2023-01-19 04:00
Isokinetics is a fancy word describing a form of muscular contraction where movement is at a constant constant speed, no matter how much force is applied. Coaches always loved isokinetic m… Read More
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The Oldtime Strongman Blog
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tom sharkey
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ken leistner
madame yucca
chuck ahrens
cortese anvil lifting
acircthe female
bert elliott
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If you're looking for information about the oldtime strongmen and how they trained, look no further. Our website is full of great vintage pictures, stories, and information, and we offer many of the products that will help you train like the old time strong men.
2023-01-19 03:48
A tip of the hat to our good friend Dr. Ken Leistner on what would have been his 75th birthday if he were still with us. Here’s Doc during a typical “lugging and loading”… Read More
2023-01-18 20:15
Another great exerciser gizmo ad from out of the back of a comic book, circa, 1943. I mean who wouldn’t want to save up their paper route money to get some Tiger Power?
The post Ge… Read More
2023-01-18 19:38
Starting in 1875 and throughout the first half of the 20th century, The Fred Medart MFG Co. in St. Louis, Missouri was the place to get lockers, benches, basketball hoops, balance beams, wa… Read More
2023-01-18 19:26
A couple west coast weightlifting legends: Chuck Ahrens(left) and Bert Elliott(right) Ahrens was a man of mysterious strength who could easily press a pair of 165. lb. dumbbells. Elliott w… Read More
2023-01-13 21:42
Peter Cortes, of Boston, Massachusetts was stricken with double pneumonia as a child and it necessitated the removal of one of his lungs. He was not expected to love very long there-after… Read More
2022-12-14 19:31
Ed Block was a long-time trainer for the (then) Baltimore Colts football team. In his years of service, he noticed that many of his football players experienced injuries to the fingers, ha… Read More
2022-12-10 05:00
Williams Moor-Znamensky, also knows as Alexander Vladimirovich Znamensky, was another great (but somewhat little known) circus strongman, wrestler, and weightlifter from early 20th century… Read More
2022-12-05 16:58
Mary Anna Carson was known as Madame Yucca in various circuses in the late 1800’s. One of relative few performing strong women, Yucca was also billed as “The Female Sandow,&rdqu&helli…Read More
2022-12-02 21:09
A look at the great boxer Tom Sharkey, circa 1898, at the time he held the world heavyweight title. Not sure if Sharkey ever even lifted a weight but he certainly did train as evident by hi… Read More
2022-12-02 21:03
No idea of the details of this gent but this photo likely dates to 1890 or so. One thing is for sure though, you can still go a long way with nothing more than a pair of Indian clubs and a… Read More
2022-11-17 21:44
This photo is probably from around WWI but unfortunately we have no other details of who it is or how it came to be. It does however, reinforce one important principle of training success:… Read More
2022-11-17 17:45
Here’s a rare show bill from back in December of 1946 when Charles Rigoulot took on the British champion Anaconda in a catch wrestling bout at the Palais de la Mutualite (which is sti… Read More
2022-11-17 17:20
Gotta love those old muscle building course ads from the back of the comic books. Who wouldn’t want to send in their paper route money for the secrets to big muscles? By the way, the… Read More
2022-11-16 17:51
After graduating high school, Nikolai Vahturov worked as a cashier on a steam ship and was then drafted into the army, where, as luck would have it, he served along side Mitrofan, the broth… Read More
