Milo Steinborn’s Orange Avenue Gym

Posted on Tuesday, April 30th, 2019 by John Wood
Milo Steinborn's Orange Avenue Gym
Henry “Milo” Steinborn was a 5’8″ 205 lb German wrestler and strongman who became the first man to ever squat 500 lbs. In fact, his world record squat of 553 lbs. (set during the 1920’s) would not be officially bested until the early 1950’s by Doug Hepburn. It was Milo who popularized the heavy deep knee bend as one of the most productive training lifts for anyone interested in building real strength.

In 1952, Milo opened the Orange Avenue Gym down in Orlando, Florida, which makes it the oldest weightlifting gym in America. Along with plenty of weights and barbells, Milo’s Gym had a wrestling ring and other physical training equipment. Milo is flanked here by his sons Dick (left) and Henry (right).

It was here that Milo taught a young Jim Flanagan how to get strong. I was fortunate enough to visit the Orange Avenue Gym on a trip back in 2003 — it still had some of Milo’s original training equipment.

All Contents, Including Images and Text, Copyright © 2005-2021 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc., Not to be reproduced without permission, All Rights Reserved
Author: John Wood. All contents, including images and text, copyright © 2005-2021 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc. Not to be reproduced without permission. All rights reserved. We will most likely grant permission but please contact us if you would like to repost. IMPORTANT: Equipment and books, courses etc. pictured in blog posts are generally not available for sale unless specifically noted.

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:

The Nautilus Compound Leg Machine

Posted on Tuesday, June 21st, 2016 by John Wood

The ‘point’ of any tool is to give yourself an advantage that could not otherwise be had… in this case, a machine which will allow a for the performance of a very specialized (and VERY effective) training technique: pre-exhaust.

The Nautilus compound Leg Machine combined a leg extension with a leg press, allowing a trainee to move from one exercise to the next in the quickest possible time — and creating one of the most intense leg workouts ever devised.

All Contents, Including Images and Text, Copyright © 2005-2021 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc., Not to be reproduced without permission, All Rights Reserved
Author: John Wood. All contents, including images and text, copyright © 2005-2021 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc. Not to be reproduced without permission. All rights reserved. We will most likely grant permission but please contact us if you would like to repost. IMPORTANT: Equipment and books, courses etc. pictured in blog posts are generally not available for sale unless specifically noted.

The Nautilus Rotary Neck Machine

Posted on Thursday, March 24th, 2016 by John Wood

The Nautilus Rotary Neck Machine contains no weight stack, no built in source of resistance of any kind … instead, the resistance is provided by the user through the use of hand levers that enable you to exactly control the resistance during both the positive and negative parts of the exercise. There aren’t many Rotary Neck Machines around but we happen to have one in our private gym and when used correctly, it is excellent. We may do a feature on it at some point.