How did George Hackenschmidt get so JACKED?
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- čas přidán 3. 08. 2024
- An exploration of the exercises in the book "The Way To Live" by George Hackenschmidt.
Old School Bodybuilding playlist: • Old School Bodybuilding
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Intro
02:39 - Bodyweight exercises
03:15 - Neck exercises
05:00 - Shoulder, arm and chest exercises
11:10 - Abdominal, back and hip exercises
12:18 - Leg exercises
14:33 - Takeaways and conclusion
If you enjoy what I do here, please consider supporting my research on Patreon: www.patreon.com/NattyLife
Just found the channel! Definitely going to check out more!
and not forget.....these Man had more Power than anybody else from todays Exerciser...they had enormous Strength............hard to find nowadays..............
I see your rocking a Untamed Strength shirt. Love to see it!
Instead of doing neck curls with the band around your head bite it with your teeth. Better resistance and good for the jaw. Im up to 50 pounds now,neck is jacked.
Meat eaters, average, hands, long ==🤜, 10 minutes, average. 🥵💩🦠🍖🥩🍳🔴.... That is animals and their secretions 😮😵🥩🥓🍗🍖🍳🧀🍣... 51% death rate. Peer reviewed science 🧬, an actual pictures.
Vegetarian, average, hands, long ==🤜, 64 minutes, average. ✅❤️🥳. Scientific fact. 110 years ago !!!! 1896 !!!!
czcams.com/video/aog5kWeIu9o/video.html
Yeast is B12. Teaspoon 500% !!!!! And it’s natural 🦠 (hint hint 🥖🍞B12 ). Or marmite teaspoonful 480% !!!!! Duckweed B12 500% teaspoon !!!...
I would prefer the physique of a bronze era bodybuilder over that of a mass monster any day.
Except Jay Cutler, he's a beauty
Today it's all about who can look the most like a freak
And so wouldn't most women it seems.
💯💯💯
what is the bronze era?
Let's not overlook the fact he also looked absolutely killer in a suit. I might have to get that book.
Came in to say this.
yes!! im gunna get that book. that look in the suit is badass
Jackenschmidt
I just ordered it buy now from amazon lol. Dude was 5'9 100 kilos and makes me look small at 6'1 20 stone
@@mikehannigan848seriously tho an absolute unit
The most impressive thing is that he built that physique without headphones.
or a "smart phone"
Or Gym Shark gear and Creatine.
Bro was listing to nature
@@michaelwittmann5754 and it told him to lift
@@ghostsmoke11Nature is wise 🙂
What impressed me the most is how well-spoken and smart his writing was, he clearly wasn't a "meat-head" but a learned athlete and intellectual which I think more gym-bros should strive to be.
grow from gym bro to gymnasium brother
Hackenscchmidt was highly educated, he spoke 7 languages fluently IIRC. Definitely a man to admire for both his mind and body.
@@leiladekwatro3147 😂😂😂
Yes, I thought the same too. He seems so eloquent in his descriptions.
Most people were in those days. Not like now.
Hackenschmidt must have had the most insane stabilizers. It's absolutely insane, doing a leg press by balancing the bar on your feet. No wonder this guy was a top level wrestler.
Used to be pretty common. It's even in the old York barbell courses. Once the weight is enough that it sinks into your foot a bit it's not super hard to keep it there. It is still a bit wonky though.
VERY GOOD OBSERVATION.... big muscles dont translate into fighting strength, this dude was unique
@@zibtihaj3213 they do, if you train for that discipline. Strength training is required to be stronger, specific training is then required to use that strength to power finer movements. It's not that fucking hard, stop coping because you are small and weak. Skill won't make you beat a 100 pound lean mass advantage on somebody that has a mild idea of what you plan on doing. Your efforts will just slam into a wall and your margin of error is infinitesimal. There's a reason herbivores evolve to be fucking massive, size and strength advantage tend to make you unassailable from smaller specimens.
