Leg Development Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Squatting with Casey

Posted on Friday, December 28th, 2018 by John Wood

If there is a “secret” to super strength it’s hard, intense leg work. Here’s eventual 1971 Mr. America Casey Viator getting in a quick squat workout at the infamous quonset hut in Deland, Florida in the early days of Nautilus. There’s 535 lbs. on the bar — not bad for a “training weight.”

The Mr. America contest was still a few months out, and when the day came, Casey won in the most dominating fashion possible taking not only the overall title, but also five out of six of the subdivision: Best Chest, Best Legs, Best Arms, Best Back, and Most Muscular. The only subdivision that Casey didn’t win was “Best Abs” which went to Chuck Amato.

The Hammer Strength Leg Press

Posted on Wednesday, October 4th, 2017 by John Wood

The Hammer Strength Leg Press is the very best leg press that I’ve ever used. This machine can also be an excellent alternative to the squat for building leg strength. Consider yourself lucky if you can find one though. Withing the last few years, they redesigned this machine and made a few compromises — and in my humble opinion, not for the better: they took out some steel and changed the angles a bit. The original version, the one shown here, is the one you want.

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.

Killer Legs

Posted on Thursday, July 25th, 2013 by John Wood

This gal warms up with your max squat… yow!

Les Willoughby

Posted on Saturday, August 27th, 2011 by John Wood

Les Willoughby

Les Willoughby, the great light-heavyweight British weightlifter, is shown here about to perform the 2-dumbbell press, one of the seven best power-building exercises. His best performance in this lift was a press of 230 pounds for two reps. He could also barbell press 245 lbs., snatch 242-1/2 lbs. clean & jerk 330 pounds and just may have done some squatting in his day.

Big Paul’s Big Wheels

Posted on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 by John Wood

What do you do when you need to squat over 600 pounds but a normal barbell just won’t hold enough weight? — Keep in mind that they didn’t have 100 lb. plates back then either. This was Paul Anderson’s solution, a set of wheels he found in a junk yard in his native town of Toccoa, Georgia.

At first, everybody thought he was crazy but they changed their tune when he came home from the 1956 Olympics with a shiny new Gold Medal. I don’t know of anyone who looked as relaxed as Big Paul while handling big weights.

That’s also another pretty good lesson: if you don’t have what you need you’ll have to improvise…