27 minute read
BY EUGEN SANDOW, WITH ANATOMICAL CHART, ILLUSTRATING EXERCISES FOR PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. REVISED EDITION. ILLUSTRATED WITH FULL PAGE PORTRAITS OF THE AUTHOR AND SOME OF HIS PUPILS. Reproduced from Photographs by Falk of New York, and Warwick Brookes of Manchester. London: GALE & POLDEN, Ltd. , 2, AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C., AND WELLINGTON WORKS, ALDERSHOT. TWO-AND-SIX NETT. Printed by Gale & Polden, Ltd., Wellington Works, Aldershot. Copyright—Gale & Polden, Ltd....
1 minute read
In writing this book I have taken it as a commonplace that everyone—man, woman, and child—wants to be strong. Without strength—and by strength I mean health, vitality, and a general sense of physical well-being—life is but a gloomy business. Wealth, talent, ambition, the love and affection of friends, the pleasure derived from doing good to those about one, all these things may afford some consolation for being deprived of life’s chief blessing, but they can never make up for it. “But,” I am constantly being asked, “it is all very well for you to say this, and everyone of sense agrees with you; the point is, can we obtain this much-prized blessing?” In the vast majority of cases I can say unhesitatingly “Yes.” You can all be strong, all enjoy the heritage which was intended for you. Not all to the same extent, perhaps. Those who are afflicted with some...
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It is nearly two years since the first edition of “Strength and How to Obtain it” was published, and its success has been very gratifying to me. It plainly demonstrates that the people of my adopted country are gradually beginning to understand and appreciate what is meant by “physical culture,” and that my ideas are steadily taking root in productive ground. I am, therefore, encouraged to bring out a new edition of the book, which, I trust, will be an improvement upon its predecessor. Several chapters have been added and a few inaccuracies and ambiguities remedied, and I trust the book in its new form will find favour with my readers. I wish to draw particular attention to chapters V. and VIII., in which I refer to “My ‘Grip’ Dumb-bell” and to “Physical Culture for Women.” There are various other additions to which I need not refer here. Sufficient to...
8 minute read
It is curious to me to look back a year or two and to reflect upon the change in public opinion upon this subject which has taken place in so short a time. When I first began to preach the “gospel of health and strength” the general tendency was to make fun of me. Some people called me a fool; others, a charlatan. Very few indeed took the trouble to see whether there was anything in my theories, and to test for themselves their truth or falsity. That was, so to speak, only yesterday; what an alteration, and an alteration for the better, is to be observed to-day. I shall not be accused of undue egotism if I say that my ideas have “caught on.” All over the country, among the young, “physical culture” is now the rage, and that it is no mere passing fancy is proved by the...
2 minute read
I have already remarked upon the satisfactory progress which the system has made during the last few years. It is probably well-known that my system has practically been adopted in the Army; although the method adopted in the Army gymnasia is not absolutely identical with that which I advocate, it is obviously based upon the same principles. People may be interested to hear that since I opened my first school, some eighteen months ago, amongst my pupils have been a great number of gentlemen, who, desirous of adopting the Army as a career, have been unable to do so through not coming up to the physical standpoint required. In many cases they have actually been rejected on this account; in others they have been fearful that such might be their fate, and have come to me in order to avoid it. Some have not been heavy enough for their height;...
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The statement to which I refer is this—that though by my system a man may increase the size of his muscles, add to his bodily strength, and improve his physique, he does so at the expense of his vital organs. This statement has been freely bandied about by those who ought to be above such petty and stupid malice; men, who, professing to teach physical culture, are mostly quite ignorant of the very rudiments of the subject. Their reasons for such utterances are not far to seek; they are envious of the success which has attended the years of hard work and endeavour I have gone through, and regard me as a rival to damage whom everything is justifiable. One or two have even gone so far as to say that I myself am anything but sound, that my heart is in a very bad condition, and that there is...
