The Key to Might and Muscle - (Circa 1926) - Chapter 11 - How a Columnar Neck Creates Nerve Force - By George F. Jowett

In another chapter I made the remark that the calves were among the first things I looked over when making a physical survey of a body builder. If they lacked size and shapeliness, then his whole build was spoiled in my sight. If I want to find out how much physical force a man possesses, or is likely to possess in a dormant state, I look at his neck. That never fails to answer my question. In both men and the other male beasts, the neck has always been the true indication of a quality and quantity of his concentrated nerve power. A strong healthy man always has a powerful neck , and he always will have one.

When a man is sick or has recently been ill, it is customary to say that he is pale around the gills. As age creeps on us, it always shows its mark by the emaciation and the flabby appearance of the neck. A shapely neck is an even finer example of virile manhood than are good hips. Of the two it is more apt to attract your first glance. All animals, the horse, lion or tiger, manifest their superb carriage in their proudly arched necks. It is just the same with man. If the holds his head straight with his shoulders back, and walks with a lilt to his stride and a spring in his step, he owns a real neck. It is one part of your body you cannot successfully cover. Everywhere you look you will always find more scrawny necks, protruding Adams's apples, or hollowed necks, than you will find straight columnar necks of the vibrant man.

The most important muscles that surround the neck are the sterno mastoid and the trapezius, and the seven vertebrae that support the head are known as the cervical spines. The most characteristic feature of the neck is the shortness of the cervical spines. This gives to the ncck the distinct advantage of being able to bend backwards to an acute angle, without any of the attendant dangers that are liable to appear in a lower back bend. If this was not the case, wrestlers would never be able to stand the gruelling to which the head locks subject them. The natural formation of the sterno-mastoid also helps make this possible. It is the prominent muscle projecting on the side of the neck that separates the anterior from the posterior angle, fitting obliquely in the neck. In other words, it forms a triangel from the back of the head to the front of the throat. Actually it is fastened to the occipital bone behind the ear and to the sternum bone. Because of the position of this pair of muscles they give the head a triple movement. Acting alone, either muscle singly, turns the head to either side. Working together they hold the head forward. They also act as extraordinary muscles of inspiration, by raising the sternum and clavicles in a movement similar to raising the face upwards.

Just for a moment, I am going to digress by asking you to call to mind the neck condition of the lower animals. Did you ever notice how much larger their neck is in proportion to their bodies than is that of a man. Just try to hold the head of a collie dog, and see what a time you will have. Ten to one he will break away. A larger dog would haul you over. Just so the necks of a dog, bear, or gorilla are more powerful than of a horse or a cow. The necks of the latter have not the fullness that others have, and by twisting their heads they can be thrown and held down, providing the pressure is applied to the side of the head and neck. The horse and the cow, like the deer, stag or moose, apply their strength in other directions, such as tossing and pulling. Some breeds of cows and horses have shorer and, therefore, more powerful necks, just the same as the difference between long-necked and short-necked men. However, this in not what I started out to tell you. The real issue I wanted to discuss goes back to evolution. It is the result of something we have lost in our march to civilization and which has been retained in the lower animal. If you make a close study of the sterno-mastoid, you will find that on either side these fleshy columns are separated from each other by a fibrous partition. This is a feeble relic in man of the stout elastic ligament which is so often met with among the lower animals. Our erect posture caused it to degenerate, but in the animal that walks on all fours again, yet any muscular action seen in other living creatures, and not common to man, is always interesting to me.

The next muscle of importance is the Trapezius. Although mainly a back muscle, yet it is finally attached to the occipital bone forming the major part of the breadth of the back of the neck. This muscles operates from different positions, but ordinarily it is never so powerful at the back of the neck as it is in the back itself. A defect in this muscle always shows itself in the scooped hollow so often prominent on the back of the neck. Now of these two particular pairs of muscles, the sterno-mastoid is the more frequently employed. There is hardly any daily cause for vigorous play of the trapezius, unless some one places his hands playfully upon the top of your head and pulls it down. Then in order to resist, you will have to pull backwards and this brings the trapezius into action. However, I find that they develop quite rapidly; more radidly than the sterno-mastoid.

In other chapters you may have noticed how often I have referred to the way in which vigorous muscle stimulation was caused by nerve vibration. The very life, and the volatile power of your muscles depend upon the nerve supply contained in each. The power of the generative supply of the nervous system is largely dependent upon the condition of the ncek. It is here that we find the source of our nervous activity. It continues all down the spine, from which it shoots out its branches to stimulate the whole body. Every man who is endowed with a powerful neck is possessed of great concentrated energy. This rule never fails. Look at any athlete who is vigorously strong and you will see that the tape measure gives him a much larger neck than the average. It is a fixed fact in the minds of everybody that a strong body must have a strong neck. Sculptors and artists never overlook this point, although I doubt whether all of them realize the true importance of the neck, and the part it plays in our health, and how it decides for us how much concentrated strength we each have.

One time when I was up in the highlands of Canada, around Golden Lake, I noticed a beautiful body of water flowing through the hills. It branched into many little streams, spreading its fertility wherever the streams traversed, just as the nerves fertilize the body, stimulating growth, and establishing a better order of physical life.

To allow such unsightly things as a hollow neck, pocket holes, or a billiard ball Adams's apple to exist is not being fair to yourself. By just applying yourself to a few well selected exercises these faults can be overcome. The one form of exercise to which the will not respond is free movements. Your must remember that the neck is very powerfully constructed and when fairly developed carries a great mass of muscle about it in comparison to its length. Yet you do not have to jump into a lot of vigorous exercises all at once. Take it easy, and coax your neck, rather than force it. Some commence by using the hands as a form of resistance. If your neck is very weak, it is not a bad idea to practice that for a couple of weeks. But if you want to test your neck strength, you will find that it can easily resist any pressure from the hands. In other words, the neck is stronger than the arms. Therefore, it is not logical to expect to achieve any distinct success by employing a weaker resistance. The wrestler's bridge is a favorite exercise with most body builders, but they have the wrong idea of this exercise. Seemingly, it is thought that wrestlers develop their powerful neck from bridging. True, from bridging, but not in bridging. What I mean is that their development is obtained from going up into the bridge and not in holding the bridge. Body builders generally assume the wrestler's bridge and then push a bar-bell to arms' length several times while in that position. It becomes merely an arm exercise in a support. I consider a bridge nothing else but a support. No man can lift anything like the weight he can support in the wrestler's bridge. The spines in the neck merely act as a prop, as the head is actually forced between the shoulders.

Some find the bridge very difficult to form. There is nothing to it. What happens is this. The exerciser will lie on the floor with his feet drawn up to the buttocks; then he will try to pry himself up, and find that he cannot. The reason for this is that he has not considered certain points, and the distance between his head and heels is too great, and he is unable to make the grade to the crown of his head. What he should do is to first draw the heels as close to the body as possible, then place the hands behind the head, and draw the head well under towards the shoulders. This done, thrust with the legs so that the body weight is forced towards the head.

Now the best way to obtain the right effect upon the neck muscles is to bend the neck at the shoulders when in the wrestler's bridge position, and simply lower the shoulders to the ground. Then by prying and pressing the head against the floor, raise into the bridge again. Full action is obtained from the neck muscles this way. Some make the mistake of swaying the body up on to the head. That is wrong. Let your neck do the work, and you will find the exercise considerably more vigorous. When you feel you have become too strong for this movement, just hold a light barbell at arms' length throughout the exercise, and you will get just the right kind of resistance to continue your progression.

This exercise will get the trapezius nicely, but if you want to bring the sterno-mastoids into play all you have to do is twist the head from side to side, while in the bridge position, so that each time you bridge you roll onto the temple. However, be sure and make it a neck movement and not a motion done with the sway of the body. The further you twist to the side of the face the better will these neck columns work.

A man who has a good chest, and broad shoulders, will generally find it less difficult to develop a sturdy neck. Some people have a long, slim neck that seems to cause the shoulders to slope. Invariably, we find that the man with the long, slim neck has short clavicles, which make his neck look worse than it is. Of course, we cannot stretch the clavicles. The only thing left to do is to concentrate upon widening the shoulders and building up the deltoids. Wide shoulders and a deep chest allow greater space for the neck muscles to spread. Then, on the other hand, they require a larger-sized neck to look like anything.

By way of variation, here are a few more exercises that you may like better, and which I can guarantee will give you the best results, although it is wise to practice them all. You commence by making a sling, with a hook attached, which will fit on the head and fasten below the chin. Take up your position with the hands upon the knees and the body bent well forwards from the waist. Then hook a kettle-bell to the sling and exercise the neck by bending the head forward so that the chin touches the chest. From that angle raise the head backward as far as possible. For the next exercise, turn the head from side to side. The first will get the trapezius, and the second exercise will catch the sterno-mastoids. Another good exercise is performed by lying on the back on a couch, with the head and neck protruding past the end. Allow the sling to rest upon the forehead with the kettle-bell hanging under the head. Now lower the head backward towards the floor as far as you can, without having sling slip off the forehead. Then concentrate strongly and raise the head by bringing the chin towards the chest.

If you want a really vigorous exercise, you will find the following movement sufficient for your needs. It is a great favorite of mine. In the first place, you should secure a good cushion or pillow for this exercise and the same should be used when bridging.

Load a barbell pretty heavily, and place it at the back of the head. Throw yours hands over and grasp the bar and see that the cushion is placed under the head. You will be lying full length upon the floor. Now draw your legs up quickly, pulling the knees to the chest, and like lightning shoot the legs upwards, and at the same time pry with the neck muscles and pull on the bar. If you do this properly you will be standing on your head at the conclusion of the movement, with your hands holding to the bar for support and to steady your balance. As you lower yourself back to the original position, just bend the neck and roll down into the shoulders and back. This can be done slowly if you pull sufficiently on the bar, with fine results. As you become more proficient at this exercise you can even go up slowly. I often do this when in bed, using the bed rail in place of the barbell. The exercise helped to make my neck so strong that I was able to perform the following stunt, which I have rarely seen duplicated. When it was duplicated, only a man who had a very powerful neck did the feat. It goes something like this. I sit on the floor with the arms folded, then quickly roll backwards, and as the head touches the floor, I press vigorously and thrust my legs upwards. The force, or throw of the neck, is so great that my body-weight is thrown into the air and I land on my feet in the same manner as though I had performed a back somersault. It is a very spectacular stunt, and one which I use to include in my exhibitions with great success.

