By George F. Jowett

The development of the forearms is a problem to thousand of body builders, but the author, who is famed for the size and strength of his powerful arms, offers valuable help in this fine article. He sets you right on many questions, and explains why certain beliefs are mere fallacies. With usual thoroughness, he picks apart the entire muscular scheme of the forearm in such a manner you can visualize the entire-plan unfold before- your eyes. He presents practical facts gleaned from many years of personal experience, and from teachings others. It will help you immensely to build your forearms as you want them.

It is commonly said that the calves and the forearms are the two muscular parts of the body that are the most difficult to develop. It is quite true that many do find them very stubborn to respond to an appreciable increase in growth, but the fact remains that the forearms and calves are composed of the same type of muscles as the rest of the body. It is not any particular peculiarity in the muscular construction of these parts that makes development difficult as much as the fact that these two parts are functioning more vigorously daily, which causes a greater density of tissue that makes the necessary breaking down process of the old tissue a more serious task. This must be done first before growth can take place.

Some choose to term this difficulty a natural condition. Possibly it is; nevertheless, It does not alter the natural order of tissue replacement. My experience gained from observation is that most body builders expect the forearms to respond as readily as other parts, and when they do not they become disgusted and say it just cannot be done for one of many reasons — the most common ‘being, that they have small wrists.

In years past, this old alibi has been drummed into the body builder. To my mind, the alibi just a satisfactory excuse for the incompetent instructor and the indifferent body builder. Naturally all are not indifferent. Many try hard, which puts the burden for non-success where it belongs — upon the instructor.

In my study of various body building courses. It is quite noticeable how are deficient in supplying the pupil with the proper explanation, construction and function, treatise and exercise for the forearms.

The small-boned wrist theory always makes me ask the question, “What is a small wrist?” I never get an answer. The defect, if it is one, is more assumed than is actual. During many years as an instructor. I have had the opportunity to observe numerous body builders. Many were famous for their arm strength, and many others with fine arm development could have been equally famous if their inclinations had been toward professional performance or amateur competition. Many of these specimens did not have large bony wrists; very few did. To the average body builder, some of these wrists would have appeared large, and the tape would have justified the fact — but it rarely ever was all bone girth. What was most apparent was the strong mass of muscle and sinew formed around the wrist. As an example, let me quote myself. My wrist measures around 9 ½ inches. Yet, those who can go back far enough to remember me in my earlier days when I was only a middleweight, growing into a heavyweight, will recall that my wrist measurement was given a-round 7 ¼ to 7 ½ inches. As far as years ago, I had then reached manhood’s estate and the age when bones had reached the limit of natural growth in my particular case. Now, is it foolish to assume that the additional two inches gained on my wrist girth could be pure bone? Of course not! My Forearms increased with any other development that transformed me into a heavyweight, and with the increase of forearm size went wrist size. Of course many heavyweights never secured the sized arms and wrists that I and others got, but that was simply because they did not apply themselves as I and others had done.

At the same time, it must always be understood, as explained in previous articles, that a man who is naturally a lightweight cannot expect to obtain the wrist and forearm size of the heavyweight. Yet, there are many cases where men who were to all appearances naturally Inclined to be of an average bodyweight, but who became heavyweights. Like myself, they were not content to belong to the average bodyweight class, no matter how fine their development, nor how great their strength was at the weight, they persevered and so built their body until they finally became heavyweights. Usually, these men can be identified by their bony structure, that is if you observe closely enough. As an example, many remark about my heavy wrist formation, but by squeezing the wrist at the sides, the muscular bulk is forced away and shows clearly the natural bone size, which is not much different than it was when I was a middleweight. In other words, you too, can build your forearms to greater size if you will only be persistent enough. Forget the small-boned wrist idea. Muscle is muscle, and the right type of exercise will break down any stubborn tissue and allow greater growth in replacement.

Many instructors lacking sufficient information on forearm development advise that the constant gripping, and lifting of dumbbells of barbells during exercise provides sufficient exercise for the forearms. That is not so, because in those same movements, yon are only using the arms in the manner in which they are most accustomed. The -muscles being fully used to those movements, even though they may be more vigorous movements, will no more respond to growth than will pick and showel work increase the arms of the laborer.

Like developing any other part of the body, you must understand the construction and function of the muscles. The forearm muscles, due to the natural crossing action of the radial and ulna bones of the forearms, are arranged to provide more diversified action.

The forearm muscles are capable of four movements — supination — pronation — flexion and extension. This being the case, the mere gripping and bending the arm, lifting to the shoulder, is only one part of their fourfold action. Exercise must be employed that works the muscles from every line of their natural angle. The swift movement of the arms in weight lifting is too quick to classify the action as muscle building exercise. In a lift, there is only the momentary grip, and pull up, that hurls the weight to the shoulders, then the muscles more or less relax in order for the arms to bend, and get under the weight. The forearms are little used in the overhead heave, except at the conclusion of the lift when the supinator longus of the forearm helps to support the triceps of the upper arm in locking the arm at the elbow. To give muscles benefit, the action must be an exercise movement that thoroughtfy stimulates action throughout all the issues, therefore, the movement must be reasonably slow and complete. Particularly Is this true with muscles that are more than ordinary dense In their tissue structure, otherwise, the breaking down of old issue will not be sufficient.

The forearms are divided into a very complex arrangement of nineteen muscles. These muscles are slender-bellied, and with very long tendons. The muscles proper, on the front of the forearm, extend about three-quarters of the way down to the wrist, the rest of the connection to the hand is tendon. Those on the back of the forearm are longer, but these also have long tendons as an examination of the anatomical illustrations of the forearms accompanying this article show.

The origin of most of these muscles are inserted on the bone of the upperarm to become finally attached onto the wrist and hand.

In the last issue, explaining the biceps of the arm, I showed how the biceps were attached upon the bones of the forearm, and as the forearm muscles originate on the bone of the upper arm, you can better understand now why the arm is so powerful in bending the forearm on the upper arm. Everything muscular Is arranged this way. Those who are seeking to increase the depth of the upper arm against the elbow fold can realize that forearm development is also a necessary part of the plan to create this desirable powerful formation.

Of the nineteen muscles in the forearm, four are concerned with pronation and supination, nine with the thumb, and six with the wrist, and they all have capable extension and flexion. When you hold the arm with the back of the hand up, that is the prone position, the reverse is the supine. This action aided by the crossing of the bones, permit the hand to rotate on the wrist 180 degrees, or a half circle. The rotation of the hand is caused by the crossing of the forearm bones, and not by the wrist alone. These bones control the wrist movement, therefore, you must always bear in mind that it is the forearm that involves the movements of the wrist and hand. This being a fact, all hand and wrist movements in turn involve the forearm muscles, and the hand and wrist is the angle from which we must begin in order to develop the muscles. The only thing left is to know in which direction the hand and wrist should be bent in order to get at all of the muscles. These movements comprise the exercises necessary for the purpose.

You must always remember that the actual functions of these muscles are short. The length of their pull is controlled by the limation of the hand bending on the wrist. Therefore, the true exercise operation must be gauged from the straight arm position, and bending the hand on the wrist in the varied exercise position. From this line of action, only light weights should be used, otherwise the swing of a heavy weight is going to create a momentum which will deprive the muscles of a steady complete movement.

There are exercises that are very influential for the forearm muscles that require a bent arm. These efforts are more sustained muscular contraction. By that I mean, after the muscle has become contracted from a movement, the bent arm will sustain the final contraction in a greater degree. Then there are movements of this nature which are necessary because of the supinator longus reaching high onto the upper arm bone, co-ordinates with the triceps. We must also bear in mind what I told you in last month’s issue how the biceps have a functioning relationship with the forearm. With these facts in mind you will understand the reason for light weights with certain exercises, and heavier weights in other exercises. The latter are employed where the muscles of the upper arm coordinate with the lower arm. In other words, you must know the how, when and where to employ heavy and light weight.

The forearm muscles having only an actual short range of contraction will permit, in many cases, a very much increased poundage per exercise, and what is also very important, one can exercise the muscles of the lower arm without any danger of organic reaction. The reason for this is because the forearm muscles are not directly associated with the organs. They also act more independently of other groups which enable their physical capabilities to be more safely and definitely controlled.

The thumb is an important consideration, too, in forearm development. While nine forearm muscles are concerned with thumb action, there are three that are directly associated with it—a short, and a long extensor, and the long abductor. The thumb, like the little finger has more freedom than the other fingers. While the little finger is much weaker than the thumb yet It has three direct muscles connections,—abductor, flexor and opponens.

The little finger does not act as independent of the other fingers as does the thumb, which means, while you can grip collectively with all fingers the thumb is not necessarily acting, so you should remember to grip strongly with the thumb when holding a weight in the hand during exercise.

The common extensor of the forearm branches into four sections, to be attached onto each finger. The palmaris longus extends from the bone of the upper arm down the forearm ending into a broad sheet of tissue that forms the palm of the hand. Other hand muscles of fleshy bulk form on the top of the fascia. On the back of the hand there are no fleshy, muscles, just a series of tendons. Of course there is a series of superficial muscles forming under the forearm surface muscles which you are more familiar with. These are equally stimulated by the exercises given

The one muscle one should be careful with, particularly weight lifters, is the supinator longus, that runs high on the upper arm bone and supports the triceps. Many lifters strain this muscle, which pains slightly and makes the arm weak in certain arm movements. This is because this particular muscle is not carefully developed strongly enough to co-operate with the effort the triceps demand. There is a little triangle shaped muscle at the upper part of the forearm named the Anconeus that also supports the triceps. This muscle is considered an elongation of the triceps by anatomists, and is developed in unison with the supinator longus.

If you are keen to develop the forearm muscles, it will pay you to read over the explanation given herein several times, so everything is properly grasped in your mind. After all, the forearm is a complex arrangement of muscles, and while I have tried to be brief, and yet cover all the important features necessary to know, study will clarify the subject .more to you. I have not covered all of the muscles separately, simply because so many of them operate will each other in groups that deal with the four explained movements of the forearm muscles.

The exercises submitted for your benefit within this article should be practiced as shown and described. Where a dumbell is advocated, use it. Where a kettle bell is advised use it, also where a solid dumbbell is advised gripped in the hand by the end, use it that way. In this last named, where one holds the dumbbell toy the end and describes a circle with the other end, moving the hand on the wrist, you will probably recognize an old exercise. I have noticed of the late that many have deviated from this exercise principle, using a dumbbell gripped by the bar. This is wrong in two ways. It induces one to use too much weight. The detriment of this is that once the exercise motion is set up a momentum is gathered by the heavy bell. This causes the bell to swing as the hand rotates and deprives the muscles involved of the progressive resistance necessary for development. Moreover, by holding the bell by the end, you obtain full grip of the thumb and little finger, as well as the other fingers If you grip a bell by the bar you are deprived of thumb, and little ‘finger benefit. The thumb is most important. Holding the bell by its end compels you to perform the exercise correctly, and docs the work it is ordained for.

There is not so much difference in muscular construction in the forearm as often met with in other muscles, as explained in other ‘previous articles. The forearm size is less deceiving than other muscular bulk. There is less chance for coarse tissue because the forearms are actively employed daily. You can readily tell the difference between a true strong forearm, and a weak one. The muscles stand out in stronger relief, or else the fore-arm is fat. There is the only real difference. After- this, the forearm size and muscular display becomes a true index of power.

Most forearms show the greatest development on the outside the Inside particularly when the muscles are flexed with the hand and forearm In the goose neck formation, is usually sadly lacking. When the front of the forearm is fully developed and when flexed will take on a canoe-like shape from wrist to elbow.

The front of the forearm takes on a different shape with different muscular types. Some display an abrupt bulk just bellow the elbow when the arm is posed in the goose neck position, and the rest of the arm to the wrist is slender. When this occurs, the forearm at its buging point looks larger than It really is. This happens when the frontal muscles are not fully developed over their entire length. As these muscles develop over their length, the sinew insertion into the muscles becomes thicker with the muscle, and this cordiness is what makes up the heavier wrist and stronger arm. I have seen many arms praised (because of this short abrupt bulking, but my experience has proved to me convincingly that they are not the strong type arm of outstanding physical merit. Men who are famous for their arm strength showed a forearm that bulked with thick sinew from the wrist to the elbow. The back of the forearm was broad with a muscular sweep rolling over the elbow and down. The ball of the thumb was thick muscle as also was the outside wall of the palm of the hand. Men like Karl Moerki and Thomas Inch are outstanding examples of men naturally endowed with small wrist bones. Their normal wrist did not exceed much over six inches in circumference, and the bony structure of the hand was small, but look what arms they built. You could see the powerful muscle banking on the front, and along the outside wall of the wrist, and they were both extremely powerfully armed.

Exercise will build for anyone splendid, powerfully formed forearms who strives hard and long enough, but one should also combine other variations of practices as an interesting deviation from exercise. Rope climbing is great, especially when one gets to the point where the rope can be climbed with hands alone. Chinning the bar to the half- up position, with the hands gripping in varied positions, such as the regular grip with palms of the hands facing front, then in the reverse position, then with hands using the alternate grip. Hand balancers always display powerful, well-formed forearms. The constant pushing up of their body-weight balanced on the hands employs every muscle in the forearm. Bending, and twisting iron bars into varied forms, and the bending and breaking of spikes is also a fine developer. The sport of wrist turning provides another fascinating form of forearm exercise. It is the particular sport of the strong armed fellow, and many wonderful tourneys of arm strength have I seen pitted together in a wrist turning contest.

In former Germany and Austria, there were hundreds of clubs that had teams devoted entirely to the sport of kettle bell juggling. What a he-man’s sport that is! The varied spins, twists and turns, the constant catching and swinging, saying nothing about the footwork, timing and keen eye required. It gets at every muscle as no other sport can. It is an arm developing sport de-luxe. On the other hand we read of feats claimed as being great feats of arm strength that actually are not. As an example, I can recall quite a number of years ago visiting a friend in an other city who simply worshipped a local Herculean athlete. He told me that this man would show me what real arm strength was. I was only a middleweight then, but was considered fairly strong-armed. This particular athlete had such a grip that he could raise off the table top a large iron ball which it was claimed no other athlete had ever been able to budge. While I have a large hand, the other fellow bad a larger hand. On sight, lie said I could not move the ball because my hands were not large enough. Nevertheless, he began to demonstrate and to the consternation of my friend he failed on every attempt. I then asked if I might try. My friend was indignant. What was the use of me trying when this giant had failed! He weighed about 265 lbs., nevertheless, at the first attempt I raised the ball, and held it, much to their consternation. This stunt was thought as being a great feat of arm strength. It was not as much a feat of arm strength as it was a feat of having so much strength and knowing how much to employ on the grip over a certain degree, simply squeezed the ball out of the hand. What the Hercules had not noted was that ‘I had an enormous thumb joint. In fact the thumb joint of my hand constitutes more than one-third of my hand spread and size. The thumb ‘being so large and strong, a-long with the little finger grip, did the trick. I merely employed enough force to enable the ball to cling to the hand and gently raised it off the table in a perpendicular line. A clever stunt all right, but did not require as much arm power as other feats I knew of, and which I had seen performed. This bears out what I say that many feats that imply great strength to perform are not always so, therefore, do not be misled, stick to the practices that are proven of the right order. Practice the exercises without deviation as instructed. Any deviation might only be some other fellow’s pet idea, or because he has some physical peculiarity that enables him to do a particular stunt difficult to others without the same peculiarity.

Personally, I regret that lifting clubs and body builders in this country do not follow the practice of juggling kettle bells. I will never forget my initiation into the sport. As a work-out, we stood in a wide circle and tossed the bell to each other. After only a very short time, and I mean short, my forearm muscles began to ache like no one’s business, but I stuck, vanity got the best of me, and for the next couple of days a my arms were like sticks. Later, I practiced the game with more common s sense, and attribute much of the gain gotten in forearm development along with the special exercises, to this sport.

There are numerous other exercises t that can be practiced which lack of s space prevents me from giving more t than I have herein, but these will suffice, and another article I will cover e more of them. While these exercises do give a wonderful benefit to the wrist, yet, there are other exercises that involve wrist movement exclusively. This is done by nutralizing as much forearm action as possible, making the wrist do the major work, which is the opposite in forearm exercise. The wrists will be treated in a s special separate article. I aim to make this series the greatest treatise of it physical development, far beyond the range of what a book could contain, only at a greater cost than one could pay. Follow them through and enjoy the practical benefits that experienced instructions yields to you. These forearm exercises will help you more than you may now realize. Start off with weights well within your control, and increase one repetition every third practice night until you have reached the limit of repetitions to comfortably perform. Never fatigue your muscles, instead, add a little more weight and start over with the original low count and work up as before, and the results will be, the development of a fine powerful forearm which will make you feel proud to roll up your sleeve and show to anyone.