@@RagingRugbyst First you are completely misinterpretation what I said... second I am anything but weak... and lastly you have so many holes in what you said, I dont know where to start. Anyway peace !
@@zibtihaj3213 think what you will, you haven't made anything to be any less wrong in my eyes.
How people are saying these guys are small/unimpressive is beyond me. They look jacked af and 99% of the population would be beyond happy if they had a physique like those.
It's because the roided freak physique is becoming the standard
It’s called body dysmorphia
@Oi yea
😘😘😘
@@willbournerv2259 yea I absolutely abhor the freakishly massive roided bods
The shredded muscular build is just seems so much more desirable and an all around art form to me
HackenChad in 1908: *understands progressive overload*
Gym bros 120 years later: E G O L I F T
That's why they need steroids to achieve a physique that's even close to Hackeschmidt...
@@vornamenachname989thats very false. Where did you even come up with that?
@@mrnorthz9373
That's very true, where did you even come up with the idea that it's false?
@@theunicornbay4286 because there are literally thousands of natty people with hackenschmidts physique
Fuck...
Can we acknowledge the fact that "Hack" built that physique without steroids and obviously was doing something right in that he lived just short of one hundred years, no modern "advanced" bodybuilders, strength competitors, or fitness stars are coming close to that these days.
Just an opinion!
By the way, love your channel and what your doing with your videos.
Right...also no protein shakes, no creatine supplements, no pre workout cocktails(even natty), no HMB etc.
Arnold is a good example he's still going
@@sageforce9306 Arnold took steroids and early protein shakes(that apparently were awful to taste).
@@mattm7798 He also lived in an era where most foods weren't full of carcinogens, plastics, artifical enhancers and other poison.
@@theta_clips That is also true...on the flip side, food safety wasn't as controlled and our knowledge about nutrition was much less
I learned in his book that today men are taught to shovel as much food in their mouths as possible and lift for two hours a day to get big and strong. Hackenshmidt and his colleague Arthur Saxon had a completely different idealogy. They taught that looking after every aspect of mental and physical health made you better and stronger. He emphasized not only sleeping well, but taking care of your own skin by not wearing tight clothes, exposing your skin to the sun everyday for a given time, keeping your bed chambers clean because you spend most of your life in there, and much more things that are never brought up when trying to get physically strong. Simply fascinating
Yeah, sounds like it was a very holistic and balanced approach, which I like/respect.
Yeah sounds awesome - total
Health and discipline
What's so bad about wearing tight clothes? Not that I wear it. I find it very uncomfortable. However, I do wear tight clothing when it gets cold in the winters here in Canada
It's a proven fact that exposure to sunlight increases testosterone. Best if you can do it naked but not easy in the modern world
@@clos6613 i guess because it could be bad for blood circulation, or because it doesn't let the skin ""breathe""
Hackenschmidt’s advice about not expecting too much from light weight, high repetition training, is a not so subtle dig at Sandow’s light dumbell system, which was popular at the time.
But many of those are light and with 20 reps. That's a lot
@@alexandrebeaudry1038 they are light to start and many of the exercises are not as easy as they might seem. One can and should progress quickly to a weight which is challenging.
Meanwhile I think Sandow's light dumbbell system was something like 5lb for most exercises. A bit funny considering Sandow clearly built his own physique by lifting very heavy.
@@alexandrebeaudry1038 Sandows light dumbell method was just a system to sell his range of spring dumbells. An early example of effective fitness marketing!! I believe there were three dumbells in the range. One for children, another for women and the massive 5lb bells for the men.
Sandow was a turd. Hack and Saxon were the real deal
@@squirrellsquats8428Massive Lmaoooooo
I remember reading he was refused induction into the army, because the doctors thought he was so muscular, there had to be something wrong with him.
