Friday, January 15, 2010
Primo CarneraHeavyweight champ Primo Carnera was a "strong man" as well as a strongman. Here's The Preem doing a 'Muscle Out' of a pretty good size kid. I'd say that's a hundred pounds at least. Strong shoulders obviously come in pretty handy in the ring.
Labels: Italian Strongman, Muscle Out, Oldtime Boxers, Primo Carnera, Shoulder Strength
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010
"The Great" Joe RollinoA closer look at the great man in honor of his passing. Joe Rollino learned the strongman trade as an assistant to Warren Lincoln Travis at the famed Coney Island. In the 1920's, Rollino branched out into his own strongman act, performing all the traditional feats such as back lifting, finger lifting, nail bending, phonebook and playing card tearing and, shown here, bending a spike in his teeth.
Rollino was also a boxer under the name "Kid Dundee" and, like many strongmen of the day, was a very good hand balancer.
Labels: Coney Island, Coney Island Strongman, hand balancer, Jaw Strength, Joe Rollino, Kid Dundee, Oldtime Boxers, Spike Bending, The Great Joe Rollino, Warren Lincoln Travis
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All Contents, Including Images and Text, Copyright © 2010 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc., Not to be reproduced without permission, All Rights Reserved
Monday, March 16, 2009
Jim Jeffries If there's one thing that most strength athletes need more of, it is conditioning work. This was well understood by the legendary boxing champion Jim Jeffries. Check out the training schedule that he undertook in 1899 in order to face Bob Fitzsimmons for the Heavyweight Championship of the world:
"For this fight Jeffries ran some 14 miles in the morning, alternating between a jog and a 100-yard sprint, without stopping to walk or rest and finishing the run within two hours. In the afternoon, he played three games of handball, punched the bag for 20 or 25 minutes straight, and skipped rope 1,500 to 2,500 times.Jeffries knocked out Fitzsimmons in the 11th round, and in the 8th round in their remach which occured three years later. Interestingly, Jeffries' wrestling coach during his training camps was none other than Farmer Burns - we'll have more on that subject later on.
He would then box from 12 to 16 rounds, and 'wrestle around' or toss an 18-pound medicine ball."
Labels: Bob Fitzsimmons, Boxing, Boxing Training, Boxing Workout, Conditioning, Heavy Weight, Jim Jeffries, Medicine Ball Training, Oldtime Boxers, Road Work
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All Contents, Including Images and Text, Copyright © 2010 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc., Not to be reproduced without permission, All Rights Reserved
Saturday, March 14, 2009
"The Tipton Slasher" Benny Yanger"The Tipton Slasher" Benny Yanger gets in a workout with the wall pulley at an oldtime Chicago gym circa 1906. Note the small dumbbell which has been added to the weight stack. Like most boxers of that era, Benny was also fond of throwing the medicine ball around to build upper body strength and stamina. Over his career, the New York lightweight was 51-9.
Labels: Benny Yanger, Boxing, Boxing Training, Classic Gym, Medicine Ball Training, Oldtime Boxers, Upper Body Exercise, Wall Pulleys
www.oldtimestrongman.com
All Contents, Including Images and Text, Copyright © 2010 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc., Not to be reproduced without permission, All Rights Reserved
Friday, March 13, 2009
Primo CarneraYou may know that "The Preem" Primo Carnera was the Heavyweight boxing Champion of the world from 1933-1934 but you probably didn't know that he was also a performing strongman as well. He achieved a one-hand snatch of 220 pounds and could clean and jerk over 300 -- pretty good for someone who was 6'6".
Labels: Boxing, Clean and Jerk, Globe Barbell, Italian Strongman, Oldtime Boxers, One hand Snatch, Primo Carnera, Strongman
www.oldtimestrongman.com
All Contents, Including Images and Text, Copyright © 2010 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc., Not to be reproduced without permission, All Rights Reserved
Friday, January 16, 2009
Wall PulleysWall Pulleys were one of the first commercially available pieces of training equipment and were a common sight in gyms in the later 19th and early 20th century. Pugilists used to use them for building punching power as well as developing upper body endurance.
Here the great Light-heavyweight boxer from Philadelphia Tommy Loughran gets in a quick workout while his trainer Jack Brady looks on. These two shots are especially rare as they are two different shots taken at the same moment from two different cameras. They were taken in 1929.
Labels: Antique Equipment, Boxing Training, Oldtime Boxers, Tommy Loughran, Wall Pulleys
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All Contents, Including Images and Text, Copyright © 2010 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc., Not to be reproduced without permission, All Rights Reserved
Friday, February 01, 2008
Jack Johnson, Throwin' The Medicine Ball AroundMedicine Ball exercises have been part of the training programs of oldtime boxers and wrestlers for well over a century because they provide a great workout and build strength in a way that no other piece of equipment can match.
Here's the famous Heavyweight boxing champ Jack Johnson throwin' a medicine ball around a Chicago courtyard circa 1910, in his training to defend the Heavyweight title against Jim Jeffries.
That's a powerful looking man -- Do you think he's getting a workout for the all-important waist muscles? You sure wouldn't want to be on the business end of one of his punches.
Labels: Boxing, Boxing Workout, Jack Johnson, Medicine Ball Training, Oldtime Boxers, Physical Culture Equipment
www.oldtimestrongman.com
All Contents, Including Images and Text, Copyright © 2010 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc., Not to be reproduced without permission, All Rights Reserved
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