Bert Assirati

Bert Assirati
Our friends across the pond are sure to recognize the legendary British wrestler Bert Assirati who held the heavyweight championship belt for several years in the 40s and 50s.

Though he was quite stout (5'6", bodyweight of 263) Assirati was one of the strongest and most athletic individuals who ever graced the wrestling ring. He could easily perform a standing backflip, was a master hand balancer and could chin himself three times with either arm, among other feats.

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Martin "Farmer" Burns

Iowa-born Martin "Farmer" Burns was a champion wrestler and America's premier grappler at the turn of the last century. The "Old Farmer" trained hard, and that made him hard to beat. Plenty of wrestler's bridges gave him a 20" neck at a bodyweight of only 165 pounds and his level of conditioning was legendary, regularly tiring out much larger and stronger opponents until they could easily be pinned. His top student, fellow-Iowin Frank Gotch, became arguably the greatest wrestler who ever lived, with Burns' training methods.

Martin "Farmer" Burns

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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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Frank Gotch's Step Over Toe Hold

Frank Gotch Step Over Toe Hold
Frank Gotch's step over toe hold was the most feared submission move probably of all time. It could be applied quickly and efficently from almost any angle and few people knew how to defend it -- his opponents never knew what him 'em.

He used it to dispatch the likes of George Hackenschmidt, Benjamin Roller and Stanislaus Zbyszko.

Gotch, as masterfully trained by Farmer Burns had two main weapons: a precise execution of his moves and holds, and an almost superhuman level of conditioning.

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Stanislaus Zbyszko

The list of champion athletes who have trained with Chest Expanders is quite long. ... Stanislaus Zbyszko happens to be one of them. The great Polish wrestler, was well known for his incredible strength, in addition to his grappling ability. Back then, just as today, Chest expanders, no doubt, allowed him to train some of the smaller muscles that "weights" won't always get to.

Stanislaus Zbyszko

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Ivan Poddubny - "The Russian Hercules"

Ivan Poddubny was one of the greatest of the Russian Strongman wrestlers. He was born in a small village and worked hard jobs even from a young age. After some training, he joined the russian circus, performing feats of strength and wrestling all comers. After 40 years, he retired undefeated on both counts. He is still a well-known sports hero in Russia with several big wrestling tournaments bearing his name.

Ivan Poddubny - "The Russian Hercules"

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Doug Hepburn The Pro-Wrestler

Doug Hepburn

Here's something you don't see every day, a Doug Hepburn Wrestling trading card from the mid-1950's. Doug Hepburn had a short professional wrestling career in Canada once his weight lifting career came to an end. Doug would often perform feats of strength before his matches and his finishing move was an inverted bear-hug, squeezing the life out of his opponents until they had no choice but to submit.

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The Iron Sheik's Persian Club Challenge

The Iron Sheik

Many Oldschool Pro-Wrestlers had their own strength challenge to confound their opponents and sometimes members of the crowd. The Iron Sheik had "The Persian Club" challenge where he offered $1000 to all comers if they could swing a pair of "75 pound" traditional meels for as many reps as he could. To my knowledge he was never beaten, and what's more, Sheik used the Persian Club Challenge to injure then-champion Bob Backland before their title match back in '83.

He's a crafty one, that Sheik.

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Karl Gotch: The God of Pro Wrestling

Karl Gotch a very good amateur wrestler and an even better Professional wrestler after learning the "tricks of the trade" at Billy Riley's "Snake Pit" Gym in Wigan, England.

In Japan he was known as "The God of Pro Wrestling" and many of the most famous Japanese wrestlers are among his students.

What he was even more famous for though was his conditioning -- it was his feeling (and rightfully so) that as a combat athlete "Conditioning is your best hold." He incorporated a number of elements into his training including rope climbing, bodyweight calisthenics, wrestling drills, muscle control and traditional indian physical culture exercises. Gotch once did 9001 straight Hindu Squats to best a training feat by The Great Gama.

Karl Gotch: The God of Pro Wrestling

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Otto Arco

Otto Arco was a very popular performing strongman on the vaudeville circuit during the early 20th century. His performance consisted of hand balancing feats with his brother Pete followed by a posing display (which was particularly impressive due to Arco's muscularity.) Arco's training consisted of acrobatics, tumbling, hand balancing, muscle control, weight lifting and wrestling...

