Apollon Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Apollon at 19

Posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2018 by John Wood

The famous French strongman Louis “Apollon” Uni at 19 years of age. As the story goes he ran off and joined the circus at 14 and started performing as a strongman a year later. Even at this young age, Apollon’s potential for great strength is evident by his thick bone structure. Strength ran in the family, it as was said that he was descended from Pompelius Unicus, an undefeated Roman Gladiator.

Apollon – “Le Roi des Athletes”

Posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2018 by John Wood

An extremely rare posterof the great French Strongman Apollon. he was called “Le Roi des Athletes” (The King of Athletes) for good reason, even a hundred years later no one has even come close to bettering any of his feats. Apollon is shown performing a Muscle Out with a ring weight and a small horse! Apollon’s famous wheels are pictured as well.

John Grimek and Classic Weights

Posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2018 by John Wood

When you work at the York Barbell Company you get to lift some classic weights any time you want to. Here’s John Grimek about to do just that. The top one is the famous Louis Cyr Challenge Dumbbell. The middle one is a giant dumbbell which belonged to the great French strongman Apollon. You can see the football player Tim Krumrie lifting it here. The bottom globe barbell may have belonged to Warren Lincoln Travis.

George “Rasso” Stanglemeier

Posted on Friday, April 20th, 2018 by John Wood

George “Rasso” Stanglemeier was an early German strongman famous for his arm strength and development. In fact, he was one of the first strongmen to curl over 200 pounds. He was the leader of the group of strongmen known as The Rasso Trio (who were famously defeated by Apollon.) Here, Stanglemeier lifts a cannon and two more fellows along for the ride. Stanglemeier was particularly adept at heavy supporting feats and I bet this one went over very well during his performances.

Viktor Solovyev

Posted on Monday, January 1st, 2018 by John Wood

Viktor Solovyev, the great Ukranian strongman and wrestler, is shown here looking quite impressive in this rare picture take around 1906. As far as his lifting feats, he was able to ‘slow curl’ 165 pounds, perform a Crucifix Lift with 60 pounds in each hand and could jerk 293 pounds. As a wrestler, he defeated Franz ‘Cyclops’ Bienkowski, the French Giant Louis ‘Apollon’ Uni, George Lurich, Pyotr Krylov and many others on the way to winning several world championships.

The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results by Ellington Darden

Posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2016 by John Wood

GONE.

The New Bodybuilding for Old-School results is sold out, but we can point you toward this classic Ell Darden title which is available on Amazon Kindle:

Strength and Conditioning for Football by Ellington Darden

John Lemm

Posted on Friday, March 18th, 2016 by John Wood

Another look at a very rare picture of wrestler John Lemm, who was also known at “The Swiss Hercules”. With a set of wheels like that, it’s not hard to see why he was one of the first men in history to squat with 500 pounds ~ although it is plain to see that Lemm was pretty impressive all around.

Lemm won a famous 1908 wrestling tournament in London billed as “The Battle of Giants” where he defeated, amongst others, the then title-holder Russian Ivan Poddubny and the great French wrestler/strongman Apollon.

The Arm of Apollon

Posted on Friday, August 28th, 2015 by John Wood

In case you might be wondering why the great French strongman Apollon was known as a true ‘King of Strength’ and could easily lift weights that others couldn’t even budge, here’s a pretty clear illustration. On the left, the forearm of an early professional wrestler named Wolff which measured 16-3/8ths inches in circumference. Apollon’s arm, on the right, measured over twenty inches around but even more impressive was his massive forearm which appears even bigger than Mr. Wolff’s upper arm.

Apollon Poster

Posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2015 by John Wood

Here’s a rare poster from Apollon 1897 tour of Germany. Unsurprisingly, heavy supporting lifts were the norm as they allowed rather impressive weights (and types of weights) to be used. It was probably Sandow who began this practice, lifting a horse with one arm and walking across the stage. As far as lifting bicycles and their riders, this feat made appearances for many years to come, (check out this and this.)

The Apollon Wheels Arrive

Posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2014 by John Wood

It is fairly common knowledge that on March 3, 1930 Charles Rigoulot attempted, (and of course, subsequently lifted) the famed rail car wheels of Apollon. You probably haven’t seen this one though: on the morning of the attempt, the wheels were delivered to the Voltaire Gymnasium from the museum where it normally resided. Here’s a rare shot of the crew of workmen getting the wheels off the truck and they sure don’t look too thrilled about it… Look closely and you’ll see that they delivered other weights besides the wheels that day.