The Magic Square

The Magic Square

You've heard of the Magic Circle... but have you heard of the Magic Square?

It was another experiment to make intense leg work more "comfortable." However, like the Magic Circle, it also changed the lifter's center of gravity which was somewhat problematic.

Still, the Magic Square was GREAT for Hise Shrugs and calf work.

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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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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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The Leg Press

Sig Klein came up with a number of innovative training ideas. One day he took the board he had often used for the Tomb of Hercules Feat, chained it to the wall and devised an early version of the "Leg Press" machine. He eventually discarded this design as the resistance decreased too much at the top of the movement due to the physics involved.

The Leg Press

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The Neil Lewis Arm Wrestling Trainer

Some of our eagle-eyed Ironman Magazine readers might remember this one from the back cover of the August-September 1970 issue: The Neil Lewis Arm Wrestling Trainer. It was not only featured on the back cover but the inside back cover, the inside front cover and a two-page spread in the magazine with Chuck Sipes, 1970 IFBB Mr. Canada Vince Basile, "Big" Jim Forsythe and several other notables. Looks pretty nifty -- Wonder how many they ended up selling?

The Neil Lewis Arm Wrestling Trainer

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Traditional Indian Club Training

Traditional Indian Club Training
The swinging of "jori and gada" (heavy indian clubs and maces) holds a special place in the ancient art of Kushti - (Traditional Indian Wrestling and Physical Culture Training.)

In the akharas (wrestling gyms) these traditional impliments are decorated in many unique ways. Some are painted with lively decorative patterns, others, used only by the most skilled masters, are studded with nails. Some of these decorative indian clubs weigh as much as 35 KG.

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Traditional Indian Physical Culture Training Equipment: The Mace

The Gada, or Mace, is one of the traditional pieces of training equipment in Indian Physical Culture. The Gada consists of a heavy iron or stone ball attached to the end of a stick. Maces of various weights and heights are used depending on the athlete's strength and skil llevel. For training purposes, the Gada is swung behind the back in several different ways and is particularly useful for building grip strength and shoulder endurance.

The Gada (Mace)

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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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The Hammerman's Hammers

The Hammerman's Hammers

Took this shot a few years back at a special dinner honoring Slim the Hammerman. That's Slim's Challenge Ax on the left followed by his two sledge hammers with their distinctive markings on the handles and chromed weights. They are sitting on a special oak carrying case. If those hammers could talk I bet they could tell some stories...

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The Roman Column

The Roman Column
As mentioned several times on this blog, it was Professor Attila who invented the Roman Column.

Shown here, the Roman Column is an actual column in which the traineee hangs suspended vertially and moves to a horizontal position using the power of his legs and abdominal muscles.

Eugen Sandow used to perform this feat either holding a heavy barbell or a human being.

On the left is the original Roman Column, in one corner of Sig Klein's Time's Square Gym.

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The Swingbell

The Swingbell
A piece that you used to see all the time in the old magazines that has all but disappeared these days is the Swingbell -- essentially a combination of traditional free weights and medicine ball training exercises.

As you can see, a swingbell consists of a dumbbell bar loaded in the middle rather than the ends. It is grasped at either end and used for a variety of rotational and "circular" movements.

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Unusual Training Equipment: Sang (The Shield)

This unique piece of equipment, know as Sang, is from Traditional Iranian Martial Arts and is quite literally a "Shield" - just like the ancient warriors used to take into battle, albeit adapted into a training exercise in the "modern" age. Each of these shields are made of hardwood and weigh between 20-40 kilograms. The method for training with these impliments is for an athlete to lie on his back and alternate twisting and turning them in the air for maximum repetitions without letting them hit the ground. A respectable score in youth and adult tournaments is 72 times in 7 minutes.

Unusual Training Equipment: Sang (The Shield)

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The Nautilus Squat Machine

The Nautilus Squat Machine

Casey Viator uses the Nautilus Squat Machine during the Colorado Experiment. You may recall that Casey put on 63 pounds of muscle over the course of the 28 day experiment and this machine was a big reason behind that. It has been well understood that intense leg work is the key to super strength. This machine allowed the hips and legs to be trained in a manner more intense than any other method created before or since. This particular Nautilus machine never actually went into production.

If you were to position yourself wrong in a fatigued state it could conceivably "catapult" you right out of it!

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The Good Brothers

The Good Brothers
The Good Brothers, Harry, Walter and Bill, were a trio of weightlifters and Strongmen from Eastern Pennsylvania. Bill was the strongest of the three, winning seven Senior National Weightlifting Titles (1930-1937) and competing in two Olympic Games (1932 Los Angeles, 1936 - Berlin). Bill Good was the first American to Clean & Jerk 350 Pounds.

Walter Good competed in the 1936 Olympics as well.

Harry was the U.S. Professional Champion in 1933 in addition to writing training articles for a number of different strength publications and training courses. Harry Good went on to establish the "Good Barbell Company" in the late 1930s.

Mark Berry also used the Good Brothers to demonstrate several of the exercises in his book Physical Training Simplified (1930).

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Indian Club Swinging

Indian Club Swinging
"Indian club swinging can be described as circular weight training and can exercise the shoulder, wrist and elbow in ways not possible with traditional linear weight training.

Club swinging strengthens muscles and ligaments, maintains joint flexibility and improves range of motion.

Regular practice with Indian Clubs will improved grace, rhythm and eye-hand coordination due to the concentration and neural demands necessary to perform the movements. The benefits of Indian Club Exercises are enormous and can greatly enhance the performance of any athlete."

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York Dumbbells

York Dumbbells
The York Barbell Company used several different designs for their dumbbells over the years. In the 1970's they came out with the distinctive "hocky puck" design shown above.