Average draft dodger vs committed draft overqualifier
@@xenn4985 lol
@@xenn4985 nice comment bro,made me smile!Have a nice day:)
@@xenn4985 people offed themselves in WWII when they were told they were not medically fit to serve.... The shame was overwhelming and people questioned why able bodied men with the use of their legs were not fighting the Nazis or the Imperial Japanese....
@@dragonchr15 ...okay?
WTF who says these old school guys were small? They were huge given they didnt have multiple gyms to choose from, a GNC around the corner, educational material at all to tell them how to get big, etc. This is insane. They had to have basically trained in a super natural way and guess as to what nutrition to go towards, how to train and everything. Amazing to me that they did any of this.
Bro it is by no meanings so insane. Humans were all strong back then because all works since we hunted included physicality. Have you even meet a farmer? And I mean a farmer that makes everything himself. Before industralization the common Joe had to be strong.
Hackenshmidt is such an inspiration to me, he was massive, he was freakishly strong for the time period, he invented staple exercises , the bench press and the hack squat, and an original philosopher of training.
Their bodies are impressive as fuck, because body building wasn't advanced, there were too many misconceptions, about training, food and lifestyle. My father in 70's was 5''6 190 pounds, pure muscle, fast and strong. I read the book by which he was training. There was way too many things, that should prevent you from building muscle. The biggest one was, that you should intake not more, than 1-1.5 liter of LIQUID a day. (Not just water, all the liquid -coffee, tea, soup etc.)
Of course now we know, how dangerous and extremely bad for muscles that is, since dehydrate body takes water from muscles.
For the time period?
Mfer was all time strong
idk back then men had more testosterone I'd say there were more strong men back then then there are now. But the asthetic potential is higher due to advancements in peds and bodybuilding science
@@JR-tg1lz I agree with that, people back then, had a higher potential. Because of better food, less plastic, cleaner water, air. On top of that in 50's - 60's, they didn't spend time indoors, all they were doing was outdoor sports and a lot of them started doing hard labour at age of 14, which helped gain good body foundation. I guess that's why my fathers skeleton is two times bigger, than average 25 year old.
@@AM-dl7otMost of that is true; however, good food was way more difficult to get, and was more expensive comparatively. You couldn’t easily stuff your face with protein rich food back then, like you can today.
This is probably my favorite video you've made so far. It was really cool seeing all those movements that nobody does anymore
Thank you bro!
atlaspowershrugged does many of these to great effect and with some big weights - look him up. hes a jacked natural as well
I agree.
the fact that this dude was accurately talking about the differences between strength, endurance, and hypertrophy training *literally over 100 years ago* (!!!) is absolutely mind-boggling, what a legend
strong, huge, intelligent, influential, and lived a long life... hackenschmidt is such an inspiration man
I have been a bodybuilder for 67 years and haven't known some of thouse very interesting exercises.
I'm now 82 still working out.
This is very interesting.
Thanks !
Keep up the good work, buddy! Comments like yours inspire me to keep going to the gym so I can can live a long and healthy life.
George is regarded as one of the greatest and influential wrestler of all time. He was a visionary honestly.
@sean smyth damn
@sean smyth It’s like old time Boxers who fought many rounds in one night
But he ducked the indian champ the great gama which is very slimey for a top wrestler to do! But not only hackendshidmt did that American champ gotch ducked gama too!
He wad the first world champion
@@bobk480hackensmidth was no longer champion when game was in prime, it was frank gotch.
14:10: Bear in mind that in Hackenschmidt's time, the leg press would usually be done while wearing dress shoes with raised heels -- allowing the barbell to be balanced easier on the feet. They also often sat the bar on two chairs & performed the exercise while lying on the floor between them.
Yeah, if he dropped the weight on his head, he'd probably be dead.
Am I the only one that's impressed by the fact he made it to a ripe old age of 90! Did he ever mention his diet?