I used to get a great workout with a little practice I included always in my wrestling training. I have advocated it a lot to many neck builders, who find difficulty in making the neck grow. The replies have all been very enthusiastic and I believe you will enjoy it. You need a partner, which may be a slight drawback, but one I believe you can easily overcome. Allow your friend to take a front head lock on you. To do this you both stand facing each other. You bend forward, and your partner wraps his right around your head, locking his hands to increase the resistance. Now do not get the idea in your head that all you have to do is break away. Nothing like that. Instead, pull, push and twist, hauling your partner all over with the movements. You will get such neck power that with very little training it will enable you to swing your partner off his feet. It has an exhilarating effect upon the spine. You can actually feel your nervous vitality increase. Wrestlers always have good necks. This is the reason they last so long in athletics. No matter how severe the neck play, there is never any danger of blood congestion, as some try to make believe. If there was such a danger wrestlers would be the first to show the effects. As a matter of fact, wrestlers can rest while in the bridge formation. I have seen wrestlers, when in the bridge formation, picked up and crashed down time after time, but with no results. Standing on their heads in crotch holds they are capable of head spinning and resisting all their opponent's downward pressure.

For a boxer to resist a knockout punch the stronger the neck is formed the better off he will be. In the less-cultured days of the boxing ring less clever boxers made a practice of catching blows on the side of the head. Such boxers always displayed a strong neck. These are extreme examples, but they go to show the extreme limits to which the neck muscles are capable of resisting without any detrimental effects.

In many of the European coast fishing towns the fisher people use their heads for carrying their baskets of fish, as coal heavers carry coal on their backs. The finest examples are found among the Bretons of France, and among the people of the east coast of England. I remember on first seeing these people how impressed I was with the fine carriage of the women. I was later amazed to see these same women balancing on their heads a basket loaded with fish, and walking along as though the load was nothing. The had beautifully shaped necks, which were undoubtedly the reason for the wonderful development of their bodies. Short skirts, with bare feet, and very short sleeves in their shirt waists, with the throat, shoulders and bosom partly exposed, made up their costume. Never since have I seen such magnificent specimens of womanhood. In my mind they stand out as the finest members of the other sex that can be found.

Neck strength is a wonderful asset. It is always evinced by a beautiful shapeliness that never fails to please the eye. It is something to strive for and to be proud to won. Exercise will make such a possession easily attainable. All the greatest men I have ever known, who displayed great concentrated energy, carried a columnar neck and a perfect bodily poise. George Hackenschmidt had one of the most imposing necks I ever saw. Every part was perfectly moulded. Nordquest, Travis, Steinborn, Cadine, Dandurand, Fournier, Klein and Coulter, among a few that I can immediately call to mind, all own beautifully formed necks, which are pillars of power, and their wonderful general physique and remarkable strength is positive proof of how a columnar neck can invigorate the whole body with its creative nerve force.

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The Key to Might and Muscle - (Circa 1926) - Chapter 10 - (Part B) - Famous Men of Might and Muscle - By George F. Jowett

This little chastisement reminds me of another correction in behavior that was meted out by Emile De Riaz, the elder brother of the famous Maurice De Riaz. I might say that Emile was equally famous and has some fine records to his name, but he did not continue as long a professional athlete as Maurice. He got married and settled down to keep a saloon in Paris that was very popular with both athletes and laymen. One drink Emile refused to keep was absinthe. Rather an unusual procedure for a French saloon, but Emile being a Swiss never got accustomed to recognize this as a necessary beverage, as most French people do. Madame De Riaz was a very beautiful woman, and one day as she attending the wants of the patrons, while her husband was working in the cellar, a loud speaking man, evidently under the influence of absinthe, seated himself at a table. He began to call for absinthe, and when madame informed him that they did not serve it, he became very objectionable in his remarks. Seeing that he would neither keep quiet nor go out, madame rang a bell for Emile, who quickly appeared. Quietly looking in at the door, he saw the cause of the trouble and without a word he turned on his heels, appearing shortly with a hammer and nail in his hands. Without paying any attention to the brawler, Emile took a chair and stood on it as he drove the nail in the wall , high up, but immediately over the head of the man who was still making himself obnoxious. This done, Emile reached down and grabbed his man by the coat collar and with a snap he jerked him off the seat, and before any one realized what had happened, the brawler was suspended from the nail by the coat collar. There Emile left him to kick out of his evil temper. When he was lowered to the ground it was as a strictly reformed man, who gladly and humbly apologized to madame. The general rule was to throw such people out into the gutter, but Emile found a better way. Still his method needed a strong man to be able to use it.

Not long ago, a press photographer showed me a strong man carrying a large rowboat on his shoulders. He was walking with his burden down the beach to the sea and continued his walk until the boat with its occupant floated off his shoulder. The entire weight was over four hundred pounds, and a boast is a very hard object to handle. When I gazed upon the face of the man I was not surprised as I recognized Henry Steinborn.

Sometimes, more than others, I feel that the world loves a strong man just as much as a man glories in his own strength. Life without it loses all its value, and we would miss a lot of the thrills that go with strength. Even though it is great to watch a really strong man work, it is much greater to be able to do some of the things yourself.

One of the greatest impressions of my life came, like most of them, quite unexpectedly. I was standing in a little railroad junction in the North of England, where I had to make a connection. It was a beautiful spot tucked away in a valley that bloomed with variegated nature. I had been absorbed examining the ruins of an ancient abbey and the remains of the old Roman wall that ran partly through the valley. Turning from them, I saw sitting upon the seat on the platform an enormously proportioned man. He had the shoulders of Hercules and limbs of a great thickness that showed their size through his clothes. As I gazed at him, he rose to face me, and across his majestic breast in three rows were numerous medals. I was in the presence of Albert Shakesby, who was then widely known as the Athlete Evangelist. I had long been curious to meet him, for since I had been up in the north , many had passed the remark that we looked much alike , although he was built on a scale about twice the size of myself. I know the name will mean nothing to you, but let me tell you that if there ever was a man in the world who represented strength of mind, body and character, it was Albert Shakesby. His extraordinary strength, like the strength of the biblical Samson, was a boon to him and a godsend to many. He holds the honored record of saving more lives from death, -drowning, accidents, etc-than any other man. He could do anything, swim, box , wrestle, lift weights, sprint, cycle or anything you can mention, and he was a topnotcher at them all. The was one of the few men that Britain had who could make Hackenschmidt work to throw him. He forsook the athletic profession after he had embraced religion. Stripped, he weighed around two hundred and twenty-five pounds and was a man of muscle. He and John Marx were the only two men who actually bent and broke a coin of mine in two, in my presence. Shakesby never cared to do such things, but I insisted so strongly, because I wanted to retain something as a souvenir of our meeting. Not a great while before our meeting he had sustained a very serious accident while saving a life at a fire. He just happened to be in the vicinity of the fire and became one of the many spectators. The fire spread over the building very rapidly, and it was believed that everybody was out, but to the horror of the watchers, a form appeared at one of the windows on the third floor. The flames drove the trapped man out on the window ledge, where he missed his footing and came hurtling down head first. Like a flash, Shakesby jumped forward and caught the man by the head in cupped hands, heaving upwards with all his might, which broke the fall and saved the man from serious injury. Just pause a moment and think what an enormous amount of strength was required for this life-saving feat. As you know , It is hard enough to withstand the impact of a body from the distance of our height; then what must have been the impact of this man's bodyweight from the height of three stories. Every foot of the way his poundage would increase with the speed of the fall. But Shakesby was powerful enough to withstand the shock. At one time he had a gymnasium, and he said that when he saw the man fall, immediately he thought of method employed by instructors to put falling pupils on their feet. This is done by heaving up the head.

He was one of the very few men I ever saw who could take a two hundred pound dumb-bell off the floor clean to the shoulder and put it overhead without moving the feet which were held military style with heels together. He held numerous honors from the Royal Humane Society for his life-saving feats and was a monument of inspiration to the cause of body culture. He was great at tearing a deck of cards, but I do not remember how many he could tear. In this feat the best man I ever heard of was Al Treloar. Some of the old-timers will remember him as the man who won one of the early MacFadden posing contests. That must have been more that twenty years ago. I remember seeing his picture posed as "Sin" on the cover page of Physical Culture. It struck me as being very beautiful. Treloar could tear four decks of cards all at once. A year ago Al had charge of some tumblers from Los Angeles, where he has been instructing for years now. He had brought them east to compete and stopped in to see me. The only thing the regretted was that I did not have enough card decks handy to show me that he was as efficient today as he was twenty-five years ago. He has great hand strength, and like all good men is very unassuming.

I have written quite a bit about hand strength, but what would you think of a man who had such arm strength that when he wrapped his arms around the body, he could crush the ribs in. There was such a man. He was a French provincial wrestler and strong man, whose name unfortunately has slipped my memory. They used to tell a story, that one time when he was with a carnival wrestling, he got enraged at his opponent who was as elusive as an eel. In one of the sorties he caught his adversary around the body and swept him off his feet. He crushed him so terribly with his arms that blood gushed from his mouth and the man died. The wrestler had remarkable pectoral and arm development, and he was a marvel at raising weights from the crucifix position lying on the floor. I was told that he had raised one hundred pounds that way. It was a terrific feat, but he surely looked capable of doing it. This reminds me of a feat I saw Vanburch, a Dutch strong man, perform when I was in Amsterdam. We had all been doing stunts with a flat ring weight that weighed fifty-six pounds, and among the stunts we tried was holding the weight out level with the shoulders by the ring. We all succeeded , as this is not much of a feat. Two men held it out with their little finger, then we quit, having done all the stunts we knew. During all the time Vanburch had merely been a spectator, and as we concluded he stepped forward. He turned the weight over, ring down, and spanned the flat side with one hand, only his fingers holding the weight. In this manner he held the weight out at arms' length, level with the shoulders, retaining the grip on the weight until he lowered his arm to place the ring weight on the floor. Needless to say this stunt stopped us all. I doubt Empian, the old time famous French "muscle out" champion, could have done it. Since that time, I have often mentioned it to various strong men I have encountered, but none have ever been successful in my sight.

