Old Books and Barbells
As long as I can remember I have always loved books. Everything about a real
book evokes memories of the happiest times in my life. I love the feel, sight,
sound and smell of books old and new. Books were always a refuge for me and a
ticket to dreamland. Allowing me to travel the world without leaving my bed and
being able to hold conversations with each and every famous person dead or
alive. Books are a delight. Of double delight are books and barbells.
The very first book I ever saw relating to strength was William Blaikies How to Get Strong and How to Stay So.. for me a child, a dull, uninteresting and ancient tome. The only thing outstanding was seeing what must be some of, if not the first ‘before and after’ photos published.
The first real book of genuine influence upon me came by sheer serendipity. A skinnier than average kid at school, a fellow pupil brought into class a first edition of Earle Liederman’s Secrets of Strength. Apparently his grandfather had taken the Liederman mail order course, and also bought the book, along with another. Muscle Building. These were two fine hard bound and superbly illustrated volumes describing and showing just how it was actually possible to build muscle. The need was certainly there, now I had the solution. It was sheer magic. The year was 1947 and I still own with pride, these two treasures.
From there, I began subscribing to the English journal Health and Strength
via the British agent John Valentine aka The Michegin Hercules, for the York
magazine Strength and Health, to discover a whole library of books on building
muscles and strength were available. Most from the Hoffman The very first book I
ever saw relating to strength, was William Blaikie’s How to Get Strong and How
library, first volume I purchased being Bob’s lengthy title How To Be Healthy
Happy and Strong. (published circa 1938), slightly smaller but equally well
produced and bound I next obtained Big Arms, Big Chest., Broad Shoulders,
Weightlifting and others. (Published from 1938 onwards) They not only looked
impressive in my book case, but also contained useful information and
inspirational pictures Featured frequently of course in almost all the books was
the legendary John C. Grimek.
Included in the York library was even manuals on sex instruction, so they too
were purchased, never read, but looked nice along with the other similar bound
volumes. On the subject of sex, McFadden almost financed his empire on it, with
his suggestive articles (he wrote himself) in his magazines and books like Vital
Power. Liederman also published a sex manual. Almost all, with male physical
culture in mind offered what is actually quite sound advice, along with
recommendations how to avoid “night losses” and similar energy sapping
practices. What goes round comes around, and McFadden once derided fitness and
healthy eating ideas are now much in vogue and proven. People today may not
appreciate that health and hygiene, even in its basics was comparatively
unknown, and that McFadden and his contemporaries did a great practical service
to the lay man (and women) often in ignorance of such matters..
By now a fully smitten collector, other magazines showed me more books worthy
of my attention. From a fellow enthusiast, I managed to purchase all of the old
Mark Berry books. Including the two volumes of Physical Improvement, plus Your
Physique and Its Culture. And Jowett’s Key To Might and Muscle along with
Calvert’s Secrets of Strength. These were then and still are classics for any
serious collector. Interestingly years later, Grimek told me personally that
Berry’s books did not at the period sell so well because they appeared to be”
too technical”. But their photo content , is simply amazing and has to be seen.
Again Grimek featured along many rare photos of far older strength athletes,
e.g. Sandow, Inch, Saxon, Hackenschmidt et al.
On the English market, I continued to collect all and anything written by
Thomas Inch, W.A. Pullum, e.g. How to Use a Barbell , published 1925,
Weightlifting Made Easy and Interesting. Published 1922 , which title amused me,
as I always found weight lifting interesting, but never easy. Plus The Amazing
Samson and Strongmen I have known. 1925 (features as it says many strong men,
but especially illuminating about Samson or Alexander Sass.with his isometric
exercises, bending iron bars and spikes the forerunner to many copy cat courses
) Hackenschmidt, an intellect. was a prolific writer, and his deluxe version of
The Way To Live, soon joined my growing library Along the way, Sandow’s various
publications were purchased, from his Basic Strength and How To Obtain it.
A tome, which like many others of his era, didn’t exactly tell the reader anything other than to take up the Sandow instruction or one of many courses. This habit of not really coming up with the goods, was a common ploy of many a strongman publications, with them being merely adverts for mail order courses, or apparatus, or perhaps if you bought more of their pamphlets, you would then be given the “Secrets” of building muscle size and power. To his ( well Mercer Adam’s) Sandows System of Physical Culture. A great book.. Some publications I sought. And bought. were found to be quite disappointing when I obtained them, hardly living up to the title. It’s a fact that modern books are much better value and offer real instruction, unlike the early attempts , which will produce positive results in health and vitality.
