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I commenced physical culture, as it was then
known, when still at high school, tall and skinny, and on post-war
rations. My first introduction to the magic of muscle building was via
Earle Liederman’s classic tomes – SECRETS OF STRENGTH and MUSCLE
BUILDING.
Next step on the magic road to muscle was Charles Atlas’ course, obtained via swops of less serious reading material. I followed Atlas’ (or was it Doc Tilney’s?) instructions word for word, down to the “chewing” of milk and bathing my testes in cold water (quickly before my mother discovered and questioned my motives). The pressups and free squats worked wonders, finding out unknown muscles and actually making my pectorals, triceps and quads swell with inflated tissue. The milk drinking (then much in favor with the real bodybuilders over in the USA) aided weight gain. All of this progress was made without resorting to “dangerous muscle binding weights,” or so the mail order ads warned us.
George Jowett’s booklets followed in the
plan for perfection – those now hard to find HOW TO MOLD A MIGHTY
CHEST, HOW TO MOLD A MIGHTY BACK, etc. The problem was I
was no beginning to try it all out. Night after night, and at
times at school, I was squatting, dipping, doing pressups, serious
self-resistance moves, pumping up my 11” arms, and chinning the bar
(usually a tree branch).
George Jowett - David Gentle's Classic Collection I then purchased HEALTH AND STRENGTH the oldest of all the bodybuilding journals. The first cover man I recall was Hermann Goerner, the giant strongman famed for his deadlifting abilities. His huge biceps and massive chest inspired us even further to strive for power. HEALTH AND STRENGTH, then a small yellow glossy mag, contained many references and ads to “secrets” of gaining big muscles fast and usually we were told “without strain” or indeed too much effort at all. The main thing was to buy the course, and the choice was plentiful.
Plus there were also other lesser known “muscle by mail merchants” By now, around 1950, when I was already a collector, earlier editions of bodybuilding magazines came into my possession, by various means, fair or foul. These included “secondhand” copies of older courses including Broom, Lionel Stebbing, Edward Aston, Ron Walker, Harold Lawrence and the Supermanity Course (and Harold is still around today, in 1996). Strongfort, Thomas Inch, more Liederman (with weights this time), and ancient Sandow material. One elderly correspondent informed me that, as a child, he was made to do the Sandow course as a punishment. I recollect owning at least 14 or more such courses kept safely in a hidden treasure box away from my sister, who, without all the training, was then still stronger than I. Most of the courses were poor imitations of the classic original concepts. They all copied Atlas’ course looked suspiciously like Liederman’s. Liederman’s appeared to resemble MacFadden’s and so it goes back.
"The bad news was my naivety and
belief that
if it is in print, then it is true.
Concrete was poured into cans with short
tubes inserted in each for dumbbells, and goodness knows what poundage
they were, and once dropped they soon cracked or fell apart. There
were no knurled handles or revolving sleeves for us, only chaffed hands
and grazed shoulders. I found an assortment of iron bars and tubes
which to some degree resembled weights. Later I discovered a whole
arsenal of iron discs in an engineering workshop some miles away, which I
now shamefully admit I “borrowed” one quiet weekend, never to return.
Unfortunately, the discs’ center hole were about 4” in diameter, so it
took some degree of movement before the actual poundage was taken up.
CONTINUED |
I then weighed less than 140 lbs whereas the barbell and tied on dumbbell rods, odd discs, etc. weighed 150 lbs. Two “sissy” cricketing fans, who thought I was made, lifted the lot to my shoulders and pointed me in a homeward direction, about a mile and a half away. I stumbled home happy and exhausted with my newly acquired and real barbell set. By 1950, Joseph Weider’s imported YOUR PHYSIQUE and MUSCLE POWER magazines were widely available at one shilling and six pence. As well as UK mags like VIGOUR, BODYSCULPTURE, THE WEIGHTLIFTER, etc., I also obtained Bob Hoffman’s STRENGTH AND HEALTH, Peary Rader’s IRONMAN, and most Bosco books from John Valentine of Leeds, England, via subscription, but I preferred the most flamboyant Weider mags and was not to know, that one day, in the then future, I would get to become personal friends with Joe’s top writer, Chas Smith, and Bob’s evergreen star, John C. Grimek.