6 minute read
In commencing the system of exercises described and illustrated by the anatomical chart, there are certain questions which every student naturally asks himself. Probably the very first of these questions is, “What part of the day ought I to devote to these exercises?” The answer to this question must depend on the pupil himself—on his leisure and on his inclination. Some persons find the early morning the best and most convenient time; others prefer the afternoon; and a third class, again, find that they feel best, and have the most leisure, at night. I do not, therefore, lay down a hard and fast rule of time. The golden rule is to select such part of the day as suits you best, always avoiding exercise immediately after meals. If possible, let two hours elapse between a meal and exercise. Moreover, do not exercise just before going to bed if you find...
2 minute read
This appliance is very simple and may be described in a few words. It consists of a dumb-bell made in two halves separated about an inch and a half from one another, the intervening space being occupied by a small steel spring. When exercising, the spring is compressed by gripping the bells and bringing the two halves close together, in which position they are kept until the exercise is over. The springs can be of any strength, and consequently the power necessary to keep the two halves together can be varied to any extent. The advantages of this arrangement are obvious. Whether he will or no, the pupil must grip the bells hard, and as the strength of the springs are known he can regulate his progress to a nicety as he grows stronger. There is also another point in connection with the new device to which I want to...
4 minute read
I am sometimes accused of being a bit of a faddist about the use of the cold bath, and possibly the heading of this chapter may give strength to that opinion. But its exhilarating and health-giving effects really justify the use of the adjective. The longer I live, and the greater my experience, the more am I convinced of its virtues. Let me advise every pupil after exercising, while the body is still hot, to take a cold bath. It does not matter how much he may be perspiring; the cold bath will prove exceedingly beneficial. He must be careful, however, not to take his bath if he is out of breath. The exercises will, no doubt, quicken the heart’s action; but in from three to five minutes after the series is completed, the heart should be beating normally again. For persons who suffer from weak heart I should not...
1 minute read
It is scarcely necessary for me to say that the benefits to be obtained by conscientiously working upon my system are by no means confined to the young and vigorous. On the contrary, it is particularly suitable for the middle-aged, who are all too apt to suffer from the effects of the period of physical indolence which has succeeded their youthful activity. To such, the system should prove invaluable. It is quite a false notion to suppose that when once youth is passed exercise is no longer necessary. So long as life lasts, if an individual wants to keep healthy, exercise is just as necessary as food. It is through neglecting to recognise this that so many men become aged before their time. When a man begins to get into middle life he has a natural tendency to “take things easy.” He lives more luxuriously, devotes more time to the...
3 minute read
I am exceedingly anxious to remove the impression, which has, I fear, gained ground, that my system is not a thing for women. Now-a-days, when women have practically freed themselves from the antiquated ideas of a generation or so ago, there ought to be small difficulty in convincing them that to make the best of themselves, in a physical sense, is just as imperative a duty for them as for their brothers. Women go in for all sorts of sports and pastimes to-day; they bicycle, row, play tennis and hockey, and not infrequently display no small degree of excellence in sports which have hitherto been regarded as “for men only.” This is a hopeful sign, but I am not at all sure that in many cases it is not more provocative of harm than good. Women are possessed of a great amount of nervous energy, and, unless their bodies and...
4 minute read
From the following tables pupils of all ages will be able to see at a glance how many times the movements of each exercise illustrated by the anatomical chart should be practised daily. It should be clearly understood that the tables are only intended as a guide, and that they are not intended to arbitrarily fix the amount of work which the pupil should do. It is an absolute impossibility to lay down rules which will suit every individual case, and consequently pupils must, after taking the table as a basis, use their own discretion as to how they shall vary them. The great thing to bear in mind is to proceed very gradually; while exercising, put “all you know” into the work, but don’t attempt to do too much. Exercise until the muscles ache, but never go on to the point of feeling thoroughly “blown” and exhausted. A quarter...
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The reader of the second part of this book will see how my professional career was thrust upon me. It came through no seeking of my own, after my defeat of Samson. I accepted it partly because the offers seemed too good to be thrown away, and partly because they enabled me to gratify a wish to see something of the world. My ambition, however, was always to form and build up a system for the service of others, rather than exhibit merely the results of that system in my own person. That ambition, I hope, is to be realised, for I have founded several schools of training for men, women, and children of both sexes, and in the course of time, I intend to establish branches in every important town. The schools are conducted entirely on my own system of physical culture. Instruction is given by specially qualified teachers,...