Always adding to my collection, I acquired Jowetts little gems , the How To Mould Mighty, Arms, Chest, Grip etc. Also found Maxick’s Muscle Control, a genuine bargain and practical book for those who wish to obtain this fine art, along with his misnomer Great Strength By Muscle Control, which is in fact a book about weight lifting, and merely mentions the fact as an after thought that Maxick found muscle control a great method of relaxing his muscles and adding tone. Sandow, too often suggested he obtained his muscles via easier methods, and that his weightlifting was just a “demonstration” of that power. Other mail order merchants can be considered similarly guilty of promoting the wrong information re the real attainment of strength.
True information was given in the Pullum and Inch publications, with Pullum devising special exercises to build strength, i.e.. Assistance exercises. Inch called his training moves with weights, “miniature weightlifting”. The Pullum books listed and explained in detail the many, many disciplines and lifts with weights along with suggested targets, encouragement by way of medals and certificates.
Later the York/Hoffman book Weightlifting did almost exactly the same. As the Olympic lifts became more sophisticated, real skills and techniques could be learnt from the fine instructional manuals produced by David Webster (still obtainable from the Milo book store). David also wrote some of the finest of reference books for those wishing to study the history of our chosen sport, e.g.. The Iron Game, and later his Sons of Samson volumes. Recommended if you wish to discover the roots of the game, and written in a style both entertaining and educational.. For those who love legends of strength, few could beat Jowett, and we would add The Strongest Man Who Ever Lived Louis Cyr to our list of must have material. With so much history, records are a must and David Willoughby won his place in the Iron Games Hall of Fame with his unique and exhaustive works, of many in depth articles and his super tome Super Athletes.
If I only had one book to choose, that would be it. What I do wonder, is what
Willoughby would have thought of some of the measurements and poundages modern
strength athletes have achieved. Willoughby had a complicated formulae for what
he believed would have been the limits of human strength, size and achievements,
all now surpassed far beyond his and many others expectations. Books help you
keep pace with the past and allow you to compare with now, and perhaps even
suggest possibilities in the future. There are also many books to choose to help
assist your progress in the more specialized sport of power lifting ,with
Randall J. Strossen’s Super Squats heading the list. The Iron Mind catalogue
carries a section “Feed your Head” listing the availability of dozens of the
best books published on strength and power training, along with its history and
can be recommended with confidence.
Super Athletes was certainly one of the biggest of books, in its time, only
matched by McFaddens Encyclopedia of Physical Culture five volume set (another
disappointment) when along comes Bill Pearl with Keys To The Universe., a book
so large, and weighty it can be used as a dumbell, and so exhaustive in its
explanation of exercise variations, that no other book could possible be
required for those wishing to find alternative training moves..Bill followed
this classic with his far more readable Beyond The Universe which gives a human
insight into the strange world of the weight trainer. Soon to follow, if size is
your bench mark, the Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
helped along famously by the earlier ground breaking book of 1974 by Charles
Gaines and George Butler, i.e. Pumping Iron. Later far improved on in my view by
Muscle Mags Encyclopedia the Ultimate A to Z book of bodybuilding. From the
Bob Kennedy publishers, with Bob himself being one of the most prolific of
authors of modern bodybuilding, each and every book consistently good value Even
more personal gossip style books are now published, examples being Brother Iron
Sister Steel by David Draper or West Coast Bodybuilding Scene by Dick Tyler.
Strangely enough few real works of pure fiction have been published on
bodybuilding or weightlifting, despite its potential, certainly the sport has
more than its share of characters
This brief article can in no way be a bibliography of muscle building books, that would be impossible, nor do I know of such a listing other in magazines possibly like Iron Game History, or the fine effort of grip champion David Horne, who published a partial list of books up until circa 1950s .I tried listing magazines once, and gave up in exhaustion. And would welcome someone else taking up the challenge of listing all such books of interest to us old iron users. Hopefully this article will encourage you to add to your own library, sure I am aware of videos, cd's and such like modern ‘advances’ in education, but for me nothing will ever beat a real BOOK. Apologies for the lack of chronological listings. As with my library, my mind is just a little untidy, but that’s the way I like it...
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