Wrestling was the first and most natural way to fight and a noticed side effect of wrestling was the way that the participants developed even more muscle, especially in the neck.

Look at a picture of ZYBSZKO or a more recent wrestler BERT ASSIRATI and you will see what I mean.  Two natural exercises always used by wrestlers were press-ups and deep knee bends or squats.  The great Indian wrestlers like GAMA and the famous Japanese SUMO wrestlers practised literally thousands of repetitions of the two exercises.  Along with a huge intake of carbohydrates, these exercises were the main cause of their huge bulk.  GAMA had thighs measuring thirty inches and ASSIRATI, as a matter of interest, was probably Britain's greatest and strongest wrestler.  He could do a single leg squat with 200 lbs and did repetitions in the normal squat of well over 500 lbs.

DINNIE STONES When no opponents were available, the wrestlers would attempt to lift large objects, like heavy boulders.  The most famous stones that come to mind are the DINNIE stones.  Named after the early Scottish superstar DONALD DINNIE.  Many strong men have attempted to lift the stones and failed, but amongst those who succeeded are DAVE PROWSE and IMLACH SHEARER, both lifted the pair of stones which together weigh 785 lbs.   Seen on the left, Imlach Shearer lifting two of the famous Dinnie Stones, together reputed to weigh 785 lbs.!  Photo:  J. Barbour, Aberdeen

From the stone age to the iron age meant DUMBBELLS.  The "old-Timers" loved them.  The very early gyms looked like iron foundries, with rows and rows of solid dumbbells.  From small up to impossible sizes.  The large ones, i.e. solid barbells were in fact called 'two handed dumbbells'.  You didn't change discs, you changed the complete dumbell.  Hollow spheres were than thought of, which could be loaded with 'shot' to increase the weight, but the final improvement was of course disc weights.  Many so called unliftable dumbbells become famous, amongst them were those of LOUIS CYR, ROLANDOW, THOMAS INCH AND GEORGE JOWETT.  Usually hard to lift because of very thick handles which required great gripping strength.

There were other devices showing up at this time.  They had what was called a KETTLE BELL, named probably because it looked like an old fashioned kettle without a spout.  It also resembles a cannon ball with a handle on.  The great SIG-KLEIN, son-in-law of ATTILA, was the undoubted expert in kettlebells and included them in many of his famous poses.  SIG was also very strong with dumbbells, pressing a pair of hundred pounders for reps.  Another idea was LEG BELLS or IRON BOOTS.  Exactly what it says really.  A sort of overshoe with weights attached, with which all sorts of leg movements were performed.  I think they lost popularity though being too much trouble to put on and take off (most bodybuilders are lazy, ask their wives) and of course modern leg extension machines have eliminated their usage.

Pulleys and chest expanders were also part of the exercise scene.  In fact, there are many advantages to cable type exercises, especially for triceps or lats.  Many bodybuilders trained exclusively with chest expanders with good results.  ROLLON, LIEDERMAN, INCH, DEVIS to name just a few sold them and modern bodybuilders soon discovered how quickly you can get a good pre-contest pump with cables.  For the pure pulley work the best early example was ALAN P. MEAD, who looked like a human anatomy chart.  All lat machine type exercises have evolved from the simpler pulleys that MEAD first used.

Another idea, kicked around over the years was the leverbell or bar.  Using the principle of a lever in reverse, some hard exercises could be done with a small weight.  I know EDWARD ASTON  sold a lever bar and JOWETT had a similar effort.  Also in early (1926) Health and Strength mags a chap called JOE PRICE, a blacksmith, advertised a muscle course using a sledge hammer with the same principle.  The last time I saw lever bars being marketed was in a WEIDER mag around the 1950's, very ably demonstrated by LEO ROBERT.

Isometrics, which was all the craze a while back, is another ancient idea.  In the old American STRENGTH magazines in 1920 a grand old strongman called ADRIAN P. SCHMIDT used to sell a length of chain with a handle on one end and foot stirrups on the other.  The idea was to pull and tug in various positions, changed by altering the length of the chain.  The ability to deadlift heavy weights was apparently improved by this.  Once again I saw an almost identical piece of equipment being used by CLANCY ROSS in the late 60's.

Other gadgets abounded, wristrollers, grip machines and crushing and pulling exercisers.  Exercise benches also changed from simple basic flat benches to moon benches, incline, decline and then onto today's preacher or SCOTT curl benches.

Finally there were the crazy ideas.  From magic foods and elixirs to hypnosis.  Hypnotism of course simply removes uncertainty and fear.  All good trainers learn to "psyche" up before heavy lifts.  The last crazy idea going round was a muscle rub ointment, promising to make muscles grow.  Nice idea, pity it doesn't work, although if muscle building was TOO easy then the while idea of a fine physique would be de-valued.

Today carpets, chrome, supplements.  All part of the quest for muscles.