It used to be that when we all got together, an impromptu elimination tournament commenced, and I have seen many surprising feats performed at such times. The men, whose names are most familiar to us, are not always the supreme beings. There are many strong men who are practically never heard of, who just try out their strength for pastime, but I never knew one who did not train with bar-bells, or whose daily occupation did not involve work similar to lifting weights.

I do not suppose many of my readers will remember the Italian who called himself the original Milo. He had a fine physique, and one of his feats was to balance a piano upon his chin while a young lady assistant played a tune. Of course, the piano was not nearly as heavy as the ordinary piano, but at the lightest and with a person attached to it, it stands as an astounding feat of both skill and strength. Sometimes I find it very hard to estimate the strength of some men, for they seem to be capable of performing such astonishing feats, that no matter how you figure they accomplished it, the feat remains a near miracle. Veritable giants of strength in action, but dressed on the streets, they would not impress the ordinary person as being such producers. There are a few exceptions, but the majority of men I can recall to mind, never showed their quality in their ordinary street attire; giants in strength, but seldom in stature. As a matter of fact, few giants have ever been recorded as being strong. The only one I can vouch for is Angus McAskill of Nova Scotia. This human dinosaur stood seven feet nine inches high, and weighed five hundred and sixty pounds. It is stated that his normal chest measurement was eighty inches. They tell some very remarkable tales about some of the feats he performed, which sound much like a chapter from the pages of the "Arabian Nights." Still, when you stop and figure out on a mathematical scale, the leverage his height gave him, with the weight he had, he must have been quite capable. One or two of his feats which are often talked about have been done by men two feet shorter than he, and two hundred and sixty pounds lighter. We can safely say that a boy standing four feet nine inches and weighing one hundred pounds is, if anything, heavy for his height, and we know that a man who stands five feet and nine inches, and strips at around two hundred is a mighty fine type of a man. Allowing one hundred pounds for each foot over four feet nine inches, we have a pretty fair standard, which makes McAskill one hundred and sixty pounds overweight for his height. Yet, this extra weight can be better distributed over seven feet nine inches than an extra one hundred can be, over the body of a man of five feet nine inches. At the same time, we have had powerful men with that much excess weight. To mention two, Cyr and Barre, make a fair comparison. This would bring McAskill in the class of super-men, like the men just mentioned. He was prodigiously strong beyond a doubt, and while it is said he did not like work, yet he loved to exhibit his great strength. The Queen of England heard of this man and expressed the doubt that such a being lived. In order to satisfy her majesty, McAskill journeyed to England and performed before the Queen, who presented him with a handsome gift in gold. He used to travel in a circus, and when showing in Boston he made a water that he could lift a certain anchor which weighed twenty-two hundred and fifty pounds to his shoulder. He is credited with not only lifting the anchor to the shoulder, but also with fifteen fathoms of the chain dragging, he walked with his burden for one hundred yards, from the end of the wharf to Atlantic Avenue. Later in life, he quit the circus to keep a store in Halifax, and natives of that city have often told me that when any person asked for a pound of tea, he just grabbed a hand full out of the sack and wrapped it up. The length of his hand was twelve inches and it was six inches wide. It is said that his handful of tea or sugar weighed a good pound. His footwear was size eighteen. No doubt he would have made a great wrestler, with such sized feet. All he would have to do would be to step on his man and with that five hundred ad sixty pounds on top of that foot, it would be all over. Laying all jokes aside, if half they report of him is true. He must have been a marvel. I never paid a great deal of attention to the tales I heard until I met an old time weight lifter who was very reliable, and it was he who confirmed the anchor feat. If any of my readers happen to pass through Halifax, Nova Scotia, it would be worth their while to visit the museum where many of his relics are kept.

For many years the city of Vienna, in Austria, boasted of being the greatest center of strong men. At one time the ancient city could boast of having seventy known flourishing strong man clubs, but Munich is now running it hard for first place. Some claim that Munich is a greater enter today than Vienna. Then again, there is Reval, in Russia, that can boast of a great number of powerful men. In this city there is a special club to which no man is given membership unless he can qualify first by lifting in the Two Hands Clean and Jerk, at least three hundred pounds. With such a high standard of qualification, it is strange that we do not hear more of them. Perhaps the terrible condition of the country during the last few years accounts for their silence. Once a year in Europe, the strong men hold Stoerkefest. That is a gathering of strong men, past and present, who line up and parade the city in which the Stoerkefest is held. The people turn out for that, just as we in America turn out for a baseball game. Karl Swoboda still reigns as a great figure in the minds of the Europeans, even though he has dropped out of competition. It was the change of ruling on the different lifts that caused him to retire, but there is no doubt in my mind that in putting a weight over the head with two hands, anyway you can, Swoboda still reigns supreme. His actual achievements in competition, I will leave for another chapter. Here I just want to talk about strength in its other phases. Karl Swoboda is known as the Vienna butcher. In stature he is a huge man, weighing around three hundred pounds, with a nineteen-inch neck, biceps and calf. When he worked at slaughtering cattle, it was said that he could hold any beast powerless by the horns. I fully believe that, as I have seen it done by a huge slaughterman named Strides, who could play with three block weights in each hand as though they were only twenty-five pound dumb-bells. We can look all about us and see evidences of great feats of strength. All the time they are coming forward. At the present time the strength world has its eyes on Alzen of France, and Gorner of Germany, who look as though they are going to surpass them all. Yet, my mind still lingers around the huge LaVallee. Never will I forget the colossal power contained in that magnificent form. We talk about muscling out in the crucifix style, but where do any of them stand alongside of him. He was totally ignorant of the fact that he was making history when he stooped over and grasped in each hand by the short neck of the bags two, eighty-two pound cement sacks, and held out level with the shoulder, these heavy awkward objects that afforded such meager hand hold. And later he raised off the ground a bar-bell, loaded to nine hundred pounds. This was followed by picking up a crudely shaped dumb-bell that weighed a little over one hundred and sixty pounds, which he pressed overhead in a movement nearer to a one-hand Military Press than anything else. It was all impromptu lifting at that. He did not strip because he did not wish to exert himself. He was fully dressed in his working clothes with a sleeve vest. But look at the work he followed. It required all man power to execute it, and he knew he was very strong and took a joy in employing his powers. All day long he was lifting, lifting and lifting. Not with bar-bells or dumb-bells, of course, but more crude objects that answered the same purpose, which made him capable of handling heavy bar-bells. A man who is daily employed handling very heavy objects in various movements, is accumulating the power to enable him to do other things; just the same as the bar-bell fan training with more compact objects, over a series of exercises becomes able to demonstrate his powers on similar objects that require strength. Invariably the bar-bell man becomes more efficient than the vast majority of heavy manual workers, because he educates every muscle in his body. Better still, a person can be very weak and start training with bar-bells and get strong, but a man must be strong in the first place to be able to follow a heavy occupation.

The most powerful men I ever knew realized the efficacy of exercise. It is the real goal winner. A very interesting proof of this was given me a few years ago. I was accosted by a long slim, ale, anemic young chap, who told me how deeply interested he was in strength. He said to me, "You know my weakness is the thorn in my soul. My dad is very strong and so is my brother, and they are always making me the butt. I can't work in the shop with them. I just have to stick in the office and that often gets me." Unconsciously, he clenched his fists and a flash shot through his eyes as he continued, "I'd give anything to be strong." I saw that there was a deeper motive than he had told me behind it. He was stung to the raw at being the family weakling. We talked for hours. Several months later he saw his chance. There was a heavy object which the father could not lift alone and he called to his strong son to come and help him. The weakling interrupted with the remark, "I'll lift that for you, dad," and to the amazement of father and brother, he lifted the object to the lathe. Conscious of the impression he had made, the former weakling effected an indifferent air as he walked away dusting off his hands with the parting cynicism, "When you get stuck, fellows, call on me." It was a transformation, and right now that young man can take his stand with many of the best where real man power is required.

There is a great joy in being strong, in being able to do the unexpected. One time two truck men were struggling unloading a huge barrel of oil. When they got it on the pavement, they left it reclining on its side, so it could be rolled, and as they rested a moment from their labors, the onlookers began to exclaim on the difficulty of handling such a heavy object and the impossibility of any one man handling it. At this last statement one of the truck men snorted with surprised disdain, "One man handle that! No danger, that kind of a man never was made." As though accepting a challenge, a stocky built spectator of medium height answered, "I believe I can handle it." All eyes turned on the speaker in a silence that spoke louder than words, as he stepped forward, and to their astonishment stood the barrel on end. This man was Teddy Mack. Another time he was called to the phone by a manufacturer of weights. This man said that he was up against a hard proposition. He had made a special bell but no one could lift it off the floor with one hand. Why, they had no idea, as several well-known strong men were there unsuccessfully trying. Ted said he knew he could lift it before he saw it, and he informed them that he was coming right over. When he arrived he simply looked at the bell a few moments, listening to the other strong men talk. Suddenly he stooped over and said, "How's that?" and he immediately stood up with the weight in his one hand. Here is the reason for this instance. Mack was a strong man, who like a sprinter, tennis player, shot putter or hammer thrower, had the ability and knew how to apply it. Teddy Mack has unusual power in his arms and back, and knew how to use it.

When circuses were more plentiful than they are now, which dates back to before the time of auto transportation, all the trappings were heavily loaded on horse-drawn wagons, especially built for the purpose. In the season when the weather was bad, it was a frequent occurrence to get stuck on the bad roads. A wheel would drop in a big hole or the horses found the ruts too deep for them to pull the load through. At such times it was "get out and lift." All hands would have to get busy. Warren Lincoln Travis for years went with the circus, and with them he got plenty of impromptu workouts. When the circus help got stuck in helping a wagon out of a hole, or a rut, was the time when Travis would have to turn out and put his brawny back and powerful arms to the task. It was not uncommon to see him succeed where five or six men together had failed.