Your Physique Volume 3 N 2, 1943

The post Developing the Forearms appeared first on Vintage Bodybuilding.

By the editor of Your Physique

Too many persons cling to the delusion that because they work hard all week they are getting all the exercise they need and therefore do not require any additional exercise.

They do not realize that there is as much difference between work and scientific exercise as there is between night and day.

The facts are. work exhausts vitality, drains energy from the body, tears down physical structures. Work is tiring, devitalizing. Work of any kind very seldom ever builds magnificent muscles. The most muscular marvels whom you ever saw never secured their magnificent development from work, because ordinary physical labor never builds shapely, powerful, attractive muscles. Surprising as it may seem most of the world’s greatest Strong Men are “pen-pusher — men like John Grimek. Anthony Terlazzo. Johnny Terpak, and many others spend most of the day in an office, sitting at their desks. But who does not envy them their beautiful bodies, their tremendous strength?

From now on, forget the False idea that you are getting all the exercise you need from your daily work.

Scientific exercises are properly planed movements with some form of apparatus, which may be your choice of barbells, dumbells, cables or other such equipment. These intelligently directed movements soon bring about the most astonishing results — both internally and externally. Regardless of your age, if you are a reader of this publication, you need scientific exercise with some form of apparatus. This means that whether the acquisition of big muscles appeals to you or not. it still makes no difference, you NEED scientifically directed EXERCISE

Why? Here are more than a dozen reasons WHY you should start at once on a program of proper exercise under a capable Health Director.
1. Exercise is the Key to Personal Efficiency. Self Mastery, and the cultivation of Power of Will.

2. Exercise helps strengthen all the vital internal organs, tones up the liver, kidneys, heart. Intestines, sex organs — enabling these and other vital structures to perform their respective functions normally and healthfully.

3 Exercise improves and helps maintain the circulation of the blood, preventing stagnation sluggishness —

4 Exercise assists in removing fatigue poisons from the system, eliminating congestion.

5. Exercise helps build up new, healthier, stronger body cells.

6. Exercise greatly assists in keeping the body more radiantly ALIVE and BUOYANT. . . remember. ACTIVITY is LIFE and muscular inactivity and stagnation means death

7. Exercise helps to insure proper elimination of waste from the intestines and bowels. Anyone who is constipated certainly need exercise.

8. Exercise makes the mind sparkling, clear, keen, with greater trigger-like responsiveness.

9. Exercise aids the entire body in becoming more responsive and efficient, assuring a better coordination of nerve and muscle — thus giving you the ability to swiftly snap out of the way of approaching danger, thus avoiding costly, painful accidents.

10 Weakness, sickness and various manifestations of disease are prevented or overcome with the added aid of scientific exercise.

11. Exercise stimulates, arouses and tones up the various ductless and important endocrine glands.

12. Exercise make the VITAL Organs POWER HOUSES of Electrical Energy and Dynamic Strength.

13 Exercise prolongs YOUTH, helps pospone old age, stiffness tension 14. Exercise enables you to DO more. BE more. EARN more.

15 Exercise sweetens life. All time and money spent in exercising the body pays a LARGER interest than any other investments

Through work you EXHAUST, EXPEND your energy. It is power flowing OUT of your body. Something GONE from within you. It means a definite loss.

By the aid of SCIENTIFIC Exercise you REVITALIZE the body, you recharge the exhausted cells. It is power coming INTO your body from without- You are GENERATING NEW ENERGY (assuming you also eat correctly). SCIENTIFIC Exercises RECHARGE the human battery. With all of these reasons given, I have not mentioned the fact that it is only by SCIENTIFIC Exercise that big, powerful muscles can be build altho this is the chief ambition of so many young, ambitious fellows, — and a worthy ambition at that.

Now that these facts have been brought clearly to your attention you will understand right away WHY you do not get all the exercise you need from your work. I’ve seen coal miners, workers doing the hardest kind of manual labor in steel mills, men working all day with pick and shovel and laborers in hundreds of ether fields of endeavor — but never have I seen one of these men with a physique the equal of any of our Great Strong Men and Muscular Marvels… and neither have you.

And here’s a most astonishing fact. The average person has an idea that to acquire such a muscular physique as our great Strong Men possess- demands an extraordinary amount of hard work. This is not true. Some intensive training about three evenings a week for a few months will show the most astonishing results. It is not a question of hard work, but rather the correct type of exercises enthusiastically performed: faithfully, persistently, patiently continued. Let me repeat, it is not “hard work” or exhausting effort that builds mighty muscles — but a properly balanced diet and a few well directed scientific exercises performed for a few minutes every other day.

Light calisthenics and free hand movements are largely a waste of time and effort if you are seeking REAL HE-MAN muscles. There are powerful body-resisting exercises which are extremely beneficial which can, and often should, be used in conjunction with your apparatus.

Regardless of your condition you can be greatly helped by the aid of scientific exercise. This means, properly directed exercise planned for your particular needs given by a really competent instructor. Teacher or Trainer who has specialized in this phase of professional activity. Your condition is carefully studied, so no matter whether you have a weak heart, are ruptured, etc, certain corrective exercises are designed to help you back to normalcy. Even bed-ridden patients in hospitals have to exercise with weights. These were not barbells or dumbells but weights attached to pulleys suspended from a wooden frame built over the patients beds, to help them regain the muscular power in their legs, thighs, arm, back etc.

It makes no difference what your age — you need scientific apparatus-exercise. This docs not mean that a man of 75 or 85 years of age is expected to toss over head several hundred pounds. Nothing of the kind it does mean that we should all train with suitable exercises adapted to our needs. And observe I wrote ‘train’, not strain. Scientific exercise is PROGRESSIVE. As you gain in strength and muscular power the amount of the weight or resistance is increased according to your increasing needs

Exercising with some form of apparatus makes it more interesting, offers greater resistance, speeds results, enables you to concentrate on what you are doing better. Each piece of equipment is designed for convenience and efficiency. As already stated, one of the finest and best investments every man and young man can make for themselves. No home is complete without some form of exercising apparatus, and every home should have an exercise-room or training quarters where all the family can participate in their choice of scientific body-conditioning exercise.

Because you may indulge in various games sports, golf, or other outdoor activities do not assume that that is sufficient. The ‘mind’ is concentrated on the game or excelling in the sport rather than the specific physical benefits. However, all scientific exercise will help you play a better game, become more proficient in your favorite sport.

The term “becoming muscle-bound’ by intensive exercise has scared many thousands away from acquiring a beautiful body, but let it be known that such a condition positively does NOT exist. Scientific exercise with any kind of apparatus invariably makes the various muscle groups supple, limber, responsive soft muscular tissue when relaxed: and absolutely flexible. So do not fear the bogey idea of a purely imaginary condition of ‘muscle bound’. Stiffness in the muscles comes from eating too mud starchy food and a lack of scientific exercise

In seeking advice on any subject ask an authority, a specialist on the particular problem. Don’t ask someone who knows nothing about SCIENTIFIC exercise whether or not you should exercise Ask us. because its our business to know and give you sincere, unbiased facts based on more than a quarter of a century of practical experience in dealing with hundreds of thousands of men In every part of the globe. Don’t ask your parents, your so-called “friends”, acquaintances or most local doctors as they know very little about scientific exercises adapted to your particular needs. It is sad the (misconceptions so many supposedly -learned” doctors have regarding exercise. Usually they advise against exercise because they are evidently ignorant of the true facts regarding scientific exercise or else do not want to lose a “paying” patient.

There is nothing difficult or complicated or hard about any exercise which we advocate. We strive to make them as simple as possible, as easy, as pleasant, as resultful as possible. No silly contortionist tricks or queer, stupid stunts. Scientific exercises are planned and designed to save your time, your effort, your temper.

Even though you are not interested in acquiring “Big Muscles” do not neglect your exercise. You need regular exercise. It’s a good habit to form. Performing your exercise regularly for at least a few minutes every other day helps you maintain that grip on yourself; prevents you from slipping, physically. . . and mentally

Scientific exercise is usually best performed with some type of apparatus. What kind of equipment you use does not so much matter, as the thing that really counts, is using it consistently, faithfully, regularly. So many fellows find their exercise periods so fascinating that when they secure one piece of equipment they want more. And it really is a big help to have on hand barbells, dumbbells, cables, iron shoes and the abdominal board; extra plates, bars, collars for dumbells of different weights for different exercises

There is no excuse for not exercising. You have been told why it is necessary. Courses by Internationally Known Health Educators are available to give expert, personal instruction according to your individual needs. The different types of apparatus are still available at unusually low prices Don’t deny yourself or your family all the many benefits which exercise with scientific equipment can bring to you. Use the long winter evenings by giving yourself an intensive Body Building and Conditioning Course and whip that body of yours into. A. I. shape before the warm summer days are here.

There are many things during this war — you can very well get along without. But its patriotic to keep or get FIT Weaklings and the inefficient are definitely out. It’s a DUTY, an OBLIGATION and a PRIVILEGE to put yourself in SUPERB condition for your Country. It’s sabotage to deliberately neglect yourself.

We want to be fair, to be honest, to be absolutely sincere. We have always strived to be, so we have said, and repeat again, that health cannot be obtained from the application of only ONE method. Health depends upon the intelligent application of ALL Natural Health methods. You need the right kind of foods, baths, sun and air baths, rest and relaxation, living under favorable conditions, .maintaining emotional control, elimination of all destructive forces and such factors as well as scientific exercise But we say, EXERCISE is MOST important, so vital and essential to your best welfare you can’t afford to ignore or neglect it. Start TODAY and get the Courses, the Training and Equipment you need NOW.

Your Physique, Volume 3 № 1, Mar 1943

The post Why You Need To Exercise appeared first on Vintage Bodybuilding.

By George F. Jowett

ONE day I was amused in watching a group of young men practicing a series of impromptu feats of strength among themselves In a Turner’s gym. One young fellow with an imposing development, particularly of the arms, had them all stopped in chinning the bar. and curling d umbel Is and barbell to the shoulders from the full arm hang position, but what puzzled all his comrades was the fact that he was no better, and not as good as one of the boys In slowly raising a barbell or dumbell to arms’ length overhead. They just could not figure it out. None of them could compare with this particular young chap in arm development, but there it was. He could do so many feats of arm strength the others could not, but he was sunk when it came to feats of overhead lifting. The answer, while puzzling to them, is very simple. This young chap only excelled in feats where the forearm was bent on the upper arm in such movements as curling, chinning and dipping In other words he was all biceps, and only where the biceps muscles were involved did he excel. He failed at all movements, that Is in proportion to his other stunts, simply because he had no worth-while triceps development, and all feats that require the strengthening of the arms overhead, and even when pressing down, with straight aims, are controlled by the action of the triceps muscles.

This again brings out the fact which I have so often stressed upon — that the size of the upper arm is not a true criterion of upper arm strength as much as is balanced upper arm development. The upper arm girth may measure much less than that of another, yet to the surprise of the larger-armed chap, the other fellow will excel in more feats of strength. Some explain this as being better in performing the tricks, or knowing the knack of doing a thing, whereas, others claim the big-armed fellow has more beef than strength. This Is rarely true, yet most people believe It. especially when they see an untrained man equal or beat is most arm-building enthusiasts center all their efforts on biceps development and pay little or no attention to the triceps, with the result that they are only able to excel on particular feats such as curling, dipping and chinning the bar. The body builder travels further who pays more attention to balanced development than the one who sticks to isolated development of one particular group of muscle. Vanity, and the craze for large girthed muscles is the cause of this isolated development fad.

One must always remember that the biceps act antagonistic to the triceps, and vice versa. The word antagonistic, while commonly used to explain the point is not wholly true. I would prefer to say that each support the other, except in such movements where one acts independently of the other. In this case one muscle is relaxed while the other performs, but in many movements and the majority of movements of the upper arms, the triceps and the biceps act together. As one muscle fullfils its duty the other takes up its appointed duty and carries on. You see this properly demonstrated when a person picks a barbell or dumbell from off the floor to the shoulders, and then raises the weight overhead. In the first movement the biceps function to the point of just beginning to raise the weight overhead at which point the triceps take up and perform most of the work. This clearly shows that the more balanced the development of these two muscular groups are, the more perfect will be the completion of the lift overhead.

The triceps form the bulk of the back of the upper arm as the word triceps implies it is in a three-fold muscle finally inserted into one common tendon. This muscle originates from beneath the deltoid of shoulder cap muscles. They are divided into an inner head, an outer head and a long head. The first two heads are attached onto the extremity of the bone of the upper arm. The long head is attached to the end of the clavicle, or collar bone, and onto the tip of the shoulder blade. The bulk of these three muscles quickly merge into a broad tendon at a point easily visible to the eye when this muscle is contrated forcibly by straightening the arm. The tendon forms the flat part of the upper arm down to the elbow and is flanked on each side by the muscles as they flow down to insertion about the elbow joint. The triceps have powerful control over the forearm. Their chief function is in straightening the forearm with the upper arm.

In former articles of this series when explaining the muscles of the forearm and of the upper arm. I have shown how strongly certain forearm muscles aid the triceps in operation. Chief among these are the supinator longus and the anconeous. Particularly the later though partly visible on an anatomical chart, the major part of it hidden under the supinator longus and under the triceps as this muscle travels from the forearm up onto the upper arm. These two accessory muscles act as the arm just begins to straighten and when the arm is completely straightened, making the arm lock more definite. The start aids the triceps to get under way and again comes into action at the point just before the arm straightens, known to lifters as the weak point. This point is only weak because the muscles arc not as fully developed as should be in order to fully co-operate. Perhaps this fact will also make clear to my readers why I have advocated to lifters raising upward a dumbell from the shoulders only about six Inches from the shoulders also, while holding a weight overhead, merely lowering the weight a few Inches and then slowly straightening the arm These two exercises movements develop and strengthen these muscles at the point that is most important to a weight lifting enthusiast.

The triceps are very powerful muscles, in fact, much more powerful in proportion to size than are the biceps. This is because the biceps are more shorter ranged in operation. Judging arm strength by results, it would pay every body-builder and weight-lifter to pay greater attention to the development of the triceps than is usually done for the biceps.

Most body-builders when taking their upper arm measurement do so with the biceps flexed, for this reason we are more familiar with arm size when measured from this position, but. if all would make a point to give the measurement of the upper arm when held relaxed and straight by the sides, one could readily judge by comparison whether the biceps were more developed than the triceps. In other words, there would not be so great a difference between the flexed upper arm girth and the relaxed measurement. Incidentally, many do not take the measurement of the upper arm correctly. If they did, some upper arms would measure more than is ordinary shown. Many flex the bleeps, bending the forearm as much as possible upon the upper arm When this Is done, the triceps become completely stretched, and where there should be a full curve on the under side of the upper arm there is a flat line. The forearm should be held almost at right angles with the upper arm which permits biceps and triceps alike to supply their bulk to measurement. Of course if the arm lacks triceps development, holding the forearm at any angle when the biceps are flexed will mean nothing additional.

Men who have reached the summit of arm development always are blest with a pair of powerful triceps. Among heavyweights, the stronger and larger the triceps become the less definitation will be shown. They bulk very heavily. In such cases the only proof of powerful triceps development is the crest of the horseshoe formation of muscle that rises from the fascia midway on the back of the upper arm. In a few cases this condition is exceptional, such as with Hackenschmidt, whose triceps formation was as clear and as clean cut as that of a lightweight Of course Sandow showed finely molded triceps, but he was not a heavy weight in the sense of the word as we nowadays accept the term. At his best he weighed about 186 lbs., and around this body-weight I can mention many who display triceps even more perfectly molded than most biceps. Nevertheless, the real heavyweights have real triceps power, otherwise their arm power, particularly in the slow overhead lifts and jerks, would never have achieved the records credited to these men of might. One can always tell powerful triceps the moment they see a bare arm. The width across the arm just below the deltoid gives the story. Of course, we know that big strong men always run to massivenesa. Their muscles become so densified with muscular fibre hardly any separation is visible, but do not let this deceive you as to the existence of muscle and power. Of course it all depends on what one is after. If the purpose is purely body building with a desire to develop the muscles so that they display separation, this can be done by omitting the practice of heavyweight lifting Heavyweight lifting brings out the fullest in muscular size, but also densifies the structure in the process. One could not become extraordinarily strong without this happening, and to many, this development is a desirable conquest. Now do not get me wrong by thinking weight lifting does not produce men with a clear muscular separation it certainly does in numerous cases, but what I mean is you will find more real strong men with smooth, silky muscles and less separation than you will among those who strive purely for development for the purpose of muscular display.