This particular design, with its slighly sloping sides, was adopted as a grip challenge with half of the heaviest available dumbbell (the 100 pounder)known as "The Blob."

This design was discontinued in the late 1990's.

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Vintage Strength Machines

Oldtime Pullover

I've recently read in a few places that there were "no such thing" as machines back when the oldtime strongmen trained... Here's an oldtime pullover (used for expanding the ribcage and deepening the chest) which was installed at Hemenway Gymnasium circa 1885.

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Al Gerard and The Gerard Trap Bar

Al Gerard and The Gerard Trap Bar
Al Gerard was a powerlifter from North Carolina who devised a unique "frame" which allowed him to increase his deadlift without putting undue stress on his back.

He named his invention the "Trap Bar" because of its shape -- using the Trap Bar, Al was able to deadlift over 745 pounds. Soon the Gerard Trap Bar was featured in many strength publications such as Iron Man Magazine, Powerlifting USA and Hardgainer Magazine (above.)

Once people understood its unique advantages, The Gerard Trap Bar became one of the "must have" pieces of training equipment for leg and back development..

Here's a few reasons why:

The knees don't interfere with the bar while the lifter assumes a more upright position when starting a lift.

The weight moves directly upward instead of sideways, placing more emphasis on the target musculature.

The lifter has better control of the bar throughout the full range of motion.

The weight moves in line with the ankles which improves leverage.

Lower back stress is reduced while the weight is moved in line with the natural center of gravity.

Shearing forces on spine and knees are reduced.

The shrug exercise is an integral part of every strength athlete's program. Strong upper back, neck and shoulder muscles are essential in all sports. The Gerard Trap Bar makes "shrugs" more comfortable because there is no bar contact with the upper thighs and lower front torso area; thus, more range of movement yields more muscle use and development.

It's easier to maintain good form -- elbow and wrist-joint strain is reduced by eliminating opposite grips, and standing shrugs yield improved trapezius development because the bar never contacts the thighs interfering with range of motion.

A The Gerard Trap Bar moves the weight mass 16% closer to the perpendicular plane of the lower back than a conventional straight bar.

Unlike most of the classic equipment that is featured on this blog, The Gerard Trap Bar is still available, and you can get your own right here: The Gerard Trap Bar - It's Back!

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The Nautilus Bicep/Tricep Machine

The Nautilus Bicep/Tricep Machine
I find it pretty funny that many people will not train on some strength machines for no other reason than because they are machines.

I find it even funnier than many people used to denigrate machines when they first appeared... but those same folks did a 180 and started singing a different tune when they started selling their own brand of machines.

Hmm...

The fact of the matter is that some machines provide training advantages that no barbell, dumbbell or kettlebell can even come close to. Pictured above is the Nautilus Bicep/Tricep Machine circa 1972.

You would be hard-pressed to find a better arm workout... if it's used correctly.

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The "Original" Original Dr. Ken Log Bar

The "Original" Original Dr. Ken Log Bar
Here's a look at one of the original ideas behind Dr. Ken's Log Bar -- an actual log with handles cut into it. This "log" was patterned on an unusual parallel-handled bar used for pressing movements that Dr. Ken trained with down in Lake Helen, Florida when he worked for Arthur Jones.

As is the case with most of Dr. Ken's unusual equipment, this log was a lot of fun to train with and provided many excellent workouts for his trainees.

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Traditional Indian Clubs

Traditional Indian Clubs
Their common name is Indian Clubs, but they have many names depending on where you happen to be: Meels, Gavargah, Ekka, Karela or Gada.
Regardless of what you call them, they spell a unique form of strength, stamina, endurance and flexibility that goes back thousands of years.

The picture above is from Iran where they are referred to as Meels.

These clubs are swung in a rthymic pattern around the body for hundreds of repetitions by traditional wrestlers in their workouts. Meels generally weight 10-15 pounds although may get up as high as 60 pounds.

Keep in mind that these "heavy" clubs are used in an entirely different manner than Light Indian Clubs.

Traditional Indian Clubs can be seen in action in:
The Physical Body: Indian Wrestling and Physical Culture DVD

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Train Wheel Barbells and Dumbbells

Train Wheel Weights

They say that necessity is the mother of invention... and that's why some of the best training equipment has come about. During the post-war years, our troops located overseas wanted to lift weights but barbells and dumbbells were hard to come by. American troops stationed in Okinawa, Japan fashioned these unique barbells and dumbbells out of narrow gauge train wheels. Can't miss a workout...

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Oldtime Dumbbell Training With John Grimek

Oldtime Dumbbell Training With John Grimek
Here's a nice little dumbbell workout by John Grimek:

1. Two Hands Snatch w/dumbbells
2. Upright Rowing Motion
3. Side Bends
4. Shoulder Shrug
5. Lateral Raise
6. Dumbbell Swing

Grimek was using a pair of adjustable York Dumbbells but feel free to use a solid pair if that's what you have. You can find out more about some of the ways that Grimek trained in The Mark Berry Bar-Bell Courses

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The Blue Monster

The Blue Monster: Culver City, California 1970
The Nautilus phenomenon essentially began in Culver City, California at the 1970 Mr. America Contest where Arthur Jones unveiled "The Blue Monster" -- the prototype of what would eventually become his Nautilus exercise machines.

It was a series of torso machines focusing on training the "pulling" muscles without the disadvantage of having to depend on grip strength to hold the bar, thus being able to develop that musculature far beyond what was capable with that limitation.

This simple observation led to advancements in physical training that had never before even been dreamt of...

To find out more about Arthur Jones and his system of training you will want to pick up a copy of Ellington Darden's New Book The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results

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