Simple Methods. Complex Strength.
Learn from the legends of the Iron Game. Build lasting health and antifragile strength through youth-restoring calisthenics, kettlebells, dumbbells, and barbells.
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Siegmund Klein’s „The One Best Exercise“ – and Challenge! [1939]
The Legendary Siegmund Klein’s Challenge: Perform a Clean & Press with two dumbbells for ten reps using a pair of 75-pound (34 kg) dumbbells. Many Iron Game enthusiasts discuss this feat (with some claiming it's twelve reps), but few train for it, and even fewer...
Arthur Saxon’s Dumbbell Overhead Swing Tutorials [1905 and 1908]
In swinging the dumbbell, the weight must be placed between the feet. The body then bends over from the waist, and a grip is taken of the bell close to the front sphere or disc. The bell may be rested on its end prior to swinging, and the disengaged hand should be pressed on the corresponding knee.
Paul Anderson – One-Arm Pressing Power
I have done a kind of half Military, half Side Press, during my public appearances. As a rule, this has been the most popular feat of strength that I do. I first started including it because it was a convenient thing to include since I could write ahead for the weights that I needed and take along a bar that was suitable for loading the plates on. I have a bar that is collapsible and can be put in a small briefcase. It is also convenient because it does not take up much room in a church sanctuary, where I often do several feats of strength along with my messages.
Siegmund Klein: Special Preparatory Exercises for the Bent Press [1938]
Because of the physical demands of this lift I cannot put too much emphasis upon the need for special preparatory training with exercises that will prepare you for this feat of strength.
W. A. Pullum: Dumbbell Squat
Note that although the bells are held close to the shoulders, no support is afforded by the latter. Sometimes the dumb-bells are tipped so that the rear ends rest on the shoulders, but this is not recommended, as in most instances it results in a distortion of posture.
W. A. Pullum, The Bent Press [1930]
The very first thing that the beginner should accept as a fact in connection with the “Bent Press” is that everyone can do it, if only the job is tackled in the right way. I mention this because I know that quite a number of people-otherwise good lifters among them-believe that it is a feat which can only be successfully accomplished by certain individuals who have been singularly blessed by Nature! The idea, though so common, is quite wrong! There is nothing to stop any man who has the full use of his four limbs learning this lift and eventually becoming good on it. That is, providing that he does not, at the commencement, attempt to rush matters.
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