After reading this you may be a little confused and wonder what is the difference in the exercise process to ac quire one or the other. It is very simple. The practice of heavyweight lifting involves a less number of exercises in one period and over a shorter length of time per exercise period, and less practice nights per week. Weight lifting exercises Involve whole groups of muscles in each exercise, whereas, for the purpose of separation, less weight is involved, but more repetitions per exercise, and more exercises to be practiced at each period, and these I every night Repeated repetitions of an I exercise directly imposed upon one single muscle group will cause greater fibre construction. Constant contraction causes separation and shapeliness more than it does increase size. While size will culminate, yet it does not show its gains as much as it shows separation and shaping of the muscles, and the more exercises that can be performed to stimulate a muscle, or the least muscle group from all points of operating angle, the greater contraction of the muscle and allied muscles, which is the reason why more repetitions and more exercises per period, and every night weekly, will create finer muscular separation. While this explains a point that perhaps is important to you, and which is important in explaining the difference to those who are not aware of the facts and wish to know them — what I has it got to do with the development of the triceps in size, shape, separation and strength. It has a great deal to do with it for no other reason than because barbell or dumbell exercise alone will not give one the fullest in triceps development. Barbell and dumbbells give a very limited form of exercise for the triceps. Therefore, other factors must be considered that will function the triceps from all they varied angles they are capable of functioning

Many body builders get a set notion that weights are the only thing even to the exclusion of all other methods and other apparatus. It is a wrong attitude. While I agree on the greater efficiency of progressive weights, yet I never met a man who had reached the peak of success in development and strength, who had not recognized the fact that his training periods must be mixed exercise in order to get the best out of ail the muscles.

There is a saying that a good workman always is plentifully supplied with the best tools. It is the same with the good body builder. He will recognize the necessity of employing other tools and methods for obvious reasons, other than weights, and will use than in the right place. I have used all forms of apparatus while not yielding first place to them in preference to progressive weights. I have used cable pulls for certain muscles I have used spring grips, dumbbells-grips, chest weights and what have you. and enjoyed them one of the forms of exercise I ever indulged in was that of swinging heavy weighted clubs, something one never hear tell of these days. I used to have a pair knocking around up to a short time ago. and have often been quite amused watching the helpless antics of many who stand high in strength fame today, trying to swing them They are the equal of kettle-bell juggling for the arms and shoulders, and provide a far more strenuous training routine. Then we had the single club, one that weighed from eighty pounds as to whatever you desire, which was swung in all directions while gripped with both hands. They made you realize you had a pair of triceps and if they were below par in strength and development they quickly improved. Breaking iron shoes afforded fine triceps works, and many years ago I used the iron shoe exercise purely for triceps and arm purposes, a-long with my other weight training exercises Cable pulls of strong elastic can be used to give fine triceps exercise, as also can the gymnastic exercise, dipping between the parallel bars.

Just try standing between pair of parallel bars, pressing with the hands on the bars as you raise the legs up backward while held straight, until you are m a pianche. You nail soon find out If your triceps are strong or not as this ss purely a triceps feat that cannot be equalled with weights. Hold the chest cable expander at arms’ length behind the back, and with straight arms raise the arms out and up, until they are in a line level with the shoulders. This is a pure triceps exercise, providing you do not bend the body while performing the movement. Raising a dumbell backwards, and twisting the arm when the full back arm raise has been made will give the triceps a fine work out, but the trouble it is so easy to swing the body with the arm raise, that the best value in the exercise for the triceps becomes lost. Yes, you can lift a barbell from the position where it hangs at aims’ length across the back of the thighs, and then with straight arms, lift up backwards as high as possible. This is line if — you do it right, but too many bend too far forward as they raise the arms, with the result, that they hardly raise the aims at all. They only bend forward, and think they are doing it right, but this kind of mental telepathy will not help a little bit The exercises I have mentioned with either apparatus give you less chance to mislead yourself, with the results, better triceps action is gained, and muscular action is what origins results

Be broad-minded with your training. Study the things that will give you the development benefits you desire, and use those methods. It is no travesty from a principle to use a chest cable pull for one exercise in your weight-lifting exercise training. Chest cable pulls. as well as other things mentioned herein, are tools of the trade so to speak. I never came across a truly successful body builder who could say that in all his life he had never used any but one type apparatus to secure his strength, size and development. Thomas Inch, the great English strength athlete was very fond of chest cable exercise mingled with his barbell and dumbbell routine. If you think it is only weaklings or sissies that use this type of apparatus, you ought to try stretching the cables Inch could stretch few strong men could budge them let alone completely stretch hem. It helped to make their muscles more versatile and supple it allowed the weight training program to secure better results. On the whole, weights cannot be surpassed, but for some muscles where weights are restricted in their adaptability to function the muscles completely, use other means and apparatus if they will do the work.

Results are what you are after so do not turn down a point that will help you secure the results, particularly does this advice hold good In the consideration of triceps development. The point to remember is that all movements that straighten the arms, and permit the arms to be turned while the arms are held In the straight arm position, and also permit a turn or twist while the arm is evolving into the straight arm position, provide triceps stimulation and development. Therefore, bearing this in mind, you will not find it difficult to form a triceps exercise routine, adding to the exercises illustrated within this article.

Take the above position grasp the barbell as shown by dotted lines and straighten the arms. Don’t swing the barbell but use the strength of the triceps to bring it to arms length overhead. Other good exercises that can be done from this position is the prone press, shoulder press and belly tows. All are good triceps exercises, and plenty of weight can be used.

Your Physique, Volume 3 № 1, Mar 1943

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STRENGTHEN YOUR GRIP and FOREARMS

EXERCISE A. The good old dead lift is great for the grip. Suppose you can make a two hands dead lift of 400 pounds. Take one hundred pounds less 300 pounds . . . and lift it to finish position. Simply hold it until the grip gives out, replacing it on the floor in time to prevent damage to same and the arousing of parental wrath. You can also use a one hand ‘dead lift version. Loading up a heavy dumbbell and walking around the room with it is good for the grip An astonishing feat of strength was the performance by John Davis. He carried two 100 pound dumbbells for one block, then up three flights of stairs to Sig Klein’s gym without once putting them down.

EXERCISE B. The rotation movements can be best performed on a Lat Machine. As you can see from the illustration, the upper arm rests along a bench while the forearm is held straight up and down. Replace the bar of the lat machine by a loop of rope or canvas. Have a training partner pull it down to your grasp, then simply rotate the hand or twist it backwards and forwards as depicted.

EXERCISE C. Here’s another wonderful exercise for the forearms. Grasp a barbell in one hand and hold it at the shoulder as if you were going to press it overhead. Hold it SLIGHTLY off center so there is either a back hang or a forward hang to the weight. In fact it is best to do sets with both a back hang, and a hang to the front. With a back hang, simply pull the inside edge of the hand DOWN. With a front hang pull the thumb side of the hand BACK. Don’t have too much of an “off center” grip or else .the leverage will be too greatf.

EXERCISE D. A great exercise for the muscles along the back of the forearm is the following. Kneel down before a lengthwise placed exercise bench. Place the forearms across it with the backs of the hands up. A barbell is held in the hands with a shoulder width grip. From this position lower the hands by bending at the wrist then raising them as high as you can. USE A THUMB AROUND THE BAR GRIP! Don’t forget to lower and raise the barbell as high as you can.

EXERCISE E. The reverse position of the above movement is also very effective. Care must be taken to use a thumb around the bar grip, else the weight might fall out of the hands. But in this second exercise, don’t raise the hands until they are upright. First lower the bar as much as possible, then raise the hand until it is LEVEL WITH THE FLOOR! Hold it in this position for a SLOW count of three, then lower and repeat. Actually the same procedure can be followed in Exercise D, but it is wise not to try the same style with BOTH movements since it is very strenuous. This makes use of the STATIC contraction principle … use of the muscles to hold or maintain a position.

Follow these movements as well as the ones given in the first chapter of this Forearm article. Don’t be afraid to work hard on the forearm muscles since they’ll stand plenty of work. In addition, a wrist roller will come in very handy for use AFTER the barbell movements. This will help pump the muscles up and keep them flushed with blood.

American Apollo Volume 1 № 2.
Publisher: Calvin T. Beck

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By BARTON HORVATH World’s Foremost Weight Training Authority

If all the bodybuilders in the world met in one giant auditorium and by mutual consent e-elected to discuss only one phase of bodybuilding, “How to gain weight”, would be that topic.

There is more interest in gaining muscular bodyweight than all other subjects combined. It is fitting, therefore, that in its debut, Muscle Man Magazine reveals everything you need to know about gaining in the following text.

WHO CAN GAIN WEIGHT: Based on my 30 years in the bodybuilding game, during which time I have personally supervised the training of thousands, I say that EVERYONE who is underweight with the exception of Medical cases, can, and will, gain weight as a result of scientific weight training.

HOW MUCH CAN YOU GAIN: The amount you can gain is directly controlled by your degree of underweight, your height and your bone structure. A short man standing 5′ tall will weigh between 125 and 140 pounds when fully developed. At 5’4″, muscular body-weight will vary between 150 and 170 pounds. At 5’8″, 175 to 200pounds. Above 5’8′, limitations on bodyweight depend solely on how much more than 200 pounds the individual can carry without showing signs of soft bulk.

HOW FAST WILL YOU GAIN: It is not possible to accurately predict the speed with which all beginners will gain. Some gain weight quickly right from the start and keep gaining until they have reached a husky bodyweight. Others gain less slowly. Still others lose a few pounds the first week or so before they start gaining. Initial reaction to weight gaining methods are extremely variable. They are also no indication of future potential. A slow gainer may eventually catch up to, and go beyond, another bodybuilder who gained quickly at the start and then slowed down. As long as each month shows some bodyweight increase the methods you are following are correct for you and in time will produce all the results you want.

WHAT ABOUT FOOD SUPPLEMENTS: There can be no question about the benefits of food supplements. Protein, weight gaining preparations and wheat germ oil have all been proved valuable in thousands and thousands of authenticated cases. The underweight bodybuilder who supplements his diet increases his chances of gaining weight faster.

WHICH FOODS ARE BEST: The average American diet is high in calories. There are some 60 million citizens who are overweight based on good health standards. These overweight people shop in the usual stores, prepare food in much the manner as you and when they eat out, they patronize the same type resturarants. Impartially analyzed, it becomes a matter of ‘quantity’ more so than ‘choice’. They either eat more at regular meals or they eat more frequently. In this way they obtain more calories daily and they gain weight.

It is not necessary, therefore, for you to make any major changes in your diet. Eat as you always have, but try to eat a bit more. If you lack appetite, take HEFT daily. You can also enjoy a few light ‘between meals’ snacks. A glass of milk and a few crackers mid-afternoon and shortly before retiring will not overburden the digestive system and will supply important extra weight gaining calories.

ABOUT REST AND RELAXATION: 24 hours a day, during waking hours and sleep, the body is burning fuel in the form of calories. Consumption is greatest during periods of physical activity; least during sleep. It is imperative that the underweight bodybuilder obtain 8 hours sleep nightly.

WON’T I LOSE MORE WEIGHT IF I EXERCISE: A work out with weights actually consumes less calories than a leisurely walk. It is broken into short periods of exercise during which a proportionately large number of calories are utilized and periods of rest, when a comparatively small number of calories are used. The overall consumption is less than an uninterrupted walk. In addition, bodybuilding soon tones the muscles and the organs, creating a condition of increased efficiency. The bodybuilder sleeps more soundly, benefits more fully from food eaten and learns how to work and exercise with greatest physical economy. His workouts, therefore, actually result in a consevation and building of energy. The untrained individual wastes his storehouse of energy and for that reason he remains thin.

WHAT ARE THE BEST WEIGHT GAINING EXERCISE: Every scientific weight gaining program is centered around ‘basic’ exercises. These are movements which stimulate large muscle areas and which produce growth receptiveness. The exercises explained here are typical ‘basic’ or weight gaining movements.

LAY OFFS: If you feel tired and if usual weights feel heavy, miss the next work out. As long as lay offs are not taken more than once a month, they are refreshing and helpful to weight gaining.

THE EXERCISES: Follow the exercises in the sequence listed. Do not perform any others. Do not train between regular work out days. Try to get as much rest as practical when not training. Make a sincere effort to gradually step up your caloric intake. If appetite is lazy, take HEFT daily.

HOW ARE THE EXERCISES TO BE PERFORMED: Three times a week training is best for the underweight bodybuilder. Work outs should be thorough, but not exhausting. Moderately heavy poundages should be used and they should be regularly increased in keeping with added strength and bodyweight. Repetitions should be on the low side — about 8 each exercise. From one to three sets of each exercise are to be performed dependent on the experience of the bodybuilder. Slight muscular soreness should follow each exercise period. Soreness should leave before next training session.

1 – Bench Press. Lie on a flat exercise bench with a barbell held at arm’s length above the chest as shown in illustration #1. Take a deep breath and lower barbell to the chest. Press barbell to arm’s length, exhaling while doingso and repeat.

2 – Bent Arm Pullover. Hold barbell at chest as shown in illustration #2. Raise barbell a few inches to clear face and while taking a deep breath lower to behind the head. Draw barbell to starting position, exhaling while doing so and repeat.

3 – Lying Laterals. Hold a pair of dumbbells above the chest. Take a deep breath and lower them to the sides as shown in illustration #3. Exhale and draw weights to arm’s length above the chest.

4 – Shrugs. Hold a barbell in the hands as shown in illustration #4. Pull shoulders up to ears. Lower and repeat.

5 – Bent Forward Rowing. Hold a barbell at arm’s stretch toward the floor. Take a deep breath and pull barbell up toward chest as shown in illustration #5. Lower weight to arm stretch, exhaling while doing so and repeat.

6 – Barbell Curl. Hold a barbell in the hands, palms front bar at the thigh. Take a deep breath and curl the barbell to the shoulders as shown in illustration #6. Exhale and lower barbell to the starting position. Repeat.

7 – Triceps Press. Hold a barbell behind the head, elbows raised as shown in illustration#7. Straighten the arms and raise the barbell to arm’s length above the face. Lower to the starting position. Repeat.

8 – Squats. Hold a barbell across the rear shoulders while standing erect. Take a deep breath and sink into a low squat position as shown in illustration #8. Return to an erect position, exhaling while doing so and repeat.

9 – Side Bends. Hold a dumbbell in one hand and bend over directly to one side as shown in illustration #9. Draw the body to an erect position and repeat. Exercise one side and after a short rest exercise the other.

MENTAL APPROACH: A defeatist attitude should not be tolerated. This is true whether your aim is to gain weight, get ahead in your job or to win the girl of your choice. Confidence is infectious—build up an inner drive and a power of determination. Vow that nothing can hold you back. If you do, you will succeed. If you do not, you are doomed to failure. Always remember these truths!

Muscle Man, v.1 № 1.

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by Joseph E. Weider
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher

Do you know the natural way to breathe? Where are your great breathing muscles located? How can they be strengthened and of what benefit can they mean to you? An enlightened article that should be read and practiced by everyone.

As you of course know, the diaphragm is the floor of the chest, separating the heart and lungs above from the stomach and liver below it; it is the partition between the thoracic and abdominal cavities.

We breathe in two ways: by raising the ribs and holding the diaphragm still, or secondly, by lowering the diaphragm while the ribs remain stationary. Of course, these methods may be combined, and most people really do blend them more or less.

When muscularly exerting ourselves we need all the air available, and we instinctively secure it by breathing deeply both ways. But, by far the greater portion of time is spent in comparative repose; so the manner of breathing during these hours must be highly important.

Diaphragmatic breathing — permitting the ribs to remain virtually stationary while we contract and relax the diaphragm — is the proper method for repose, and this is proved by several facts. The descent of the diaphragm gently massages all the organs below it, improving the digestive and eliminative functions. Habitual chest breathing leaves the abdominal organs inert, except when they are stirred by vigorous bodily exercise. Secondly, the absorption of oxygen from a given volume of air is greater when it is breathed diaphragmatically than when the chest method is used. Thirdly, breathing with “the floor of the chest” means a considerable economy of muscular energy, because to raise the ribs involves some of the body’s largest muscles.

But with the average person, the diaphragm grows weaker after the first few years of childhood. Unhealthful habits, tight clothing, and especially careless, stooping posture in walking and sitting, cramp the great breathing muscle. From inactivity, it finally loses nearly all of its involuntary action, moving only by an effort of our will. Many persons lose control of it entirely, and many suffer for years from various organic complaints as a result. One of the finest things any boy or girl could do for his or her health and strength is to guard against loss of the
diaphragm’s natural action, as he or she grows older.

Test yourself now. Stand erect, hands on front and sides of upper chest, fingers spread. Now take an ordinary breath and see where the expansion occurs. If you feel the ribs rise and your waistline remains unmoved, your breathing is chest respiration. If the ribs hold their place and the abdomen expands, you are breathing diaphragmatically — properly for all times except when exercising.