Strange how my mind is flitting around in this chapter, but as I finish reciting one incident, my mind snatches another from the panorama of mighty feats that crowd before me. As I thought of the surprise Travis always was to those circus huskies, I remember what a greater surprise Fournier has been to others, because he is so much smaller. One time an argument sprung up between Fournier and a big man who weighed more than three hundred pounds. The mountain of flesh snorted with disgust to think that there could be any comparison between himself and the little fellow. Finally one of Fournier's friends remarked, "Well, he can lift you, but you can't lift him," which was true. The big man weighed three hundred and fifteen pounds, and right there Fournier bent pressed him to arms' length overhead. Of course, it is easier to raise a man in this manner than a weight, when you get him to the shoulder, but still imagine the strength required to hold such a weight overhead. Another interesting feat performed by Fournier, who only weighed one hundred and fifty-four pounds at that time, was to toss a one hundred pound bar-bell in the air and catch it by the ball of one end upon the palm of one hand. Balancing it thus, on the hand, he pressed the bar-bell to arms' length overhead while preserving the balance. It makes a pretty snappy feat that will stop a lot of the best of them.

Joe Nordquest does a stunt of which very few would think him capable. Rarely do we hear of a heavy man able to do a one-hand stand. Joe not only does a one-hand stand, but in the disengaged hand he holds out a one hundred pound dumb-bell, with not a waver to his stand. For such a large man to do a one-hand stand is remarkable enough, but when he begins to juggle a hundred weight at the same time, it becomes a phenomenal feat.

Then there is the cross armed snatch of two hundred and thirty-one and a half pounds by Gorner, a feat which borders on the miraculous. As he takes hold of the handle bar of the weight, he crosses his arms so that the right hand grips where the left would ordinarily grip, and vice versa. In this cross armed fashion the weight is snatched perfectly to arms' length in one movement.

Such is man power. I could write books on the remarkable feats of strength I have seen performed, and these few incidents in this chapter are only a very few of the many feats I have seen performed by some of the many famous men of might and muscle. Reluctantly I must closer this chapter to talk about other things, which I know will be full of interest to you.

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The Key to Might and Muscle - (Circa 1926) - Chapter 10 - (Part A) - Famous Men of Might and Muscle - By George F. Jowett

To me the rim of the horizon was always full of mystery, and as maturity claimed me, I longed eagerly to solve its hidden meanings for myself. It seems but yesterday that I heard my mother croon, "A Wednesday babe wanders far away," and I, in my childish faith, would ask her what I would be when I grew to be a man. My star of destiny rose at birth on the wanderers' trail, a path I followed for so many years. Now, as I look back, I can see in the gleam of bivouac and campfire, on veldt and prairie, little gatherings of restless, wistful men. I loved to listen to the lives of others as they lived their battles over in the tales they told. The lumberjack's shanty, the soldier's bivouac and the sailor's galley, each is a sacred spot, and so is the little club room off the gym, where the strong men have gathered for years and then passed on, leaving their appointed place to be filled by others of a younger generation. Does history repeat itself? I do not know; it always seems new to me. However, we all like to listen to it. The audience may be the same, drawn by a common appeal that is handed down. To us, the call of the strong man, the man of iron, is the spark that ignites our enthusiasm. We are all interested in the deeds of the modern strong man, but the deeds of the mighty men who in other days wielded Vulcan's rod, still claim our greater attention. So it will always be. The man of today will be the hero of tomorrow. His deeds will remain to thrill others, just as the deeds of the mighty iron men of a past decade continue to thrill us. So, gather around comrades, old and young, while I tell you some of the stories of men of might and muscle, I have known and heard of, and may my recitals interest you as much as the telling interests me.

I am not going to stick to any set form. I am just going to narrate to you the incidents as they come to my mind, in my own rambling style, to let you glimpse some of the characteristics of the famous strong men, their personality and good fellowship. So you can smile more steadfastly, in the realization of the fact that once a man is strong, no matter where you place him. Looking into his life we will see the evidence of his mighty strength in many difficult phases. No man can say a man is really strong unless his strength will prove itself under all circumstances. Our common sense knows that. Place any other man in the same circumstances I shall narrate and he would prove himself a physical pigmy. The strongman who obtains his strength from bar bell training, and who took to tossing iron for his particular sport, is still the monarch of strength athletes. No other method can give the same thews, or convey the same inspiring message to those who seek the domain of health and strength. Years ago, after the French Canadian giant, Louis Cyr, had forsaken the stage to take charge of his saloon in Montreal, thousands of his admirers continued to pay homage to him. They constantly patronized his saloon so they could claim friendship with this iron king. They listened to him tell his stories, but always with a hope and a watchful eye to see him perform some feat which to was common-place, but to others impossible. It was no uncommon sight to see Louis carry a huge cask of beer off the drayman's wagon on his one shoulder. What was a three hundred and twenty pound cask to him, even if it was terribly awkward to handle. He could grasp it by the chines and lift it from the wagon to the pavement, and then toss it to one shoulder, or throw it back on the truck, according to the need, without registering any sign of exertion. It was all in a day's work to him, but one feat he often performed to draw the patronage as a part of his business routine. Yet, he always performed it in an off hand way, that made him appear to be indifferent to any effect the feat had upon the spectators. They still talk about it in the old haunts, and it is a story worth telling,

Cyr would be reclining on the serving side of the bar and while he was in the midst of his conversation with his patrons, he would be approached by his wife dressed to go shopping. With the interrogative " Louis," she would announce her presence. Knowing what she wanted, the ponderous giant would neither withdraw his gaze or stop in his speech, but would lower his right hand in a nonchalant fashion, upon which his wife would sit. As gently as a child he would lift her over the counter, and as gently deposit her on the other side without a break in his speech. Madam would be examining her purse during the unusual journey and would then pass on as calmly as thought she had made the trip in a modern elevator. Showmanship par-excellence was exhibited by both in this extraordinary feat, but can you imagine the amount of strength that was involved? Although she did not weigh much over a hundred pounds, yet it meant that he curled her weight on the flat of his hand, and passed her over the counter in the manner of a hold-out and with no visible effort. It was a terrific feat of strength, which when performed, was a source of delight to all who witnessed it.

It is a well known fact Louis was an enormous gourmand, and his old show partner, Horace Barre, who retired a few years before Cyr, could keep him company at many of his feasts. These orgies were the cause of the death of both men. Many claim that the Bourgeaux jailor was stronger than Cyr, but it is hard to say, as both were Goliaths in strength. One of the outstanding feats of Barre's career, and one which he performed on three occasions, was that of walking the length of the gymnasium with a bar bell that weighed twelve hundred and seventy pounds on his shoulders. Twice he carried the weight in Montreal and once he duplicated the feat in Professor Attila's gymnasium in New York. Some time ago I was talking to the wife of the late professor, and we naturally fell to discussing Louis Cyr and Horace Barre. Madam Attila remembered quite well when the huge French Canadian made the astounding lift. We laughed as we recalled the quaint superstitions that obsessed poor Barre. If things were not just so, you might as well try to move the Woolworth Building, as poor superstitious Horace. He was full of signs and omens, and was forever crossing himself. Both he and Louis were good, honest hearted souls. Their life requirements were simple and they always had a smile for every one; I never heard of either having any enemies.

Carl Moerke, reminds me of Cyr, in build, except that Cyr was a much bigger man. Carl is only five feet two inches and weighs two hundred and twenty pounds, but his bulk for his height can be compared with Cyr's. Moerke is also tremendously strong. If you want to give yourself an idea of what his capabilities are, ask yourself what you could do with one of the steel rails that lie on a railway track. Perhaps you do not know much about them, but the next time you see the men laying railroad rails, see how many men it takes to carry one. No wonder he can do a deep knee bend with nearly six hundred pounds. When he was visiting me, I saw him snatch a bar bell of one hundred and sixty pounds overhead with one finger. Not off the floor as you might imagine. First he stood erect with the weight hanging at arms' length on his finger; then with a quick knee bend he took the weight to arms' length overhead. He is not lacking in the real stuff, and I have often had the pleasure of seeing this for myself; neither is his fellow country man and old opponent Henry Steinborn.

One time I met four German athletes who had been interned in the same prison camp as Henry, in Australia. They told me that for a weight they had sawed a tree trunk in two and connected the two pieces together with a long rod. That was their bar bell, and such as you can imagine was some weapon. In that prison camp there were thirty men who could lift three hundred pounds overhead, which was the weight of this improvised bar bell. Some days only four could lift it. For a while they could not imagine what was wrong, until Henry got stumped. He became sore and after a great fight he got the weight overhead. Out of curiosity they weighed it, and found that instead of weighing three hundred pounds, it weighed three hundred and seventy-five pounds. It started them guessing. Then they got the answer. It had rained incessantly for two or three and the timber had become water-logged, and a few days later when it had dried out, it weighed three hundred pounds as before. However, whenever there was a heavy dew or a shower, the wood absorbed it, which was the reason why the majority were so often stuck. Henry claims that was what made him a lifter, although the method of progression was not the sort that most of us would care much about. Yet, it must have been funny to see Henry get sore at his bell.

Talking about getting sore, can you imagine the even-tempered Warren Lincoln Travis getting sore? He did once. He was giving an exhibition down in New England, and at the entrance of the show he had his diamond belt and some other trophies on display. He had hired a man to watch them, but Warren forgot to hire somebody to watch the watcher. The result was, the caretaker of the trophies beat it with the whole outfit, which is worth a snug fortune. Did Warren camp on that guy's trail? OH! boy, he didn't wait for a train. The spirit of Achilles was in his heels, and he was travelling faster than any train. But, the best Travis could do was to locate the pawn shop where the smart boy had hocked the goods. Warren wept for joy when he grabbed his cherished possessions, but the thief got away. Lucky for him, for if Travis had ever got his hands on him, it would have been the parting of ways, as Warren would have distributed him to the four winds. However, Warren still remembers it and is willing to laugh with you over the escapade.