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None of my departments has shown a more gratifying development than has the correspondence department. Letters pour in from all parts of the world asking for advice and instruction in such numbers that I have been obliged to organise a special system and department for dealing with the enquiries of my many friends, who, owing to their living at a distance and to other reasons, cannot attend the schools personally. Every week many letters reach me from the Colonies alone—from India, Canada, Australia, South Africa—even from distant Klondike—and from one and all I have received flattering testimonials as to the benefits they have derived from following my instructions. This is an example:—Mr. Dunbar, of Queensland, writes:— “Dear Mr. Sandow, “I cannot express my gratitude for the wonderful benefit I have derived from your three months’ course of instruction. Previous to practising your system I was a chronic dyspeptic, and owing...
23 minute read
The figure will show pupils how to take their own measurements. They are advised to keep a careful record of these month by month, so they can see how they are progressing. The chest should be measured both with the lungs full of air and empty, as well as in its normal condition. Date when training commenced. .. Date on completion of course. .....
1 minute read
After considerable experience and exhaustive experiments with rubber machines, I have succeeded in inventing one which allows of a combination of dumb-bell and rubber exercises. Exclusive rubber exercise has not the effect of producing hard, firm, and supple muscles, therefore I have patented the detachable dumb-bell handles, which are simplicity itself. This developer can be so regulated as to prove equally beneficial to a weak man as to myself. From an economic point of view it stands alone, as at a small outlay a Developer can be purchased, which is sufficient for a whole family, and constitutes an entire athletic outfit. The detachable rubbers and handles allow of the machine to be fixed up to any tension, so that as one becomes stronger, one has ample scope for gradually increasing one’s strength. The fatal drawback to the ordinary rubber exerciser is that it only proves beneficial up to a certain...
3 minute read
It is not my purpose in this book to give anything beyond general directions for lifting heavy weights. You can become thoroughly strong and enjoy perfect health by means of the series of exercises already described. Heavy weight-lifting requires personal instruction; that instruction will be given to those who may desire it at my schools. Under qualified instructors it may be pursued without the risk of danger. Generally, however, it may be observed that to lift heavy weights it is desirable first to see what weight can be used without undue strain. Slowly raise this weight from your shoulder over your head, or, if from the ground, raise it somewhat more quickly. See how many times you are able to raise the weight first selected, and when you can perform the exercise with comparative ease, raising it, say, ten times, up to 80 lbs., six times from 80 to 100,...
14 minute read
In the following pages will be found a selection from many thousands of letters which have been addressed to me by pupils who have already profited from my system of Physical Culture. Attention is specially directed to the measurements before and after training, showing the actual progress made in muscular development. Vachwen, Marlborough Road, Watford , March 11th, 1899 . Mr. Sandow. Dear Sir , I have just completed a course of lessons at your “School of Physical Culture,” from which I have derived untold benefit. Through the greater part of last year I was so ill that for some time it was feared I might go into consumption. I was medically treated, and at length permitted by my doctor to try what your exercises would do. I entered your School with weak heart, weak lungs, digestion sadly impaired. After three lessons, with persistent home work, I began very slowly...
2 minute read
It is not necessary, as some may think, to be born strong in order to become strong. Unlike the poet, who, we are told, has to be born a poet, the strong man can make himself. As a child, I was myself exceedingly delicate. More than once, indeed, my life was despaired of. Until I was in my tenth year I scarcely knew what strength was. Then it happened that I saw it in bronze and stone. My father took me with him to Italy, and in the art galleries of Rome and Florence I was struck with admiration for the finely developed forms of the sculptured figures of the athletes of old. I remember asking my father if people were as well developed in these modern times. He pointed out that they were not, and explained that these were the figures of men who lived when might was right,...
