Brosius' Gym

Brosius' Gym

What a great gym! - This fantastic facility was established by George Brosius, a pioneer gymnastics coach and famous "Turner" in the Milwaukee area. More on him and his amazing story at a later date. Gotta love the indian clubs, climbing ropes and medicine balls. This pictures dates from the 1920s.

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Klein's Gym

Klein's Gym

I've shown plenty of shots of the inside of Sig Klein's Gym but here's a rare shot of the outside. Klein's Gym was located at 717 Seventh Avenue and was hard to miss with the huge picture of Sig out front.

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Horseshoes at Slim's Place

Horseshoes at Slim's Place

In Slim's Dungeon Gym you'll find every brand of horseshoe known to man. What would you expect from a man who bent horseshoes for a living? Nothing impresses an audience more than bending steel by hand.

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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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Slim The Hammer Man's Gym

Slim The Hammer Man's Gym
A unique look into part of Slim the Hammer Man's "dungeon" gym. Slim has been performing for over 50 years and there's a lot of history on those walls - event posters, pictures of The Mighty Atom, memorabilia, famous strongmen and friends, bent horseshoes and nails, chains, and, of course, his famous sledge hammers.

...That's the Mighty Atom's coat on the chair in the foreground.

Yes, it's even more amazing to see it in real life but if you can't make it to Pottstown, PA, you can still check it out for yourself here.

And, like I said, this is only part of Slim's place.

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Dave Sheppard Training at The York Gym

Dave Sheppard Training at The York Gym
One of the greatest gyms of all time was the old York gym on Broad street. An untold number of champions trained there, among them Dave Sheppard, shown here practicing his high pulls with 360 pounds.

Sheppard used a wide grip, as if snatching, and pulled the weight high enough to touch his chest lightly on each rep. This was one of the key exercises that allowed him to snatch 316-1/2 pounds at a bodyweight of 190 pounds.

John Davis looks on as he waits his turn to lift.

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Another Look At Sig Klein's Gym

Another Look At Sig Klein's Gym
What a place to train! -- Here's another look at Sig Klein's Gym located in Times Square, downtown New York.

The thing that makes a gym truly great is the atmosphere -- and Sig's place had it. You can just tell that many great workouts took place here.

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Harold Ansorge

Harold Ansorge

Harold Ansorge, the great strongman from Grand Rapids, Michigan, was a bent-press specialist. He never broke Arthur Saxon's record of 336 pounds but came very close with a lift of 335 pounds. Here is Ansorge bent-pressing a great 200 pound dumbbell. His gym, the Harold Ansorge Health Studios, was listed at the following addresses: 2124 Plainfield Ave., N.E and 141 28th Street, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Anybody know what's there now?

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The York Barbell Broad Street Gym

The York Barbell Broad Street Gym
One of the great training halls was the old York Barbell gym, located on Broad Street on York PA. It was an old factory converted to a gym, with nothing but a couple lifting platforms, a climbing rope, a few old dumbbells and plenty of iron.

It was hot, dark and cramped (just like a great gym should be)and the equipment was old, but solid and it produced an untold number of strength Champions in bodybuilding and Olympic weightlifting.

That's Ike Berger on the platform working on his press while Bob Hoffman, Tommy Kono and others look on.

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Sig Klein's Gym

Sig Klein's Gym
You've seen Sig Klein's Gym plenty of times on thsi Blog before, but I guarantee you've never seen it from this angle. This candid shot was actually reflected in a mirror. That's the old master Sig Klein in the middle, teaching someone how to use the gymnastic rings.

To the right, you can just make out Steve Reeves.

Klein's Gym sure had a lot of character, plenty of dark wood and globe dumbbells. Notice the Sandow and Saxon statues and Klein's world famous beer stein collection.

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Harry Shafran's Gym

Harry Shafran's Gym
Harry Shafran was an oldtime lifter who owned a couple successful gyms in New York back in the 1920's. Eventually he grew tired of big city lift and retired to a farm near Scranton, Pennsylvania where he converted the large barn in the back of his house into one of the greatest gyms of all time.

Here's a look back in time... Globe dumbbells, climbing ropes, Milo kettlebells, gymnastic rings, swedish bars -- note the double handled kettlebells used for swingbell exercises.

A half-moon bench can be seen in the foreground. This unique piece of equipment was used specifically for chest expansion exercises and used to be quite common.