The only time Apollon, the French giant, could ever be made to show what he could really do, were when he was sore. In his act he used to appear in a prison scene. It was an epic. The stage was shrouded in darkness with the back curtain reflecting the fitful lights of a stormy night. The pale moon appeared from behind a cloudy crest, as it silhouetted the prison in grim foreboding lines. Clearly, the high railings cast their shadows; then suddenly a tall figure wrapped in a long cloak which failed to conceal the powerful lines beneath rushed from the cover of the prison walls and flung himself at the heavy iron rails which separated him from freedom. Grasping a rail in each hand, he pulled and tugged until they were forced wide apart to form an aperture through which he leaped to the front of the stage, as the music crashed into a triumphant march, and the lights went on revealing the Herculean features of Apollon, the idol of France. After each performance, the railings had to be taken to the blacksmith to be straightened. One of the excursions almost proved disastrous to our hero. The blacksmith, thinking he was doing Apollon a good turn, thought he would see how hard he could temper the rails to prevent them from bending. He was only too successful. That evening Apollon came on to do his stuff, but to his surprise the bars refused to yield. Now this big son of Gaul was always considered lazy, and when he married., the law of opposites prevailed. He won for himself a very small bride, but what she lacked in size she certainly possessed in temper; and by all accounts, madame was the real Omphale to this Hercules. Seeing him make no impression on the bars, she thought he had developed another of his lazy spells, and from the wings she stamped her tiny feet and tongue-lashed her bigger half to make him exert himself. Struggling with all his might, he was able to spread the rails wide enough to squeeze himself through. Utterly played out, he was unable to continue with his act and was obliged to leave the stage. His ponderous arms had swollen inches larger with the great exertion, until they resembled columns of twisted steel. It would have been an impossible task for another, and I feel that none of the iron twisters of the present time would have made the slightest impression on the bars that evening. This giant was idolized for many years in France and is considered by the French one of the greatest of strong men that ever lived, which I do not doubt. His right name is Louis Uni, and he commenced lifting weights in a circus when he was only a very young boy. At the present time he is about sixty-five years of age, but unfortunately in 1913 he was badly injured in his act pulling against two automobiles, and this injury afterwards made him a cripple. He was reported to have been killed, but it was later found that he was living in retirement in Paris, where he now is. Some claim the feat was not genuine, as they do not believe it possible to pull against an automobile, but they are mistaken; for if the driver shifts into high gear to start the machine, a powerful man can stall the car. The stronger a man is, the longer he can sustain the pull, and he is capable of handling a heavier machine. Probably what happened was one of the drivers went into low gear and stayed there, which was worse than if both had gone into low gear. Apollon was fifty-three when this happened and crippled as he is today, at sixty-five, he could make a lot them take a back seat, just like George Hackenschmidt did in Vienna a couple of years ago. Here was a man who radiated a personality very different from that possessed by most strong men. He loved to dress well and was always a model of fashion. When he broke Sandow's One Arm Press record, he took more pride in the faultlessly tailored pair of pants that his patron solemnly presented him, in view of the audience, than in the expensive gold medal given to him to commemorate his splendid lift. It was the way George disposed of his opponents when wrestling that amused everybody. His colossal strength enabled him to pitch his adversaries around, like baseballs. At the time he was going strongest, the song of the day was "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree." Some bright boy composed a parody on it, which my friends used to always make me sing as my contribution at any of the athletic feasts I attended. It went like this, "When Hackenschmidt grappled with me, he pulled like the roots of a tree. He gave me a punch, where I just had my lunch, and he mixed up my dinner and tea. Well I had no choice, don't you see, 'cos he had the half nelson on me. And he made such a wreck, at the back of my neck, that he punctured my old apple tree." Those were the happy days, when life seemed to be full of laughter and happiness.

At the same time, Arthur Saxon was dazzling the world with his matchless strength, and when I hear that it is claimed that the Bent Press was a trick lift, I get a wonderful laugh. Particularly, when they try to measure Arthur's strength by that lift. When any one claims that Saxon was not mighty, he only proves his own ignorance. Take the Bent Press, his specialty from him, and see what he could do. For instance, who ever lifted his sack of flour? Nobody. Wherever he went, the finest huskies tried their best, but no matter how they tried, their strength was never equal to the task. But look how Saxon handled it. He certainly employed no elaborate method to lift it. To my knowledge he used a perfectly natural method that anybody who tried could use, but his method of lifting the sack of flour was entirely hopeless for others to try. Simply straddling the three hundred and twenty pound sack of flour he interlaced his fingers beneath the center, and with one heave, he had the bulky object to his chest, changing his grip as the sack arrived at the shoulders. Then overhead it went. The jolly miller was just as useless on that stunt as the store clerk. Shape, size or balance of an object never seemed to bother Saxon. Why look at the way he handled that barrel of beer, which weighed over three hundred and ten pounds.. Grasping it by the chimes, he could tear it off the ground to arms' length overhead and hold it there, despite the roll of the beer which made it difficult to keep the balance. I never heard of a drayman,-who is always good at handling kegs and barrels-handling anything like the weight contained in that cast of beer in such a manner, and Saxon gave every one the same chance. If they could lift it, they could have it, but like the sack of flour, no one ever got it. Even more marvelous was the manner in which he snatched the plank overhead. This plank of wood weighed one hundred and eighty pounds. He would stand it on its two-inch edge holding it with only the grip of his fingers and thumb. In one movement, it went aloft. Just you try to lift a two-inch plank, weighing one hundred and eighty pounds, off the floor, and you will be trying something. These are feats which the miller, drayman, and lumberman should be good at, as they are their specialties, but none ever came forward to duplicate the feats, and I have never heard of any who could. I have some very strong men among these three groups, and have seen them do some wonderfully good stuff; yet the best of them have suffered badly by comparison with a real strong man. He can beat them in nearly every test he is put up against.

Just look at John Marx. There was another powerful man. No matter where you put him, he was strong. The way he could bend and break horse shoes was remarkable. One feat he did for some time, which always made a great impression on the people, was to break a chain with a blow of his hand. The way he did it was to stretch tight between two uprights a length of trace chain, and with a quick downward blow of his fist, he snapped it in two. The little finger of his right hand was broken quite often by this stunt. Finally he gave it up for that reason. He had a very impressive figure when dressed, and he knew it. Although he was never conceited about it, he used his appearance as a business attraction, just as Joe Coryn of Pittsburgh did years ago. You would always see John wearing a Prince Albert suit with a high hat and carrying gold headed walking stick in his hand. Thus attired, he would stroll majestically along the streets. As he walked, everybody would turn to watch him. The wide back, deep chest, massive shoulders, powerful neck and the flat waist, made him an imposing sight. One time, in one of the cities where he was showing, he was strolling along the main street, when he was approached by a group of young fellows who were a little the worse for drink, and who apparently were familiar with John by sight. One of the group evidently wanting to show off began to strut in front of John, regally puffing on a imaginary cigar, and holding a stick of wood in his other hand to imitate the gold headed stick that Marx carried. In an arrogant voice the drunken swagerer bawled out, "Make way for the great John Marx, I am coming." About this time John caught up with the would-be clown, and as though oblivious to his existence as a human being, he grasped him by the seat of the pants and lifted him high off his feet, like an object to be removed. With no effort John held him thus, and continued on his walk a few steps. Then he dropped the now badly scared youth into a rubbish cart that was parked on the side of the road. So easily and so casually did the big athlete handle the weight of the other man that his friends just gasped. John paid no more attention to them than he would have shown them if the incident had never happened.

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The Key to Might and Muscle - (Circa 1926) - Chapter 9 - The Value of Finger Strength and How It Is Acquired - By George F. Jowett

The fingers, hand, wrist and forearm, more or less operate together, but as I told you in my last chapter, I was obliged to divide my talk on forearm development into two chapters, in order to give you the full benefits of the known facts. The only difference is that the exercises advised for developing the grip, wrist and forearm, are different from the methods employed in stimulating finger strength. Then again, because you have a strong good looking forearm, it does not necessarily mean that you really possess great finger strength; although it does mean that more often, than not. Anyhow, when I have a lot to tell you on one subject, I like to divided it so your mind is not crowded with too much information. I feel that you grasp the details better.

Finger strength has a great deal to do with the strength of the three other subjects just discussed, and I think we will find that a little attention given to the fingers will be well worth your while. \have you ever wondered when you were listening to a pianist interpret some difficult music, whether he had strong fingers or not? You know he has a certain amount of endurance, but perhaps that is no more than is usually found in a person who specializes on one thing. However, I have often asked myself that question, and while I knew the average pianist was not the equal of a laborer for strong fingers, I believe that the first class pianist must have more than ordinary finger strength. Of course, it would be a waste of time to look for big wrists, strong forearms and a powerful grip, as a proof of this in a pianist, as they only train their fingers, and as a rule they are not interested in strength or size, so never train with that object in view. I once happened to be talking with a man who is a great friend of Paderewski, the wizard of the ivory keys, and he said to me, "Did you ever realize how it is possible for Paderewski to swarm up and down those flights and every note be even in tone, and yet distinct from each other? How he can race the key board with a crescendo of music, and repeat it like a whisper, but every note is distinct and even? It is because he has powerful fingers. They are like steel cables, and his grasp is like a vice." Well, I figured my friend ought to know, for he is a very powerful man himself and an ardent exerciser. I was not surprised to hear that. It seemed logical in Paderewski's case. But I have seen many various demonstrations of finger strength, and each feat is the exercise that made the fingers so capable when the feat was shown. Therefore, a person has a pretty wide range of instruction from which they can glean many things that are very valuable in helping them to acquire finger strength.

So far as lifting weights with the fingers goes, I believe that Warren Lincoln Travis is the best man in the world. He certainly is the best that I ever met, in raising weights off the floor with the aid of his fingers. I have seen him make several big lifts with two fingers, but the best he ever did was the time he celebrated his fiftieth birthday, when he raised the terrific weight of eight hundred and eighty-one and one-half pounds, using just one finger of each hand. I was the referee on that occasion, and was proud to see Travis raise the world's record so high. On the one finger lift he has done around five hundred and sixty pounds, while John Pagano has also raised over five hundred pounds with one finger. The lift is not made with the bare finger, as you are no doubt aware. The finger could not grasp the object to lift it. The middle finger is used, and on it the lifter fits an iron eye that has a hook attached, which grabs the object to be lifted. It is necessary that the eye should fit tightly upon the finger up at the first joint, as close to the knuckle of the hand as possible, as the finger is crooked, the eye locks thereon. Just the same it has to be raised off the floor, and that takes power. The ligament of that finger becomes very thick. In some cases, I have seen it become so thick that it made the finger crooked. A few years ago I met an old Swedish lifter who had quit the profession, but in his day was claimed to be a great finger lifter. I remember quite well that the middle finger of his right hand was almost twice as large as any of his other fingers, just from practicing that lift.