2022-11-12 00:48
Cosimo Molino, aka Romulus, as you might have guessed if you know your Roman history, was one half of a duo with fellow Italian Strongman “Remus” Gaiacomo Zaffarina. Romulus, al… Read More
2022-11-11 23:54
Captain T.B. Bax of Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, set his first endurance Indian Club swinging record in 1895, swinging a pair of 2lb. 9oz. clubs for 26 hours, non-stop. Bax set his last (and al… Read More
2022-11-09 22:36
It was at Osaka Station in April, 1935, that 34-year old Akio Hirai earned the right to call himself “The Strongest Man in Japan” by pulling a freight car loaded with 160 men a… Read More
2022-11-09 16:50
After Charles Rigoulot’s competitive weightlifting career came to an end, he still found ways to use his great strength to his advantage. Rigoulot worked as a circus strongman, wrestl… Read More
2022-11-09 16:36
Anders Andersson is another example in the long line of great strongmen from Sweden. And like many other strongmen of the time, he also wrestled — and excelled in both disciplines. O… Read More
2022-11-09 16:22
George Robinson performed as “Young Samson, The British Goliath” in England in the 1920’s. Unfortunately other than a postcard and a few newspaper clippings, not much else… Read More
2022-11-03 22:38
Here’s one from the deep Iron Game archive: Lieutenant Ivan Maltsev sets a World Record with a left-arm clean and jerk of an astounding 114 kg, at a meet in Leningrad, circa November… Read More
2022-11-03 21:49
Here’s a rare shot of Jack Dempsey hitting the bag in Chicago for an exhibition match vs. “Kingfish” Levinsky, in February of 1932. There’s hundred of training shots… Read More
2022-11-03 21:26
Ed “Strangler” Lewis was one of the most fearsome grapplers of the early 20th century. Given his nickname, you can probably guess that his favorite hold was the headlock. The pr… Read More
2022-11-01 19:34
A salute to the great Martin “Farmer” Burns featuring many rare images, posters, articles, newspaper clippings and other ephemera from the deep archives of wrestling history… Read More
2022-10-10 20:07
John Massis, who we have covered before on this blog, performed a number of impressive feats of jaw strength. Above shows one that he performed in Milan, Italy in 1968 in front of Guinness… Read More
2022-10-05 19:56
The British Amateur Weight-Lifter’s Association (BAWLA) was founded in 1910 and was the governing body of British amateur weightlifting; establishing rules and competition standards f… Read More
2022-10-05 19:02
A classic shot of the great Charles MacMahon bent-pressing an excellent 14-inch exhibition bell at the Milo Bar Bell Company show room, circa 1916. In the original publication of this photo… Read More
2022-10-05 14:49
A look at the Pasquali Brothers (there were actually three of them: Bibi, Harry, and Willie.). They were born in Italy, where their father and mother were both well known circus performers… Read More
2022-10-04 14:19
We highlight many famous strongmen but it is also our goal to preserve the not-so-famous moments in Iron History as well. We have no information on the above image, looks to be a gym some t… Read More
2022-09-16 17:14
Laurence H. “Hack” Miller was a pretty decent baseball player who spent a few seasons with the Chicago Cubs in the 1920’s. On August 25, 1922, Miller hit two 3-run home ru… Read More
2022-09-16 16:54
Another look at the great French strongman and wrestler Pierre Bonnes. Bonnes is thought to be the first man who snatched 250 lbs. in the “split” style. Many noted strong men of… Read More
2022-05-22 19:14
A look at the 1920 French Olympic Weightlifting team. Ten weightlifters, two in each weight class, represented France at the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games.
