When you read about the incredible feats of the many old time strongman – and then you study their books – you will certainly notice that many of them recommend high rep exercises with very light weights, and only in the end occasionally mention lifting the heavy weights.
Did really Sandow achieved his incredible feats of strength by lifting light dumbbells?
The following exercises are of a strenuous nature and should be performed only by those who are already quite advanced in their training. Where number of repetitions are not given, repeat exercise until you have to strain and at this point stop and rest. Do this three or four times in succession with each exercise. In this way your body will act as its own barometer telling you pretty well what you can and what you cannot do. As the abdominal muscles grow stronger you will naturally be able to do more repetitions and at no time will you be forcing yourself beyond sensible physiological limits.
In the golden age of professional wrestling, he was the most famous wrestler of them all. But George Hackenschmidt (1877-1968), aka “The Russian Lion,” was much more than that. A body builder, weightlifting champion, nutritionist, philosopher, and writer, he has been described by Terry Todd as “the outlier’s outlier,” and his story makes a worthy entry as Chapter 3 of the Rogue Legends Series.
Barbell military press, continental barbell clean & jerk, barbell leg press, kettlebell snatch to waiter’s press (switching the side!), one-arm barbell snatch, one-arm barbell clean & jerk, stacked kettlebell bent press – what a great overview of some of the most popular old-time strongmen lifts!
…actually, more than a bodyweight – 150 pounds (68 kg) at 143 (64, 8) pounds bodyweight!
We are of course talking about old-time strongman one-arm dumbbell swing, performed quite differently from today’s well know Hardstyle kettlebell swing or snatch.
The dumbbell seems to have played a part in Inch’s career from a very early age, and not necessarily the challenge dumbbell. At the age of 15 he accepted an invitation to visit Professor Josef Szalay in London.