Welcome to Wisdom Of The Oldtime Strongmen, a site inspired by and dedicated to the training philosophy of the legendary athletes of the Golden Era of strength training.
My name is Per Nyberg, and I've been involved in strength and fitness training for over 20 years by now – time flies when you have fun, right? My interest in the so-called golden era of strength training was evoked somewhere around 10 years ago, when I stumbled on an old article in a magazine about swedish strongman Arvid Andersson. Since then I've become more and more fascinated with this era, and have spent a lot of time studying the philosophy, principles and methods that was used back in the day, as well as practically applying the information in the gym. Immersing myself in this material has really given me a new (and old, in a sense) perspective on some modern approaches to strength and fitness.
The truth is that these guys had most of what we "know" today already figured out back then – and yes, we're talking about athletes from over 100 years ago. Men like Arthur Saxon, Eugen Sandow or Alexander Zass – just to mention a few – didn't have the advantage of modern, sophisticated measuring equipment or easy access to the latest research findings on strength and fitness. On the other hand, they didn't need it. Instead, they conducted their own research, by living it more or less every day – relying on practical trial-and-error and real world experience; if something made them stronger, it was working. These men were far from the chemically enhanced freaks of today's bodybuilding scene; they had strong and powerful physiques, built for performance.
Arthur Saxon performing a somewhat unusual lift...
For the most part, the fitness industry of today is in a sad state; watered-down training routines, reliance on machines and full of confusing, contradictory information. Also, us modern gym rats have a tendency to lose ourselves in theory; always looking for scientific evidence to support and validate what we're doing. While there's nothing wrong with keeping up with strength related research – I read a lot of this stuff myself – we should understand that the most reliable proof is the results produced by actually doing.
To make things as easy and convinient as possible, I've decided to publish a Workout Of The Day (WOD), which you can read under the WOD-section, or – optionally – have delivered to your inbox if you subscribe to e-mail updates.
OK, enough said. Time to go old school…