From left to right: Joseph Duchatea… Read More
2022-05-21 01:52
Unfortunately, most of the details of Camille Pedeboscq’s career are lost in time, the old postcard that we have only indicates that he was the strand pulling champion of Europe and a… Read More
2022-05-21 01:10
Abraham “Bram” Charité was a Dutch weightlifter who won a Bronze medal at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games in London, England with a 412.5 kg total. (127.5 kg press, 125 kg… Read More
2022-05-21 01:04
Lusitia Leers was a German aerialist and acrobat who performed with the Ringling Bros’ and several other circuses throughout the 1920’s and 30’s. As you can see here, her… Read More
2022-05-15 15:05
The Exergenie was an isokinetic device, roughly the size of a television remote control, consisting of a friction brake, a 10 foot length of rope, and a loop on the back end to secure it to… Read More
2022-05-11 18:24
The Great Circus Mystery was a 1925 American adventure film serial starring Joe Bonomo in a role that couldn’t have been too much of a stretch for him: Welles ‘Red’ Landow… Read More
2022-05-11 18:13
Typically you can train with sledge hammers in two ways: levering, or using them to smash a truck tire, but here’s an innovative feat done by Dennis Rogers, the Grandmaster Strongman… Read More
2022-05-11 18:00
George F. Jowett was well ahead of his time with this unique course from the early 1950’s. At the time having your own home gym was a pretty radical idea but today is commonplace. The… Read More
2022-05-11 17:26
Charles Atlas is well-known for using the “The Insult That Made a Man out of Mac” cartoon to make his training course a best seller but he wasn’t the only strongman to use… Read More
2022-05-11 16:59
The 1888 Goodwin Champions Series of Cigarette cards included 50 champion athletes: baseball players, cyclists, billiard players, chess players, football players, high jumpers, jockies, law… Read More
2022-05-05 17:14
The Mark Eden Bust Developer is a fascinating but oft-forgotten chapter in strength training (and advertising and mail/order) history. The Mark Eden Bust Developer was advertised in women&r&helli…Read More
2022-05-05 16:54
Pavel Mitrofanovich Chechin, lifting with the famed Lokomotiv Sport club, was the light-heavyweight (82.5 kg) class weightlifting champion of the USSR in 1937 with a 357.5 kg. total (107.5+… Read More
2022-05-05 16:00
The only identifier on this photo is Q.V.P.C.C — the last three letters in the abbreviation likely stands for “Physical Culture Club” but no idea about the Q.V. part (Quo… Read More
2022-05-02 04:36
During WWII, it was necessary to devise new techniques for getting large groups of new soldiers into combat-ready shape FAST. One of the methods that was created was “The Strength Cou… Read More
2022-05-02 00:52
The year was 1967 and a mild-mannered and soft-spoken fellow from Nebraska, Jim Raschke, was trying to break into the wrestling business. Like many wrestlers who are starting out, Raschke w… Read More
2022-05-02 00:03
Here’s a look into the (extremely well-stocked) Atlanta Police Department Gym, circa 1936. This gym was under the personal direction of Edward Rosendahl — the fellow standing on… Read More
2022-05-01 23:49
Here’s a strongman you’ve never heard of: Simon Hertzberg was a carpenter from Denmark who also happened to practice feats of strength in his spare time. Cutting, sawing, and jo… Read More
2022-04-30 18:14
Luigi Borra (aka Milo Brinn) was a famous strongman of the early 1900’s who would have been much more well-known had Sandow not been around. After briefly retiring for a few months, B… Read More
2022-04-26 04:10
Duncan C. Ross was one of the great “All-Around” Athletes of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. He earned his spot in the Allen And Ginter Sport card series above wit… Read More
2022-04-26 00:09
Iron Strongman and publican personality Michael “Butty” Sugrue (who we have covered several times before on this Blog) is shown here doing a bit of showing off with a couple fri… Read More
2022-04-25 14:47
A shot of some unknown gymnast or circus performer along with a set of his exhibition clubs.
Not sure where this gent got his clubs but Spalding had a commercially available set of exhibit… Read More
2022-04-25 14:00
Here’s a rare and impromptu shot from Vince’s gym on some forgotten afternoon long ago. Vince was in mid-sentence and his eyes were half closed — he would probably have a… Read More
2022-03-11 22:18
Here’s a rare one that you probably haven’t seen before: “Sailor” Jim White, Champion Strong Man of The Navy, performs “The Human Link” feat in front of… Read More
2022-03-11 22:01
Here’s a look at the great offensive tackle Anthony Munoz of the Cincinnati Bengals using the Nautilus Neck and Shoulder machine in the Spinney Field practice facility weight room som… Read More
2022-03-11 19:53
A group of oldtime wrestlers, circa 1904. At the time they were competing in a tournament at the Palast Theatre in Berlin, Germany in April of 1904. Pictured from left to right: Nikola Pet… Read More
2022-01-22 15:08
Harold Musselman (which is an utterly fantastic name for a weightlifter), of the Baltimore YMCA, is shown here in January of 1936, smashing his own South Atlantic record in the snatch in t… Read More
2022-01-22 14:32
Ardo Krastin was a weightlifter from Estonia who was active in the 1950s. Unfortunately we haven’t found much else about him.
