Bob Peoples' Deadlift Ring

Bob Peoples always felt that the key to a strong deadlift was a super strong lower back -- he would know, since he's history's strongest deadlifter. To accomplish certain tasks in his training, Bob often had to make his own equipment. For example, in order to gain a deeper range of motion, Bob created what he called a "Deadlift Ring," which is demonstrated here by young Bob Hise. This ring allows for roughly an extra foot of "pull." A similar exercise can be performed very effectively with a Gerard Trap Bar

Deadlift Ring

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Yet Another Look at Sig Klein's Gym

Sig Klein's Gym

Yes, we have shown it before but Sig Klein's gym never goes out of style.

Here's another shot clearly showing the rich, oak panneling, great collection of oldtime globe barbells and antique weights and the Persian rug on the floor (better take your shoes off before you train at Sig's place!)

This shot was taken before Sig had a shelf built around the perimeter of the gym for his world-famous beer stein collection.

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The Dymek Curling Bar

The Dymek Curling Bar

The Dymek Curling Bar -- every gym in the county has one although you probably know it by its more common name of the "EZ Curl bar." The angled handles stress the biceps in a much different manner than a normal straight bar. I don't particularly care for them but a lot of people swear by an EZ Curl Bar for their arm workouts. Today there are many copy-cat versions but this one is the original.

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Barrel Lifting

Barrel Lifting

Barbells and dumbbells can be nice, but sometimes it pays to lift something big, awkward and heavy to build unusual strength. For many strongmen of the past, a barrel often fit the bill perfectly, and even more-so when partially filled with water.

Read Dinosaur Training or ROCK IRON STEEL by Steve Justa for more information on Barrel Lifting.

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The Hip Lift

Hip Lift

Mr. Roy L. Smith demonstrates a Hip Lift of a train axle weighing 2250 pounds. Smith did not begin to lift weights until he was over 30 years of age, but using MILO Barbell methods he put on over 40 pounds of muscular bodyweight and was featured in the MILO Barbell Company advertisements.

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John Grimek

John Grimek - One Arm Snatch

John Grimek, in mid-one-arm snatch. It was often written that Grimek credited his all-around development to his using a wide variety of exercises.

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Teeth Lifting

Teeth Lifting Bit

Teeth Lifting was a favorite feat of many oldtime strongmen, and this particular mouthpiece was sold by the York Barbell Company in the pages of Strength and Health Magazine Several hundred pounds can be lifted in this manner and this type of lifting will build incredible neck and jaw strength, however, we do NOT recommend this style of lifting (If you decide to do it anyway, please have a dentist onhand.)

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Antone Matysek and the Roman Chair

Antone Matysek and the Roman Chair

Matysek was much more than a master of muscle control, for many years he was one of the premier strength performers in the entire world and excelled at a variety of feats. This Roman Chair feat is especially difficult. It requires a great deal of abdominal power but also depends very heavily on the strength of the frontal thigh muscles.

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Kurt Saxon

Kurt Saxon

of the Saxon trio, it was often Arthur who got most of the spotlight, but the other brothers were also quite strong. Here's a shot of Kurt Saxon, at 50 years old, supporting nearly half a ton of classic barbells and other weights.

The largest Barbell weighs 330 pounds and the kettlebells on his feet weight 88 pounds apeice, the barbell on his abdomen weighs 200 pounds, the barbell he is holding weighs 100 pounds and another 88-pound kettlebell on each hand.

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A Strength Feat by the Mighty Atlas

A Strength Feat by the Might Atlas

The Pro Wrestler "The Mighty Atlas" often performed feats of strength before his matches, many of them unusual, and not performed by any other strongmen before or since.

Here's one you don't see every day: breaking a 3/4" manila rope with a harness lift. That's a "gut buster" for sure!

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Moore's Squat Bar

Moore's Squat Bar

1959 AAU Mr. America winner Harry Johnson demonstrates Moore's Squat Bar, a unique piece of equipment often advertised in the old Iron Man Magazine that eliminates much of the discomfort of squatting.

Look familar?

The rights were eventually purchased by multiple-time Mr. Olympia winner Frank Zane, and re-released as the Frank Zane Leg Blaster (which is still available today.)

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Train Wheel Dumbbell

Sometimes you'll have to improvise if you still want to get in a workout. Back during the second World War, our troops overseas had to do just that if they wanted to keep training. Here, Cpl. Robert Hamilton of the 1st AAF in Italy fashioned a nifty dumbbell out of some narrow-gauge train wheels. I'm sure the thick handle made for some interesting workouts.

Train Wheel Dumbbell

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Mac Batchelor's Challenge

If you were ever out near L.A. and wanted to stop by Mac Batchelor's tavern and challenge the big man, you were more than welcome to. One of Mac's challenges was to place his hand, palm-up, on the bar and have someone try to hold down one of his fingers, with a quick flip the would-be challenger always went flying. You can read more about it in the "Grip and Forearm Development" Chapter in John McCallum's Key's to Progress.

Mac Batchelors Challenge

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Indian Wrestlers

Indian Wrestlers

Wrestling in India is a lifetime profession and should you be born into a family of "Phelwans," as wrestlers are termed in India, within a few years you would be following their system of training and ways of life.