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Dave's Gym - South Bend, Indiana

Dave's Gym - South Bend, Indiana
Dave Bjoraas, (pictured far right) the legendary "Dave" of Dave's Gym and Dave's Barbell Club of South Bend, Indiana... for many years the center of strength activity in the Mid-Western United States.

Dave's Gym in South Bend, Indiana produced many Iron Game champions: 1956 Mr. America Ray Schaefer trained there. So did Jr. Mr. America Doug Lindzy (pro-wrestling's original "Doug Gilbert").

Dave's Barbell Club Weight-lifting team produced champions like Winston Binney and Mike Burgener. And, most importantly, many of the top football players on Notre Dame's great Irish teams trained with Dave.

Dave's Gym... one of the top gyms ever... Dave Bjoraas, a fine man and a giant in the world of weights.

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Harry Shafran

Harry Shafran

Harry Shafran was an oldtime lifter who ran two gyms (one in Brooklyn and one in greater New York City) in the 1920's. Eventually Harry got tired of big city life and moved to a farm near Scranton, Pennsylvania where he converted a large barn into a gym. His collection of oldtime strength equipment was quite impressive, you can see a bit of it in the picture to the left where Shafran is harness lifting 1500 pounds (at 72 years old!)

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Vic Tanny's Gym

Vic Tanny's Gym
Just a stone's throw from the original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, California, was Vic Tanny's Gym.

Shortly after World War II, Tanny converted a 7,000-square-foot USO center, which was located in a basement on 4th Street, into the best-equipped gym in the United States. It was huge, with 15 foot ceilings and, as you can see all kinds of training equipment.

Vic Tanny's was affectionately known as "The Dungeon" and was the place to train during the 1940's and 1950's -- regular members included Steve Reeves, George Eiferman, Joe Gold (of Gold's Gym fame) and Arthur Jones, along with a whole host of others.

It was where Bob Hoffman and the York gang trained on West Coast trips.

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Milo Steinborn's Orange Avenue Gym

Milo Steinborn's Orange Avenue Gym
Henry "Milo" Steinborn was a 5'8" 205 lb German wrestler and strongman who became the first man to ever squat 500 lbs. In fact, his world record squat of 553 lbs. (set during the 1920's) would not be officially bested until the early 1950's by Doug Hepburn.

It was Milo who popularized the heavy deep knee bend as one of the most productive training lifts for anyone interested in building real strength.

In 1952, Milo opened the Orange Avenue Gym down in Orlando, Florida, which makes it the oldest weightlifting gym in America. Along with plenty of weights and barbells, Milo's Gym had a wrestling ring and other physical training equipment.

It was here that Milo taught a young Jim Flanagan how to get strong.

I was fortunate enough to visit the Orange Avenue Gym on a trip back in 2003 -- it still had some of Milo's original training equipment.

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Hemenway Gymnasium

Main Hall, Hemenway Gymnasium - circa 1880's
The original Hemenway Gymnasium, which was completed in 1878, was the finest physical education facility ever created.

It contained every manner of physical training equipment: climbing ladders, tumbling mats, climbing ropes, flying rings, barbells, dumbbells, indian clubs, medicine balls... even early strength building "machines."

There was a running track, handball courts and rooms for fencing, wrestling, boxing and any other imaginable physical activity.

At the head of this fantastic gym was Dudley Allen Sargent, who virtually founded the discipline of physical education (more on him at a later date.)

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Classic Gymnasium from 1888

Classic Gymnasium from 1888
Check out this wood engraving of a classic gymnasium: It was the YMCA at Longacre, London. This particular gymnasium was opened by the Prince of Wales on June 16, 1888.

Notice the variety of physical training going on: Indian Clubs, Tumbling, Parallel Bars, High Bar, Pommel Horse, Wall Pulleys, Climbing Ladders, Gymnastic Rings, Climbing Ropes and a rack of Barbells along the wall.

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Oldtime Physical Culture Gyms

Oldtime Physical Culture Gyms

"Mens sana in corpore sano" - Latin for a sound mind in a strong body. It used to be that physical fitness and education went hand in hand; a mindset that is not quite as common these days. In these oldtime gyms you would find a variety of training equipment: Traveling Rings Pommel Horse Climbing Ladders Indian Clubs Parallel Bars Wrestling Mats Wooden Dumbbells Trapeze Climbing Ropes Wall Pulleys Medicine Balls

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Tommy Kono Jerks Classic Globe Barbell

Tommy Kono and Classic Globe Barbell
Tommy Kono was one of the United States' greatest Olympic weightlifters and overall strength athletes.