In the beginning of the vid you can see nutrition was one of the chapters
Staying away from cell phones and radiation emitting towers, eating raw and unprocessed foods, a ton less water/light/air pollution, no modern medications, etc is a good indicator of one's life expectancy. People lived longer back then because of this.
@@a-a-rondavis9438 a ton less water? What do you mean by that…
@@jeffbro1021less water pollution I assume
@@a-a-rondavis9438 I’m sure no modern medications would work excellent for a diabetic or cancer patient
It's not said in the video, but it's worth mentioning that Hackenschmidt is also usually credited as the originator of the bench press. This is probably why he had such a huge chest!
The origin of the bench press seems to be contested between 2-3 other lifters in the 20th century, but Hackenschmidt originated the floor press.
It was popular in his time to do a back bridge on your neck & then press a barbell. Mr Hackenschmidt realised you could press substantially more weight lying flat on the floor.
What I like the most about this is knowing just how inefficient and unpolished a lot of these exercises are, but seeing just how effective they ended up being because of his commitment. You hardly need anything to do these exercises, but you can still get great results if you're just persistent; likewise, seeing how easy it is for us to do more refined movements and use better equipment now, it really shouldn't unthinkable that a guy could get an impressive physique naturally as long as he's consistent.
Absolutely agree. However these guys might not look very massive or really jacked but they found the perfect balance between looking amazing and being healthy. In my opinion I think that this trainingstyle will get more attention by time leading the unhealthy bodybuilding style were having today to die out.
Its hard for NATURAL people to look better than this guys today because there is less testosterone in men nowadays
Inefficiency increases exercise efficacy.
@@youlaughyouphill842 the lower test doesnt make as much of a difference as you think it does. you just need the commitment they had and youll 100% achieve better results due to how much bodybuilding has progressed. just look at the popular natty lifters on youtube like alpha destiny, verity schofield, natural hypertrophy etc.
@@BeGrizzlyStrong yeah, a lot of “efficiency” is lost in today’s “efficient” exercises because they attempt to target a single muscle, ignoring many of the smaller stabilizing muscles
I can’t recommend the book enough. It’s my favorite health and fitness book ever. He even goes into Olympic weightlifting exercises not mentioned in this video.
Wonderful book. I'm a 55 yr old woman & I modify these but do these exercises.
My father lifted weights when he was in his early twenties and had a book by Bob Hoffman on weight training and had pictures of the old-time weight lifters . needless to say, it was inspiring to me as a young boy and set the stage of a lifetime of weight training which a cornucopia of health benefits was derived.
One thing I really like in this video about Hackenschmidt, is the implementation of his exercises. This was before gyms so he got creative and really aimed at isolating the muscles in the muscle groups he wanted to build. Absolutely impressive and it showed why he gained such a physique. He refined his exercises to gain the most potentially useful gains from them. Clearly he was a pioneering genius in bodybuilding
those bronze era guys may be small in todays standards, but i guarantee you p4p they were stronger than many gym bros, especially their tendons
Wouldn’t be surprised if many of them never got seriously injured
@@joshuamcateer255 yeah but the hole in your face would increase vo2 max so it's all good!
@@joshuamcateer255 if the wheels are big enough, as long as you dodge the plates, you won't get a bar to the face. and you could also dig a small hole and leg press out of that if you wanted to have an at-home set up
@@Itstime1231 or just order a coffin and be done with it :D
@@Itstime1231 Haha, "dig a hole for a home setup" 😂 Ima start digging a hole to my floor right now!
They were also 100% Natural.
After the 1930s, most of the Body Builders were on Gear.
So glad to see this vid. I started my fitness journey 50yrs ago and have stuck with it. I noticed in my 30's the new generations coming up were leaving the grassroots and wanting their 15sec of fame trying to "pioneer" new things, but there is "no new thing under the sun" want to start out with isolated movements instead of spending the first year doing tried and true compound exercises looking for short cuts. I used to explain it to my students this way, "when building a house you don't build the roof first you build a good strong foundation first", hence you start building your own foundation with compound movements.
