Before & After Shot Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

1928 Milo Barbell Advertisement, Featuring Al Manger

Posted on Friday, June 13th, 2014 by John Wood

1928 Milo Barbell Advertisement, Featuring Al Manger

Here’s an interesting one: this 1928 Milo Barbell advertisement features Mr. Al Manger, who built himself up from “a bag of bones” into a weightlifting champion with the power of sensible physical training and a Milo weight set. At the age of 21, Manger weighed only 97 pounds, and within a year of barbell training, had added 26 pounds of solid muscle.

Manger kept at it, and went on to win three national lifting championships, one in the 181 lb. class in 1929 and two light-heavyweight crowns in 1930 and 1932. Manger finished fifth with a 315 kg. total at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic games. Manger also won regional championships in the shot put and weight throwing.

…Pretty good for a skinny kid from Baltimore.

If you would like to learn about the specific types of training that helped Manger build his strength, you’ll find it in The Alan Calvert Collection.

Before & After

Posted on Friday, September 27th, 2013 by John Wood

Before & After

The “before and after” shot has been a staple in strength training advertising for a long, long time. Above, you’ll see the very first one, circa 1881. D.L. Dowd, subject of the above photos, was a New York professor who was simply tired of being skinny. At first he attempted gymnastics, but with trial and error, and little knowledge of the human body, he gained all of two pounds over the course of a year. Most people would have given up with such pitiful results, but Dowd persevered.

He reasoned that a greater knowledge of anatomy as well as a systematic approach should lead to much better results, which they clearly did. The picture on the right is the result of three years of training with “Dowd’s Health Exerciser” a doorway gym of his own design which allowed him to train each muscle group progressively. Dowd’s “after” picture is certainly still impressive 130+ years later.