A splendid pastime to test your finger strength, and at the same time build it, is finger pulling. You lock your middle finger with that of your opponent at the first joint near the hand, then you both pull, and the finger that is first straightened out loses the pull. Teddy Mack has very strong fingers. On one occasion he and I locked fingers together and resisted the pull of ten men, trying to get us apart, five on each side.

I once had a husky young bar bell user call on me, and among some of the stunts that he did was making a handstand on all fingers, and finally making a perfect stand using only two fingers and the thumbs of each hand. I have seen John Y. Smith, the famous Boston strongman, do the same feat when he was in his sixtieth year. However, Professor Paulinetti told me he knew a professional balancer who actually made a hand stand using only the index finger and the thumb of each hand.

Among other clever demonstrations of finger strength, that I had the pleasure of witnessing, was a feat by my pupil Philippe Fournier, of Montreal. At the Joffre Café where he, Giroux, and the famous Parisian lifter, Cadine trained when in Montreal, was an old solid type bar bell that weighed two hundred and fifteen pounds, and the bar was one and a quarter inches in diameter. By employing just the middle finger of each hand, Fournier made a two hands Clean and Jerk with this bell, which completely stumped the giant Giroux and the clever French lifter, Cadine. It was a terrific feat and I doubt if there is a man living who can duplicate it. Although Fournier only weighs one hundred and fifty-four pounds, he is prodigiously strong, and has exceptionally strong fingers. I have seen him take a large size horseshoe nail, and with the bare fingers of his hands, twist it into spirals like a corkscrew. Another very interesting stunt I saw him do was to place the back of his hand upon a chair, and let the heaviest man present place his thumb upon the first joint of his middle finger; then he told him to force down with all his weight and might, but it was useless. Fournier actually curled that one joint of the finger where all the weight was sustained, without even moving the hand or the other fingers. Despite all the efforts of the man to keep that finger pressed down, Fournier lifted him up, and it is claimed no man has ever been successful in holding the finger down. I remember this feat among the most remarkable, for finger strength, that I ever saw. In wrist turning also Fournier is very powerful; he actually makes most of his living this way, backing himself against all comers without a single defeat so far, being registered against him.

A feat of finger strength I have often seen practiced with a billiard cue, is to take the point of the cue and place it just under the index finger, with the weight of the cue supported upon the back of the other fingers. The feat is to press against the tip of the cue so that the full length of it lies in a straight line with the back of the hand. I once heard of a man thus holding out three, but I did not see him do it. However, the information was reliable and surely was a real feat of finger strength. Another feat is to gather the tips of as many billiard cues as you are able, within the grasp of the fingers of one hand only, and hold them out at arms' length, level with the shoulders. Six is the most I ever hears of being correctly handled in this manner. It is a much more difficult feat than a person imagines. Just try one for a start, and then see how terribly awkward two is. Each additional one makes the feat still more difficult.

Coin bending and breaking is another test for finger strength, but it is a rare thing to see such a stunt performed. John Marx and Albert Shakesby are the only two I ever saw that could break them, and they were not new coins either. I know many others claim to have done this, but I am dubious of most of them unless I personally see them break my own coins, as in the two cases mentioned.

Charles Vanstittart, the famous English athlete of a decade ago who was famed as the man with the iron grip, could wrap up plates of pewter, like paper, with only the use of his fingers. He was also capable of tearing a brand new tennis ball into pieces with his finger strength. He was a man endowed with genuine power, and he was above any shady practices.

To see a man take something in his hands and crush it, tear or lift, has always had a fascinating influence over everybody. For some unknown reason, such feats seem to grip the layman with greater interest than great bodily feats of strength.

Some time ago, a certain strong man was boosted for his great ability to lift fifty pound plates of iron by the edge with his finger strength, and walk away with one in each hand. I know of scores who can duplicate the feat, many of whom are just light men. I have seen several different athletes who were capable of snatching one in each hand overhead, both at the same time. Right here in Philadelphia, I can place my hands on two amateur bar bell men who can raise seventy-five pound plates off the floor, gripping them by the edge with their fingers only. It is a mighty task and takes a powerful grip.

One time when Joe Nordquest was in Philadelphia, he and Teddy Mack were resting on chairs among the weights, when Joe reached down and grasped a thick fifty pound plate by the edge and curled it to the shoulder as pretty as a picture. Completely effortless. Wouldn't you feel you were strong if you could do that?

A feat that is more difficult than picking up a fifty pound plate, is to span with the hand the bottom face of a fifty pound block weight and raise it off the ground. It is very hard to get hold of; practically only the tips of the fingers are able to take a hold, with the thumb. Robert Ruckstool is very efficient at this stunt, and his hand is not extra long, but he does it neatly. Here is another very difficult feat which I unexpectedly ran up against some years ago. I was calling on a very well known strong man, and he told me he was going to introduce me to a German athlete who was very strong. I was glad to meet him, and quite naturally we got talking about strength, and the first thing I knew was that this son of Anan brought forward a round ball of iron and asked me to lift it. Personally I don't think a man should expect another to equal him on a feat which he had specialized upon for years and condemn him if he fails. I am always willing to try anything whether I fail or not, but I prefer men should test their merits on a matter of stunts, rather than hold to their specialty. This man was very boastful and loud in his belief that I could not lift the ball of iron. I told him I would not be surprised if I failed, s the ball was very large for my hand and finger, while the other man had a much larger hand. Three times he failed to raise it, but to my surprise and to his consternation, I lifted it on the second attempt.

I have found that anything that has a very large diameter should not be gripped too tightly. If this is done, the object is forced out of the hand. A grip that is inclined to be loose is the best. If yu ever watch a manipulator of coins or billiard balls work, notice how easily he seems to hold them within his fingers.

A little further back, I was talking of lifting plates of iron by the edges. If you want something a little more of a teaser than a fifty pound plate, just take two twenty-five pound plates with beveled edges, and stand them on their edge side by side; then span the two with the hand and raise them. It is a little more catchy, as the plates slip against each other, and with the beveled edges they help to neutralize your finger grip.

Chinning the bar with the fingers is a test you do not see performed every day. I have seen Charles Schaffer chin himself perfectly three times with one finger. I have seen him stand between two boards that supported a floor, and catch hold of the joist between the thumb and fingers of each hand. Hanging thus, he never had any difficulty in chinning himself. Later I saw him walk between the two joists, hanging in the manner he chinned himself. He would chin himself hanging on one joist with the palms of the hands facing him; although the walk along is much more difficult.

When I get thinking about finger strength used in chinning, I always remember the remarkable feat performed by Professor Schmidt. I never saw anyone who could duplicate it, or ever hold their bodyweight for a fraction of a second in the manner I am going to explain. He would tie a length of chain on a horizontal bar, just high enough overhead so that he could reach up and grasp it. Now I want you to get this right so you will better appreciate the feat. The links in the chain were not the long wide links that allowed you to hook your finger in them. They were links that were too small to allow any such hold. Well, Schmidt would take hold of the last link with only his index finger and thumb, in much the same way that you would hold a pencil lengthwise between your index finger and thumb. With only this slight catch, the professor would positively chin himself and hold himself chinned. He weighs about one hundred and twenty-five pounds, but I have seen some of the cleverest finger chinners in existence hopelessly fail at this test. It is a feat that you do not have to attempt to duplicate to realize its enormity. Your imagination will explain it sufficiently.

I once saw a sailor take a cocoanut and crush it to pieces between the palms of his hand, by interlacing his fingers. The feat is equally an arm feat, but if his fingers were not strong, they would have pulled apart under the great pressure.

Lock your middle fingers together and allow some of your friends to try and pull you apart. See how much resistance you can withstand in this manner. It is a good test and helps to make a good exhibition feat.

Talking about feats with an anvil reminds me of a particular feat that I performed impromptu which takes a great amount of confidence as well as strength. It happened at one of the times that I picked up an anvil by the horn in a smithy shop, and after that stunt I pressed the anvil to arms' length by lying it on its broadside upon the flat of my hand, which is not as easy as it sounds. After I had done this I put the anvil on the floor on its base. We began to talk about various anvil feats being so difficult because of its awkward unbalanced construction. One man remarked that it would be some stunt to balance the anvil on the hand upside down. That meant the face would rest on the hand and the heavy wide base on top. Somehow I conceived the notion I could do it, and accordingly I took hold of the face with my right hand, and with the help of the left arm got the weight to the shoulder. Despite the wide base and the bad balance caused by same and the horn, I not only succeeded in balancing the anvil by its face, but pressed it to arms' length, to the amazement of all. I have done it many times since, and for this volume I performed the same feat, thinking it might interest my readers. The anvil weighed one hundred sixty-eight pounds.

Now you may think that these two feats have nothing to do with finger strength. Well it has, and a great deal. In the first feat where the anvil lies broadside upon the hand, the gret pressure of the concaved side forces the hand back tremendously. If you have not the finger strength to resist the pressure, the hand will be forced too far backwards and the feat made impossible. In the last described feat, only the thumb and the ends of the fingers span the anvil's face and it is these slight catches that enabled me to control the balance and keep the anvil perpendicular throughout the feat.

The Canadian lifters have a feat in which finger strength is very important. In one way, they see who can carry the heaviest dumbbell the farthest, in each hand, before the weight pulls out of the fingers. Another way, a bar bell is lifted, like in the two hands dead lift, and the walker tries how far he can walk forwards--not sideways--with the bar bell in his hands. It is difficult to walk this way, as the bar bell is in the way of the forward leg movement. I saw Arthur Giroux in a contest, walk fifteen feet with a bar bell weighing 657 pounds, before his fingers were straightened. Giroux and Gorner would make a great pair in such a contest, as both have powerful hands and fingers, and have so far proven themselves the greatest men in the world on such feats of strength.

Get a bunch of your fellow exercise fans together, and try some of these stunts. You will get fun and profit from them, and they help to break up the monotony that might exist in constant ordinary exercise training. You will never miss the time spent this way. It is an interesting play that keeps your enthusiasm alive, and will have a valuable influence upon the size and strength of your forearm.

