Learning from the Legendary Eugen Sandow The 1897 (or 1899) cover of Strength and How to Obtain It. (courtesy Wikimedia) For some reason, over the last few days I have thought a lot about some of the old-time, turn-of-the-century strongmen. I have written about some of them more than a time or two on this blog, men such as—in addition to Sandow—George Hackenschmidt, Louis Cyr, Arthur Saxon, and Hermann Goerner, to name a few. If I’m honest, Hackenschmidt is probably my favorite. He was not only one of the greatest strongmen and wrestlers this world has seen, but he was a prolific writer, could speak seven different languages, and developed a systematic philosophy of mind. He was, in a word, a very cultured man. (I will save Hackenschmidt for a much longer essay.) But so was Sandow, and most of the other strongmen of that era, for that matter, as you may notice if you continue to read. I thought it would be good to do a semi-regular series on the above men (and, prob
Essays on Old-School Strength Training, Classic Bodybuilding, Traditional Martial Arts, and Budo Philosophy