Sometimes a person, in trying to breathe diaphragmatically, will contract the abdominal muscles and mistake their expansion for the result of the diaphragm’s descent. Guard against that; the muscles must remain relaxed so that the diaphragm may descend easily. Its ascent is simply a matter of its own muscular relaxation between the downward movements. Practice persistently, always keeping your mind on the exercise. Every week’s work will show results, till the habit is formed.

I have known diaphragms to be so weak that no amount of effort while the person was standing would bring them under voluntary control. In such cases one must lie down. Reclining on the back makes diaphragmatic breathing far easier, and by keeping the hands on the chest walls one can tell very accurately how he is coming on.

Breathe slowly, letting inhalation and exhalation occupy about the same length of time. Never hold your breath for more than a few seconds. At first you should not try to breathe very deeply; for your diaphragmatic capacity may be small for several weeks, and a too forceful inspiration will shift you into the chest method.

Your Physique Volume 3 N 6, February-March 1944

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A soft, flabby, unmuscular waistline ruins the appearance of many a guy who otherwise might be admired for his physique. Perhaps more than any other feature of the body, the waist is the barometer of physical condition. The average man who loves his coffee with cream, his pie, and his beer, sooner or later finds himself spreading in the mid-section. Exercise alone probably won’t keep that trim youthful waist for you. Eating is important, too. But assuming one goes easy on foods which tend to build up fatty tissue (often first deposited in the form of an unsightly paunch), exercise can help maintain or achieve a trim, muscular waist.

Whether you use weights or not, ‘along with your push-ups you can easily do sit-ups and leg raises. They’re doubtless the most effective exercise for keeping down the waistline. And you don’t need a gym for this kind of work-out. Sit-ups can easily be performed on a chair placed sideways next to a bed or some heavy piece of furniture under which you can anchor your feet. (See Fig. 1 & 2). Then, with your hands behind your head, you can go to it! If you have a tendency to spread, at least three sets of not less than fifteen repetitions should be performed every other day.

Leg raises can just as easily be done at home. Place your hands behind your head and grasp the bed springs .or table top) for support. (See Fig. 3 & 4). And then raise away! Use the same number of reps and sets as with sit-ups.

Better watch your waist! Once it has spread, it’s no easy job to trim it down.

American Apollo Volume 1 № 1, May 1958.
Publisher: New World Enterprises Syndicate

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This is one of the most beneficial of all exercises and should be a part of every bodybuilder’s exercise program. Begin the deep knee-bend by standing erect, hands on hips and feet a comfortable distance apart (Position #1). For better balance, place your heels on a book or block of wood an inch or two thick. Inhale. Then, keeping your back perfectly straight, lower your body-to a squatting position until your buttocks touch your heels (Position #2). Pause and exhale. Then return to the starting position. Do at least twelve repetitions.

Variations on the basic exercise can be undertaken as you progress. Try it, for instance, with your feet flat on the floor and close together. Or use a weight either placed across your shoulders or held in each hand.

One of the most beneficial variations of the deep knee-bend is to perform it squatting on one leg at a time, with the other leg held straight out in front of you. At first you will probably need to hold onto some stationary object like a chair, bed or dresser. In time you will learn to keep your balance without holding on to anything. Try it with your arms stretched out straight in front as you go into Position #2, returning your hands to your hips as you regain Position #1. After you’re good at this, you can hold a weight in each hand for more muscle-building strain.

The deep knee-bend is especially good for the upper leg region. It develops the Vastus Externus (the long muscle that runs along the outside of the upper leg) and the Vastus Internus (the muscle situated at the front and inside of the leg just above the knee). It also aids in the development of the Gluteus Maximus (the buttocks muscles) and broadens the chest as a result of the deep breathing it requires.

Learn the basic exercise thoroughly first, then try the variations. You’re only as good as your legs — and the deep knee-bend will give you strong, well-proportioned ones.

Future Man Volume 1 № 1, Winter 1962

Publisher: Physique Press

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By BARTON HORVATH,

The World’s Foremost Physical Consultant

“Why should I train with weights?”

That question is uppermost in the mind of all new readers of a magazine such as Muscle Man, who, for some reason or another have obtained a copy.

Unless the question is answered intelligently, scientifically and adequately, the chances of the new reader being motivated to action are slight.

Both sides of the question should be fairly evaluated. To claim that weight training is a magic “cure all” capable of transforming a grotesque freak into a beach Adonis, or an incurable invalid into a robust individual, is ridiculous. Likewise, to minimize the many benefits of weight training due to an ill treated presentation, is an error. Only the truth, based on actual statistical fact can be wholely convincing. Such truth is now presented.

WHO CAN TRAIN WITH WEIGHTS? Members of both sexes and of any age group who are in normal good health can benefit from scientific weight training. To be wholey beneficial, there must be a desire on the part of the individual for physical improvement, plus an understanding of what that improvement can mean to him, or her, in success and happiness in life.

This means that the very young, under 10 years of age, are unlikely prospects as are the old, over 70. The first group has not matured sufficiently to comprehend the benefits of physical fitness and physical attractiveness. The second, has lived it’s life to a large extent and is unlikely to alter habits at an advanced age.

The 60 years between, however, can be, and usually are, used for constructive weight training. And—physical improvement can be realized during any of these 60 golden years.

WHO SHOULD NOT TRAIN WITH WEIGHTS? Anyone of any age who is suffering from heart disease, or who is under doctor’s care for a specific illness in which a part of the cure is complete rest, should not train with weights. Any one who is suffering from any physical weakness, such as hernia, varicose veins, spinal maladjustment, etc. .. should not train with weights. And anyone who is suffering from ANY chronic or acute medical condition, should not train with weights without first consulting a physician. Otherwise, those who are thin and weak, fat and flabby, husky and strong—male and female, can ALL train with weights and make definite improvement.

WHAT ARE THE PHYSICAL BENEFITS? The physical benefits of weight training are many and varied. In fact, they can be likened to a chain reaction, which once started spreads rapidly and encompasses the entire human structure. These benefits include organic, muscular, emotional and moral. Inside and out, scientific weight training remolds the individual and better equips him for a full, wholesome, satisfying life.

One of the first reactions noticed by the Novice in weight training is a lessening of tension and mental unrest, so common today. Training with weights is a basic physical action in which basic physical equipment is utilized. The hands, the muscles, the limbs and the joints of the body are permitted freedom of expression which is gratifying and satisfying; a release from this machine age. Weight training is additionally a throwback to the primative, when the survival of the fittest prevailed. It is as natural as the dawn of civilization; a reestablishment of original concepts of life. Even one work out makes a m ale feel more manly and a woman more confident of her charms. A basic expression to satisfy the basic requirements of the body: – that sums up weight training well and explains why the sport will continue to grow in popularity with each passing day.

With continued weight training, and as the physique strengthens and develops, this process of mental rest and peace of mind becomes accelerated. A lack of confidence, one of the major reasons for failure in life, is replaced by a feeling of true confidence. This true confidence is one which is accompanied by the knowledge that success requires work, study and application. The muscular structures of the body have demonstrated this truth by their improved appearance and capabilities. This knowledge is then translated into a similar formula by the individual and used to assure success in other interests.

While the mind is undergoing this reconstruction period, the organs are strengthening. The organs of our body are tied in directly the mind and the physical. Less tension means they can function more efficiently without being geared for emotional attack. Emotional unrest can interfere with the functioning of the digestive organs, the kidney, liver, heart, lungs, circulatory system. All this is dispensed with when a feeling of well being is cultivated. Sleep is sounder, there is less wasted energy and less fatigue; faster recuperation after physical exertion. The reflexes are sharpened— physical coordination is improved. These are but a few of the myriad of benefits the mere act of weight training initially induce.

Coincident, the muscles of the body are developing and strengthening. With a more capable muscular structure, the chain reaction continues. Muscles which have been lying dormant and little used for years, are now developed and cultivated. Many of these muscles work in assistive capacities and ease the burden of similar muscles in adjacent areas. This leads not only to a well developed physical appearance, but to a type of muscular economy heretofore unknown. Hard physical work now becomes easy. The physical impossibility, possible!

In weight training, poundages which were heavy a short time before, become light to handle. And as they become light to handle they are increased gradually. In a short time the heavier poundages feel light and the pattern continues indefinitely With each step up in physical capability there is an accompanying improvement in muscular size, appearance and condition until eventually the previously underdeveloped individual emerges as a man of muscles.

The benefits extend beyond the confines of lifting weights. These same, well coditioned muscles, are wholely adaptable to any type of physical expression. Given the required training, they rapidly adjust to baseball, football, swimming, tennis or any sport. And – because they are well trained and wholely efficient, the physical economy possible which permitted these muscles to lift heavier and heavier weights, makes them outstanding in sports.

As the muscles become larger, more shapely and efficient, additional physical benefits are noticed. With the removal of physical weakness, the circulatory and digestive systems are benefitted. Efficient muscles produce less waste residue as a result of physical exercise. This eases the burden on the blood stream, the liver, kidneys and skin, which must remove waste material from the body. The blood, with less waste material to contend with, is purer, filled more fully with nutrients and life giving oxygen with which to nourish, rebuild and strengthen the muscles and the organs of the body. The processes of digestion and assimilation are most efficient. Food eaten is digested more fully and greater benefit is derived as a result. A condition of greater organic and muscular health results. This in turn is reflected by a dramatic drop in susceptibility to disease up to the point of complete imunity to certain illnesses such as the common cold which the majority of well trained bodybuilders evidence over a period of years.

Morally, weight training often succeeds where lectures, punishment and even serious complications as a result of immoral act, fail. Those who train with weights and who have given freely of their sweat, energies and time to improve their physical selves, are unlikely to abuse what they have worked so hard to build. While weight training draws followers from all segments of citizens, and some due to a combination of circumstances may not represent everything we call ideal, on the overall picture, those who do train and who train seriously take a pride in themselves, their bodies, their morals and wholesome ambitions in life. It is unlikely that any other group of athletes, or devotees of any ‘ism’ can point to as slight an incidence of ‘failures’ among their active followers.

Not everyone who trains with weights will become a Mr. America or if a female, a Miss U.S.A. No one though, can predetermine who will fare second best when the novice takes that first work out.

To be an honored champion is a worthwhile goal. Hope should persist. Yet if fate decrees otherwise, nothing is lost. The mere fact that you have trained, that you have improved, that you have re-established a basic and necessary intimacy with yourself as a child of Nature, and have benefitted from the therapeutic activity of feeing physically A LIVE, will make you, You and YOU a better rounded, more successful individual than you would have been otherwise.

So forget the tinsel and the glamor of being a beach Adonis, a superman, a giant of power, a Mr. America. This can in all probability be yours. But the real reason why you, the novice who is reading a magazine on weight training for the first time should train, is because you benefit in every living cell of your body, in every mental and emotional impulse, in every interest in life.

If these reasons aren’t sufficient, then do not be mi sled. You DO NOT possess either the true desire nor the mental maturity to benefit from weights. You are not ready for the greatest journey of your life-—the one which will lead to strength, health, happiness and success. Better wait awhile longer until you do feel the TRUE urge. Then, and only then do we recommend that you send for, and use, that set of Muscle Sculpture weights.

From Muscle Men, Volume 1 Number 1

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By John Leonard, Mr. Universe

One of the goals of every iron man should be SUPER STRENGTH.

Unfortunately, too few bodybuilders ever fully exploit their strength potential.

The main reason is that they really don’t know how to train for maximum power. They believe that only such movements as the squat, bench press and deadlifts are power builders. They are, of course, wrong!

Any exercise can be used for molding giant power. The key is HOW the exercise is employed.

Fortunately, the principles of power training can be clearly outlined and are easily understood. Follow the simple rules and you can add up to 50% to your present power in any movement in a few short weeks.

SELECTION OF EXERCISES: When training for power you can concentrate on ONE movement only. Power cannot be spread over many movements. You will make fastest progress if you select one exercise and practice this solely for several weeks.

FREQUENCY OF TRAINING: Train 3 to 5 times weekly, dependent on your energy level If you feel fresh and have an urge to train, take a work out. If you feel listless and lacking in energy, do not train that day. Learn how to judge your energy level from your feelings. If you study yourself you will soon know when you should take a work out and when one should be missed.

HOW TO PERFORM EXERCISES: Warm up with a light poundage, performing 4 or 5 fast reps. Take a rest and add some poundage Perform 2 to 3 reps. Take a rest and add some poundage. Perform a single rep. Continue to add poundage and to perform single reps until you have reached your limit.

Take a rest.

Reduce poundage to original weight. Perform the FIRST HALF of the exercise only. As an example, in the curl you should curl the weight from the thighs until the forearms were parallel with the ground only and then lower the barbell to the thighs. Continue to perform single reps of this stage of the exercise only, adding poundage with each, until you have reached your limit.

Take a rest.

Reduce poundage to original weight. Perform the SECOND half of the exercise only. As an example, in the curl, start with barbell curled to shoulders and lower until forearms are parallel to the ground. Then, curl barbell back to shoulders. Continue to perform single rep of this stage of the exercise only, adding poundage with each, until you have reached your limit.

Take a rest.

Reduce poundage to original weight. Perform only a QUARTER movement. Once a-gain using the curl, move the weight from the thighs to a quarter of the distance of a full curl. Lower to the thighs. Add poundage and continue with single reps until you have reached your limit. In this final, quarter action movement, swing, heave, cheat in any possible manner. The entire idea should be to use as heavy a weight as possible. The more weight you learn to handle in this quarter action, the more you will eventually be able to use in the full movement.

MENTAL APPROACH: Cultivate and maintain an utter contempt for heavy poundages. Do not let them frighten you or set up mental blocks. Mental blocks, more than anything else, keep bodybuilders from handling heavier poundages. In 192O’s the a 300 pound clean and jerk was unknown in America. Once that mark was surpassed, dozens of lifters were ‘capable’. They had been capable for YEARS but needed someone else to succeed before their mental blocks were removed. In the 1930*s it was 350 pounds that was ‘impossible’. The 1940’s found 400 pounds the ‘limit’. Today, 500 pounds “can’t be done”. Yet, that mark will be reached and once it is, many will follow the leader. And–those who do follow the leader, could be first if they only believed in themselves and ignored the word ‘impossible’.

REST: At least 9 hours sleep nightly is needed by the power trainee. Occasional ‘breaking of training’ and a late night out is advised, but not too frequently. Once every two to three weeks is sufficient.

DIET: A heavy carbohydrate, liquid and protein diet is important. Large quantities of starchy foods, along with thick soup, milk and meat three times a day are imperative to success.

BODYWEIGHT: A maximum bodyweight permits a building of maximum power. You cannot retain razor sharp delineation and beat the world in power.

AFTER POWER: After you have developed a maximum in power in any exercise you can retain close to 100% capability by an occasional power work out. Otherwise train in the normal bodybuilding style.

Muscle Man, V. 1 №1

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The Author gives first-rate training instruction invaluable to the bodybuilder experiencing difficulty in developing both large and shapely muscles. The exercises for calves are of special value.

I wonder if any of my more discerning readers note a subtle difference in the title of this article, in contrast to my previous treatise?

There is a difference. It is the conjunction “and” instead of “or”. For shape and size are not antithetical to the same extent as quantity and quality.

Before I really get down to work, however, I wish to correct two minor errata in my previous article — they were the result of bad proof-reading on my part and not the usual typographical errors so prevalent in other P.C. mags.

It is a matter of some concern to your uncle that many American magazines display horrid howlers by type-setters and these many mistakes give the impression that either the American Linotypers are largely illiterate or that Speed has been the altar on which accuracy as been constantly sacrificed. It is a matter of pride, therefore, for me to help BODY CULTURE to maintain its high standard of presentation and it is for this reason I make these corrections (which I should have made in my original submission but for pressure of time).

In the last paragraph and first column of page 24, I refer to tea and lemonade as “a stringent form” of water. The correct term is, of course, “astringent “.

In the last paragraph of the second column on the same page, I appear to say — “an excess of QUALITY and muscle brought a deterioration in quality The passage should read” an excess of QUANTITY in muscle brought a deterioration in Quality

While on the subject of my last article, two more points arise — the first is . . . Why do I suggest grouping the exercises into two sets for opposed muscle groups on alternate nights?

Readers of the July issue of “Vigour” will recall that I said that muscular growth was caused by breaking down muscular cells by exercise into twice the number of cells, some of which die in the process and some of which grow and feed until they in turn are broken down. The usual rest day between periods is to allow the bisected cells to feed and grow and the dead cells to be washed away.

By working groups alternate nights we increase the functional demand — (Functional Demand — nice term coined by the “Iron Man” as a synonym for Metabolism — Thanks, “Iron Man” I) and yet at the same time allow the broken down cells to be nourished and cleansed in the resting muscle. As I said, these were “high pressure” tactics to give you a jolt. You may wonder why I said “water” instead of milk as a weight increaser. To tell you the truth I did not realise that by the time the article was out, milk would again be plentiful. Water is, however, very good and has the advantage of being cheap. Milk is really the best, of course.