10 minute read
The years of my life between eighteen and twenty-one may be passed over with the remark that they saw a steady gain of strength and some occasional performances as an amateur athlete and wrestler. In 1889 I made the acquaintance of Aubrey Hunt, the artist, who was then at Venice. One of the most charming views in the neighbourhood was to be gained from the grounds of my villa near Ledo. Naturally Mr. Hunt wished to paint it, and it was a pleasure to be able to afford him the facility. One result of our acquaintance was that Mr. Hunt painted me in the character of a gladiator in the Coliseum at Rome. This picture, which I prize very highly, is to be seen in the reception room at my St. James’ Street school. I am told that it is a very striking likeness. It was from Mr. Hunt that...
3 minute read
At the end of my first engagement in London and the provinces, I went to Germany for a holiday. Driving out one day at Aachen, I met a veritable giant. He was a quarryman, and he was engaged in loading stones. So huge and extraordinary was his appearance that my horse positively shied at him. Imagine, if you can, this tremendous fellow: his head as huge and grotesque as that of any pantomime mask, with a nose the size of an ordinary fist. As for his own fist, it would have made more than three of mine, and when a five-shilling piece was placed beneath the ball of his finger, believe me, it was impossible to see it. So large were his boots that not only could I get both my feet into one, but I could turn entirely round inside. And yet, strangely enough, despite his immense limbs and...
6 minute read
After my engagement at the Royal came a holiday in Paris. It was there I met a very dear school friend, whom I had not seen since I was about ten years of age. My friend’s father was at this time German Consul at Paris. The incident which followed our meeting will be better explained by prefacing the story with the statement that as boys we were great billiard players. We were continually playing at each other’s houses, and, though we were such mere lads, we could even beat our fathers at the game. Nothing, therefore, was more natural than that, when we met, my friend should ask me if I was still a good player. As a matter of fact I was not in practice, but that did not deter us from deciding to try our skill. So we went to a room which he selected, and started a...
2 minute read
About this time there were many strong men. Each hall in London could boast of at least one. It was also a great weight lifting period. When I lifted my heaviest bell, 280lbs., the other strong men put out a placard stating that they were lifting 300lbs. By the time I had practised sufficiently to raise the weights I was lifting from 280lbs. to 300lbs., they came out with the statement that they were lifting 320lbs., and so their little game went on. For my part I was determined to introduce a novelty. Henceforth, there should be actually living weights. I started, therefore, at the Tivoli with a new display, lifting a horse at arm’s length above my head, and marching with it to musical accompaniment. This was followed by a display with human dumb-bells. Taking a long bar with a large ball at each end, I placed in each...
2 minute read
We come now to the year of the Chicago Exhibition,when I entered into a contract for an engagement in America, with Messrs Abbey, Scheffel, and Grau. An old friend and famous pianist, Martinus Sieveking, whom I knew years before in Belgium and Holland, accompanied me to the New World. Sieveking was a brilliant artist, but as a man he was exceedingly weak and delicate. He had no powers of endurance, and it was difficult for him to remain at the piano long at a time. “If I had only your strength,” he used to say, “I think I might become almost the greatest player in the world.” I suggested that he should come with me as my guest to America, guaranteeing that in nine months or a year, under my personal supervision and training, he would grow so strong that his best friends would scarcely recognise him. Agreeing to come,...
3 minute read
First experiences are occasionally curious. You shall hear one of mine. Although the day we reached New York was the hottest that had ever been known in that great country of wonderful records, no heat, however extreme, could detract from the glories of New York Harbour, certainly the finest harbour I have ever seen. Numerous people, including, of course, the ubiquitous newspaper men, came on board to welcome me, bands were playing, and there was a gay and busy time generally. Having landed, I entered a cab. Everyone, I suppose, has a vivid recollection of his first cab in America. The independence of the American cab-driver is sublime. It is something too great for words. You can only draw a long breath—and admire it. The particular journey which I was undertaking would have been in England something considerably less than a shilling fare. Hoping to be generous I proffered the...
