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Eight Free Books From the Golden Age of Physical Culture

“Strength Secrets of the Old-Time Strongmen, Revealed Again!”

Before steroids, bodybuilding, and fancy machines there were men who built bodies, developed strength, and set records that strong men today still look upon with are. Arthur Saxon lifted 410 pounds overhead with one hand. Paul Anderson back lifted over 6,700 pounds and squatted over 1200 pounds for two reps. These men used bodyweight exercises, barbells, dumbbells, and yes, sometimes even kettlebells (called ring-weights back in the day), to build legendary strength. Steroids did not exist, so they did it with hard work, good food, and old-fashioned compound lifts.

Now, yesterday's pioneers of physical culture have been rediscovered by men and women tired of bodybuilding shtick and magazine training programs requiring artificial hormones, expensive supplements, and hours in the gym to complete. People at all levels, tired of the lame establishment advice that never works, are looking for answers—and finding them—a century or more in the past.

The books below have been carefully selected, edited, and typeset for their historical, literary, and informational value. They are typeset PDF files, not large, scanned .jpg images. The file sizes are reasonable and all of the books are ready to print. The following books are currently available and more may be added:

Maxick

Maxick

Muscle Control or Body Development by Will-Power – 1911

Maxick’s claim to fame is that he grew up so entirely sick that his parents and doctors feared he would not live to see adulthood. He describes his struggles with illness, with the shame of his weakness, his attempts to become strong, how his well-meaning father thwarted those attempts, and how it worked out for the best with his discovery of the system he calls “Muscle Control.” In addition, this book describes:

• Twenty-one exercises to isolate and control each major muscle group
• How to develop great strength without weights
• Why workmen and laborers do not show more developed physiques
• Why without the ability to relax, great strength is impossible—and how to achieve relaxation
• The difference between a strong muscle and a tight muscle: muscle-binding and how to avoid it

Albert Treloar

Albert Treloar, “The Perfect Man”

Treloar's Science of Muscular Development – 1904

Treloar, “the most perfectly developed man in the world,” partners with Edna Tempest to demonstrate forty-one general exercises for general, all-round development with minimal space and equipment, and twelve special exercises as well as:

• What does exercise do for the busy professional? (page 1)
• What kind of clothing should be worn for exercise? (page 4)
• Can an unfit man live a successful life? (page 6)
• How and why did Physical Culture end up promoting peace and political stability? (page 9)
• How does one get strong and fast at the same time? (page 12)
• The anatomy of the skeleton including diagrams. (Pages 18-23)
• The muscular anatomy and detailed diagrams. (Pages 23-32)
• What lifting tempo is optimal for building muscle? (page 38)
• What is the value in “working one muscle against another?” (page 41)
• What role does isometrics (static contraction) play in muscular development? (page 41)
• How does a beginner avoid excessive soreness after exercise? (page 42)
• What are the two kinds of exercise, and which one yields the best results? (page 50)
• What is the elementary principal of exercise? (page 50)
• What kind of exercise should children do? (page 51)
• A fat reduction workout. (page 52)
• The role of meat in a fat reduction diet. (page 53)
• A mass-building workout. (page 54)
• A bodyweight-only fitness routine. (page 56)
• How and where to take physical measurements. (page 57)
• Physical proportions of the perfect man and woman. (pages 58-59)

Do you think that our early 20th-century ancestors were in better shape than we are? Find out the dimensions of the average American college student in 1904 and see what kind of shape youth were in over 100 years ago (page 59). Also, what was the average height and chest measurement for white men drafted into the Civil War (page 59)?

Eugene Sandow

Eugene Sandow, “Father of Modern Bodybuilding”

Sandow's System of Physical Training – 1894

“The Father of Modern Bodybuilding” puts pen to paper to produce this 180-page tome. Here are a sample of the subjects addressed:

• Advocacy for youth physical education
• This life of young Eugene Sandow
• Sandow's adventures as a strongman in Holland, England, Scotland, and other places in Europe and America
• Physical culture in relation to the military
• Sandow's views on diet and lifestyle
• The relationship between health and strength
• The two tools for complete health and fitness development
• A discussion of anatomy including the major muscle groups
• Use and performance of 17 light-weight exercises for health, endurance, and flexibility
• Seven heavy dumbbell exercises
• Nine heavy barbell exercises for strength and vigor
• Uses for a leg-training apparatus to round out the body

Arthur Saxon

Arthur Saxon, “The Strongest Man in the World”

The Development of Physical Power – 1905

“The Strongest Man in the World” addresses many points in this 42-page book. Here is a sample of the subjects addressed:

