Arthur Saxon Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Arthur Saxon: The Iron Master

Posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2021 by John Wood

“A really strong man who is unable to lift really heavy weights can only be described as a man who possesses possibilities of strength, while a man who can exceed 250 lbs. with either one or two hands (or even 200 lbs., supposing him to be a 9 to 10-stone man) is the fortunate possessor of real strength, having been endowed with actual power itself, which he has further acquired the ability to use.

Every normally sound and healthy man, whose doctor can assure him that his heart is sound, and who has attained the age of from sixteen to nineteen (according to the proportionate development he has attained at those ages), not only can, but should, enter upon some course of Weight-lifting or of exercises with weights.”

– Arthur Saxon, The Text-Book of Weight Lifting (1908)

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.

The Bridge Press

Posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2018 by John Wood

The ‘bridge press’ was an early precursor to the modern bench press. In this case though, no bench required and the bar began on the abdomen and was heaved to begin the lift. The lift was also aptly referred to at times as “the belly toss.”

This was a favorite lift of Arthur Saxon and I’m sure it served him well in developing strength for his wrestling pursuits. Saxon’s record of 386 pounds was broken by Joe Nordquest with a lift of 388 pounds (shown above).

Videos

Posted on Friday, August 31st, 2018 by John Wood

Videos

Here you’ll find videos of various sorts that we put together for Youtube and other reasons. To follow my channel CLICK HERE.

The Textbook of Club Swinging by Tom Burrows

Posted on Friday, August 17th, 2018 by John Wood

Whereas Arthur Saxon wrote The Textbook of Weight-Lifting, Tom Burrows wrote The Textbook of Club Swinging. Both men were certainly qualified to do so. There were several other “Textbooks” — on Swimming, Wrestling, Boxing, and various other athletic pursuits.

Saxon’s Kettlebell Press

Posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2018 by John Wood

Something that I find pretty interesting is that Arthur Saxon demonstrated this unique Kettlebell pressing exercise in The Textbook of Weightlifting back in 1910, yet with all the hubbub about kettlebells these days, I have never seen it listed or performed in any modern kettlebell training course. Saxon wrote that this exercise was good for building thumb strength and I agree.

Al Beinart

Posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2018 by John Wood

Over a century later, Arthur Saxon still holds the greatest bent press poundage ever recorded. The man who has come the closest under official conditions was Al Beinart who managed 330 pounds and trains at Yaco’s Gym in Detroit. The hardest part of the lift, according to Beinart, is getting the weight to the shoulders. This is the style that he used. and with 300+ pounds, that’s an impressive feat by itself.

Harry B. Paschall

Posted on Friday, December 8th, 2017 by John Wood

Harry B. Paschall is shown here, hard at work drawing up his super strongman character Bosco. As a young man, Paschall became inspired after watching Sandow and Saxon in action. He went on do do illustrations for Alan Calvert’s Strength Magazine and, later on, Strength and Health Magazine and the British magazine Vigour. He was also a very good writer, with a number of training articles and three classic books also to his credit.

The 2-Hands Anyhow

Posted on Friday, November 10th, 2017 by John Wood

A step-by-step look at the 2-Hands Anyhow. It has been said that this lift is the ultimate test of strength, endurance and agility: it is the method by which the greatest weight has ever been lifted overhead with one hand, the complete lift lasts 12-15 seconds, and it requires practice, balance and the perfection of having to do two things at once. Once the lifter completes a Bent Press an additional weight, in the form of a dumbbell or kettlebell, is then cleaned to the shoulder and pressed overhead. The greatest performance of all time in this lift is 448 pounds, lifted by Arthur Saxon in 1905.

Paul Baillargeon

Posted on Wednesday, October 25th, 2017 by John Wood

I have said many times that Arthur Saxon’s records would never be broken… and they won’t be… but the man who has come the closest was Paul Baillargeon of the famed Baillargeon Brothers of Quebec. These six brothers were all incredible wrestlers and strength athletes who toured their native Canada and the US taking on all comers.

Paul, shown here, who was quite possibly the strongest of the brothers, often lifted a horse as the finale of their strength performances. This picture shows him officially bent-pressing a barbell loaded to 321 pounds, a feat which he achieved on May 11, 1951, in front of Harry B. Paschall and other reliable witnesses at the Apollo Health Studio in Columbus, Ohio.

Paul Baillargeon actually did succeed in bent-pressing 375 pounds in practice a few times but never under official conditions.