The post Ardo Krastin appeared first on www.oldtimestrong… Read More
2022-01-22 14:09
Alexandre Bedock was the steel bending AND boxing champion of South Africa, circa 1904. It’s also not hard to see how proficiency in one of those disciplines will assist in success in… Read More
2021-12-17 18:02
Just who was Appolon Campiston? Unfortunately this postcard is all we have ever found on the man so any other details of his life and exploits are unfortunately lost to history. He looks li… Read More
2021-12-17 16:06
Another look at Bill Pettis and his 23-1/4-inch arms. Bill actually competed in a few bodybuilding contests in the early 70’s but typically finished toward the bottom of the pack &mda&helli…Read More
2021-12-16 17:05
A closer look at a Louis Cyr statuette produced in celebration of Cyr’s life in 1913 by the sculptor J.A. Hro. This design has been used several times since then, notably a bronze ve… Read More
2021-12-16 16:46
Charles Atlas was enough of a celebrity back in the day that he started appearing in mainstream magazines and not just the back of comic books. Here he is on the cover of the October 19, 19… Read More
2021-12-16 16:32
A look at the cover of the Mike Marvel Dynaflex Course (that you probably always wanted to send away for but never did.) The Dynaflex Course has been completely re-typed and re-scanned and… Read More
2021-12-16 16:26
Another rather incredibly feat by Quebec strongman Claude “Samson” Champagne, (who we have featured previously.) Count up all that weight and you’ll arrive at a total of 1… Read More
2021-10-12 21:05
Johnny Silvi was a professional wrestler from Canada who, in order to drum up interest for his matches, used to pull a call down the street in front of the arena with his teeth. As his impr… Read More
2021-10-12 20:44
1986 was the year when Ellington Darden came out with “Super High-Intensity Bodybuilding. Throughout the book as well as on the cover, there were training shots by the great Chris Lun… Read More
2021-08-30 20:09
A look at Stanley Radwan ~ The Polish Iron Man ~ in the midst of living up to his nick name whilst scrolling a long steel bar into a pretzel during a performance in October of 1950.
The pos… Read More
2021-08-30 16:27
Believe it or not, stength “machines” have a history that goes back even further than barbells and dumbbells. This “Quarter-Circle Strength Developer” was manufactu… Read More
2021-08-30 16:02
A look at the gymnasium of the Boarding School of The Sacred Heart located in Normandy, France, circa 1900. Note the rings, trapeze, the climbing ladder and other various “aerial&rdqu&helli…Read More
2021-08-30 15:56
Another look at John Lemm (in color!), circa 1909, when he had just made his way across the Atlantic Ocean and was looking to take on all comers. Interestingly, Lemm’s manager at this… Read More
2021-08-27 16:48
Here’s one that has been making the rounds for several years now. Is it legit? Hard to say, but it could probably go either way. They sure didn’t have Photoshop back in those da… Read More
2021-08-27 16:21
Shown above is Jules Bacon, AAU Mr. America winner of 1943. It was said that Bacon had one of the finest physiques of his era
Bacon was an integral part of the early history and success of… Read More
2021-08-27 15:42
“Olympic Musclebuilders” was a course that you probably never heard of that was advertised in the back of comic books, karate magazines, wrestling magazines and Popular Science… Read More
2021-08-26 21:22
“A really strong man who is unable to lift really heavy weights can only be described as a man who possesses possibilities of strength, while a man who can exceed 250 lbs. with either… Read More
2021-08-26 20:34
A look at the starting line of the Barrel Rolling Championship of France, circa 1901. Different districts and locales in France had their own regional Barrel Rolling championships — a… Read More
2021-08-26 17:53
Louis Cyr gets a got of ink as one of the strongest men who ever walked the Earth — and rightly so — but he wasn’t the only strongman in the family. Louis had a brother, P… Read More
2021-08-26 16:41
Just a couple farm boys from Iowa: Martin “Farmer” Burns and Frank Gotch pose for a picture, circa 1905. You’ll find many books and courses authored by these two gents pos… Read More
2021-08-13 21:04
