Elder Respect part 1

Time for a little check-in. It’s just over a week since New Year’s. What “one better choice” have you made for yourself today? List it to the comments section. I’d like to see how we’re doing. For those of you who don’t have the foggiest what I’m talking, look back at my post from December 30th.

Moving along…

I want to take a few posts here to look at one of the great historical figures of the fitness industry. Arthur Saxon (1878 – 1921) was a groundbreaking strongman and arguably the strongest man alive in his day. He was also an author. Now, you think early 1900 strong man, you think carnival side show, lion’s head hood & leopard print unitard. This was an unfortunate byproduct of early fitness enthusiast culture. For example, this following quotation is taken from the intro to his 1906 book, “The Development of Physical Power.”

"The fact that a man may have full physical development but disproportionate power and energy has been proven to me so many times that, in my book, I propose to aim at and instill the value of genuine power without any attempt to attain large increase in the dimensions of different muscles...I shall teach you to judge a man by his capabilities as an athlete, whether a weight lifter, wrestler or not, and not by the measurement of his biceps or chest." p7-8

Think about it. In 1906, there was already a stress on performance over aesthetics. Not to say wanting to look good is a bad thing in and of its self, but it does make for a bad goal. Remember, aesthetics are a consequence of fitness.

Go pick up something heavy and move it across the room. We’ll hear more from Mr Saxon next time.