Otto Arco

He was a very good wrestler -- Arco's childhood pal in Poland was Stanislaus Zbyszko!

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Milo of Crotona

Milo of Crotona, who lived during the 6th century B.C., was the greatest of the ancient Greek Athletes. He was a six-time wrestling Champion in the ancient Olympic Games and his strength was legendary. Milo built his strength with an unusual method: Each day he would carry a new-born calf and, as the calf grew larger, so did Milo's strength. Eventually Milo was able to carry a full-grown bull the length of a stadium and thus progressive resistance training was born.

Milo of Crotona

The stamp on the right features Milo holding apart a split tree and was created in honor of the 1924 Olympic Games, held in Paris France (where Charles Rigoulot won a gold medal.)

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Competitive Rope Climbing

Rope climbing used to be a competitive sport and once appeared in the Olympics. Rope Climbing was also sanctioned by the AAU and NCAA as a gymnastic event. A 20 or 25 foot natural fiber Manila Climbing Rope was used. The climber began while seated on the floor straddling the rope. Upon their first movement, the stopwatch started and they were timed while climbing the rope without the use of the legs, pulling all the way to the "tambourine" a black, wooden disc that served as the finish line. Don Perry of Champaign Illinois and Robert Manning of San Fernando, California could each climb a 20 foot rope in 2.8 seconds. - Amazing! Another great rope climber was Garvin Smith of UCLA, who could climb a 25 foot rope in 4.2 seconds. Rope climbing is still popular with wrestlers, gymnasts and any other athletes looking to build a stronger grip and upper-body endurance.

Competitive Rope Climbing

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Sergio Oliva: Mexican Movie Star

Sergio Oliva:Mexican Movie Star
I bet you didn't know Sergio Oliva appeared in a couple of Mexican wrestling movies? His name was "El Poder Negro" (Black Power) and he even had top billing over the more famous Mil Mascaras.

Funny thing, Sergio was even bigger in real life than the cartoon version.

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Oldtime Wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko

At the turn of the century, wrestlers and strongmen were often one and the same. Stanislaus Zbyszko was born in Poland in 1879 and began his training career at a gymnastic school. Soon after he followed his contemporary George Hackenschmidt into the wrestling profession where he would hold the Heavyweight World Championship Belt on two occasions.

Oldtime Wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko

Zbyszko faced many of the greatest grapplers of the day: Ivan Poddubny, Ben Roller, "The Terrible Turk" Youssuf Mahmout, Frank Gotch, and The Great Gama.

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The Great Gama: Lion of The Punjab

The Great Gama is likely the greatest Pehlwan, or indian wrestler, who ever lived; as he was undefeated in over 5000 matches. Gama publically challenged all comers and easily beat the likes of Benjamin Roller and Stanislaus Zbyszko. His daily training routine consisted of thousands of traditional squats and pushups -- after seeing him train, many would-be challengers wanted no part of him.

The Great Gama

The object he is seen holding here was not a piece of training equipment but an ornamental scepter known as a Gurz, the Indian Wrestling version of the Championship Belt.

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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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Combat Conditioning by Matt Furey

Combat Conditioning by Matt Furey
Sure, a lot of people "coulda" done it, but Matt Furey is the one who actually did it -- he wrote Combat Conditioning,THE book on bodyweight calisthenics, and brought this intensely productive and useful form of training back to the public eye after it had all but become extinct.

The strength of this program is its simplicity -- 50 simple, yet effective bodyweight exercises incorporating elements of Ancient Indian Physical Culture, Wrestling, Gymnastics, Old Gym Class Favorites and more than a few "Special" exercises passed down from "The God of Wrestling", Karl Gotch.

If you think bodyweight training is "too easy to be effective," all I have to say is try it... And please keep in mind that almost all of the oldtime strength writers, including Alan Calvert, George Jowett, Earle E. Liederman and Joe Bonomo included bodyweight training in their respective training programs.

On the left you'll see the first edition of Combat Conditioning published in 2000, and on the right, the revised and expanded edition, published in 2004.