I now hear that our old friend, Johnny Grimek, is going to disprove me by lifting more weight at his top bodyweight than he has ever done before. By the time this appears in print, he will have done it. (I never say “probably” when talking of Johnny’s intentions—he never lets us down . . .)

This will not invalidate my theory that muscle cultivated for its Maximum bulk is less efficient than muscle cultivated for maximum strength—it merely means that contrary to appearances, Grimek’s 18.5/8 in. arm is really all solid muscle and not of the ” coarse ” variety (that is, of course, if Grimek’s records are obtained with the 18.5/8 in. arm).

If this is so, what sort of measure would he have if he “souped up” ? (to use a Paschallism).

Now to the shape business.

Muscles arc complex structures, and when we refer to the biceps muscle we at once divide it into two heads with its own name. The triceps obviously has three.

But that is not all. Each of these heads is composed of many fibres — each with its own nerve connection—and through this arrangement it is possible to mould the shape of your physique as docs a sculptor. You will, of course, be limited to a certain extent by bone lengths and leverage lengths, by the points of attachments of the various muscles, and joints. The “Iron Man” refutes this, it says in fact that what governs the size of a muscle is not its leverage but the intensity of contraction. This is similar to the politician’s statement that the coming slumplet is a recession and not a depression. ”Soft roes by any other name . . . Incidentally, the latter rocs arc of the ” red-herring ” variety.

Of course, the intensity of contraction is governed by the leverages, and although the person with poor leverages can annul his deficiencies by working harder at certain exercises, that fact (that he has to work harder) proves the existence of a difficulty and the difficulty is obviously skeletal as a nervous inability to contract intensely enough would not be cured by heavier weights and more repetitions but by mere mental exercise. Of course, mental concentration helps in contraction, but it is auxiliary rather than fundamental.

Another bright “expert” told a friend of mine that a muscle cannot be partially contracted. I am prepared to show him my pectoral “ripple” any time in which separate fibres are contracted, group after group, until the whole muscle is hard.

So we can mould and sculpture our physiques by altering the shape of individual muscles, as well as enlarging those muscles in relation to others???? Of course, and that is why trainers are inundated with requests to alter shapes and size by guys who figure nature gave them a raw deal . . . Henry Atkin is giving personal tuition in this but your Uncle has his own theories about this matter, some of them orthodox, others a little less so. General instruction is perhaps less useful to the individual than personal instruction, but magazines exist for those that want general instruction and postal courses or gymnasium training for those who want the “personal touch”. There is good and bad instruction in both fields. Some magazines are too general and not instructive enough. Some postal courses have more “touch” than personality. After all it is a free country, and our editor is smart enough to know that old adage about — “fooling all the people, some of the time”. We advocate making body culture fun, but we are not “fooling “, we are in earnest. So now to work!

That biceps muscle . . . Does it lack a head? There is no cure for the body-that lacks a head!—but several cures for the biceps with this deficiency. Here are three of the best: —

(1) The bent-over curl (best, perhaps, one-handed with Dumbells. This curl can also be done lying along a bench with the arm over the end. In this position it is impossible to “cheat “.

(2) The chin behind neck (a contradiction in terms, but the best description I know). To get the best out of this exercise, keep the hands fairly close together and grip the chinning bar as if you were going to curl a barbell in the normal manner. It is possible that your bodyweight may be too heavy to do this enough times to get a workout. If so, an overhead pulley bar could be rigged up in which you pull the bar down behind your neck instead of the back of your neck up to the bar. Steve Reeves uses one of these— Alan Stephan docs the orthodox chin.

(3) The Military Press (!) Yes, the old Military’ Press helped the biceps just as the new Olympic press helps the upper fibres of the pectorals. Do your press both with the hands in the normal position and in the curl position.

Quite a few cases of headless biceps arc actually bodiless biceps, so military pressing in the normal manner will build the under body of the muscle throwing the head into relief. If you suspect that this is the case, the following instructions should also be tried.

BODILESS BICEPS  (Three more cures coming up!): —

(1) Military Press, as stated above, with hands exactly shoulder width apart. The maximum effect is over once the bar is above eye-level but carry on right through —after all, you do want deltoid muscles, don’t you?

(2) Reverse curl, i.e., Curling with knuckles uppermost.

(3) Dumbell curl with the dumbell rod lying at right angles to the line of the shoulders and not turning from this line so that at the finish of the movement the end of the rod is pointing backward over your shoulder. To follow through and press overhead as Reuben Martin does (see June BODY CULTURE) is to make sure that every fibre of the main belly of the biceps has had exercise.

Calves are a problem in which leverage has more than its fair say, and the unfortunate result of this is that the old standard of measurements which stipulated that neck, biceps and calves should have more or less identical girths has gone by the board. I rather fancied that old ideal myself. Melvyn Wells and Clancy Ross both looked kind of spindly below the knees and, as 1 say, although leverages make it difficult to build shapely calves on certain people, they do not make it IMPOSSIBLE.

Here’s how to develop calves at the ankle end!

(1) Stand with the toes on a block of wood two inches high, and the heels on terra firma. Hold a dumbell in front as a counterbalance and raise your heels from the ground until the feet arc level with the block and then lower slowly. When this becomes easy-hold a heavy barbell across the front of the deltoids and carry on as before.

(2) Rotate the toes in a wide circle while seated on a box (if you have an Iron Boot, all the better).

(3) Practise rolling into the outer edge of the feet an’i back while holding a barbell on the shoulders.

The calves’ belly is easier to blow up, and orthodox heel raises almost to the absolute tips of the toes, both with the toes on the wood block, and the heels on it, will do most good.

Exercise 2 consists of standing with the heels on the block and raising the toes off the ground. This gets the tibial muscle and gives you a nice shin pad.

For the calf in its upper extremity at the back of the knee the femoral biceps curl, standing and lying down, and with an Iron Boot if possible, is a wonder worker.

The second exercise for this part of the calf is all the Squats in their 57 varieties (Heels up, heels down, feet apart, feet together}. When using squats for calf purposes, use a slightly lighter weight than usual and rock gently in and out of balance.

Many thighs are ruined by the neglect of the Femoral Biceps and although the squats do give this muscle some work, the following routine should help: —

(1) Leg Presses. Bring the knees right over to the shoulders while lowering the weight, and use a really heavy weight.

If you do not have a legpress machine, have a couple of lads standing around to steady the bar—but do try and control it yourself if possible. That will give the biceps femoris a shock !

(2) Prone leg curls with Iron Boot or similar device.

(3) In the upside down cycling position do straightleg scissor kick both laterally and fore and aft. This will stretch the hamstrings and although Iron Boots would be difficult to manage owing to the rods catching the stripped boot itself would add little extra work to the movement. This muscle business is like the old Chinese laundry motto—” No tickie, No washee “… or the Communists’ brutal alternative—” No work, no Eats Well, in weight training, if you don’t work you don’t get muscles! . . .

The Quadriceps of thigh and the Sartorius muscles will always prosper on squats, but it would be perhaps a little helpful if I elucidated the various types of squats for each of the four heads.

The inner lower head (just above inside of the patella) is affected at both ends of a squat, but the best work for it is the full deep squat with the heels raised. If you contract the thigh muscle hard and quickly at the finish of the upward movement or do a little jump, this lower head will benefit a lot. Kicking with an Iron Boot heavily loaded and the thigh raised a quarter of its way to hip-level will give you that inner head so prominent on footballers.

The outer lower head is affected by half squats with the feet wide astride and the knees pulled in. Side leg raising with the Iron Boot also helps this division of the muscle.

The frontal inner head is worked by squats with the knees and feet together and heels on the ground.

Leg raising, both standing up and lying down, also builds this muscle, but best of all is the abdominal raise on the incline board, which literally ties it in knots!

The outer upper head is mainly worked by side leg raising with an iron boot and side bending with the legs astride and a heavy dumbell in one hand.

I am omitting from this discourse the abdominal and spinal and gluteus muscles, as few people suffer from deficiency in these long after taking up weight training.

Some people are worried about prominent clavicles, and the orthodox crucifixes are usually insufficient to affect this condition. Continental pressing will help, but neck-rolling in the wrestlers’ bridge position will build up the sterno-mastoid muscles and the platysma myodes.

If you have a headstrap, lying on the back along a bench, with the head over the end and lifting the weight by the neck alone will also help to cover these bones a little BUT in nine cases out of ten prominent clavicles are the sign of general lack of assimilation and you would be better to concentrate on heavy group exercises for a while first.

Reg. Cooper of High Wycombe writes me on latissimus trouble — he claims to have done 10 million pullovers! . . .

I think his main trouble is the inability to shrug them forward in the approved pouter pigeon manner. This inability is caused by the lack of mobility in the scapula and I am sorry to say weight-pulling docs not help this as it is a matter of relaxation.

Link the hands over the head and pulling very hard, gradually bring them down until they are resting on the top of the cranium. Now keep pulling down and outwards, keeping the elbows back. If you look in a mirror, you will see your shoulder blades trying to sprout like embryo wings—that’s the first stage in the building of that much desired wedge. Now, how do we shrug them forward to fill out the armpits like a flying buttress in reverse?

Ah. this is where Uncle gets his pet exercise in. The Press-on-Back with the half-bridge. . . . Oh, yes, it’s my pet, alright. Here’s how, Reg. and other would-be Eifermcn. (Did you know that Eifer is a German word for ”zeal” ?)

George Eiferman is zealous enough — hence his physique.

Lie on the back with the heels up underneath the buttocks and the feet slightly apart. Pullover with a run a heavy barbell so that the fore-arms are at right angles to the ground with the elbows close into the sides . . . Now raising the buttocks you press the bar over head pushing hard under the triceps with the lattissimus muscles and arching the back as high as you can. The elbows should leave the ground slightly ahead of the lumbar vertebrae and if you do this exercise properly you will gradually “feel your lats. pushing you under the armpits.

It is an unfortunate thing that apart from pulling over bent arm on an incline board, and the rowing boat with the elbows to the sides, few weight exercises hit the lats. at their fullest contractions, i.e., as the arms pass behind the body.

Reuben Martin is fond of the Roman rings, and you only have to see his lats. spread to know why (Phew !). Dips between parallel bars and straight arm pressing to hand balances are good also. Pulley weights used with straight arms and working from shoulder level in front until the arms are behind the body are good, but your Uncle plugs for parallel bars, Roman rings and that Press with Half-bridge. Try them anyway!

No weight lifter handling heavy weights worries about deficient trapezius or deltoid muscles, so if a body-builder is marred this way he must do plenty of Cleans and plenty of presses with heavy weights. (Then, of course, when asked to demonstrate that body-builders are strong, he will not be at a loss.)

Gee, it’s hot to-night ! . . . I feel as if 1 have mentally done all this work myself . . . but I hope YOU haven’t . . . WHY ?

Because these are for special deficiencies and if you have ALL these faults then you need general body-building and not specialisation. Even if you have one of them, do not specialise until you have done at least six months on group exercises. I usually advocate a rest period of one month in four and then is a good opportunity to utilise the increased assimilation caused by the Supra-functional (thanks again, ” Iron Man “) Demand for patching up the hollows among the bulges—Flattening out the pockets in the major drive, as the military experts arc wont to describe the enemy’s minor successes.

The military experts are making tidy lines on a map—so that political experts can make them untidy again, and then send for the military experts to straighten out the kinks once more … (if I judge history aright). Yes, they are making nice lines on a map, about their only contribution to art. You are working on the finest work of art I know. Do you know that this old human body is such a work of art that the galleries of the world are full of artists’ imitations of it ? And although some of those paintings “seem to live ” (the highest praise !), the sad fact is that they do not live. Your muscularly moulded body does live and if you have been exercising it will be living more vitally than any Van Gogh cornfield (and that’s saying something).

More than that, if you have been moulding it well it will have the grace and strength of a Rodin sculpture—plus Movement—Glorious Movement.

The cultured mind works more smoothly and more gracefully than the clumsy probings of the ape. I have in front of me a quotation of which I am very fond, but I do not know its origin —can any reader help me ? Whoever said this sounds like a pal of your Uncle. Here it is . . .

” Men of culture are the true apostles of equality.”

I will send a buckshee copy of Henry Atkins’ book, ” Progressive Body Culture”, to the first reader who gives me the author and source of that pearl of wisdom.

Of course, many so-called cultured men have been snobs and high-hats. But no matter how learned they may be, if they have not discovered that a wider appreciation of beauty means more creation of beauty, then they have not learned the fundamental principle that beauty shared is beauty doubled. How often has your Uncle watched the sunset from a mountain peak and longed for a tender companion to share the view. How often has he risked the curses of a friend by waking him in his mountain eyrie to watch the dawn. That is why we are plugging body-building and trying to help you find your goal. We want to be surrounded by beautiful healthy women and graceful strong men.

Now, I wonder if we have any readers who would like to help Reg. Cooper, of 12, Kitchener Road, High Wycombe?

He writes and tells me he has an amateur club pining away for lack of members. I don’t know him personally, but he sounds a regular guy. How’s about it, Bodybuilders of High Wycombe ?

You will note I have also neglected the Triceps muscle this time, but I will include it in the next article, for already I am hogging too much space.

I believe, however, this is the first time so much ground has been covered in one article on this subject.

That’s the lot for now. Next issue I will be lecturing on Suppleness and Strength.

From BODY CULTURE Volume 1 Number 2, September 1949.

The post Muscular Size And Shape appeared first on Vintage Bodybuilding.

Somewhere some time back I caught sight of someone accusing our Editor of having a “Positive Philosophy” — and I shuddered.

Why? Well, partly because I know that almost every time that a guy is positive about something, it ” ain’t so. Secondly, I have recently ploughed through the maze of verbiage that surrounds a fairly new philosophy called “Logical Positivism” and would hate to have Henry Atkin mixed up with that.

Of course, the reader never meant anything like that at all. What he really wanted to say was, “Henry Atkin is an optimist and believes in action plus thought, and not thought without action, and certainly not action without thought” However, the study of Logical Positivism has its discipline, and some very pungent remarks can be made against woolly thinkers in other fields.

For instance, say the L.P. devotees, “Statements may be divided into two orders, those which are subjective opinions and those which are tautologies.” The psalms of David are bung full of tautologies such as “The meek will He guide in Judgement and the meek He will teach in his way.” The second half of that statement is a tautology used for the purpose of clarification. “All mathematical statements are tautologies” assert the L.P.s. “Two and two are four” is only saying by code “One-and-one and one-and-one are one-and-one-and-one-and one.” “Two and Four” are just short codes for something we already know.

The subjective statements are things like “that picture is beautiful,” for such a statement is only valid for the person who makes it, and other people may think the picture is ugly.

You now see how beautiful a maze civilisation and education and philosophy have built around truth — but of what is this maze constructed ? Words, words, words … as Hamlet has said with delightful sarcasm. Can words destroy this maze? Possibly. But the fact is that, as I pointed out in my first article for BODY CULTURE, Charlie Marx has already said, ” Philosophers have philosophised about the world long enough — our task is to change it.”

Armed with this weapon against thought, the Communist Party of Soviet Russia set out to change the world, using, as they thought, the logic of mathematics, and a fine mess they are getting into.

A long while ago I coined an aphorism that would perhaps solve their problem for them. I am so proud of this particular truism that I shall refer to it from time to time. If it is my only contribution to the maze of words around thought, I think that I have justified ray entry into the conclave of word-jugglers.

”The desire to be logical is an emotional desire.” I am going to repeat that again and again until it makes a hit somewhere, and stops a lot of cold, ”logical ” emotionalists from destroying beauty, hope and love from the face of the earth.

The pragmatists say in essence that if it works, it is true, and unfortunately this goads all sorts of people into making things work temporarily, even although they know they are not true. The whole army of capitalist political economists are devoted to making the lie that ”money has value and interest is a law of nature” a pragmatic truth, which, of course, is an abuse of the power of thought.

The power of thought is its ability to make things happen which otherwise would seem impossible. Heavier-than-air flight is an example of the power of thought being put into action and achieving the apparently miraculous. But thought cannot change the laws of nature. We only fly by the operation of these laws in our favour, by turning demonstrable facts into useful allies. Therefore, a man can add to his stature by taking thought (in spite of the Bible), but not in spite of the laws of physiology — only by applying them.

”You can if you think you can” is only partly true. It would be more accurate to say, ”You can, if you know the correct method and use it “; but it is also very likely that ” If you think you can’t you jolly well won’t.” So optimism, tempered by knowledge, plus action, guided by experience, is the correct attitude for the would-be successful.