Emil Voss was a Prussian strongman who began performing with the Cinizelli Circus at the age of twenty. Voss’s act consisted of juggling cannon balls (16kg, and 32kg), lifting heavy t… Read More
2021-08-13 20:55
Billed as “The Most Stupendous Super-Strength Feat The World Has Ever Seen!”, Don Athaldo is shown here lifting an Essex Super-Six Sedan car and platform, which was weighed offi… Read More
2021-08-13 20:46
Cyrill Wetasa — who was often better known as simply “Wetasa” — was originally from Vienna and gave up his former trade as a butcher to become a professional strongm… Read More
2021-06-21 15:28
Franciscus “Frans” De Haes was a Belgian weightlifter who won the very first gold medal ever awarded in the featherweight class at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. 1920 was… Read More
2021-06-21 15:00
Otto Arco began his vaudevill career with an old family friend Emil Von Mogyorossy as the duo “The Crotton Brothers. They performed feats of strength, muscle control, and hand balanci… Read More
2021-06-17 18:00
We’ve covered Giovanni Raicevich before. Raicevich was known for his thick, strong neck — which is obviously of great use in the mat game for a variety of reasons. Here, Raicevi… Read More
2021-06-15 16:36
Bob Hoffman is well-known as the father of American Weightlifting. What is not as well known is that Hoffman also had a tremendous hand in popularizing the sport of softball. At one point… Read More
2021-06-15 16:19
Paul Belling was billed as the national champion wrestler of Austria in the late 1800’s. He scrapped with the best of them including: Alex Aberg, George Lurich, Ursus Jankowsky, Stan… Read More
2021-06-11 18:55
Here’s a rather impressive Bullworker advertisement from a South African magazine from 1976. Although the Bullworker literally came out of the back of a comic book, it was one strengt… Read More
2021-06-11 18:46
George Jagendorfer gives two buddies a lift, circa 1880. You figure that a very conservative estimate of their bodyweights would be around 150 lbs. so this is a pretty impressive overhead s… Read More
2021-06-10 15:48
Now THAT”S an Indian Club! — The relatives of James “The Italian Hercules” Calabrese contacted us recently to see if we had any further info in our files. Unfortunat… Read More
2021-06-09 15:48
Ivan Shutov was a strongman in the Russian Circus for twelve years. His nicknames (fittingly) were “The Man with Iron Hands”and “The King of Nails” since he could be… Read More
2021-06-09 15:32
Another look at the lovely Vulcana, also known as Kate Roberts. She was sometimes called “The Female Sandow.” Once, when a pickpocket made the unfortunate decision to attempt t… Read More
2021-06-09 15:02
Bruce Lee was a big fan of dumbbells for various forms of training. Here, Bruce is doing some jumping drills (on a trampoline which you can’t see) with some added dumbbell resistance… Read More
2021-06-08 19:05
Only a few postcards exist for Michelos-Ki, the Strongman. About the only thing we know about him is that he didn’t possess one shred of originality — Mr. Michelos-Ki seems to… Read More
2021-06-08 19:00
Images of strength have been used for marketing purposes for years. Here’s a French advertisement for Indian Coffee that dates to 1901. This strong fellow — evidently named Mr… Read More
2021-06-08 18:55
Check out this excellent 1932 advertisement for the George F. Jowett ‘Molding a Mighty Arm’ course — which was excellent. Fortunately, even many decades later, you can sti… Read More
2021-06-08 18:44
One of the all-time great physiques belonged to Bobby Pandour of Poland. He was an excellent at muscle control as well as hand balancing so much so that he performed an act with his brother… Read More
2021-06-08 18:26
Here’s a couple of strong men you’ve never heard of: The Derrick Brothers, who came all the way from Brussels, Belgium to perform this feat twice a day at the Nebraska State Fai… Read More
2021-05-25 20:32
…a good one to put in the don’t-try-this-at-home file. Charles MacMahon and Anthony Matysek are shown here performing a rather unique lift, circa 1925. Better have a pair of gl… Read More
2021-05-25 15:50
Joe Price was a fantastic strongman who was also a blacksmith who we have covered before. Joe came up with a unique system of training utilizing a sledge hammer — the aptly named Vulc… Read More
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