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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,
“miniture 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 insite
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..
<UP>
Old Books and Barbells
© Copyright by David Gentle
All Rights Reserved
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All Photos are from
David Gentle's Classic Photo Collection. These photographs may not
be used in any manner without exclusive written permission. |