Did some of these exercises when I started lifting in the 60’s as Hack, was still living and still of legendary strength. The floor presses were painful at bottom, the leg presse (obviously) quite dangerous as were "thumbless" bench presses. Look closer at foot position in diagrams; split clean and "splot" (feet out) in some cases. I vaguely remember a pic of him "floor pressing" well over 400 in his 80’s I think. Thanks for reminding me of those painful hack squats . Lol
He was definitely crazy strong even as he got old. A great example of the sort of longevity natural lifters get to enjoy. Thank you for sharing!
I think the main reason he was so big is due to the fact in every single exercise he did, or at least as was portrayed in this video, he had to seriously stabilize his entire body which means more muscle gets involved during any one lift than might otherwise happen with more modern training methods and equiptment. Picture a dip vs a tricep extension for instance or a pull/chinup vs a dumbbell/barbell curl. Hell, just doing a kettlebell front hold into a squat is one helluva of shoulder, core and leg workout that fries stability muscles.
A big reason why calisthenics and compounds work are so important for all round muscle development
@@davecom3 I combine calisthenics and weightlifting
Power lifts don't get you huge. I started putting on muscle at a (relative to before) incredible rate when I included more isolation exercises
@@davecom3
Still no match for farmers and their insane strength. Dudes can’t carry barrels for their life
@@L4TheSuicideGod um wrong
What a lot of people don’t understand is bronze era also trained for strength much more than mass. This means a LOT more.
How tf do some ppl hate on these old era bodybuilders bruh they looked the way they looked without taking enhancers tht deserves mad respect cause compared to a normal male physique who doesn't train tht is pretty big
Having been studying and using old time training methods and lifts for a good while now, its really amazing to see more and more people getting intereseted in this stuff. It's all part of the NATTY RENAISSANCE
primals like liver king
@@user-zw7qe1ex3c liver king is a quack. A fake natty and a scammer. These guys ate their veggies
I'm really enjoying all of your oldschool bodybuilding videos. You're doing a great job, please keep going :)
This is awesome, we should all enjoy and try new things, or old. Have fun with what you do. I would have never heard of this guy without you, so Ty.
Thank you for researching & sharing history of past bodybuilders.
Thank you for stopping by!
"The Hackenschmidt give me strength" made me laugh pretty hard. That leg press was terrifying lol
Thanks for posting and showing.
Very informative. Much appreciated.
Great format!! showing the print, the demonstration, and the explanation 👍👍
In comparison between these exercises and modern machine equivalents, I believe you are missing one important distinction. Hackenschmidt's exercises have a very large stability component to them. Modern machinery takes all that stability work away essentially holding the weight in the range of motion for you.
From my own experience, stability challenges greatly increase overall intensity of any given exercise. Looking at these exercises, I couldn't help but compare them to basic gymnastics moves. The more I look the more I am convinced that gymnastics is probably the inspiration for much of these exercises, just tweaked so that they can be externally loaded.
Try this for yourself. Try doing a weighted barbell lung. then try doing that same weight in a lateral lung. The difference is astonishing.
Stability is actually better for muscle growth than instability.
Machines are actually superior for muscle growth if you use them properly.
The instability makes it harder to reach the minimum viable stimulus.
Still it's good to do the unstable exercises for the motor skills.
@@Arkhs From the point of view of pure targeted muscle fiber exhaustion, this is true. However, exhaustion and intensity are two very different things.
Contractile strength is much higher in unstable situations than in stabilized. The reason why machines have been developed to stabilize the joints is so that bodybuilders can preserve more of their endurance for intensity leaving them with more work volume in reserve to specifically target other muscle fibers.
This leads to very complex exercise programs that bodybuilders are famous for . Strength athletes have no business touching such overly complex programs and should focus more on stability challenging exercises.