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The Key to Might and Muscle - (Circa 1926) - Chapter 8 - Thickening the Wrist by Strengthening the Grip - By George F. Jowett

You will notice in the previous chapter that although I set out to find the bogey in forearm and calf development, I did not write much about the forearms. Towards the close of the chapter, I did call your attention to them, but I purposely let the subject slide for different reasons, all of which revolve around the fact that so little seems to be known about successful calf and forearm building. It must be this, otherwise we would not be so everlastingly confronted with complaints of failure from so many who crave muscle upon these two sectors. If there is a bogey, it is in lack of knowledge, and in absolutely nothing else. I devoted practically the whole of the last chapter to calf construction, and I find if I am to give you the best forearm information, it is going to take at least two chapters. But I believe your interest is strong enough to stand it, as I know you will find much refreshing information as your interest will be centered around new material.

The title of this chapter may lead you to believe that the forearm is not going to be very much discussed in this chapter after all; but it is, and thoroughly. I chose that title because I want you to get the idea out of your head, that you have to own large wrists before you can own a better and larger forearm. It is the forearm that makes the wrist, rather than the wrist making the forearm. I have listened to the wails of scores of young men who lament that they will never have a decent forearm because their wrist is far too small; and that is the accepted idea. But it is wrong. You have to get the forearm first, and in order to get the forearm you have to get the grip. We always see a powerful clasp go hand in glove with a strong forearm. However, you can readily recall many friends who apparently have a strong hand clasp but no unusual forearm size. That is true. You will find salesmen have a hand clasp above the average, but they specialize on that grip only, and are often on the look-out to take a quick grip and secure an advantage over the ordinary person, who usually is not interested in hand clasping resistance. Yet there is no denying the fact that when these worthies shake hands, the wrist ligaments are fairly prominent. On the other hand, they soon know when they meet a strong armed man. There is something in a strong clasp.

Everything we pick up in our hands calls for a certain amount of grip. That grip calls into motion the forearm muscles, and the ligaments of these muscles control the wrist and hand movements. This is the case and the common assumption that the wrist controls the forearm and the grip of the hand is all wrong. Your grip will always be measured by the amount of forearm strength you have, and your ability to carry objects and raise them off the floor. So in order to increase the forearm muscles, we have to cultivate our gripping qualities to their fullest, and the wrist will be taken care of automatically.

It has taken up a large number of words to tell you what I mean when I say "get away from the idea because your wrist only measures six and a half inches or seven inches, that it has placed a fatal seal on your possibilities for forearm growth." Get over this idea that a very ordinary fellow you know having naturally a seven and three-quarter inch wrist has it all over you. This is not so. I don't say you will make an eight inch wrist out of six inch wrist, but I know you can improve it a lot, and its quality will manifest itself in the strength and shapeliness of your forearms. Many people naturally have very heavy bones around the wrist. Well, you can't offset that, but you can acquire thicker wrist cables, and the bones will slightly increase their structure, from resistance, as it is applied in its proper place.

A lot of exercisers write to me to complain that when they do that certain leg exercise where they straddle a bar bell and hold it in their hands while they do a slight knee bend, their grip plays out before their legs get their workout. In their mind, it is always their poor grip, but they are mistaken; as the forearm strength and hand grip of no man was ever sufficient to cope with the vigorous play of which the large hip and thigh muscles are capable. There is too much disparity in the relative strength of these separate members of the body. The best way to overcome this, so that the legs get the best results, is to make a harness of canvas to fit over the head and rest upon the shoulders, with a hook sewn in at each end. You simply allow the bar bell to lie in the hooks, and the body supports the weight instead of the grip. Some have more trouble than they ordinarily should with this exercise. They find that the weight straightens their fingers out and pulls away. This cause is as much the lack of finger strength as of the hand grip, but the next chapter is going to be devoted to the cultivation of finger strength, so I will stick to my initial discussion.

There are numerous muscles in the forearm, which are classified as pronators, extensor and flexor muscles. The pronators are the muscles of rotation, while the extensors straighten out the arm, and the flexor bends the forearm upon the upper arm. Taking our first survey on the anterior forearm, which is the front, we find four muscles that have a common origin, on the extreme end of the humerus bone, at the elbow joint. They divide and spread, to compose the bulk of muscle so pronounced on a well developed arm. It is the second muscle from the inside that has the largest bulk of the four, and possesses the roundness which gives the canoe like shape to the front of the forearm when in repose, and is more forcibly evident when flexed. They are some of the pronator muscles and flexors. The muscles on the dorsal part of the arm are seven in number, and included among these is the supinator longus, also known as the Brachio-Radialis, which is the most important extensor muscle in the forearm. Running by its side is the Extensor Carpi Radialis Longus, which is the accessory extensor muscle that co-operates with the supinator.

The great peculiarity of our forearm muscles is the strange way in which they are capable of twisting. The supinator longus and its accessory muscle have a remarkable spiral twist to them. It arises from the humerus bone (on which the biceps rests) underneath the bicep, but twists over the outside of the elbow joint to become attached to the front of the forearm. I am inclined to believe that the supinator longus is the most important muscle in the forearm. It is capable of rotating, flexing, and powerful in extending or straightening the arm. It sets an arm off also, giving breadth to the arm at the elbow when viewed sideways. Did you ever notice the arm of a pick and shovel laborer or a man who is accustomed to carry objects in his hands? For instance, a railroad porter. Of course, the majority of porters keep their arms covered, but if you ever see one with his arms bared carrying a heavy object, just notice the forearm at the elbow and you will see what appears like a deep indentation and then a hump of muscle. That is the effect this muscle gives to the arm when an object is being carried. On the arms of porters, it often is pronounced, and also upon laborers. Just clench your fists, and thrust your arms straight down by the sides, then bend the wrist back to the outside, and notice how this muscle stands out. Yet another interesting way to view this muscle is to bend the arm so that the fist rests upon the chest. Bend the arm more forcibly upon the biceps by employing the other hand, and the muscle will accentuate greatly. Then while in this position, twist the wrist and just notice how firmly it becomes tensed in the process of a wrist rotary movement. When a weight is raised overhead, and held at full arms' length, it is this muscle and its accessory muscle that do all the work, co-operating with the triceps of the upper arm. The other muscles being flexors should never be employed to any extent when raising a weight overhead, as they counteract the extensors.

The muscles on the front of the arm, being flexors, apply their force more powerfully in movements that bend the arm at the elbow. Their contraction is even greater whenever any object is being raised towards the shoulder while the hand is bent at the wrist, downwards. Forearm builders liken this position of the arm to a swan's neck, as it is the position which a youngster will form with his arm when patterning a swan on a shadow screen. This is why, when advising a person to practice a movement with the wrist turned downwards, the movement is termed a swan's neck formation.

It is the flexor muscles on the front of the arm and the supinator muscles that are always the least developed among beginners. It is in these regions that muscle builders, with poor arms, fall down. Well, we cannot blame them too much, because like calf exercises, they only seem to know one or two exercises, and that ends it. When a person becomes more familiar with the uses of these muscles, he can see that something else, in the way of exercise, has to be done. I am satisfied that if any of you follow out the advice I am going to give you will soon be piling up muscle on those stick pin arms.

You may wonder how your wrist will become improved by any forearm practice, so before we go any further let me enlighten you upon the fact that the muscles all taper off into ligaments. The weaker the muscles, the more stringy and thin are these cables. The stronger and bulkier they build up, the thicker the ligaments become. As these ropes of connection taper off at the wrist, it is only a natural condition that the wrist size should be increased.

When I commenced heavy exercise, I only had a seven inch wrist, just an average size as I have said, but today my wrist measures every bit of eight and a half inches. The sinews that have massed upon the wrist are very heavy, and have powerful contraction, and perhaps I am justified in the joy I take in my forearm strength, shape, and size. It measures fifteen and a quarter inches. I practiced many forms of exercise to which I owe my success in arm moulding. In one of my writings I have made the statement that forearm growth never seemed hard for me to secure. The truth of the fact is this, although I certainly did a lot of work on my forearms, yet I never actually noticed it. You see the exercises I performed were more in the line of stunts, and I played at them as you would a game. These stunts were a never failing source of interest and pleasure to me, that reminds me of the old saw that we never do anything so well as the things we like. Unfortunately, exercise has a tendency to become monotonous, especially when the number of exercises are limited, and as I have inferred before, I believe that reason is the cause for lack of calf and forearm development -- lack of knowledge. Exercise must never be a grind; it must be a pleasure, and have the qualifying results to always supply the urge.

When I was a young boy, we did not have the variety of fine outfits the present day body culturist finds. We used to play a lot with block weights of different weights. The half hundred weight was the most popular, and I well remember that my first strongman outfit consisted of a very short piece of a broken steel shaft, that weighed about forty pounds and was about three inches in diameter. A very unwieldy implement for a fifteen year old boy, you will admit. My other "weapon" was an old half hundred pound block weight. With these implements I commenced my adventures into strengthland with visions of myself as Hercules not far ahead. As time went on, I became very adept in handling this block weight, and when I was sixteen years of age I could duplicate all of the regular feats with ease. Of course, most of these stunts involve a good grip, but while I did not have this valuable asset in the first place, I gradually acquired it from training. The shape and size of the hands have a lot to do with many of these feats. Some people naturally have large hands, which give them a greater gripping space, but my hands were only of the average size. The hand itself is broad, but the fingers are short. It was not much of a handicap, and I figured that we cannot have everything; so it is up to each of us to make the best of what we have and offer no excuses.

The regular grip and forearm exercise really was a bore to me. I could not see the idea of holding the arms straight out in front, winding up a weight tied on a stick. My shoulders always became tired before I got the right effect upon the forearm, so I changed it a little, on the principle that the muscles intended for that exercise should be the flexors of the front forearm; yet by holding both arms straight out in front, the action was being absorbed just as much, if not more, by the supinator extensors. Just as the gastrocnemius of the calf have greater contraction when the knee is flexed, I figured the same thing would happen to the forearm. Instead of holding the arms straight out, I bent them considerably at the elbow, until the formation of the arm with the body represented the letter V. I found I could handle much more weight this way, which gave a more powerful play to the flexor muscles, and all the former shoulder fatigue was eliminated. Where before I found thirty pounds tired my shoulders and not my forearms, I could then handle fifty pounds with the right effort directed upon the proper quarters.