It is my duty to help you with optimism and knowledge. In this magazine you get the sum total of experience and knowledge of all its writers — but the ACTION can only come from YOU.

It is amazing how many people talk themselves out of success because they have an emotional reflex against the road that they must take to obtain it. We have a lad in the club whose resistance to instruction is as automatic and as deadly to himself as the lemmings’ impulse to migrate.

He finds he can Press more by sagging, so he sags away happily until he is almost doing a wrestler’s bridge. Then he gets VERY annoyed because his poundages are static over long periods. Tell him anything like this and he says, ”Oh, but I’m different.” There is hope for him, however, for after we have been plugging any particular criticism for a long time he sneaks off and tries it out our way and naturally improves a little. The whole process comes, I believe, from the fact that he is a simple lad at heart, and must have been the victim of so many leg-pulls as a child that he believes nothing is true unless he finds it out for himself. Slowly . . . very slowly, however, he is finding that anything I tell him usually works, and so must be one day he may become a less intransigent pupil.

In some ways lie is pitifully afraid of being physically hurt or suffering defeat, therefore he is willing to challenge anyone smaller than he is to a wrestling match or test of strength. When he meets his equal or superior he usually excuses himself by saying, ”Oh, but you’re older (or younger !) than I am.”

In spite of all this he makes slow progress and can now (in the worst of styles) press twenty per cent, over body weight and hold a wobbly hand balance for sixty seconds. What really annoys one, however, is the fact that he is potentially the strongest boy in the club.

Can you see any little quirks in yourself that are holding you back like the youth to whom I refer? You can — if you don’t think you can’t. You can, if you are willing to exert yourself. You can, if you are prepared to make the effort, even though the effort brings a little discomfort, a little pain, and a little sacrifice.

One of the greatest incentives is competition, and politicians are wearing out their sub-standard brains trying to synchronise competition and co-operation in the productive and inventive fields. They must always fail, because they want to exploit the competitive spirit for their own personal gain, and the masses have been so often spurred to do their best and had the results filched from them by law and money-jugglery that they almost instinctively unite in cooperation against the re-introduction of competitive instincts, in which, like the gladiators of old, like fights like, for the benefit of a cynical spectator.

In sport and body-building the competitive spirit is only utilised by the participants for their mutual benefit, and no third party cashes in — that is, in amateur sport, anyway. Professional sport is not sport at all, but business. Mostly dirty business. We have evolved a system at our club in which the competitive spirit is used to make our members WORK. The powerful emotion of wanting to win has been allied to the powerful thought that one is helping another to get more benefit from his exercises.

We also economise in the use of the barbells, because in each case two men are using one barbell together. It is like this. Two men sit facing each other on a bench as close as their knees will let them, and between them is a barbell with a fairly good curling poundage. Very few people are exactly equal in curling Strength, so each decides how many curls he can get out of the weight at one set. The strongest starts with, say, ten curls and as soon as he has finished he hands the bar to his opponent, who tears off eight and hands it back. The competition is won bv the guy that gets the most sets out of the bar. If you want to fight to a standstill you can drop one repetition each set after the first two.

The same system can be applied to Pullovers, both bent arm and straight, by-two lifters lying head to head. The Press Behind Neck and Military Press can also be tried if you remember the transference of the bar is easier when it is at arms’ length.

Floor and parallel bar dips can be done on a straight repetition competitive method, as both trainees are using their own bodyweight. If you have plenty of bars in your club the whole thing can be speeded up by the exercisers working simultaneously, each trying to keep it up longer than the other.

Experience will show you that yon could have always obtained more repetitions than you thought possible from a certain poundage. By actual experiment you will have proved that the goad of competition in your mind has given your body more power. The limitations you have allowed your mind to put on your muscles have been removed by that same power.

Your opponent will be glad he had you to spur him on to obtaining a real work-out, and so will you. No third party gains from you, but you have both realised the truth that the great emperor and philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, was right when he said,”Life is more like wrestling than dancing. Our adversary is our helper.”

What, back to philosophy again? Yes. And also the power of words. One of my boyhood heroes was Mr. Earle Liederman. His strong jaw used to jut out from the advertisement sections of the old Black Mask magazine, and he used to blare at me, “That man inside YOU. What is he doing to make himself a REAL man ? What sort of a guy will you be next year ? Are you skinny and undeveloped or would you like to be the sorta guy folks are PROUD to know ? ”

Of course, Mr. Liederman was selling a muscle course, but I ignored that. Mr. Liederman was far, far away in America, but his words inspired me just the same. Well, go on . . . READ that advertisement of Mr. Liederman’s over again. Ask yourself its questions. Mr. Liederman isn’t dealing in postal courses any more. He is the editor of a magazine that, in spite of a certain bombast and blah, still carries that same message of punch and power that seems to exude even from Mr. Liederman’s photographs.

Over here in Britain we are a little more modest. We try and tell the truth, even when it is not so pleasant as an invention. BUT we do believe, «is Mr. Liederman believes, that optimism, if it results in action, is a better attitude of mind than pessimism. BUT it must take action.

While you have been reading this magazine you have been thinking. When you get along to the club let your thoughts result in ACTION. Don’t debate with everyone what is good practice or bad during exercise periods. If you want to debate, join a debating club — a weight-lifting club is a weight-lifting club.

That’s what you go for. Do it and the results are as certain as any thing on this earth. You will be stronger, healthier and happier . . . TRY IT!

From Body Culture, volume 2 № 1, December 1950

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YOU know, the people who bound through life in a natural, confident manner, those self-possessed, positive-thinking individuals, never fully realise how lucky they really are. In any endeavour, and especially in bodybuilding, they start out with a tremendous advantage over their more negative-minded friends. That doesn’t mean, however, that a retiring, negative individual should be content to sit back and use his inferiority as an excuse for his lack of progress.

If you happen to be one of those unfortunate people who, like myself, are naturally prone to worry and a negative attitude towards life, then you must learn what to do so that your way of life will be improved.

Practical psychology is, without doubt, your saviour.

In my last article I told you that practical psychology, when properly applied, could help the negative-minded bodybuilder to derive more benefit from his training. This month I intend to explain how certain principles of practical psychology can best be applied by the body-builder for his own benefit.

Firstly, the essential ingredients for a more positive and therefore more successful life I define briefly as: (1) confidence; (2) enthusiasm; (3) concentration; (4) determination; (5) the elimination of all worry and anxiety; (6) the planning of your general life in accordance with your aims.

If the negative-minded person will only understand that all his actions and endeavours are governed by these six very important principles, a more successful life will certainly be assured. Let us see, then, how we can encourage these qualities so that we may become more successful.

Many body-builders who achieve only limited success from their training have solely their lack of confidence to thank for their unfortunate condition. You can see examples of this type of person almost everywhere. Sometimes they are called ” grasshoppers,’* for they flit from schedule to schedule with a regularity duplicated only by time itself. New exercises are discreetly tucked on to the end of their workout — just to give that little bit extra and all the new bodybuilding theories are thoroughly studied and religiously applied.

Unfortunately, these theories often prove to be very conflicting. Nevertheless, the poor negative body-builder persists in his attempts to determine which theory is correct, but, unable to do so, a state of unsettled ness results. Doubts regarding the efficiency of the adopted course of training creep into the poor human mind.

Is this exercise good for my body type? What of the energy output during workout? Mr. X in the current edition of ” Z ” magazine advocates only three exercises for my body type and here I am slogging myself by doing six. Little wonder I can’t gain. I think I d better change my schedule around a bit. So it progresses, with mental conflict increasing as each new theory is read, until finally the pupil either gives up in disgust, completely disillusioned, or at best achieving only a small percentage of the success which could surely be his. And all this because he has little or no confidence in his own methods.

However, though the brake on progress brought about by an extreme lack of confidence can be very severe, practical psychology and thought training can, in no small measure, help to overcome this undesirable condition.

The first thing to do is to scrap the course of training you are doing at present. This may seem rather drastic, but you obviously have no confidence in its effectiveness, so what’s the use in carrying on?

The next step is to take a rest for a week or so from all training. During this time define your immediate needs. Maybe it’s all-round development, possibly leg concentration, or upper body work might be your prime necessity. Take your time, think clearly and become quite certain about this. When you have finally decided, insist on having the best possible course available which will satisfy these needs.

This doesn’t necessarily entail a huge financial outlay, for the country’s best body-building authorities are always willing to advise you at the low cost of a stamped, addressed envelope. Practical psychology insists that you make conditions as favourable for progress as possible, so it is vital that you adopt a schedule of training which you believe in your own mind to be the best.

These seemingly unimportant points are nevertheless absolutely essential for success, for only by insisting on having what he believes to be the best possible instructor and instruction available can the negative-minded individual ever hope to have sufficient faith and confidence to make reasonable headway.

Once you have finally decided on your course, firmly resolve to believe in its efficiency. You’ve decided on the best instruction, therefore you simply must improve with it. Keep asserting to you are becoming bigger and more muscular—that this is the one and only course for you. Forget about all other so-called theories, and refuse to have anything whatever to do with any ‘ pet” exercises which certain stars may insist were the cause of their outstanding development. You have your course, the one made specially for you. Be confident of ihe final result. Stick to your training and let other people get on with theirs.

When this confidence is firmly established, insist that it will be sustained completely for as long as possible. Don’t expect results in a fortnight. No course will improve you in that time. You must give it a chance to work, therefore confidence must be kept up for at least a couple of months. This shouldn’t, in fact, prove to be very difficult, because you’ll find that if you continue to fill your mind with confident, positive thoughts, you’ll tend to become naturally more enthusiastic and confident. Remember, always, that confidence is essential to complete success.

Earlier we accepted that a more positive life has six essential qualities. We have dealt with the first, the ways of developing confidence: now we come to another important point, the problem of sufficient enthusiasm.

My dictionary defines the word enthusiasm thus: an ecstasy of mind; ardent zeal; elevation of fancy. Personally, I prefer to think about enthusiasm in a more modern sense, i.e., as keenness. Keenness is so closely connected with inspiration, particularly in body-building, that I feel we cannot conveniently speak of one without the other. In nearly all cases you’ll find additional enthusiasm to be a natural consequence of increased inspiration.

To show interest in body-building at all shows that certain enthusiasm is there. Sometimes, generally when results seem hard to get, enthusiasm sinks to a low ebb, this action in turn tending to encourage the negative emotions of depression and frustration. Practical psychology, if it is to benefit the indifferent body-builder, must show means whereby a good proportion of enthusiasm can be kept up even when major obstacles are encountered, so that the life of the individual may be kept flowing in a more or less positive way.

You’ll notice I said only a proportion of the enthusiasm must be keet up. Why not all of it? It would, of course, be ideal if we could maintain maximum enthusiasm even when faced by great difficulties. I believe that only a few of the more naturally positive-thinking individuals can be at the peak of enthusiasm all the time. It’s my belief that a lack of enthusiasm, at such times when results shown (comparatively speaking) are far below normal, is quite a natural manifestation of the human mind.

Therefore we must realise from the start that enthusiasm will tend to dwindle at times. If we fail to grasp this important fact, we shall only impede our progress still further. Simply by showing concern at our lack of enthusiasm we will encourage still extra depression and therefore even less favourable results will come from our training. So first accept this fact; then concern yourself with the problem of stimulating your feelings, so that this depression period will be as short as possible.

Remember, I said earlier that enthusiasm is generally a natural consequence of increased inspiration. Here, then, lies our answer. In inspirational psychology we find the solution to our problem of inadequate enthusiasm. We’ve all experienced the additional feeling of well-being and increased keenness for training after reading a certain person’s success story or the fine articles written for BODY CULTURE by David Martin and Henry Atkin. After reading such articles we have gone to our barbell and trained, perhaps with more confidence, more happiness and more enthusiasm than for a long time. This, my friends, is because we have been inspired by what we have read.

The very fact that magazines like BODY CULTURE are so consistently enthusiastic in their whole make-up is one reason they are so very desirable. Each month BODY CULTURE, in addition to supplying the best possible technical advice, provides inspiration for thousands of body-builders simply because its instruction, articles, photographs and advice always appear to be so enthusiastic about the whole physical culture game. So when your enthusiasm is below par, turn to inspiration to rekindle that lost spark of keenness.

If you read a success story which particularly impresses you by its triumph over adversity, or even a short news item for that matter, cut it out and put it safely away in a drawer. Do this until you have a little collection, say, 10 or 12, and see they are kept clean, tidy and readable. Keep these stimulating episodes ready for when you arc a little depressed or dissatisfied with your progress. At such times read the inspirational stories over, slowly and deliberately. Continue reading them until your mind is able to completely realise the great difficulties which these successful people had to conquer in their journey to success.

If there is a personal friend whom you particularly admire for his courage and enthusiasm, he may provide you with the inspiration you are seeking. Go to this person and talk to him. Ask advice, and try and adopt a little of his philosophy of life. In these ways you’re certain to benefit. For further inspiration, read the life stories of the world’s famous men and women. You’ll be amazed to find that many of them achieved their greatness in spite of almost impossible odds.

Another good thing is not always to train on your own. I’m sure readers who were in the services during the last war will bear me out when I say that it was only because of the great comradeship which prevailed, and the fact that there was always someone apparently keen, enthusiastic, happy and optimistic, that the miserable, often appalling, war conditions were endured at all.

Certainly, enthusiasm can be very infectious; so if you happen to train alone and suffer from non-enthusiastic spells, try trotting down to the nearest club and chatting with other body-builders. Mix with confident people, people who also share your ideals; the feeling of being ”alone ” is often very real and depressing. Remember, above all, that the majority of your problems in bodybuilding can be helped by adopting a course of positive thought training.

Realise, then, that confidence and enthusiasm are two factors playing a vital part in body-building success—that confidence is increased by having faith in your schedule, and that enthusiasm can nearly always be increased by turning to inspiration.

In a future article I hope to say a little about the other four important points which make for a more positive and successful life. Meanwhile, I’m sure if all body-builders lacking in confidence and enthusiasm will study and apply the principles of positive thought, their perseverance ‘will be well rewarded.

Remember, you are what you are because of what you think. Resolve now to be a success and it will be so.

From Body Culture Volume 1 Number 10, August 1950

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Q: I perform the bent arm pullover with a shoulder width grip and am troubled with binding at the shoulder joint. What causes this and how can I correct it?

A: Use a closer grip. Some bodybuilders are troubled with stiff or inflexible shoulder joints. A wide grip cannot be used in the bent arm pullover. A close grip can. You will obtain just as much benefit either way.

Q: If a bodybuilder poses for an exercise routine which appears in a magazine, does this make him a professional?

A: Not unless the article appears under his name. If he merely serves as the model and the article is written by someone else he remains an amateur.

Q: Which is better for increasing the size of the chest – the pullover or the bench press?

A: Both exercises should be performed for maximum chest size. The bench press develops the muscles of the chest. The pullover increases the size of the chest cage, or rib box. The champions of chest development practice both movements.

Q: Is it possible to obtain maximum leg size and power without the squats ?

A: No! Straddles, the leg press, the ‘hack” exercise and iron boot work DO NOT produce the same degree of power and size squats. However, you do not need to practice the squats every work out. Perform them once or twice a week and on other days you can employ a different leg exercise if you like variety.

Q: Which is constructed stronger: a ‘high 1 biceps, or a round, baseball type biceps?

A: The round, baseball type biceps is constructed of denser, stronger fibers. The high biceps looks more impressive in photographs but is not as strong.

Q: Is there any way that the potential of a beginner can be predetermined?

A: No – and that is one of the most fascinating phases of bodybuilding. The thinnest, most unlikely looking beginner may end up as the celebrated champion while the naturally husky beginner may never make the grade. Success is as much a condition of the mind as physical. Maintain a confident attitude and follow a good course of instructions and you will obtain maximum benefit.

Q: Is it true that Russian athletes use weights for conditioning for ALL sports?

A: According to an article that appeared in Sports Illustrated some time back, even women athletes use weights in Russia. This is undoubtedly one of the big secrets of Russia’s athletic success. More and more American coaches are advocating the use of weights, but still not enough. America will regain world wide athletic supremecy only when ALL athletes train with weights.

Q: Is there an ideal hour for training:—a time when energy is highest?

A: Yes. Research has proved that the average person possesses maximum physical energy in the mid-after-noon. Therefore, if you have a choice, training about 3 PM is ideal. However, the body adjusts its energy level according to physical habit. If you select ANY hour and train regularly at that time, in a few weeks your energy level will be highest then. If you jump around and train at a different hour each work out, you will NEVER build a peak energy level for training. The real key is to select a certain time for training and to STICK to that time.

Muscle Man, vol.1 №1

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Dear Friend:

To get the maximum benefits and most satisfactory results from my Course some of the exercises should be carried out faithfully all through life. You have developed the habit of exercising regularly and have noticed its splendid value. But now for Life-Long Health and Strength do the following exercises daily. They are what I believe you need most to keep you fit for LIFE.