When in training -- which is pretty much always -- Indian wrestlers rise at 5:30 AM to begin their exercises which consist of thousands of "Dunds" (pushups) and "Batticks" (squats). This routine is performed each day without fail and builds and incredible amount of strength and endurance.

These three men were some of the greatest wrestlers in all of India during their time, from left to right Chota, Imam-Bux (the Great Gama's brother), and Mdrala.

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Bob Jones' Toughest Feat

Bob Jones

If you could travel back in time and ask Bob Jones what his toughest hand balancing feat was, he might tell you this one... but he did it! Most of the time hand balancers balance on a solid, stable surface such as a table, or parallettes. That's a decidely "unstable" base, a free-swinging length of pipe hung by a couple ropes.

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Gregory Paradise

Gregory Paradise

One of the strongest men who ever lived was a man named Gregory Paradise of Hudson, New Hampshire. He could perform single-finger one-arm chins with ease, bend quarters in his teeth and was a wiz at the bent press, having the only distinction of being able to bent-press double-bodyweight.

Paradise only weighed around 120 pounds but at a professional strength show in Canada performed a bent-press with 250 pounds. After this photograph was taken the dumbbell was weighed at 203 pounds.

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Bob Peoples' Barrel Barbell

Bob Peoples' Barrel Barbell

A look at Bob Peoples'first barbell, which he made out of a couple barrels in which he would load weight: chunks of metal, concrete -- anything he could find. Peoples trained alone in his garage gym and deadlifted over 700 pounds back in the 1940's. That sure doesn't leave much room for excuses...

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Walt Marcyan

Walt Marcyan
Walt Marcyan was a great lifter, bodybuilder and hand balancer during the early Santa Monica Muscle Beach days. Walt first picked up a barbell and started training when he was 19 years old and shortly afterwards won the Central AAU Light Heavyweight Lifting Championship.

He followed that up by winning the northwest, Pacific, California, Pacific Coast and Illinois State lifting titles. Walt possessed unusual strength in a number of lifts, above he just missed a one-arm snatch of 210 pounds (at a bodyweight of only 180.)

Marcyan was also the inventor of several pieces of training equipment and his "Marcy Gym" line is still going strong today.

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"Train for Strength" says Doug Hepburn

Doug Hepburn

"If a man's temperament is suited to it, I believe he will make better progress in weightlifting by training for strength primarily and style secondarily than if he puts great emphasis on learning form."

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Milo Steinborn

Milo Steinborn
During the first World War, Milo Steinborn was captured and held in a British Prisoner of War camp in Australia. It was there where he began his intense focus on strength training.

Milo and the men of the prison camp rigged up a set of weights using cement blocks and a type of very hard wood.

Two and a half inch water pipes were used for bars and collars were made by inserting set screws into sections of larger pipes. Milo trained with that set for over two years and, worked up to nearly 500 pounds in the squat.

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Rolandow Jumping The Barbell

Rolandow Jumping The Barbell
One of the signature feats of the great strongman G.W. Rolandow was jumping back and forth over a loaded barbell. This barbell was loaded to 130 lbs. but his record was over 200 lbs. Note that he is only able to hold the barbell with three fingers while performing this stunt.

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Now That's a Squat: Benoit Cote Shows How It's Done

Benoit Cote
Benoit Cote the great Canadian strongman and the man who beat Doug Hepburn in a head-to-head contest shows what a real squat looks like.

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George Redpath

George Redpath and Bert Goodrich

In the old days strength athletes were true athletes; equally proficiant in weight lifting, bodybuilding and handbalancing... and speaking of hand balancing, one of the greatest hand balancers was George Redpath from the original Muscle Beach. Redpath's hand balancing partner was the first Mr. America Bert Goodrich.

Redpath was also one of the first to promote healthy eating and correct nutrition through his many excellent articles in Iron Man Magazine and for years owned and ran one of the most popular gyms out on the West coast (which was eventually purchased by Bill Pearl.)

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Paul Anderson's Silver Dollar Squat

Paul Anderson's Silver Dollar Squat

One of Paul Paul Anderson's greatest feats was squatting with over 1200 pounds -- but it wasn't with a traditional barbell, it was with $25,000 worth of silver dollars at his strength show in Las Vegas. There was a standing challenge that anyone who could duplicate the feat could keep the money -- needless to say the money was safe.

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Jack Walsh and the 1-Finger Snatch

Jack Walsh

Jack Walsh performing a 1-finger snatch with 115 pounds. When was the last time you ever heard of anyone performing this lift? Notice there's no collars on the bar.

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Jack LaLanne

Jack LaLanne

At 94 years old jack LaLanne is still going strong. He once did 1033 pushups in one hour, swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf while handcuffed and towing a fleet of boats, and starred in the longest running fitness show in the history or television. Here he is as a young man working on his one-arm chinning ability.

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Mac Batchelor Plays the Violin

Mac Batchlelor Plays the Violin

Mac Batchelor was a man of many talents...Besides Arm Wrestling and Bending Bottlecaps he could also play the violin... Of course, like any strongman, he added his own unique twist, that's a pair of 50-pound Milo Kettlebells hanging from his right arm.

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