What works best for size is arguable, as isolation heavy bodybuilding workouts were specifically designed to take advantage of the benefits steroids provide. Intensity is far more beneficial to a natural lifter.
You’re actually dead on! 👍
@@joeldoxtator9804 Volume is the primary driver of hypertrophy regardless of steroid use. Utilizing rep ranges of between ~6-30 taken to muscular failure (or just short of it). I used to think the primary driver was frequency but high training frequency is what allows the higher volume. Which is especially true for natural athletes. Minimum 10 working sets/wk and up to 20/25 sets. This is the answer according to modern science.
@@ohurley11 volume over the week does not equate to volume over the same workout or even volume over the same exercise. We are talking about vastly different training stimulus.
What a beast he must have been. This Leg Press is just wild even to look at
As an experienced bodybuilder of 10 yrs that shit looks so intimidating
@@prospectorbonky Need a spotter, or even two.
@@prospectorbonky
looks reasonably safe to do with shoes with a well defined heel. No flat shoes.
@@Exgrmbl yeah, I agree. More than likely what one might've worn to the gym at the time.
These bronze era guys had great natural physiques. Great content, it's good to see someone making good natural body building content in this era of instagram and steroids
Bravo✌️il più bel video sullo sport di forza mai visto,mi ha letteralmente gasato 💪💪
Grazie amico
No way I'm doing that leg press, lol. Absolute madmen in the Bronze Age!
Your vids have a chill vibe always nice to watch. Keep up the great work💪
Thank you brother
Wow. What a great video and demonstrations.
Great video; it helps a lot seeing you do the exercises rather than just the pictures in the book.
Truly a pioneer of modern strength
I've been training 45 years. We did a lot of these exercises back when I started, when there weren't a lot of machines to distract us.
We did things like Zottman curls as well which almost Nobody does today.
Thanks brother 🙏🙏🙏💯
This is what I've been looking for.
Loved the video! Never even thought about the beginnings off bodybuilding, I just trained and ignored the mass monsters... Subscribed and will check all your videos, this is great!
This was a real bodybuilding athlete, totally overlooked today. The bronze era bodybuilders are favourites of mine up to the era of Frank Zane after which bodybuilding today represents something totally different.
Frank Zane used roids
Best video you’ve made so far ! More on Hackenschmidt please !
One of the best videos on that topic. Kudos!
I´ve also spent some time experimenting with old-timey techniques; some are surprisingly effective, if often mechanically difficult, while others are just impractical or simply unsound. The idea of repeat sets seems to have eluded many of them, with sometimes insane (100-120) rep limits per single set. Hackenschmidt´s techniques seem like the closest to today´s protocols, but you can still see the primitive understanding of body mechanics that underpinned many of the exercises.
yep some didn;'t use multi sets or series as they where called back then
I wish we would all still dress like this. So much class back in the day
This guy is an absolute legend and was an absolute unit. I'm glad you actually made a video about him, I think he was one of the first to actually spread how to get big from a bodybuilding standpoint.
I’m pretty new to the channel, and while I have forgotten a lot of my strength exercises, I must say this video is totally fascinating. Thank you for clearly demonstrating what was shown in the book. I would love to see more like this.
Welcome! And thank you for your support
Thanks for summarizing this!
I'm old school.
57 years old, about 203lbs, lean. I did a lot of research into Jack Lalaine, Vince Gironda, Steve Reeves, I have most of their material... but, I've never heard of George until now. Just found a copy of the book, ordered.
It will prove useful as I bulk to 217lbs over the next few months...
Thank you for sharing😊
7 years lifetime natty here, and I absolutely love the old school nattys. You earned a sub with this vid.
Wasn't a choice back then.
@@hnglmccrnglbrry1637 yes that's why it's so impressive. Achieving bodies like these back then demanded the utmost dedication and perseverance.💪👌
@@bane4318 the proportions were spot on, perfect.
