Super Strength Alan Calvert September 25, 2006 ii Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 The Back 7 3 Some Lifting Records 13 4 The Legs 17 5 Harness and Platform Lifting 23 6 The Sides 27 7 The Abdominal Muscles 31 8 The Chest 35 9 The Upper Part of the Back 39 10 The Shoulder Muscles 43 11 The “Swing” and The “Snatch” 51 12 The Jerk Lift 59 13 Arm Strength 63 14 Lifting a Bar-Bell From Floor to Chest 67 15 On Individual Training 75 16 Making Yourself Over 81 17 Hands, Wrists and Forearms 91 18 Where Does It All Come From? 95 19 Muscle Control 103 iii iv CONTENTS 20 Professional Exhibition Work 111 21 Who Is The Strongest Man in the World? 117 22 More About Lifting 121 23 Some Out-Worn Superstitions 123 24 The Secret of the Bent-Press 133 25 Statuesque Development 139 26 Effects of Exercise 149 Chapter 1 Introduction One day, several years ago, I took a professional “Strong Man” named Herold into my factory to inquire about a special barbell which he had ordered. In order to make the particular kind of bell he wanted, we had to fit a piece of hollow pipe over a solid steel bar. Just before we entered the shop, one of the workmen had started to drive the bar through the piece of pipe; but there must have been some obstruction inside the pipe, because the bar stuck half-way. The workman was about to put the pipe in a vise so that he could remove the bar when “Herold” intervened. He grasped one end of the pipe in his right hand and told the workman to take hold of the projecting steel bar and pull it out. The “Strong Man” stood with his right foot slightly advanced, and his right elbow close to his side. The workman, who was a husky fellow, took hold of the projecting steel rod in both his hands and gave several tremendous heaves; but although he used every part of his weight and strength, he could not pull the bar out of the pipe. So I added my weight to his, and by a great effort we managed to draw the bar out. Meanwhile, “Herold” stood as though he were carved out of bronze. Even when both of us were pulling against him we never shook him a particle, and neither did we draw his right elbow a fraction of an inch from his side. He held the end of the iron pipe in his hand just as securely as though it had been put in the vise. I want you to bear this story in mind, for I will refer to it several times later on in this book. At this time, I wish to use it as an illustration of the difference between arm strength, and general bodily strength. When the author of a novel wishes to give his readers an idea of the hero’s strength, he says that his hero is “as strong as two or three ordinary men.” That is one of those statements which is very easy to make and very hard to prove. In the first place, it raises in your mind the question, “How strong is the ordinary man?” That is something that no one can tell you. In order to know the answer, it would be necessary to test at least 100,000 men at exactly the same stunts and under exactly the same conditions. All I can tell you is that the available man is not half as strong as he ought to be, or as he could be if he were properly trained. 1 2 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION Now, take the case of the “Strong Man” referred to above. Undoubtedly that man could out-pull any two ordinary men, although he weighed but 160 lbs., and the two of us, who pulled against him, weighed 175 lbs. apiece. If you, who read this book, had seen this “Strong Man,” you would have at once exclaimed about his marvelous arms, which measured nearly 17 inches around the biceps; and it is equally probable that you would have ascribed all his strength to his arms. But his right arm, mighty as it was, was doing only part of the work in pulling against us. It was the great strength of the mus- cles on the right side of his upper back which enabled him to keep his right elbow against his side. If he had been weak in the back, we would have top- pled him over on his face at the first pull; but his back was so strong that we could not make him bend forward the least trifle at the waist. If his legs had been weak, we would have slid him along the floor, while as a matter of fact, his feet gripped the ground so strongly that we could not budget him an inch from his original position. Now, this man was stronger than two average men. In fact, he was prob- ably about as strong as two lumbermen weighing 200 lbs. each. (I had many opportunities to observe his prodigious power.) In a private gymnasium in Buffalo, there was a strength-testing device in the form of an old-fashioned wagon spring. This spring was placed a few inches above the floor in its nor- mal position; a chain with a handle was fastened to the lower arm of the spring; and the athlete whose strength was to be tested straddled the spring and pulled upward on the chain, so as to bring the two sides of the spring closer together. Across the middle of the spring was a gauge graduated in one-sixteenths of an inch. This test gave a good idea of the ability of a man to raise heavy weights from the ground. The ordinary man could compress the spring about three- eighths of an inch. Some very strong workmen had compressed it to as much as three-quarters of an inch. Herold compressed it one and one-half inches; and I know that to be a fact, because another “Strong Man” told me that he, himself, had been able to compress it only one and one-quarter inches, and re- ferred to H.’s pull as a record. Now, this first lifter (Herold) was not by any means the strongest man in the world, although he was one of the very best in his class. He weighed about 160 lbs., and was just about as strong as either Herman or Kurt Saxon; and while most of his lifting records were just as good as those of any other 160-lb. lifter, they fell considerably short of the records made by the giants in the lifting game. Nevertheless, he could have fairly been described as being stronger than two ordinary men. It is very hard for the ordinary citizen to gauge the strength of a real “Strong Man.” He goes to a vaudeville show to see a “Strong Act,” and he watches the performer stoop under a platform on which fifteen or twenty man are standing, and lift the whole weight on his back. Mr. Ordinary Citizen has never tried this stunt but doubts whether he could raise 500 lbs. in that way, and so concludes that this performer is many times as strong as he is. Next, he sees the performer take a big barbell weighing 250 lbs., and slowly push it above the head with one hand. This is a stunt that the ordinary citizen knows something about. He has probably tried and failed to put up a 50-lb. weight, so that the performer’s 3 250-lb. lift impresses him greatly. It will probably surprise you when I tell you that the ordinary man, after a few months of the right kind of training, can develop enough strength to put up 150 lbs. with one hand, and to raise 2,000 lbs. on his back in a “platform-lift.” that is enough to make you gasp; I mean you, who are reading these lines. You have always considered yourself as “just the average individual,” and at first you cannot grasp the idea that it would be possible for you to learn to accomplish Herculean feats of strength. Yet I, who have seen so many “ordinary citizens” become able to do stunts of this kind, can assure you that your possibilities are, in all likelihood, just as great as those of any other average citizen. In his book on Physical Education, Dr. Felix Oswald said that one company of soldiers in the Middle Ages would contain more “Strong Men” than would be found in a modern army corps. I cannot agree with this statement. I will admit that possibly the average man of three hundred years ago was stronger than the average man of today, because in those days there were no labor- saving devices, and practically every man had to use his muscles a great deal more than the average man of today uses his. Nevertheless, the strongest men of today are just as strong or stronger than the “Strong Men” of three hundred years ago. For example, I have a collection of books dealing with the subject of strength, and almost every one of those books starts off by telling you of the wonderful feats of strength accomplished by the mighty men of the past. One man who is always mentioned is Thomas Topham, who was born in London in 1710. When Topham was thirty-one, he made a lift of 1836 lbs.