Most exercise fans imagine that chinning the bar with both hands is entirely a biceps developer. It certainly has a splendid effect upon the upper arm, but it also gives the forearm very vigorous play. This was also part of my practice, with the following variations. Suppose I was going to chin myself a dozen times. I would divide the repetitions in this manner. Catching the bar with both hands in the regular grip, I would chin three times, thenm reverse one hand, so that one palm was facing me and the other would be turned away. Next three chins would see both hands reversed, so that both palms were facing me. The last three chins I would do entirely differently; taking hold of the bar with the regular grip, but with the forearms crossed, in a position so that the right hand would be where the left grip would be ordinarily taken, and the left hand would be in the regular right hand place. This chin is rather difficult and calls for a lot of arm strength. In the first place, your hands cannot be spaced much apart, and you will not be able to chin your weight so high. At the same time you will find that your body has a tendency to spin around. The fact that you have to fight these conditions is just what will bring the most out in your arm development. It is not necessary to practice these chins in the rotation I have just given. I would do the hardest first, and leave the easiest for the last, which will be hard enough as you tire. My main object was to see how well I could chin instead of how many times. Too many young chaps figure it is greater to chin thirty times than fifteen. Numerically it is, but the results are not the same. The chinning fiend chins fast, and swings his body to aid the pulls, but that is no good. Too much lost motion. I would rather have twenty-five correct chins as my record than fifty otherwise. When a bunch of enthusiasts would get together, we would tie weights on the feet and see who could chin with the most weight. A heavy man will not chin as many times, or handle as much weight on his feet, but we always made a weight allowance in such a case. I remember some of the boys could chin with a friend hanging around their waist. Anyhow these stunts certainly improve the grip and the forearm. Just try them for yourself.

Many enthusiasts claim that their wrists are too flexible to allow them to perform many ordinary movements of the forearms. Now I hope this statement will not convey to you the idea that a wrist should be almost rigid in order to be strong. A strong wrist is always flexible. The difference is that the weak wrist has no control over its flexibility, which invites wrist strain, when the wrist is bent beyond a certain angle. The strong arm man always has control. Just notice the acute angle to which the weight lifters and hand balancers are capable of bending their wrists, and yet have them under wonderful control. It is all in the strength of your forearm muscles and their ligaments. The novice in hand balancing always feels a stiffness at the wrist when making his first few hand stands on the floor, but practice accustoms the wrist to bend to the angle and strengthens it. The same applies in heavy weight lifting, which is the reason why bar bell users have powerful wrists.

It annoys me to see a novice wear wrist straps. It is so unnecessary and unnatural. Your muscles were made for a purpose and that was not to wear wrist straps. They only tend to weaken the wrist by absorbing the resistance that the ligaments require, which keep the wrist weak and prone to strain. If you have strained the wrist, that is different, but cold water bandages will relieve the strain and help toughen the sinews. Don't use a wrist strap any longer than necessary. Professional athletes only wear them for show purposes, to set off the looks of their arm, and the material is always of light flexible leather. Strengthen your wrist by natural means.

In passing, I might mention that it is the downward pressure upon the bones of the arms, as involved in lifting heavy weights and hand balancing, that increases the thickness of the bone structure.

Here is a clever exercise for the grip and wrist, which makes the pronator muscles of the forearm go the limit and also develops a spectacular stunt. Grasp a bar of about fifteen or twenty pounds in the center by the right hand; give the bar a twist to the left, and allow it to make a full circle before you catch it with the left hand. Immediately the left hand grasps it, let it go from your right hand, as the right hand will have traveled the limit of its rotary extent. You simply catch the bar with the left hand long enough for the right hand to untwist and catch it in its natural hold. It looks as though both hands are operating, but it really is the right arm that is doing it all. The left hand is just an accessory. Always catch with the left hand above the right hand, and be sure to allow the bar to make a full circle before you change hands. It looks great when you get it down so pat that the spins are rapid enough to make the "whirlwind circle" as the feat is named. Do not practice with one arm only. Give both arms their share, and you will find a great kick is supplied to the pronator muscles.

A variation of this is practiced by using only one hand. However, in this it is necessary to support the elbow on the hip. As the wrist reaches the limit of its turn, give the bar a slight heave and catch it as it circles. When you get good at this, you can use both hands. As one circle is made and the grip of the right hand is released, the left hand catches and gives a turn, keeping the bar going from one hand to another. Before you practice any of these more advanced feats, train yourself by holding a light bar in the hand and allowing the bar to revolve, twisting the wrist as far as possible; then stop the twist without letting go, and turn the bar back again. Do it slowly. It is just a series of to and fro circles made by the wrist. Keep the elbow on the hip as a support and an aid throughout the practice.

In a minor way, twisting a dumb-bell has the same effect upon the pronators. For the supinator longus and its accessory muscle, a splendid exercise is performed by standing erect with the feet together, and a bar bell of twenty-five pounds, hanging at arms' length, held in front, across the thighs. From this position you slowly raise the bar bell in a quarter circle until the arms lie parallel with the shoulders.

As the bell is raised, bend the hands upwards upon the wrist. The reverse of the swan neck formation. It is the position of the hands that controls your success. Keep perfectly straight, and do not bend backwards or seek to aid the raising of the bar bell with any swing from the body. The arms must be locked at the elbow so that they are straight, and another little thought to remember is that the movement is just as effective when lowering the bell as when raising it. Although the main purpose of the exercise is to develop the supinator longus, yet it is a fine exercise for the whole body.

For the muscles on the outside, or dorsal side of the arm, the following exercise will be found effective. Stand erect while holding a dumb-bell in each hand averaging anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five pounds each, according to your strength. Let the arms hang by your sides and before you begin the exercise bend the hand upon the wrist backwards. Then begin to raise the arms up sideways. It is not necessary that they should be raised so high that they reach the level of the shoulders. Raise them as high as you can, as it is the forearm muscular action you want. When you get beyond half way to the level of the shoulders, the triceps and deltoids begin to take the aggressive, and you should not be interested in deltoid and triceps development when practicing this exercise. You can tell if you are doing it correctly, as the ends of the dumb-bells should lie horizontal with each other throughout, not endways to the floor. But the important part is how the hand is bent. You cannot watch that point too closely. If the hand is held too straight with the forearm, you will feel a wrist strain; if it is in the correct position, you will feel a strong muscular contraction.

One time a friend of mine was showing me through a foundry where he was employed, and on our tour of inspection he remarked, knowing I was interested in well formed muscles, that he would show me a wonderful pair of arms. Coming to one part of the foundry he drew my attention to a man who was picking up various metal castings and placing them upon a low truck. He surely had fine forearms and the muscles on the front of his forearm bulged massively. There were a number of block weights all ranged on the floor, which this workman began to place on the truck. As he did so, I noticed how the flexors of the anterior forearm displayed themselves. I continued to watch him, but he never tired, and right away it flashed through my mind how he got those forearms. He was stooped over most of the time, and never raised the weights over waist level. This naturally gave the strongest play to the flexors, and from that lesson I devised the exercise of pulling the kettle bell to the chest, keeping the elbow close to the side, and bending the hand upon the wrist with a swan neck formation. I would steady myself by placing the disengaged hand upon the corresponding knee, and lift the kettle bell from between the feet as many times as I was comfortably able with a poundage of fifty pounds up.

Standing erect after lifting a heavy bar bell off the floor, employing both one and two hands in two separate lifts, is very good; and the thicker the bar, the greater gripping strength is demanded. Men with large hands and long fingers can encircle thicker bars, although a person can use too thick a bar.

The block weight can supply many fine arm tests, which incidentally build up the arm. You know what I mean by a block weight, I suppose. It is a square piece of iron scooped out on one side with a bar inset, by which it is lifted they weigh around fifty pounds and are generally used for testing scales. The object is to be able to grip them tight enough so that the bar does not revolve in your hand, and allow the weight to rest on the side of the arm, which is not very pleasant.

Some of the stunts you will find interesting, so I will explain a few. One of the easiest is to sit on the floor with the block weight by your side, and with pure arm movement, raise it off the floor over the first leg. Touch the floor between the legs, then pass over the far leg and touch the floor, and return in the same manner. However, to do it right you must not allow the weight to touch the legs, and you must seek no aid from the body by swinging with the motion. Next, pull it to the shoulder and press it overhead keeping the weight all the time above the hand. A very difficult feat with which I have stuck most of the strongmen is done like this. I would stand erect with the block, or scale weight, hanging by the side, and by arm strength curl the weight with the hand bent down in swan neck fashion. After I had bent the forearm upon the upper arm as much as possible, I would pause; and with a pure wrist movement--no shoulder action--I gripped the bar and twisted the weight so that the weight was balanced by the grip above the hand, and the hand straight with the arm. Then I would lower the weight without bending the elbow, just the wrist, and raise it back again, then describe a circle with a rotary hand movement. Another real feat is to raise the block weight from the side, keeping the wrist straight with the forearm and the weight in the same straight line, with the hand and forearm. Raising the weight until it is at right angles with the body, but the feat lies in never losing control of the weight. An easier one is to sit on a chair and raise the block weight off the floor, and place it on the table by your side without raising off the chair or using the other arm.

One of the greatest feats of hand grip and forearm strength I ever ran up against was in a blacksmith sop. It was an old feat practiced around the blacksmith's forge in the day when the smith was looked upon as the true personification of real strength. Many wonderful feats were seen and others talked of in the gleam of the old smithy forge, but with the decay of that picturesque occupation many of the kings of the iron arm passed.

In the old days, anvils were made in various sizes, and in a smithy shop you could always find three or four of different weights. A light anvil would be about seventy-five or eighty pounds and used for straightening nails, or light riveting. The others averaged around one hundred forty pounds to one hundred sixty-eight pounds. Where heavy forging was done, anvils much heavier were used, but the last two named seemed to be the regular thing. If any new comer wanted to try his strength they would ask him if he could lift an anvil with one hand. This was done by standing the anvil on end with the horn pointing upwards. The horn is a very thick conical affair that runs abruptly to a point. You were supposed to take hold of the horn with the hand and raise it off the floor. I have seen several raise the seventy-five or eighty pound anvil high off the floor, but I only saw two ever lift the one hundred forty pounds anvil; while on three occasions I successfully raised the anvil of one hundred and sixty-eight pounds. It is a very severe arm test, and if a man had the grip to raise any of these anvils in this manner, he always had the forearm to make it possible and the wrist to sustain both.

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