by George Jowett

2. Super Strength by Alan Calvert

3.. Combat Abs by Matt Furey

4. The New Bodybuilding for Old School Results by Dr. Ellington Darden

---

The Strongman: The Arthur Saxon Trio

Back in the 30's Alan Calvert created a magazine devoted specifically to strength training and called it "The Strongman" Here's an early issue featuring The Saxon trio (which I spruced up a bit.) One interesting thing about this publication is that he used very high-quality paper and not the pulp newsprint that was used for many other strength training literature of the time. Calvert obviously put a lot of thought and effort into his publications.

The Saxon Trio

---

Weightlifting at the 1904 Summer Olympics

Here's a classic shot from the 1904 Summer Olympics held is St. Louis, Missouri. Back then they contested "weightlifting" i.e. with a barbell in events with both one and two hands. Interestingly enough, they also had a seperate Dumbbell contest.

---

Bert Elliott and Classic Equipment

Bert Elliot was a bodybuilding champ in the 1950's and 60's who had an interest in real oldtime strength training. He even shaved his head and dressed like a turn of the century strongman to complete the effect. Here he is standing in front of some pieces of his famous collection of oldtime equipment: globe barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells and indian clubs. (Notice the very old Hand Grippers on the wall.) Wonder were his stuff is now?

---

John Grimek Overhead Press!

John Grimek Overhead Presses a Heavy Globe Barbell
Any training course worth it's salt recommends the overhead press as as exercise. John Grimek, the greatest bodybuilder of all time built his tremendous upper-body strength and power with plenty of overhead pressing (and intense leg work.)

You'll become extra strong if you do your pressing with antique globe barbells.

---

Henri Toch - "The Cannon Man"

Henri Toch was a French strongman in the late 1800's who was billed as "L'Homme Canon" or "The Cannon Man." It was with pretty good reason, his unique performance included the incredible strength feat of holding 365 Kilogram Cannon on his shoulders while it fired.

- Henri Toch - "The Cannon Man"

---

Super Strength by Alan Calvert

Check out this great oldtime ad for Super Strength by Alan Calvert.

The third paragraph says:

ABSOLUTELY THE BEST BOOK OF ITS KIND

The book "SUPER STRENGTH" was planned and written to help the individual reader. At the present time there are tens of thousands of men of all ages who are seeking physical perfection - who are not satisfied with merely keeping themselves fit, but whose ideal is to bring their bodies to the highest state of physical beauty, bodily strength, andmuscular development. Those are the men who are not satisfied with bing "just one of the crowd," and who are working to get that personal supremecy which comes from a superb physical equipment.

SUPER STRENGTH by Alan Calvert

If you are one of that class, we earnestly recommend that you get a copy of this book "SUPER STRENGTH." It approaches the problem of body-building, health -improvemnet and strength making from an entirely new angle."

To get your own copy, Click here.

---

The New Bodybuilding for Old School Results by Ellington Darden

The New Bodybuilding for Old School Results by Ellington Darden
The New Bodybuilding for Old School Results is Ellingtons Darden's latest strength training book. It's over 300 pages, features hundreds of rare photos and unlike any of Dr. Darden's other books, is in full color.

In it, you'll find an equal dose of strength history and training knowledge and each of its 34 chapters is designed to help you get stronger.

BEHIND-THE-SCENES INTERVIEWS:

• Appreciate Ben Sorenson, who was the manager of Vic Tanny's famous gym in Santa Monica (near Muscle Beach) from 1947-1949. Sorenson details the 1949 Mr. USA competition between John Grimek and Steve Reeves and voices his opinion of why Grimek won, even though Reeves had the best physique.

• Uncover authentic adventures at Muscle Beach, which involve certain legends of bodybuilding. There are meaningful lessons among these episodes.

• Reminisce with Jim Flanagan about Milo Steinborn, the last of the old-time strongmen, as he describes what it was like to train in Steinborn's Gym.

• Laugh with Kim Wood as he shares a report of the 1971 NABBA Mr. Universe in London. The men entered included Pill Bearl, Hergio Saliva, Egg Park, and Rank Fane.

• Is the barbell squat the single best free-weight exercise? Find out from Dan Riley, strength coach of the NFL's Houston Texans.

• Dissect the Best Golden-Age Bodybuilders, muscle by muscle, as judged by experienced insiders who were there. Review the outstanding physiques of Larry Scott, Freddy Ortiz, Tom Platz, Scott Wilson, and Mike Mentzer.

---

Blast from the Past: The Whitely Giant Power Grip!

Whitely GIANT Power Grip!

My friend Sarah found this cool old-time hand gripper in an antique shop somewhere in Michigan and snapped it up for a few bucks. – What a steal! There's no date on this gripper but I’ve seen the design before in a lot of old magazines (see right from 1926.) The one above is in mint condition (including the box) and still a pretty good challenge with all six springs. If you need a more modern grip challenge, check these out: Ironmind Hand Grippers

Oldtime Ad

---

Strongman Breaks Cobblestones With His Hands

It was on this date back in 1891 that Louis Cyr defeated Sebastian Miller in a back lifting contest 3192 pounds to 2400 pounds.

If you've spent any time on the site so far you are pretty well acquainted with Louis Cyr but you probably aren't as familiar with Sebastian Miller.

Heres a bit about him from the Cambridge (Ohio) Jeffersonian newspaper dated January 3, 1899:

-- Strongman Breaks Cobblestones With His Hands --

Sebastian Miller
"A strongman has turned up on Philadelphia. He calls himself Sebastian Miller and a distinguished gathering of physicians and Professors witnessed some of his feats of strength in the Pennsylvania hospital a day ago.

Miller stripped to the waist in order that the physicians might see the workings of his gigantic muscles, and he stepped to a light pine table on which were placed several cobblestones.

A large stone was held in place and Miller, giving three powerful swings with his right arm, brought his fist down on the stone.

The first blow cracked it, the second broke it, and the third shattered it into bits.

In doing this, Miller wrapped a piece of cloth around his hand to protect it from being cut.

But Miller's strength is not all in his arms. With a harness he has raised 3500 pounds and with his hands he can lift 1800 pounds. With three successive blows of his fist he has broken a block of Quincy granite 5 feet long, 4 feet broad and 6 inches thick."

---

Lionel Strongfort - The Human Bridge!

THE GREATEST FEAT OF STRENGTH IN WORLD'S HISTORY!
- The Human Bridge performed by Lionel Strongfort -
"In all the larger cities of Europe and America, LIONEL STRONGFORT has performed his amazing "Human Bridge" feat of supporting a huge bridge of 1500 pounds over which travels a heavy, steel-bodied automobile, carrying six to seven passengers; total weight sustained - over 3-1/2 tons. There is no record of ancient or modern times of any other athlete ever performing a feat that required such enormous strength."

---