He not only won two Gold Medals and a Silver over the course of three Olympic games, he also won the Mr. Universe title in Bodybuilding several times.

I'll cover that in more detail on another occasion.

Check out this classic shot from the early 1950's where Tommy Kono narrowly misses completing a jerk with this huge 374 pound globe barbell at Robert Cayeaux's gym in Lille, France. -- Kono had the barbell at arm's length but couldn't quite hold it.

(N.B. This was the same gym where Norb Schemansky lifted the famous Apollon Wheels in 1954.)

...I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that Charles Rigoulot lifted with the very same globe barbell. - Rigoulot favored globe barbells long after they went out of style.

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Eugen Sandow's School of Physical Culture

Eugen Sandow's School of Physical Culture
There are a lot of strength history "firsts" associated with Eugen Sandow - one of those "firsts" is that he established the very first commercial gym franchise.

Im 1900, Sandow opened five of his Schools of Physical Culture in London, with others in Manchester and Liverpool. Pictured above is Sandow's School of Physical Culture, 185 Tottenham Court Road, circa 1901.

Notice sets of Globe Barbells, Dumbbells and Chest Expanders along each wall.

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The MILO Barbell Company Showroom

The MILO Barbell Company Showroom
A look at one corner of Alan Calvert's MILO Barbell Company showroom circa 1915. - Globe and stage dumbbells as far as the eye can see. That must have been a great place to train.

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A Look Inside Hermann Goerner's Oldtime Gym

A Look Inside Hermann Goerner's Oldtime Gym
If you're a true strength fan, you can't help but love shots of classic gyms filled with classic equipment. Here's a look at one corner of Hermann Goerner's classic gym. Notice the Globe Barbells, thick-handled equipment, row of kettlebells likely used for the "Die Kette" workout.

Also notice the throwing weights attached to the wall and the Arthur Saxon circus poster on the upper left.

That must have been one hell of a fun place to train...

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Bob Peoples' Dungeon Gym

Bob Peoples'"Dungeon" Gym
Bob Peoples was the first man to officially deadlift over 700 pounds and did so back in the 1940's without any suits, wraps or other assorted foolishness.

When the weather was warm he trained outside but when Winter came, he moved inside into the training area he literally carved out of stone in his basement which he called "The Dungeon." It was here that Bob Peoples pioneered many of the pieces of equipment and training techniques that are commonplace these days including the power rack, negative training, and heavy supports and partials.

Bob Peoples

Notice the Milo Kettlebells and the makeshift circular "Trap Bar" leaning against the far wall. This allowed Bob to stand on a platform and increase his range of motion.

You can read more about Bob Peoples and his training techniques in Developing Physical Strength

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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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Arthur Saxon: The Iron Master

Arthur Saxon: The Iron Master
Just before the turn of the century Arthur Saxon put more weight overhead with one hand than any man before or since -- a 371 pound bent-press.

Saxon is long gone, so too unfortunately, is the bent press -- however, his two great training books still live on: The Development of Physical Power (1906) and The Textbook of Weight-Lifting (1910)

Here's a few things that Arthur Saxon would like you to know about training:

"Genuine strength should include not only momentary strength, as proved by the ability to lift a heavy weight once, but also the far more valuable kind of strength for endurance..."

"Neither do I consider a man a really strong man if he is in certain parts developed out of proportion to others. If a man has tremendous arms and chest and weak legs then he is only half a strong man..."

"A man with 15 inch biceps and a strong wrist will raise a heavier weight in any position than another man with a 16 inch biceps who has a small and weak wrist."

"Do not make the mistake of limiting your practices to any one set of lifts... Practice everything."

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Hermann Goerner's Gym

German Strongman Hermann Goerner Here's a peek into the training area of one of the greatest of the oldtime strongmen: Hermann Goerner. Notice the rack of kettlebells which were likely used for the famous "Die Kette" workout.

Goerner's Gym

Doesn't this place make you feel like training? Here's some more Classic Strongman Gyms

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