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A fortnight after my arrival in New York I commenced an engagement at the Casino, and after each performance, whilst I was still stripped to the waist, I gave lecture on anatomy and my system of physical culture in my dressing-room. These lectures were attended by many of the most notable people in America, the crowded audiences including several ladies. I demonstrated how each feat was accomplished, and let the people feel for themselves my muscles, to prove that whilst, when they were relaxed they were as soft as butter, when contracted they were as hard as steel. I repeated at the Casino the performances that I had been giving at the Palace Theatre in London. As my engagement lengthened I grew better acquainted with the American people, whom, let it frankly be admitted, I liked immensely. They are wonderfully nice fellows, these Americans. The only fault that is to...
6 minute read
Perhaps the greatest, certainly the most thrilling, of all my experiences is that which I am about to relate. It is the story of my lion fight in San Francisco. I was performing in that western city at the time of the mid-winter fair, which followed the Chicago Exhibition. In connection with this fair Colonel Bone was exhibiting a great menagerie. One day he advertised a fight to the death between a lion and a bear. A tremendous tent, with accommodation for twenty thousand people, was erected for the occasion. Thousands and thousands of persons had bought tickets, when the police issued an order forbidding the performance, and the proposed spectacle had to be abandoned. The thought occurred to me that I should take the bear’s place, and measure my strength against the king of the forests. Of course there is always between the unarmed man and the beast this...
2 minute read
At the end of my engagement in San Francisco I organised my own company for a holiday tour in California. What a lovely country is that; a country of perpetual summer and blue sky, of bright flowers and delicious breezes. Well do I remember our arrival in Los Angeles. Thousands and thousands of people came to meet our coach, the children smothering us with roses as though it were some battle of flowers. But, of course, there were rough journeys in America as well as pleasant ones. On the way to Omaha, for example, we had an experience of the wilds. At the small villages at which the train stopped it seemed to be the custom to adjourn for the fifteen or twenty minutes to the gambling dens that adjoin the stations. Gambling has never had any attraction for me personally, but “In Rome one does as Rome does;” and...
7 minute read
At this stage of the tour I will introduce, with the reader’s permission, my dog Sultan, the holder of seventeen first prizes. This dog, a handsome boar-hound, standing about thirty-four inches high at the shoulders and weighing some two hundred pounds, had been presented to me as a puppy by Prince Bismarck. Though I have never specially trained him, the dog has remarkable intelligence. My companion throughout my tour in America, he used to jump into the luggage van at every journey’s end to find my trunks, and those that were not too heavy for him to lift, he would bring out of the van. A similar performance would be repeated when we reached the hotel. Sultan would himself carry a good deal of the luggage upstairs, taking it up piece by piece, and disdaining the assistance of the niggers who would sometimes offer to give him help. Not unnaturally,...
2 minute read
It may be useful, as a record, to indicate briefly the nature of the salient features of my recent performance at the London Pavilion, and since in the provinces. To begin with there is a tableau, arranged for the purpose of showing muscular repose, with all the muscles relaxed; muscular tension, with all the muscles as firm as steel; the abdominal muscles; the biceps, muscles of the inside of the upper arm; the triceps, muscles of the back of the upper arm; the deltoid, muscles of the shoulders; the trapezius muscle, which raises the shoulders; the muscles of the back; the action and uses of different muscles; and the chest expansion, from 48ins. normal to 62ins. The tableau curtains are drawn, and the scene changes to the arena. Resting with my neck on one trestle and my heels on another, I hold a 56lb. weight in each hand at arms’...
46 minute read
As a supplement to the previous chapter it may be stated here, in answer to many inquiries, that my own measurements, etc., at the present time are as set forth below. The first edition of the book was written rather hurriedly, and consequently one or two trifling inaccuracies crept in. These are now corrected:— My strength, it may be added, is steadily increasing. If some one had told me two years ago that I should be able to perform the feats of strength that I now accomplish I would not have believed it. I feel sure, moreover, that in the natural course of things, my strength will continue to increase. With careful training the bodily strength ought to increase steadily until the forty-fifth year is reached. The above appeared in the first edition. Pupils will be glad to hear that my belief has been fully justified, and that even since...