EXERCISE N0.1.

For Chest, Shoulders and Back. Excellent for preventing Lung and Chest troubles. Do

For Chest, Shoulders and Back. Excellent for the “dipping” exercise as described in the first Lesson at least 100 times every day. Aim to do it 200 times daily if you are keen on getting a very big and powerful chest development. Do this by dipping 25 or more times, rest and relax a few moments and do them again. Rest and do them again. If you prefer, do 50 to 75 at night. I do 200 or more “dips” daily.

EXERCISE NO. 2.

For the Abdomen. Ideal for preventing or reducing a large stomach, perfecting the digestive system, relieving constipation, preventing rupture and for the general toning up of the body. While lying on the bed clasp the hands back of the head and raise the upper body so that your chin touches your knees, keeping your feet flat on the bed. This is to be done 20 times. Rest awhile and repeat. Rest and relax and do them as many times as you possibly can.

EXERCISE NO. 3.

A similar exercise except that you should bend your knees to touch the upper chest area. This should be done until you are thoroughly tired, then rest, and repeat several times. While doing this exercise open and cross the legs for variation.

EXERCISE NO. 4.

For Thighs, Bow Legs, Knock Knees. Do the squatting exercise spreading apart the knees. Repeat at least 35 times or until tired. Rest awhile and go at them again. Do this exercise energetically. Rest and repeat as before, but this time keep the ankles close together. This will develop the muscles of the back of the thighs. Rest one of you hands on something for support if you find it difficult to balance. These exercises can be performed in the morning as soon as you get up.

EXERCISE No. 5.

Strengthening Internal Organs and Preventing Rupture. Clasp hands behind head while standing erect. Bend far to the right, come up and bend over to the left, keeping the legs straight and bending the upper trunk only. Repeat until you are tired but do not overdo. Rest and relax, then repeat, this time making a complete circular motion.

EXERCISE No. 6.

Developing Biceps, Triceps, Arms and Forearms. Grasp the right wrist with the left hand in front and bring the right hand towards the right shoulder, resisting powerfully with the left hand. Continue till the muscles really begin to ache. Then repeat with the other arm. Rest and do them again.

EXERCISE No. 7.

Strengthening your neck. Bend the neck far downwards, then far backwards. Now side to side, now in a complete circular motion. Rest and relax. Do the same exercises more powerfully by resisting strongly with the hands. These are very effective if done persistently.

EXERCISE No. 8.

Calves, Flat Feet, Fallen Arches and Strengthening weak ankles. Raise up and down on the toes 50 to 100 times. Do this preferable while standing on your toes on the edge of a block about three inches high with your heels overhanging. Another good exercise is to stand on the heels and rock back and forth first on the heels and then on the toes. Do this till really tired. Rest a few minutes and repeat as before.

These exercises can be performed at night, just before getting into bed. Some of them, however, can be done at odd moments during the day. When out walking make a practice of stretching the entire legs and calves to the full limit. Be sure and raise up your toes as you walk along. By keeping this up for a distance equal to about ten blocks you will soon have a fine pair of well-shaped legs. These exercises may seem to you quite a long routine to practice daily for the balance of your life. But thousands upon thousands of men are doing them daily, and very busy men, too, so do not say you haven’t time. You will find when you divide the exercise, doing half in the morning and the other half at night it takes only a few minutes.

In closing, I want to say to you that I have enjoyed sending you these Lessons for I know you must be Stronger, Healthier, more Muscular and full of Pep and Energy. It has been a pleasure to help you. Men and women like you will live longer and enjoy life more.

I hope you will induce your friends to enroll with me, so that I can help them, too. Just send me their names and addresses.

Although this Lesson completes my Course, I want you to feel at liberty to write me at any time if ever you have questions or comments.

With my very best wishes and warm hand clasp, I remain,

Your Sincere Friend and Instructor,

Charles Atlas

The post Exercises for perpetual daily practice appeared first on Vintage Bodybuilding.

When one is learning a hand-stand it is necessary to have some sort of support in order to give the beginner confidence in himself. It is therefore advisable to begin by doing the handstand against the wall. Stay about two feet away from the wall. Put your hands flat on the floor, fingers spread apart, put all your weight forward and be sure to keep your elbows firm, and head up. Kick up with your feet resting them against the wall and arch your back. When you have held this position for a few seconds bring your feet away from the wall. The secret of the hand-stand is to keep your arms straight, your back arched and head up. Also keep the toes pointed legs together.

Follow the above instructions carefully and practice this everyday, I am confident you will be able to do a perfect hand-stand within a month. When practicing if you lose your balance fall to the side or to where you started from. Do NOT fall backwards as there may be a danger of hurting yourself.

When you are able to hold a perfect hand-stand for about ten seconds, try to dip down and up again. This is a marvelous exercise for both arms, shoulders and chest, also for the internal organs such as kidneys, stomach, etc. It relieves the strain on the muscles that hold the internal organs such as the stomach, bowels and liver. It is also very good for poor circulation.

When you become very sure of the two arm hand-stand so that you can stand on your hands as well as your feet you can try the one arm hand-stand. This is done by putting all your weight on one side holding the hand that is free out sidewards. The legs in the one arm hand-stand are spread apart so as to make balancing easier.

Do not be discouraged if you not successful the first few times you try these, but remember that perseverance is the key to success.

The post Hand Balancing appeared first on Vintage Bodybuilding.

THE CASE FOR WEIGHT TRAINING got a shot in the arm recently in a comparative study oi’ the muscular strength and ability of American and European youths. Medical researchers in a major eastern university discovered that Americans are “getting soft” because of the relative ease of daily living, while Europeans with fewer of the “advantages” of modern life were stronger.

The cause of this sad effect has been laid to lack of exercise. No longer do we gel the once necessary exercise such as wood chopping, water pumping, and walking. Central heating, running water, and automobiles have done away with much of the exercise which once kept young Americans in shape.

In the test, young people in America and Europe were asked to perform a series of exercise routines. (One of the exercises was the Leg Raises demonstrated in the May VIM.) Almost 6 out of 10 American youths failed to pass this muscular fitness test . . . while more than 9 out of 10 of the Europeans passed it!

The American youth today may he taller and more handsome and more “vitamin-enriched,” hut lack of exercise has made him inferior to his rugged, hard working ancestors.

It is surprising to many, and alarming to Armed Forces officials that approximately one man out of every three examined by selective service during the Korean War was found unfit for military duty! (This startling fact does not reflect quite so dark a picture, however, since the figures do not cover the healthy young men who enlisted for duty.)

The situation seems to indicate a definite need for such a sport as bodybuilding through weight training, despite the propaganda from various camps that “exercise is for the birds” or that “muscles can he built in bed.” Protein, the much vaunted miracle food, may aid in muscle building, but it does not replace sweat and exercise.

DUMB BELL CURLS are one of the best known, most used, and most effective of the arm exercises. The number of repetitions is probably more important than the weight used, so choose a set of bells you can handle with relative ease. Standing erect with your arms at sides as shown in solid figure, curl the weights to the shoulders, as indicated by dotted lines. The elbows do not move . . . keep them stationary as though they were the hubs of wheels and your forearms were spokes. Inhale as the bells are lowered, hold your breath as you raise the weights, 4nd exhale when weights reach shoulder.

PARALLEL BAR DIPS require no weights . . . except that furnished by your own body. The Dips consist of pressing your body upward between the bars until your arms are straight . . . and lowering it as far as possible. Bars should be about shoulder width apart. Inhale as you lower your body, getting a full breath by the time you reach your lowest point, and then . . . (don’t hesitate) press right back up, holding your breath as your body goes up. Pause slightly and exhale completely when you’re at the topmost position. Keep your chest out, head back throughout the exercise.

DUMB BELL SIDE RAISES are a popular deltoid exercise. (Deltoids, you know, are the impressive mound-like muscles which cap the shoulders.) Standing with your feet about a foot apart and holding the dumb bells in front of your thighs, as shown in the solid figure, raise both your arms outward and upward until you reach the “spread eagle” position shown by the dotted lines. (The knuckles are pointed forward for this exercise.) Pause briefly, exhale, and then lower the weights to their thigh-front positions, inhaling as your arms go downward. Don’t take a rest when the weights are at their lowest point. Instead, raise the dumb bells immediately. Here again, the number of repetitions is more important than the weight used. Don’t try to be a gym hero by grabbing the heaviest weight you can find. Start with a moderate, easily handled weight, and work up.

The Argonauts, Volume 1 № 1 by    Physique Press.

The post Yes, We DO Need Exercise! appeared first on Vintage Bodybuilding.

**********************

1. Ques. Does a man have to keep on training for the rest of his life to keep his physique ?

Answer — Not necessarily, meaning that a man does not have to follow a routine as strict as the one he was following, to build up his physique. But I do recommend at least one exercise for each part of the body at least once or twice a week about 10 times each exercise to keep body in shape.

2. Ques. How long must a man train before he has a good enough physique to enter contests or take physique shots for magazines ?

Answer – The first year of your training is the foundation of the physique. From then on each individual will improve in a different manner; some will make terrific gains in the next 6 months, some in the next year. If you or anyone else has at least 3 to 5 years of good, earnest training, then it would be to your advantage to enter a contest and can rate quite high. As for physique shots in magazines you can send them in at any time since we use case histories of beginners and their improvements.

3. Ques. I have been training to loose weight around the mid-section but instead I got a heavier appetite and I keep on gaining weight. What do you suggest I should do ?

Answer — I suggest that if you have an increase on your appetite don’t be afraid to eat. “But” do not eat to much starches, sweets or ice cream, that’s what puts on weight. In your training routine try a higher amount of movements and also try doing some abdominal raises and leg raises before going to bed at night and if possible in the morning also.

4. Ques. I am a slim fellow, I have been training for one year with light weights. And all I have to show for it is slim muscularity. What can I do to gain some bulk?

Answer — In my opinion, I find that you have already built the foundation of your physique even though you did not train correctly for bulk. In the next year try a lower amount of repetitions about 10 and heavier weights for bulk.

5. Ques. How does a man go about becoming a weight-lifter or body builder ?

Answer — If the man does not have a set of weights he should try and get himself a set since he can receive Instructions on Bodybuilding or Weightlifting which explain how to start off in these sports. Or there are Y.M.C.A.’-s and many Gymnasiums which have instructors and weights. If at anytime some problems should arise there are always consulting editors from physique and lifting magazines who will be willing to help if possible.

6. Ques. Can a person get ruptured from lifting weights ?

Answer – Yes, if the person tries to lift more than he can handle. And also if the weight is not lifted properly.

7. Ques. Who was Mr. America of 1943 ?

Answer — Jules Bacon, who has a wonderful physique until this day.

8. Ques. How can I increase extra poundages on my lifts ?

Answer — Try less repetitions with more weights until you reach the amount of repetitions you were doing in your training. Then start over again.

9. Ques. I do heavy work during the day. When I come home at night I’m very tired and can not get enough energy to take a workout. Is there a program a fellow in my position can follow ?

Answer — If you try lying down and relaxing for about one hour then take some honey (about 1 tablespoon); this will give you quick energy. Also to rest a little longer between exercises might be helpful.

10. Ques. Can you straighten me out on the difference between the Biceps Femorus and the Biceps ?

Answer — The Biceps Femorus is the back of the upper leg which controls the bending of the lower leg while the Biceps is the upper arm which controls the bending of the lower arm.

American Physique is dedicated towards a peaceful world. May it be of some small help in granting serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can and wisdom to know the difference.

American Physique – a masterpiece of beauty in manly arts.

American Physique vol. 1 № 1, 1957.

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by Dr Frederick Tilney

Here’s the proven, effective, natural way to avoid having any “colds”, coughs catarrh, bronchitis and these so called “winter time” ailments which handicap millions of folks this season of the year. Understand, first of all, none of these annoying conditions are caused by “germs”. And realize this, you are not helping yourself by taking any “cough syrups”, lozenges, serums or medicines for these troubles, nor will nasal sprays be of any real practical value. You have surely tried these things before and discovered for yourself that they don’t work.

I’ve said so often and repeat again., you must tackle these troubles at the source. Its the wrong foods, plus a serious food mineral .deficiency which brings on these colds, coughs etc. Briefly, “colds” and allied ailments are nothing but an accumulation of mucus or phlegm working out of the system, through the nose or month. Germs do not cause mucus. Mucus-forming foods create it, and when there is an excess, it has to be expelled and the cold weather plus the wearing of heavy clothing, living in unnaturally heated buildings drives this mucus out — which you experience in the form of a “cold” cough, catarrh, bronchitis etc — and if seriously neglected develops into pneumonia, pleurisy and finally because the system is so congested with mucus, death is the result.

The logical thing to do is to stop eating these mucus-forming foods. The average person has the idea that because the weather Is cold they must eat more “energy-giving”, “heat – forming” foods and so they use more fats, grease, starches and sugar, cow-milk, syrups — but unfortunately these are all mucus forming and CAUSE the “colds”.

Millions of mothers wonder why their children have the sniffles, whooping cough, runny noses, tonsil trouble, adenoids. so irritable by being all “plugged up”…..this comes from giving porridge (or oatmeal) with sugar milk or cream. The combination MAKES mucus or “colds”. Leave the breakfast cereals alone which are made from white rice (whether dry or cooked cereals, it makes no difference). Avoid them. They are NOT “nutritious” foods at all.

My practical suggestion is to AVOID eating all products made WITH white flour, white rice, ordinary oatmeal, white sugar, white salt, egg “whites”, all fried fatty, greasy foods and an excess of cow’s milk in its various forms. They are all food-mineral deficient and the CAUSE OF ALL THE TROUBLE. Don’t eat them and you will avoid “colds”.

In many homes, these items often form much of the bulk of the foods eaten, no wonder they are continually suffering. Stop the cause at its source. Any treatment you take is almost valueless UNLESS you ALSO stop eating these products which CAUSE the trouble. You do not “catch” colds from anybody, or from others in your family. You merely ate an excess of mucus forming foods, which has to come out. and does so. in the form of mucus from i he nose or throat.

If you want your “heating” and energy-giving” foods use those which do not CREATE mucus. Try using dates. black mission figs, raisins with raw nuts well chewed (which are natural lats). Use honey, moderately in place of white sugar Use fresh or unsweetened canned juices in place of so much cow-milk which has been greatly over-rated. Goat Milk (capsules) should be used generously as this is not mucus forming, are richer in all vitamins and food minerals than cow milk. When cereals are craved, use the whole wheat only. Go to your “Feed Store” and buy 10 lbs of wheat kernels. Wash what you need for a meal and then let soak in water overnight, eat with raisins and little honey. Its simple, nourishing, delicious, good; saves a lot of cooking. Victims of colds, coughs, catarrh are seriously deficient in the Food Minerals Phosphorous, Iron, Silicon, Chlorin. These are easily obtainable in capsule form, prepared solely from various powdered vegetables. Try them. Thousands of folks have proven the value of these suggestions.

Your Physique, Volume 3 № 1, Mar 1943

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RUDOLF NESS is Norway’s most prominent advocate of the weight-training way of life, and author of the internationally famous book, “Kruppskultur”.

Scandinavians in general and the Norwegian people in particular, are very outdoor-minded. Any fine week-end sees a mass trek from the towns out into the country, up into the mountains or to the coast and fjords; and in many instances, even working-class people have their own sporting huts where they can enjoy their free hours and vacations. Norway, land of mountains and woods, is not densely populated and there is ample space and privacy for all.

At Easter, the Norwegians take a week’s holiday and during this period vast numbers of people spend their time close to nature in huts, farms and special hotels in company with the British, Danish and Swedish folk who come to Norway at this time to ski and enjoy the wonderful scenic beauty. If the sun is kind — and it usually is — it is a grand company of dark-skinned individuals which returns to work at the end of the vacation.

In the winter-time, there are often opportunities for long trips on skis; unlike the Swiss, the Norwegians often prefer day-long tours on skis to the shorter downhill races common in the Alps.

The man-in-the-street is very sport-minded too. In summer, his interest lies chiefly in soccer, track and field events and sailing tournaments (these latter afford him the chance of a dip in fjord or sea). In winter, speed-skating and especially ski-jumping and downhill races are tremendously popular. Contestants fight it out over four distances in speed-skating, the best man over all four being declared the winner, and this is often very thrilling to watch. We have recently had the pleasure of a visit from Jack Cronshey who, quite unknown to a great part of the British public, has become one of the world’s best long distance speed-skaters. He has learnt good Norwegian, an international skating language.