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George Hackenschmidt: The Russian Lion

George Hackenschmidt: The Russian Lion
George "The Russian Lion" Hackenschmidt was equally well known as a wrestler and as a strongman.

As a wrestler, he faced all comers. He met and defeated Tom Cannon and later American Heavyweight Champion Tom Jenkins before he famously lost to Frank Gotch twice.

He used his great strength very effectively in the ring. Hackenschmidt could long jump 16 feet and excelled at gymnastic events in addition to his lifting feats. He bested Eugen Sandow's bent press record in 1898, and could could perform a "pullover and press" with 361 lbs.

In order to prepare for his matches, he would often walk around the gym with a heavy sack of cement on his shoulders.

You can learn more about George Hackenschmidt, his training and his fascinating life in The Way to Live published in 1908.

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The Farmer Burns School of Wrestling and Physical Culture

The Farmer Burns School of Wrestling and Physical Culture

It had to be quite an experience to train at the Farmer Burns School of Wrestling and Physical Culture. Farmer Burns believed that every athlete should train like a wrestler - and I agree. The bulk of the training was, I'm sure wrestling -- holds, take-downs, blocks, breaks and plenty of sparring. Of course, the "Old Farmer" knew that wrestling was only "part" of what made a good wrestler -- physical training was important too.

He had his students throw the medicine ball around, hit the speed bag, jump rope, use light dumbbells, develop their chests with breathing exercises, use traveling rings, swing indian clubs, climb ropes, and do enough calisthenics in order to make them stronger, tougher and more conditioned than any man willing to step in the ring with them.

The advertisement above is from 1920.

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Frank Gotch

Frank Gotch
He defeated George Hackenschmidt twice, and the likes of Tom Jenkins, Benjamin Roller and Stanislaus Zbyszko on his way to holding the Heavyweight Championship longer than any man before or since.

It was his technique that made him a Champion (Gotch's feared step-over-toe-hold was nearly impossible to defend) but it was his training that made him a Legend.

There have been few wrestlers since then who trained more seriously than Gotch... and he trained just like a wrestler should.

Calisthenics, road work and sparing gave Gotch a killer's heart and an advantage in every single match.

The "Old Farmer" Farmer Burns understood the game of wrestling better than anyone and trained his student to be the best.

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Farmer Burns on Medicine Ball Training

Just before the turn of the century, Martin "Farmer" Burns was one of the fiercest wrestlers the world had ever seen. He wrestled over 6000 matches, lost only 7 and held the World's Championship on two seperate occasions. Once his competitive career came to an end, the "Old Farmer" as he was known, focused on managing and training other wrestlers and athletes.

Farmer Burns

His most famous pupil was Frank Gotch, who, thanks in large part to Farmer Burns' coaching, became arguably the greatest wrestler of all time.

The foundation of Burns' method was physical conditioning. After all, a wrestler can never be too strong or well conditioned -- and at his "School of Wrestling" in Omaha, Nebraska, he employed any method that would help his athletes become the best.

Here's a look at his thoughts on training with the medicine ball:

The Medicine Ball

"Perhaps some of my students are not familiar with the Medicine Ball. It is a ball that has been used in training during recent yeats and from my observations in training camps, I have decided that it has an important part to play in the routine work of the athlete...

It is a large leather ball of considerable weight, yet soft enough to avoid hurting or damaging the contestants.

Two persons are required when exercising with the ball. It is merely thrown back and forth from one to another, but is thrown and caught in a great variety of positions.

It should be thrown and caught in a variety of positions. It should be thrown with both hands over the head, from the right side and from the left side. It can also be thrown with the right arm alone and the left arm alone, and from various positions when you are sitting or lying down.

The person catching the ball should catch it first with the right arm and then with the left and make special efforts to exercise as much as possible, while catching and returning the ball to his companion.

If you have never worked out with the medicine ball, you will think from this description that it is child's play, but let me assure you that if you devoted ten minutes to fast work with the medicine ball, you will change your mind and readily appreciate the fact that it is a great exercise for limbering up the muscles and working up a good sweat."

Of course, if Farmer Burns were still alive and running his school of wrestling today, this is the medicine ball he would be training with:

Everlast Classic Leather
Medicine Balls

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