Early on in the life of the Mighty Atom he was a very sickly child. He ended up running away to join the circus and was tutored by the strongman and wrestler Volanko. ***** As Volanko finished with his morning regimen and headed back toward the wagon, Yosselle nestled under …
When Apollon Became Angry by George F. Jowett
The following is an article by George Jowett, the author of The Key to Might and Muscle, that was originally published in Klein’s Bell. Pierre Bonnes, the great French strength athlete and professor of physical culture, the man whom every professional strongman met with a tremor in his heart! To …
Pyotr Kryloff
Pyotr Kryloff was a strongman, wrestler and athlete who lived from 1871 to 1933. He was best known as The King of Kettlebells, performing incredible feats of strength using kettlebells on a circus stage. Pyotr (also known as Pierre) was born in Moscow and his father was an avid fan …
Tromp Van Diggelen
Tromp Van Diggelen was a strongman, author and teacher born in 1885 who endured a sickly childhood like many old-time strongmen. He actually almost died three times as a child, from pleurisy, pneumonia and bronchitis. However, his mother was determined to have a healthy kid and she decided to set …
Adrian Peter Schmidt
Adrian Peter Schmidt was a physical culturist and strongman born in 1872 in France. Unlike many oldtime strongmen who had great genetic predispositions and health, Schmidt wasn’t so lucky genetic-wise and he also contracted typhoid fever at the age of 15. This combination left him very slim, but he still …
Clevio Massimo
Antonio Clevio Massimo Sabatino was a strongman performer better known as Clevio Massimo on the stage. He was born in 1895 in Italy with good genes, since his father and two uncles were quite large men, known as “the three giants”. Antonio grew up in Buffalo, NY where his family …
Ottley Coulter
Ottley Coulter was born in 1890 as the smallest male in a large family of big men, but through persistent training and good diet he managed to reach the highest strength level of them all. He is one of the few circus performers who had at least some kind of higher education, …
Otto Arco
Otto Arco (real name Otto Nowosielsky) was a Polish strongman and wrestling champion. He was born in 1881 and 22 years later he won the Austrian wrestling title, despite the fact he was only 5’2. He was considered to be the best wrestler in the world, pound for pound. Otto …
Bernarr Macfadden
Bernarr Macfadden (1868 – 1955) was a famous physical culturist and an advocate of natural food, natural treatment of diseases as well as physical fitness & outdoor exercise. Unlike conventional wisdom, Macfadden proposed a diet high in vegetables and fruit and low in meat and was a big fan of …
Eugen Sandow
Eugen Sandow, the man who started it all and the father of modern bodybuilding. His real name was Friedrich Wilhelm Müller, but he took his stage name for two reasons – 1) it was a custom to do so as a stage performer and 2) he left Prussia to avoid …
Study and Grow Strong?
Did you know that the more you study a sport (in our case weightlifting and exercise) the better you’ll be? According to Dr. Judd Biasiotta in his book 2001 A Sports Odyssey: “Research in the field of psychomotor development consistently revealed that the more information afforded an athlete about physiological, …
Three Person Hand Balancing at the Beach
There’s just something about old hand balancing pictures that I really enjoy. Maybe its hearkening back to a time when physical culture was simpler (…when everything was simpler.) When you see a group of guys and gals doing some hand to hand balancing you know that they were having a …
Kettlebell Juggling Interview
I’ll cut straight to the chase. This Wednesday I’m being interviewed by Geoff Neupert on one of my favorite topics, kettlebell juggling. I won’t hold anything back. And you can even submit your questions for the call. It’ll be a great time. Go to the Kettlebell Interrogations page and sign …
Sig Klein on Handstand Presses
Klein trained in a very precise, scientific fashion. He reminded Jim of an Old World Of all his exercises, Klein’s Handstand press-ups were the most remarkable. Jim had never seen anything like it. Klein performed the exercise on an old piano bench. He began placing his hands in the center …
Handstand, Tumbling and Athleticism
Wanted to start off today’s message with a powerful comment from a subscriber. Logan, Your website is absolutely fantastic and it has helped me learn a whole new approach to physical-culture training. Over the last few months, I have incorporated handstand push-ups and some elementary handstand training into my weightlifting …