The bad news was my naivety and belief that if it is in print, then it is true. Well it ain’t so. The result was that we (and most of the time I mean also my best pal and training partner, James Turner) trained on just about every “new” system. (But nothing was really news, as Chas Smith related in detail later.) We used sets and super sets. We flushed, bombed and blitzed with every issue we received. We dropped each routine as soon as the new magazine appeared. Train hard said the writers, and we did. By now, I’d left school and was working for a living 12 hours a day, shoveling 16 tons of gravel and sand daily, and humping and heaving concrete blocks. I then came home, ate a meal, had a wash, and commenced training for at least four sessions a week of two or more hours, pushing out the last rep, with “assisted reps”, training to failure supplemented solely by extra milk. It was no wonder I remained a bag of bones, at times trembling with sheer exhaustion. In a word, I was overtrained. “The prime lesson I learned…. is to give yourself time to recover before you next train, if growth is your aim.” We were literally addicted to training, and felt guilty if we ever missed even one workout. But it took its toll and eventually after minor chest illnesses and low-grade infections, chest colds, and general malaise, we were forced to give it all up. Within just tow weeks I felt marvelous. I felt much better, more confident and energetic, and far healthier by not training. But the fault as not weight training, but overtraining, and I make no apologies for repetition. One of the many systems I tried out that was then in vogue, mainly via publicity in IRONMAN and from Bob Gadja, a Mr. America, was the PHA system or peripheral heart action system. They said Sergio Oliva gained muscle whilst using it. Well, no disrespect, but Oliva would have gained muscle chewing gum and watching TV, such were his genetics. I have had natural lifters come into my old gym and successfully squat way down with 400 lbs on their first attempts, and other guys turn up with bigger and more muscular arms than I had after 15 years of no-miss training, curling myself silly, even though they had never lifted a dumbbell or barbell. It “ain’t fair” but it’s the real world. Systems may have worked for those who could afford to laze around all day, and to recover. The often early-quoted example of Joseph Hise and his squats and weight gain experiment fails to mention that Hise used to lay in bed most of the day. But the rest of us mortals, or most of us, have to earn a living and look after a family; and quite right too. Family life should reign paramount over any other ambitions, especially that of muscle building. If it’s any consolation, a few “naturals” stick at weight training anyway. Anything that comes easy is not appreciated or valued. Hard gainers treat progress like diamonds and have staying power or, as the old timers used to say, stickability.
Don produced a whole string of champions in his day, including many Mr. Britain’s and area winners, notably Spencer Churchill. Although I never competed knowing my limitations, Don’s course of sensible training certainly helped me achieve my best results ever. My arms went form 13” to 17”, and bench press from 100 lbs to 300 lbs; and what’s more, I enjoyed the training. Don Dorans, at age over 60 still trained in his eighties, including 30-rep bench-pressing with 65-lb dumbbells Now a grandfather, and loving every minute of it- and boy, carrying those kids is a workout in itself – I do not regret a moment spent on any of the old muscle courses. All had their merits in some degree- any exercise is better than none. “My arms went from 13” to 17”, and bench press from 100 lbs. to 300 lbs.” The prime lesson I learned, and I would be a fool if I didn’t learn something after fifty years, is to give yourself time to recover before you next train, if growth is your aim. As for me, I mainly ignore the modern world and its superhighway technology, and still collect courses. Got any old Jowett’s HOW TO MOLD MIGHTY .. booklets you don’t want? I know someone who would just love to “reown” them. Happy lifting! ▪ Last published in HARDGAINER Magazine.
Confessions of a Course Collector
All Photos are from David Gentle's Classic Photo
Collection. These photographs may not
be used in any
manner without exclusive written permission. |
As
if all that lot was not enough, I also copied Jowett’s barrel lifting
ideas, by filling to various degrees a medium sized metal drum, with rims
to aid grip. I did rough curls, cleans, jerks, teeth lifting using a
bit of rope and old handkerchief – no niceties for us tough guys – and
even climbed ropes hand over hand whilst holding the drum and contents
with my feet. This is quite possible if you USE short and quick hand
movements, and I have strong arms and skinny legs.
There were the familiar ubiquitous, “Make
you a new man in seven days” of Atlas, and Jowett’s, “Become as tough as
marine” ads, which also appeared in our other main source of educational
reading matter, i.e. comics (American originals brought over by a friend’s
father on the Queen Mary). 
The main benefits achieved out of all that
effort, was the ability to perform 100+ consecutive pressups (at times
clapping hands between reps), and to climb ropes. Rope climbing was a big
thing because our real hero – long before Steve Reeves or Reg Park become
screen Hercules, or Arnold was The Barbarian – was Johnny Weissmuller, the
greatest Tarzan of them all.
But back to me. Once bitten by the physical
culture bug it is always present, or just below the surface. The
discipline of a training regime has its own merits – its mental and
physical rewards. So for a “breather” I let the weights stand in their
racks and tried several cable courses, i.e. chest expanders or
springs. From Alfred Dank’s course to Joe Bonomo’s “Black Prince”
workouts, these were less exhausting and really quite pleasant to work
with, as exercise should be, not something to dread. So cables certainly
have a place in bodybuilding, even if just for pre-contest pumping value.
Next I enrolled with Court Saldo and
trained on Maxalding, a more complex system combining free and
self-resistance exercises plus muscle control