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. ...
Essays on Old-School Strength Training, Classic Bodybuilding, Traditional Martial Arts, and Budo Philosophy