Nautilus Machines Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Omni Machines

Posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2018 by John Wood

A rare look at Casey Viator training during The Colorado Experiment. Many of the machines used during the Colorado Experiment, dubbed the “Omni Machines” revolved around “negative” training techniques. The one Casey is using, for example, was an overhead press machine. On the right is the infamous “Mr. Happiness” negative bench press machine. Both of these machines were prototypes and never made it to actual production.

Nautilus Leverage Machines

Posted on Friday, October 30th, 2015 by John Wood

>When most people think of Nautilus Machines they picture cams and weight stacks, which were certainly the case… But later on, Nautilus came out with a series of leverage pieces with the look of machines yet the feel of free weights. Pictured here is Cincinnati Bengals All-Pro Linebacker Reggie Williams demonstrating the shrug/row combo piece. This photograph was taken in the world famous “Kong Room” and if you were ever there, you sure never forgot it.

John Gordon of the Detroit Lions

Posted on Friday, September 20th, 2013 by John Wood

John Gordon of the Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions were one of the very first NFL teams to get a set of Nautilus Machines. Here’s Defensive Tackle John Gordon (who was born in Detroit but played his college ball in Hawaii) getting in a quick workout on an excellent pullover/torso arm. This would be somewhere around 1973. Look closely and you’ll notice two features that indicates that these are some very early machines: a.) the open “spider” cams and the fact that there are cables instead of chains.

Zander Machines

Posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 by John Wood

Zander Machines

Gustav Zander was a Swedish physician who created over 70 different exercises “machines” at the turn of the century. Zander’s machines were very meticulously designed with a very intricate system of pulleys, pendulums and counter-balances which accounted for the leverages of the human body.

Each machine developed a particular area of the body. The machine shown above was for training forearm extension.

Also, despite their obvious similarities in appearance, Arthur Jones had no prior knowledge of Gustav Zander or his machines when he designed the Nautilus Machines. (Which actually function quite a bit differently.)

The Nautilus Pullover

Posted on Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 by John Wood

The Nautilus Pullover Machine was created by Arthur Jones to address one of the shortcomings of conventional training. In this case, the unavoidable situation where the strength of the hands and forearms gives out before the larger, stronger muscles of the torso. The Nautilus pullover circumvents this weak link while also allowing the muscles of the back to be trained throughout a full range of motion — something which can’t be done with barbells or dumbbells.

This type of training can be very effective but only when understood and applied correctly. That’s Mercury Morris of the Miami Dolphins demonstrating above. This is a very early model of the pullover. This generations of Nautilus Machines are often referred to as “spider cams” for what should be obvious reasons.