Batta

Charles Batta, or, as he was more commonly known "Batta" was an oldtime strongman famous for his incredible grip strength. Standing at 5'10" and a bodyweight of only 200 popunds, Batta was the only man who duplicated one of the Apollon's greatest feats: the lifting of four 44-pound blockweights overhead -- each tied to a finger of one hand. It was also written that Batta cleaned (but did not jerk) Apollon's famous railroad wheels - an incredible feat in its own right, but even more so due to his light bodyweight.

Batta

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The Muscle Out

The "Muscle Out" is an oldtime lift where a weight is held at arms length to the front or side of the body. Generally a block weight or ring weight was used. This lift is quite a test of shoulder strength. If you can accomplish this feat with a 56-pound weight, like the French gentleman on the right, you are indeed strong.

The Muscle Out

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The Look of Power

The Look of Power
You'll often hear talk of the "look" of power... Sandow unquestionably had it. He trained with light dumbbells, heavy dumbbells, block weights, chest expanders, muscle control, heavy supports, bodyweight calisthenics, gymnastics exercises and a whole lot more --- but however he trained, he did so progressively...

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Staff Sgt. Moss

Staff Sgt. Alfred Moss

Staff Sgt. Alfred Moss was an early bodybuilder, circa 1900, although his tattoos often disqualified him from several contests despite his obvious muscularity. Sergeant Moss was considered the Strongest man in the British Army, once jerking a 56-pound blockweight 100 times in 2 minutes 52 seconds. He went on to write several training courses covering the parallel bar, vaulting horse, indian clubs, rings, tumbling and other gymnastic subjects.

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Strongman Equipment

Strongman Equipment
You've got to hand it to the oldtime strongmen, they didn't mess around when it came to quality equipment. How strong do you think you could get if you were training with the globe barbells, globe dumbbells, blockweights etc, in the above picture?

If you want to get strong and I mean STRONG you have to have good training equipment and that's just how it is.

It all begins with a quality barbell, good plates and a solid pair of collars. If you have nothing else, you must have at least that much. From there, add other equipment as needed.

Other equipment that will help you tremendously includes a solid bench, dumbbells, a power rack, a Gerard Trap Bar, chest expanders, Thick Bars, Hand Grippers and anything else that you will find on our Strongman Equipment Page.

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The Kettlebell Handle

The Kettlebell Handle

Kettlebells have taken many forms throughout the years. From the classic Globed MILO Kettlebells... to the Blockweights that were so common in many Oldtime Strongman acts of decades past... and to the many other unique forms which will be featured at a later date. One type of kettlebell that you don't often see mentioned much is the plate-loaded kettlebell handle, which has a very long history by itself. Of course, this type of kettlebell was used a bit differently in terms of training than what is often recommended these days.

The Kettlebell Handles show above were manufactured by the MILO Barbell Company in the late 1920s.

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Sig Klein's Gym

Sig Klein's Classic Old-Time Gym
Here's another look at one of the classc gyms we have featured before: Sig Klein's place in New York City. This was the original location -- he moved into a facility overlooking Times Square later on.

Notice the mirror on the right revealing a set of globe barbells on the far wall, block and ring weights in the foreground and you can just make out a Roman Column on the extreme left.

There's nothing like Classic Equipment to make your training special. You can tell a lot of great workouts happened down at Sig's Place.

Sig Klein inherited much of the equipment after he married Professor Attila's youngest daughter in 1927. Professor Attila, of course, was the man who taught Eugen Sandow how to train.

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The Blockweight Challenge

Here's a look at one of the unique exercises that can be done with the Block Weights that I mentioned in an earler Blog Post. Two blockweights are placed together handle-to-handle and then lifted, making a challenge for grip strength as well as full body strength to keep the two halves from splitting while in motion. This setup is a challenge to simply deadlift but to be a real "Strong Man" you need to be able to get the weights above your head. This lifter is shown bent-pressing a pair of blockweights.

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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.

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