Milo Barus

jtwood — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:46:01 +0000

Milo Barus was Germany's greatest strongman in the time period between the World Wars. Barus performed a number of spectacular strength feats in his act: Nail Driving, The Human Link, Steel Bending, Harness Lifting, The "Leg Press", Horse Lifting etc. Here, he has a crowd of ten people bend a heavy steel bar over his head (which sure doesn't look comfortable.)

In 1983, a movie was made about his life. Today, a strength competition in his honor takes place in front of his old house at Mühltal Eisenberge and the winner receives the "Milo Barus Cup." Press clipping list Barus at 7 feet tall, though it's hard to tell by the photos if that is the case.

Berg-Hantel Weights

jtwood — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:27:36 +0000

Berg-Hantel barbells and plates were the inspiration for all modern Olympic sets. Here, A. Wiedmer, the Lightweight National Champion of Germany in 1924 and 1925, shows how it's done in winning this early contest.

John Mallo

jtwood — Sat, 12 May 2012 20:22:22 +0000

John Mallo, from Akron, Ohio, was the Heavyweight Sr. National Weightlifting Champion in 1933. The Nationals were held at the Chicago Word's Fair that year. He totalled 760-1/2 lb. and his press of 231-1/2 pounds broke the previous record which had stood for six years, by five pounds. This was even more impressive given the fact that Mallo had only been training for three years. Mallo was a student of Larry Barnholth at the American College of Modern Weightlifting.

George Brosius and The Frankfurt Squad

jtwood — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:01:48 +0000

George Brosius (far right) is shown here with his famous "Frankfurt Squad." This seven member team was composed of the most talented individuals from the Milwaukee Turnverein of which Brosius was the long time teacher.

Against thousands of the best athletes that Europe had to offer, Brosius' team shocked the world in 1880 by winning five out of twenty-two prizes at the international gymnastic competition held at Frankfurt, Germany. They also took first place in a separate German wrestling competition.

From left to right: Hermann J. Koehler (2nd prize), Anton Schaefer (4th prize), Friedrich Kasten, Carl Paul (21st prize), Wilhelm Lachenmaier, Otto Wagner (3rd prize), Carl Mueller (5th prize), George Brosius (director)

Also of note is the bust of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn looking down from above.

Bill Pettis: 23-1/4-inch Arms!

jtwood — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:12:51 +0000

23-1/4-inch Arms!... I don't know about that one, but Bill Pettis DID have some pretty impressive guns. He even wrote a course on how he built them which is one of the few training courses that I have not seen. Bill had a brother named Bob who was also impressive.

Louis Cyr's Barrel Lifting Feat

jtwood — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:37:55 +0000

On May 8th, 1896, the great Canadian strongman Louis Cyr performed several amazing feats of strength, among them lifting and shouldering a 433 lb. barrel with one hand. The barrel was filled with a mixture of water and sand and the feat took place at Saint-Louis Hall in Chicago, Illinois.

The Nautilus Upright Squat Machine

jtwood — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:41:26 +0000

During the "Colorado Experiment" Casey Viator famously gained 63 pounds of muscle mass in 28 days. The workouts were brief and intense and while not an "experiment" in a truest sense of the word, it did show that dramatic results were quite possible under a certain set of circumstances. Interestingly, much of the equipment used was in fact, experimental, and never actually made commercially available.

The Nautilus Upright Squat Machine, shown here, is a good example of this. This machine was designed to provide all the benefits of the barbell squat, while reducing or eliminating the drawbacks. This was the only leg machine that Casey used in every workout for the duration of the Colorado Experiment. While it was effective, the potential for the user to be catapulted right out of it was deemed far too great, so this was the only one ever manufactured.

The Hack Squat

jtwood — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:53:09 +0000

The Hack Squat, (or Hack Lift, as it is sometimes called) is a behind-the-back deadlift, as demonstrated by famous oldtime physique star Walter Donald in the pages of Super Strength by Alan Calvert. This movement is not actually named after George Hackenschmidt but gets its name from "Hacke" the German word for ankle, which is roughly where the bar touches before the commencement of the lift. Several lifters have been able to perform this movement with nearly 800 pounds.

Dimitrios Tofalos

jtwood — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:30:02 +0000

Demetrius Tofalos was a Greek weightlifter who survived a serious childhood injury and went on to defeat the great Austrian lifter Josef Steinbach to win the Gold Medal at the 1906 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The winning effort for Tofalos in the "two-hand barbell lift" (i.e. clean and jerk) was 142.4 Kilograms.

It really was a "clean" and jerk, according to the rules of the time, lifters were penalized if the barbell touched any other part of the body as they brought it to their chest. Tofalos' record stood for the next eight years.

Tofalos was also a very successful professional wrestler although a defeat by American Champion Frank Gotch forced his retirement. Tofalos eventually went on to manage "The Golden Greek" Jim Londos.

Today, a sports arena is named in Tofalos' honor in his hometown of Patras, Greece.

Nail Driving With The Amazing Samson

jtwood — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:28:18 +0000

Alexander Zass "The Amazing Samson" shows his stuff with a little nail driving action. Looks like those "Oldtime" training methods seem to have been working pretty well... I doubt "Samson" ever did a concentration curl in his life, but any bodybuilder would kill for that kind of arm development.