Historical Strongmen

Zombienosh

Hey,

I've recently become really interested in the life of Eugen Sandow after picking up one of his books, "Strength & How to Obtain It", I find the time fascinating, Him and others around that time, how it was viewed and how they lived.

So is anyone else here into historical strongmen and can recommend any books or film on the matter? Documentaries or biography's? I'm ordering a book about Sandows life, some of the stories and things he did are mental.

I'd love to hear or similar people throughout history.

Hanley

Paul Anderson must be top of your list.

Zombienosh

Hanley wrote: »

Paul Anderson must be top of your list.

First I've heard of him, I'll look into it. I've generally been looking at people earlier than that, the "Freakshow" sort of era.

Big_G

Max Sick of Maxalding fame is an interesting one. Could isolate muscles and flex them like a yogi but anywhere on his body.

BrianD3

There is a lot of stuff on the web about "physical culture" and historical strongmen. Many hours of reading. If you haven't heard of a well known figure like Paul Anderson before now you've probably only scratched the surface so far.

I'm mildly obsesssed with this sort of stuff and I wouldn't limit myself to the Sandow era as strongmen from later years are just as interesting.

Here are some links, these are just examples of what's out there

The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban
http://ditillo2.blogspot.ie/

Chaos and Pain (NSFW but many articles on historical strongmen from Hermann Goerner to Bob Peoples)
http://chaosandpain.blogspot.ie/

Sandow and the Golden Age of Iron Men
http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/

Big Steel
http://www.bigsteel.iwarp.com/

Natural Strength
http://www.naturalstrength.com/

Historical Performances in Chin-ups, Pull-ups, Levers, and Crosses (part of John Gill's website)
http://www128.pair.com/r3d4k7/Chinups.html

Zombienosh

Awesome, thanks.

rubadub

I read a fair bit a while back, I think BrianD3's links cover them all. Very interesting stuff, it also talked of different emphasis they had, like not having a big chest, I don't think they did bench press, think its relatively new(?)

Some of the tales/feats can be taken with a pinch of salt. There is one famous one called the "close to impossible", a supposed static hold


Which had much discussion on a gymnastics site, where the gymnastics coach who runs the site reckoned it is just that, impossible. There are several videos on youtube attempting it, some fakes, some just progressions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ENTWM7lwbk

Zombienosh

I've ordered Sandow The Magnificent Just Read Strength and How to Obtain It by him and it's amazing how much of it is still relevant today, parts of it read like it could have been written yesterday. I'm going through that site and learning about each Icon.
I was hoping there word be some books with a general overview of time periods.

Tigger

Real men wear boots even when posing ( in the vid)
Sandow was very cool

amazingemmet

The close to impossible is as it says close to impossible but not impossible. The way people describe of getting into it is impossible, normally they say chin up then push out but if you treat it like a straight arm kip to support and just stop and squeeze then you can hold for a bit but you'll rotate down to front lever just due to the weight distribution in the body.I'll try stick a video on my facebook/twitter during the week.

Mellor

amazingemmet wrote: »

The close to impossible is as it says close to impossible but not impossible. The way people describe of getting into it is impossible, normally they say chin up then push out but if you treat it like a straight arm kip to support and just stop and squeeze then you can hold for a bit but you'll rotate down to front lever just due to the weight distribution in the body.I'll try stick a video on my facebook/twitter during the week.

Define "a bit". Would need to be a few seconds at least to qualify as a static hold.

I don't think its possible, but i'll gladly be proven wrong by a video.

amazingemmet

In gymnastics you only have to hold for 2 seconds to score the points so that's the criteria I'd use to count it valid. I doubt anyone has done longer then that.

Thehandviolent

Hi, i dont mean to drag up old threads but i see that you had an interest in Sandow. I was wondering could you help me. I have recently found an original exercise chart that belonged to my grandfather, it is entitled "Sandows concise anatomical chart" and was produced by Gale + Polden of London. It is a poster around two and a half feet wide and foot and a half high, with various pictures of different exercises and two illustrations. Im basically wondering have i found something rare or is it something people would want. Any help would be great, Thank You.

amazingemmet

Any chance of some pics of it?

Thehandviolent

Yeah ill throw up a pic, Ill take a quick one with a phone or something. I work with microfilms so im currently processing it after taking the image with a 35mm camera to reproduce it. Give me a few mins.

Thehandviolent

Not the best image but you get the idea! Im going to touch it up in photoshop once the microfilm is finished processing.

amazingemmet

Nice one looks interesting. Not sure if its valuable but if you could revive it you might be able to sell posters of it.

rubadub

amazingemmet wrote: »

The close to impossible is as it says close to impossible but not impossible.

Did you ever have a go trying it after that.

Thehandviolent wrote: »

Im basically wondering have i found something rare or is it something people would want. Any help would be great, Thank You.

Maybe try this collectibles forum http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=394

amazingemmet

rubadub wrote: »

Did you ever have a go trying it after that.

It works sort of as in I can hit the close to impossible position fine but the hold while I can feel it, needs work but feels do able but I doubt more then 2-3 secs is possible at most.

Thehandviolent

Thanks yeah, ill stick up the picture in that section. I'm not really interested in its value to sell or anything, just want to know more about it. I'd like to think someone out there would appreciate it! Thanks for the replys!

Kaloma

anyone willing to do that program? Can't make out most of the exercises but they seem to cover the shoulders and core pretty well. Looks like quite a few statics in there too, but that could be my eyesight

Thehandviolent

Kaloma wrote: »

anyone willing to do that program? Can't make out most of the exercises but they seem to cover the shoulders and core pretty well. Looks like quite a few statics in there too, but that could be my eyesight

If your talking about the image I uploaded, all the exercises use a rope tied to something, I'm pretty **** for the exercise so I wouldn't know what kind of exercises they are...

cgmd1

Cool Poster, you should get that framed. Scan it first though