Probably the #1 thing that people ignore about the bodybuilders of yesteryear: Flexibility.
Some of these moves in the video really cannot be performed properly if you have stiff hamstrings for example.
And I bet bunch of modern bodybuilding exercises have systematically gotten rid of the moves that are super good, but require flexibility.
No school like old school. Thank you very much for posting this.
This channel is a goldmine. Especially in a time like this when PEDs seem to become the new norm. And with the amount of young people around to be influenced. Thank you.
I've also read the book, he emphasized specially on running as well
Franco Columbu talks of the effectiveness of running also
Frank Zane also said that the year he added running to his program, was the year his legs got bigger and stronger than ever.
Love your videos man, tanks
Thank you brother
Thanks for your effort, I really enjoy your channel!
Enjoying the series!!
8:17 is a barbell, just shown from a side angle. Works your forearm stabilizers as well as your pressing muscles.
Imagine he had todays nutrition, equipment, and knowledge, no one would believe he was natty.
Lol what nutrition? What knowledge? Doing 8-12 reps? Doing a 5 day Split? Yeah truly an invention of rocket scientists. And what equipment? Bro we have ALL the knowledge and technology right at our fingertipps and still 99,999% of all gym rats look like they have never even touched weights in their life. Wake up please.
Todays nutrition is pure trash, most of our food has 1/10th the nutrient density of the food back then, thanks to modern agriculture and food processing, not to mention massive drop in avg test levels of men from then to now. So without roids, he would probably be weaker and smaller today.
To much info is like paralysis by analyasis
Yes but he won't have the same testosterone levels since it's been dropping yearly
@Pharaoh Yx stop with that nonsense that's what you fed to believe in giving up and not pushing yourself and asking for trt off your doctor when you barley out your teens
Dude your channel is insightful coming from a former competitive power lifter here. Keep up the great work brother!
I learned about Hackenschmidt (and Hack squats) from knees over toes. Nice to hear someone else talk about him and get even more info. Thanks!
good idea to demonstrate the exercises it makes the video way more entertaining.
"Hackenschmidt, give me strength!" - made me laugh and made my day. Top vid, bro.
Your videos are THE BEST!
definitely implementing more shoulder work in my routine now, didnt notice how little i do until now
I started lifting weights in 1982 and most of those exercises where still in use. In fact I did leg presses that exact same way. It was not common to see a power rack or squat rack in every gym and almost no one owned one at home. You either did leg presses like that or you did the Jefferson Squat, Hack Squat, clean and front squat or clean press and back squat or you had to have fantastic collars and lever the bar into position on your back! So you seldom could do enough weight on squat to truly challenge your legs like you can today.
Now by 1986 I was old enough that I could go to the gym if my mom or dad signed me in and that was a entirely new world. They had Nautilus machines, heavy duty bench's, Universal Machines, Power Racks, Squat Racks even industrial treadmill. Mind you this was at an Army Field House the treadmills where $15,000 each and they only had 2 in a gym the size of 2 Super Walmarts.
Some of the earliest Universal Gym's did not have a leg press station you put your feet on the inward facing rooler handle of the bench press station. This is when the bench press handles went inwards before they switched them to outward and added a leg press station.
I lived through the development and multiple generations of Nautalis, Cybex, Hammer Strength, Atlas, and many more. The weight rooms looked like dungeons full of chalk and the machine rooms looked like Car Dealership with plants and no chalk at all!
U deserve more than 2 likes
Excellent video! I enjoyed it very much. Thanks for Old School Muscle 💪 History Class!!
Great documentary, thank you !