Ski-jumping has a large following, and Mr. Average Man is very knowledgeable about the sport. The principal event in this country is the international Holmen-Kollenplays, held every year, in March, near Oslo, the Capital. Here the world’s best skiers foregather and it is not unusual for 100,000 spectators to be present at the special jumping event. After Holrnenkollen, the Swedes hold their own Sollefteaplays and the Finns their famous Lahtiplays. Denmark, where snow seldom lies for any length of time, also has its Holtekollen ski-jumping event on a hill near Copenhagen, in which Scandinavia’s best ski-jumpers take part. But suppose there is no snow, you ask? Well, the answer is simple, it is sent by train from Kongsberg, famous Norwegian town of ski-jumpers! !

Little publicity is given to weight-lifting as a sport in Norway and the Norwegian Weight-lifters’ Association works under difficult conditions. The sporting journalists are not very interested in what they regard as a minor sport.

The average Scandinavian has little interest in body-building, he is a great believer in outdoor life and admires character immensely, but the promotion of male physique contests would only arouse ridicule.

To introduce weight-training and body-building to Scandinavia, it is necessary to stress the benefits of heavy exercise for better health and for better results at work and in sports other than the “Iron Game” itself.

Nine months before the Olympic Games were scheduled to take place, we had a good 8-oar team. Birger E. Larsen, a Bergen athletic coach, and myself believed that the introduction of weights in their training programme would help enormously and to this end the boys were trained intensively, much attention being given to make them quick as well as very strong. At Henley, that Norwegian team placed third to U.S.A. and Britain in the eighth race. This was a great surprise to most Norwegians as they have little belief in the value of weight-training. I shudder to think what would have been said had the experiment failed to justify itself. This medal award in the Games meant that our form of training received a little more publicity.

Sverre Farstad, Olympic 1,500 metres ski-jumping champion and European champion, 1949, is also a weight-lifter and endorses the use of ” iron” as an aid to athletes in other sports. Farstad has equalled the world record of 41.8 seconds for 500 metres speed-skating … and they say weight-training makes a man slow!

Here in the Bergen district of Western Norway, the hard struggle to obtain recognition of the benefits of weight-training when allied to specialised sports is at last bearing fruit, and new ground is being steadily gained. The leading coaches are firm in their belief in the use of ” Iron ” in the basic training for a large variety of sports. Unfortunately, weights are costly and with up to 50 men training at a club at one time, the difficulties can be well understood. However, by implementing what weights are available with heavy sandbags, good results are being achieved.

A specimen programme commences with free exercises, limbering-up movements, indoor running, etc. Following this comes up to one hour’s exercise with such apparatus as Roman rings, parallel bars, the horse (for quickness) plus, of course, sandbags and weights. For the latter, the class works in two sections, No. 1 with dumb-bells and barbells for the heavy body-building exercises, No. 2 with quick weight-lifting movements and abdominal boards. For the final phase the trainees plav very fast basket-ball or handball, using one or two large medicine balls.

All athletes can benefit immensely from a regular weight-training, bodybuilding course, adapting this to their specialized needs. The use of many quick movements, with and without weights, will give the man who practises them a tremendous advantage over his rivals who decry these methods. Examples of quick exercises without weights are sprints, quick gymnastic movements, badminton, table-tennis and fencing. For weight exercises, the use of sandbags and the incorporation of the fast lifts into a training programme can be of great help. Use moderate weights to begin with. Speed and yet more speed is vitally important in many sports. It is very often the last stretch which decides the winner of a race and it is the man who possesses speed and strength who will emerge the victor.

If you want to be in the top flight, you must train and train. Some journalists have created the impression that sport is baby play and play again. But you will never reach an international standard by merely playing around. It docs not necessarily mean that you must put in more training time than ever before, but the intensity of the effort must be greater. When people see a runner like Harrison Dillard they are apt to say “How easy the whole thing looks, just like play”. But they overlook the tremendous amount of hard training which Dillard has put in to achieve his magnificent victories. Far too many athletes fail to appreciate the necessity for that extra little effort which is the margin between success and failure.

Whatever your favourite sport, remember the words of Henry Atkin: “To become a champion to-day it is necessary to train hard, often and, in special sports demanding much power, with really heavy weights.”

Body Culture, Volume 1 Number 2, September 1949

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I recall reading in a book of statistics that, aside from the many other crimes committed against the female body, the practice of wearing certain foundation garments for support held a place of its own. I am speaking of the girdle, the corset and the many other mediaeval contraptions which women wear to attain sylph-like proportions. According to this statistical source, the unadvised use of these undergarments over a period of years has brought about irreparable damage to the female physique. (I am speaking about American women as a whole.) It is estimated that the girdle, to some degree, has indirectly been responsible for ever-increasing difficulty in child-birth, and that the constant use of tight undergarments for support over a period of ten to fifteen years has caused a decrease of four inches of circumference of the female pelvic girdle, thus making childbirth more difficult and more painful.

In some cases the pelvic cavity was so small in women of average physical proportions that obstetricians were forced to resort to “Cesarean section” (removal of the foetus by way of the abdominal wall). Some may say that this was not due entirely to the wearing of corsets and girdles. I agree; but at the same time I say that in an overall view it contributed to the results. Also, some women may contend that this method of child-birth is superior to the natural way, but I am not debating the pros and cons of the various methods of child birth. ” The physical condition of the female anatomy and the benefits of exercise” is my topic, and I hope I can shed some light and understanding on the subject at this time.

According to Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, the human body comprises some 659 muscles. Of these, 327 are in pairs and 5 are single. These muscles are held in place and assisted in motivation by a complex system of tendons and ligaments. Primarily, the muscles are present to help us move, to get from here to there, to lift things—in general, to accomplish our daily routines.

The numerical sequence above and the subject that followed is nothing new. But I specifically mentioned it to impress young women that, regardless if one is male or female, the number and quality of muscles in the human body are the same. The only difference, muscularly speaking, between the male and female body is the subcutaneous fatty tissue, of which the female has a greater amount. This fatty tissue is almost impossible to discard, even with the most strenuous exercise and diets.

Women have many excuses for putting off exercise, and the excuse that rears its ugly head more often than any other is, ”I don’t want to have big bulging muscles like a man.” At this point I would like to say,”I’m sure men wouldn’t want you to have big bulging muscles.” Muscles, like those work-outs we hear so much about, will not work unless you do. On the other hand, work-outs will forever be present when you wish to make use of them, but muscles will atrophy, shrivel up and waste away if you fail to make use of them. You may lose weight or you may gain weight: in any event the muscles lose tone and shape, and leave you in a miserable state, mentally and physically.

A machine hundreds of times stronger than human muscles will give way with constant use, wear out and break down. Whether you use a machine scientifically or otherwise, some part always has to be renewed in order to maintain the working efficiency. But only one possible result can be the final outcome of muscle activity; the muscles get bigger, stronger and healthier. Or you can adjust that activity, through the medium of planned exercise, to make them just stronger and healthier, or any combination you choose. Even if you abuse your body, it can, to some extent, adjust itself to that also.

I have mentioned the primary duty of muscles. Another function is to hold our internal organs in place; that is, to act as supports. Some people you see with bulging stomachs arc not necessarily fat. Their internal organs may have descended and assumed a convexity due to loose and starved tissue, undertoned muscles and a lack of resiliency—all resulting from a lack of exercise and improper diet. Since one of the functions of the muscles is to hold us together, so to speak, it seems to me it would be a great deal more thrifty on the part of women to go ahead and exercise. To wear girdles, etc., does not solve any anatomical deficiency, nor does it help the situation where their “big moment”, the man in their life, is concerned. When he discovers that what he assumed was nature’s doing is the work of some department store harness, his reaction may be very cool, to say the least.

To further complicate matters: if your shapeless condition is due to excess rolls of fat, the support of a girdle does not help in the least. The longer you sit around and reason why you shouldn’t exercise, the larger, fatter and more shapeless you become; and the bigger you get, the bigger the next purchase will have to be.

Nature was not meant to be suppressed in any form, especially the beautiful contours of the female body. It is a very simple matter to eat sensibly, and to practice moderate exercise. Exercise tones up the muscles and strengthens the tendons, so that they will do their natural job of supporting your internal organs. A girdle is unnatural and restricts movements to a certain degree, as well as impairing blood circulation. This is true, regardless of what popular advertising may say to the contrary. Aside from the above, the wearing of a girdle for even a short while results in discomfort. Exercise makes you feel young and above all it makes you look young. You needn’t fear masculine-like development. The work and weights to be handled in order to acquire such excessive development would completely exhaust a woman before the work-out was half over. There are recommended exercises under the proper tutelage for women to be found at the Viking Barbell Club or other gymnasia of your choosing. Henry Atkin has helped many girls to acquire the type of body they desired. He can help you to get rid of that girdle and on the road to super health, and, who knows—maybe ” Miss Britain ” !

Fortunately, or unfortunately, as the case may be, America’s influence reaches into the farthest corners of the earth. The one hoax that has plagued the women of the world (I assume foreign women are as vain about their physical proportions as are American) is the Hollywood version of what a woman should look like. There was a time during the first half of the 1930’s when Hollywood used real women in their chorus-girl scenes. After 1935, there was a trend of streamlining everything, including women’s bodies, until to-day, in every place we go, we see thin, definitely undernourished women. You see them in fashion magazines, fashion shows, theatre musicals and the cinemas.

Hollywood says a woman must meet certain standard requirements to be a success in the entertainment world—13-in. calves, 19-in. thighs, 23-in. waist, etc., and girls attempt to match these measurements. Neither Hollywood nor the girl seems to take into consideration the bone structure, size, height of type classification.

Women arc more conscious of their bodies than are men (?), but know less about their bodies than men do. Most men are aware of the fact that they cannot attain the massive measurements of a Hercules if they are possessed of the light, bony structure of an Apollon or the medium bony structure of a Theseus. But how many women are aware of the four female anatomical types : Diana, Juno, Venus and the Amazon ? I would say very few, because women arc constantly trying to acquire the lines of one of these types, unaware that they arc another type. You cannot emulate Hollywood’s idea of female perfection if you are large-boned. Yet you will often find a woman who, some way or other, starves herself and gets these measurements, and everyone concerned agrees she has the body of a goddess.

Let me give you an example. I here are women in motion pictures who stand 5 ft. 7 in. to 5 ft. 9 in. high I know they all couldn’t possibly have the same size bone structure: yet they all weigh between 120-138 lbs. ” Beautiful,” say he experts. ”The lines of Venus.” ‘I he chances are that they are, anatomically, Junos or Amazons An outstanding example of this is a well-known and glamorous American motion picture star. She has received immense publicity lauding the beauty of her face and body. A popular American weekly publication devoted seven or eight profusely-illustrated pages to extolling her beauty of body, and comparing her with old Greek statues.

Those of you who think you would like to be built like her may rest assured that by no stretch of the imagination could she be compared favourably with those statues of ancient Greek art. First of all she is underweight to the extent that she looks under-nourished. Her hips and thighs are small and wasted. It is known to all who read the papers that she is anaemic – a ion that results from not eating sufficient, and not choosing the proper foods.

Yet this woman is worshipped by a horde of admiring women (as well as men), the world over, as having the ideal body. Here is a prime instance of a Venus type trying to be a Diana.

I am acquainted with a woman who was constantly dieting (but refused to exercise) in an effort to acquire the thin lines of a Diana. She was an Amazon type, knew nothing about anatomical types and cared even less. She was 5 ft. 9 in. tall and heavy-boned, as are most Amazon types. She succeeded in reducing, but found to her dismay that, although dieting had brought down her weight, the absence of exercise had left the skin and flesh hanging in loose folds over protruding bones. Her shoulders stuck out like a scarecrow, and her knees were quite knobbly. In fact, she decided: “I look worse now than when I was heavier.”

One more example: A young woman was picked up unconscious in a New York street. She was taken to a hospital and examined by a medical man. The doctor diagnosed her condition as chronic malnutrition. She was asked if she was employed, to which she replied “Yes.” ” Why, then, are you starving ? ” asked the doctor. ” Because I want a slender figure,” she said. He then asked her how long she had been starving herself, and she said “Three years!” This foolish young lady died shortly afterwards. The moral of this story is that diet and exercise are synonymous in significance, that one is useless without the other, and that there is no easy way known to science to acquire a beautiful body. Hard work and will-power is the only formula.

The principle underlying exercises for the female body is the same as for the male body builder. You will have to work hard, perhaps several months to a year, to get what you want in a physical way. But once you have reached your goal and your only desire is to maintain a certain physical standard, the hard work is finished. You have only to workout a few minutes a day or, if you like, a little more time on two to four days a week. Watch your diet, and be careful not to eat too heavily of fattening foods. If you wish to become “Miss Britain,” then it’s a different story — hard work and a constant vigil on food at all times is the order of the day.

A figure analysis is in order when you decide you want to get in shape—that is, find out what anatomical type you are. The Diana type is usually very feminine in appearance. A certain amount of fatty tissue is almost always present, bringing out smooth flowing lines. Small bone structure and short stature are apparent. Small to medium bust size is usually the case. This type is seldom found in athletics of any sort. Diana types also have narrow hips and straight, full, feminine legs.

Juno is more rugged in appearance, has larger bones and is definitely taller. This type has, in many instances, very-broad shoulders and fairly broad hips. When left to their own sins Junos become very fat in a short while, and find it extremely difficult to reduce. They have, as do the Diana types, small to medium busts. The legs range from medium length to long, and are slightly fatty to muscular in appearance. When exercised they become more muscular, but a certain amount of smoothness remains. This type is often found in athletics.

Venus types are tall, narrow-shouldered and have small busts for women of their size. They are very smooth with much fatty tissue, and must always be careful of their physical appearance. They are extremely broad in the hips, and have long, full legs. Women of this type are seldom seen in athletics, and when they do take up sports hardly ever get into what we call good, hard condition. They always seem to maintain smoothness.

The Amazon type is, of course, huge all around — large bones and large muscles. Amazons are sometimes squatty in stature, and range all the way to towering six-footers. They are usually-active, and very successful in athletics, and when in good, hard physical condition tend to be very muscular in appearance. However, this can be avoided by keeping a slight layer of fat over the entire body.

Although I have described the four female anatomical types, they may not be accurate to the point of supporting a debate. I have described them from memory as I noted them in a magazine some twelve years ago, and I can no longer locate the book for a more accurate description. But rest assured that you have anatomical types as well as men do, and should familiarise yourselves with your individual type. Try to develop the criteria in this type of figure and to maintain it. Don’t do like the little lady I described previously and try to be something you are not intended to be. Don’t wear a girdle or corset unless recommended to do so by a competent physician; diet only when given a suitable dietary schedule by a qualified medical man. Why? Because diets, as you have seen, can be fatal. More than anything else, a diet must be planned to meet individual needs and wants so as to be properly balanced. Its purpose is to serve your body with the necessary daily-minimum / maximum requirements of vitamins, minerals and calories. Here in America—and I am quoting what 1 have read, not what I know—we pride ourselves on being the best-fed nation on earth. Yet there are people roaming the streets hungry. As a nation we are vitamin-starved, and have no individual knowledge of foods in general. But (and this is a very odd state of affairs), millions of dollars arc spent annually in research to find the proper diets for race horses, farm stock, pet fish and other things of this sort. People eat a sandwich and drink a cup of coffee on the spur of the moment to keep them going. If they feel there is something missing from their diets they merely go to the corner drugstore and buy a box of vitamins to supplement their otherwise inefficient diet. A peculiar aspect shown by the general American public is the tendency to laugh at and ridicule the young women and young men who show an interest in their health. You may find this true in England also. People laugh at you when you say you train with weights and watch your diet. But at the same time they gaze with admiration and envy on the photographs of well-built men and women in the various health publications. Even then, forced by jealousy, some say they wouldn’t want to be built like those people. Only recently I was showing a group of young women some photographs in BODY CULTURE of Miss Sheila Gevay (Miss England, 1947) and Miss Betty Watson. Their comments were:”They couldn’t get that way through exercise. They were probably born that way,” and “I wouldn’t want to be built like her,” referring to Miss Gevay. I had no comeback, but I did comment that I myself would like to be built like Miss Gevay.

In closing, I would like to say, “Go to it right away. If you put off exercising now, you will put it off later also, until finally there will be little hope left.” Exercise and proper eating make life a great deal fuller and worth living. It was estimated a few years ago that married women in the U.S.A. gain an average of ten pounds a year during the first ten years of marriage. It’s no wonder there are so many divorces among those who place a great importance on physical attraction. There is no need to wear tight, uncomfortable under-garments any more than you need have fear of getting big, bulgy, masculine muscles. Women have the same number of muscles to perform the same job as do men. Like men, there arc only two conditions to be concerned with -cither you are fat and out of condition, or you are muscular and in condition. SO, GIRLS, GET IN CONDITION NOW!

Body Culture, Volume 1 Number 10, August 1950

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