Oldtime Strength Blog - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Don Booth

Posted on Friday, April 9th, 2021 by John Wood

Weightlifter Don Booth, captain of the Denver Central YMCA weightlifting team, demonstrates the form that helped him with a silver medal in 165-pound class in the 1962 National YMCA Championships. Denver Central YMCA, meet director of the Rocky Mountain AAU Championships looks on.

In his career, Don Booth won 28 State Olympic Weightlifting Championships in all and six Regional championships (notably being the only person in the United States to win two regions in the same year.) At 38 years of age, Booth weight back to college to finish his degree, and, became the world’s oldest competitive college weight lifter. At he 1972 Pennsylvania state championships, Booth totaled 855 pounds in the press(260), snatch(255), and clean and jerk(340), good enough for second place in the 181-pound class!

Steve Reeves Doing Wrist Curls

Posted on Friday, April 9th, 2021 by John Wood

There are dozens — perhaps hundreds — of different exercises for the various muscles groups. But when it all comes down to it, all you really need is a handful of basic exercises to get the job done. If you want to build wrist strength and forearm size, it’s tough to beat the basic dumbbell wrist curl, as demonstrated here by Steve Reeves.

The Teeth That Pack Power

Posted on Friday, April 9th, 2021 by John Wood

We’ve covered Joe Ponder before. Here’s Joe lifting a 570-pound Ford race car engine in his usual manner (with his teeth). This was in preparation for a “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” feature, circa 1984. While this is most certainly an extreme case, more moderate teeth lifting — and subsequently strengthening the neck and jaw — does have its merits.

Cannon Carrying

Posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2021 by John Wood

Odd Object lifting is fun, but can you imagine carrying a cannon up the side of a mountain like these guys? Notice that it takes at least four men to get the cannon on their backs in the first place. Talk about rugged.

French Weightlifter, Lambert

Posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2021 by John Wood

A French Weightlifter, Lambert — don’t know anything else about him. It appears he is lifting two block weights tied together with his little finger.

An Old Gym

Posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2021 by John Wood

An old gym… If I had to guess, I’d say this was in France in the early 1900’s. The Swedish bars, medicine ball, climbing bars (along the ceiling), and the apparatus on the right (essentially a Roman Chair) would provide plenty to work on.

Arthur Saxon Gives His Brothers a Lift

Posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2021 by John Wood

Here’s a rare image of Arthur Saxon that you probably haven’t seen before. Here, Arthur gives his brothers a lift — if you are keeping score at home, that’s a 320 lb. barbell, plus Hermann and Kurk Saxon for a total over 670 pounds held overhead. Many critics of the day said that Arthur Saxon was simply “too small” to possess such great strength. What they didn’t know (and what Saxon, to his credit, understood very well) was that there was much more to strength than just the size of the muscles. Check out The Bone Strength Project for more info.

Farmer Burns School of Wrestling Advertisement

Posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021 by John Wood

Farmer Burns established his school of wrestling in Omaha, Nebraska in 1911 but for those who could not make the trip and study in person, he also had his mail-order training course. (Which, by the way, we are in the process of posting The Iron League.) This outstanding advertisement for Farmer Burns’ School is from 1924. By the way, when actor in inflation, $15 in 1924 equals over $229 in today’s money so an Iron League membership is a steal.

Looping The Loop, 1903

Posted on Monday, March 1st, 2021 by John Wood

We have covered many different types of outstanding physical achievements on this blog, and I think this one most definitely fits the bill. Behold! ~ The “Looping The Loop” stunt, performed by the acrobat “Mephisto” at the Casino de Paris, circa 1903. One must be able to achieve a specific amount of leg strength and speed in order to complete this feat — and be pretty confident in one’s ability to do so… otherwise, a rather tragic result. So, you better not skip leg day.

The photographer had a keen eye, capturing this daredevil at the exact moment that he arrived at the highest point of the loop and was positioned exactly upside down. I’d say this fellow earned his bread.