• What separates men from boys? (page 1)
• Can anyone become abnormally strong? (page 1)
• What is the most valuable kind of strength? (page 8)
• What crucial error demonstrates a lack of understanding of physical culture? (page 9)
• What is the place of dumbbells in training? (page 10)
• Are light weights and clubs useful in developing health? (page 10)
• Does lifting heavy weights make a man slow? (page 11)
• What sports will help weight lifting? What sports will hinder it? (page 12)
• What is the best place to take exercise? (page 12)
• What physique measurement is best for determining overall capacity for weight lifting? (page 13)
• What advantages might a lighter man have in weight lifting? (page 14)
• How many lifts should a weight lifter practice? (page 15)
• What precaution needs to be considered above all in a balanced practice? (page 16)
• How many times per week should an advanced lifter practice? (page 16)
• What can be done after exercise to promote strength and health? (page 16)
• What is the great “bugbear of training” and how can it be avoided? (page 17)
• What question should you ask before every lift? (page 17)
• Who has the advantage in lifting: blue collar or white collar workers? (page 18)
• What is the perfect food for a weight lifter? (page 19)
• Should meat be eaten? (page 19)
• Can a weight lifter drink alcohol? (page 19)
• What lifestyle factor can be the remedy for a drop-off in performance? (page 19)
• What kind of clothing should be worn when taking exercise? (page 20)
• What mental technique should be performed before lifting? (page 21)
• What must a man do when he knows he needs to move an extraordinary weight? (page 21)
• How to get a barbell too heavy to clean to shoulder level without a power rack. (page 25)
• What is the best one-hand lift for developing and demonstrating strength and how to perform it. (page 26)
• What strength-building exercise can be performed with a single heavy dumbbell? (page 30)
• Eleven other dumbbell and barbell exercises.
• How to lift “ring weights.” (page 38)
• What are Mr. Saxon's measurements and record lifts? (page 40)

The Textbook of Weightlifting – 1910

This is another classic from “The Strongest Man in the World.”. Here is a sample of the subjects addressed:

• Why weight-lifting is the first among sports and the best form of physical exercise
• Eight “clean” (continuous, explosive, full body) lifts
• How to perform the classic “bent press”
• Six harsh and strict “continental” lifts
• How to lift “ring” and square weights
• Performance of exhibition lifts and publicly performing feats of strength

Adolph Nordquest

Adolph Nordquest, “The Young Sandow”

Strength and Health – 1905

This is one of my favorite old-time books on strength in terms of general principles and lifestyle. The emphasis of the program is on bodyweight movements, and “pretend” weightlifting.

Like many books from the era the book begins with a “plea” for strength, physical culture, and physical education. Also, like many similar books, the emphasis is on consistent practice, good diet, and superior lifestyle. Viking’s approach to strength and health is holistic.

Subject matter includes:

• How to breathe properly
• What kind of diet is appropriate, with special directions for the nervous, the thin, and the corpulent
• Bathing and massage
• Rules for strength and health
• Exercises for the fingers, wrists, and arms
• Exercises for the chest and back
• Exercises for the legs
• Breathing exercises

Bob Hoffman

Bob Hoffman, York Barbell Legend

York Advanced Methods of Weight Training – 1951

This is my favorite Hoffman book in terms of exercises. There are a great variety of strength-building exercises with barbells, dumbbells, “swing bells,” and “chest developers.” There is something in this book for almost anyone.

For example, courses 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 focus on specific tools. Courses 16 through 24 emphasize different parts of the body. Courses 1 through 7 are for all-round development.

Subject matter includes:

• The best time to train
• Proper breathing
• Record keeping
• Various progressive system
• 24 total various “courses”
• Development of the lower legs

A. Wallace-Jones

A. Wallace-Jones, Principal of the London Physical Institute

50 Exercises for Health and Strength – 1908

The benefits of this work can be no more clearly stated than in the words of Wallace-Jones himself:

1. Improve the General Health and Physical Condition.
2. Develop and Strengthen the Extensor Muscles of the Body, so as to
   1. Increase the Height.
   2. To correct Round Shoulders and Incurved Back.
   3. To combat Curvature of the Spine and similar Physical Defects.
3. Deepen the chest, both so as to allow sufficient and suitable space for the Lungs and Breathing generally, and to relieve the internal organs from the overcrowding and pressure to which they are nowadays so frequently subjected.
4. Correct Obesity where necessary.
5. Increase Weight and Flesh where necessary.
6. Cure such diseases as Indigestion, Constipation, Sluggish Liver, Biliousness, etc.
7. Strengthen the System against any and every ailment, and provide it with such stamina as will enable it to readily recuperate and consumption of Nervous Energy, thus ensuring a pupil against that Twentieth Century disease, Neurasthenia in all its forms.
8. Rapidly and Readily repair the waste of tissue consequent on every Physical or Mental Exertion, and thus tend to the Preservation of Youth and the Prolongation of Life.
9. Regulate the Circulation of the Blood, thus ensuring the regular nutrition of every portion of the body, and incidentally curing such ailments as Anæmia, Poverty of the Blood, Chlorosis, Piles, etc.
10. Provide such General Physical Development as will, in any case, secure an Easy, Graceful Carriage, All-round Activity and Agility of Movement, a Clear Skin and Complexion, and Improve both the Appearance and Quality of the Eyesight, developing the pupil's ability in any athletic sport or pastime, and preparing his system (if desired) for those heavier and more strenuous exercises by which Phenomenal Strength and Activty may be acquired, but which should never be undertaken before the System has been first suitably prepared.

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