Great video sir. I am a New York city police officer, and it has to be said, you have to stay in shape. Keep on working on you and everything will be ok. My job puts me in very high stress situations. Love to see that the old school method of training still reflect a great emphasis on progressive overload!!
a tip about neck exercises: it is not advised by chripractors to do full 360 rotations, instead, rotate one way until your head is almost fully leaning back, but still a little to the side, and then reverse and go the other way, so you will be doing about 340 degree rotations. rotating over completely in the back is bad for your neck vertebrae. it can cause issues especially if you already have tense muscles from stress or bad posture, or low amounts of cartilege in between the vertebrae.
also, a criminally underrated exercise for gaining around the neck is swimming. i picked up swimming a few days a week a few years ago. after a year my neck was as big as my head. and i have a big head.
oh and PS: your situps look awful. use a counterweight on your legs, keep your back straight and keep tension on the abdomen, you will get back issues doing it like this and youre not using your abs at all
Really loved his emphasis on training the neck. It’s definitely one of the most overlooked muscle by most people. Nonetheless, it’s one of the most important to look massive. It’s also amazing to see how much importance he gave to the neck and other muscles that contribute to the yoked look. I appreciate Alex for popularizing neck training on CZcams. Awesome work! I’m enjoying these videos so much. This video really motivated me to start training my neck again seriously. 💪
Really great video thank you
Dude was an absolute unit
This man’s physique would be impressive today imagine seeing a guy like that back then
That old school playlist is the best idea ever !
This was fascinating, thank you!
The crazy part is how functional his muscles would be in general. His body could maintain hard labor for an extended period of time from what i'm seeing.
people who say bronze age body builders look small are the same people who say "6'0ft is average height" and "8 inches is small"
Great video
Amazing the body you can achieve or come close to with these exercises that stabilize the entire body.
Thanks man!! This seems VERY Interesting & Informative!
I bought this dudes book after seeing this video. I used to be a wrestler and am now a sumo wrestler. These exercises in my opinion are even more versatile because they don't require machines, just free weights.
I have never trained in a gym, I prefer just having a barbell and Olympic plates at home. The behind the back exercise especially I could feel the power in it from the picture, because it's hard to hold a barbell with a grip like that, and he is doing the tom platz esque deep sissy squat.
As a fellow wrestler I feel it's my duty to try this workout. Just doing the neck stuff felt amazing, my neck is super fucked from headbutting people in sumo and I could feel some of the stiffness getting broken up, I already try to stretch my neck as much as possible but the working against your hands helped immensely. I also can tell I'd benefit from the classic neck bridge press. That's one that the Japanese wrestlers live by, probably another thing brought over by Karl gotch.
Love your vids keep making more ✨
Thank you bro!
Amazing video man of a true pioneer of the strength training game
as someone who's had a fascination with grapplers at the turn of the century, Hackenschmidt has always stood out. thank you for your work. i know you're interest in him is for different reasons but i love that a man like this can stand the test of time
It's true about the supinated overhead press because I train it specifically, even while I don't ever lock out my elbows, and I do it for a few reasons but it definitely makes certain things in life a lot easier, especially when you were working with things above your midsection, you definitely want to overload the supination aspect long before you pronate to avoid shoulder injuries. Anybody that has shoulder pains even when putting dishes away in the cupboard can benefit from supinated pressing through the lats shoulders and biceps
I started learning more and more about nutrition. And the more you learn, the more you find yourself being pulled back to this time period. Society was very nutrition conscious back then and knew very well how it translated to good health and longevity. They kept it smart and simple. It seemed with the depression and massive wars that would arise that food companies and medicines started to dig their heels in and complicated things. I follow principles of nutrition and weight training from this era often. Smart, sharp people who don’t get the respect they deserve I say.
Good videos. You come across as a really nice guy. Your English is concise and very well presented. These old school videos are very entertaining.
From what I’ve seen on your videos there all champion body builders plus to be honest I’m totally blown away at the science of body builders back in those days totally professional and commitment to there craft. These ladies and gentlemen were way ahead of there time! Love your videos thank you 😊
Thank you very much for your support!
Question is, are these commentators that said all bronze era bodybuilders are tiny any better than they’re in appearance ?
Dude, that leg press! 😆