Is There Hyperbole In The Old-Time Strongman Feats?
Story Time
Watched a video that other day where a dude on a podcast was explaining to the host the story of Joseph Greenstein, The Mighty Atom. I talked about him at length in another post and his story is truly inspiring if you want to check it out. After watching it I went to the comment section to see how folks were receiving this message. Most of it was good with some anecdotes from the older folks talking about how they saw The Mighty Atom in person when they were younger and even got the opportunity to bend some of the horseshoes he had. Those in the comments that did say they bent his horseshoes confirmed that they weren’t fake and that he was the real deal. Then there was a smaller number of those that chalked up all his feats of strength to illusion and bars made out of cheap material.
Being a fanboy of some of the old-time strongmen and those from physical culture you will once in a while come across those who don’t believe that what they did was possible and I don’t blame them. They were men before the era of the modern gym and before supplements and yet they were impressive and pulled off many feats of strength. Here’s a primer if you’re interested.
During my college days and in the process of earning my history degree it was crucial to get primary sources for whatever evidence we were bringing to the table. Personal correspondence, bystanders, and those who were actually there. This way we could ensure that the event we were analyzing was done so through an accurate lens and not from the lens of someone half a world/millennia away. But even then one still has to be aware of whether the primary source is being hyperbolic account or not.
The folks on the scene that can act as primary sources are still human and they can exaggerate events. So it’s understandable to look at certain events in history like battles, miracles, feats of strength, etc, with a high degree of skepticism.
It Has To Be Real
The more one has experienced something similar to or a fraction of what’s being talked about the less skepticism there will be.
For example, if someone they’ve met spent the past few years getting to a 500-pound bench and you have just leveled up to 225, it’s easy to believe the possibility of that achievement. You’ve personally experienced
The time that you put in at the gym
How far you are into your fitness journey
The time spent strategizing on your workout plan to get stronger
You feel yourself getting stronger and the plates are stacking up
There’s no suspension of disbelief because you and many others are all sharing similar experiences in your journey.
Another example is if you choose to live in a way that most of the modern culture finds unusual. This way of life, although unusual to those around you has survived some of the worst of what history has to offer. You start living and thinking in a similar way with superior results to the point that any naysayer arguments don’t affect you.
You read the evidence
You see the evidence
You experience the evidence
These three are some of the ways I judge older or ancient practices.
You Read The Evidence
Reading about the old-timers sent me down this path long ago. Their feats may seem superhuman but keep in mind humans were capable of amazing things in the past. For example, it is believed that the English Longbow had a draw weight of up to 150 pounds which was so high it caused significant changes to the bone structure of those that used it. Bows used by Mongols were believed to be up to 160. To put this in perspective I have a friend that’s into shooting bows and has a compound bow with a 60-pound draw weight.
Compound bows due to the architecture assist you when you are drawing back the string. But, even though I could do pull-ups till the cows come home and was at the time a few months away from breaking into one arm-pull-up territory, I found the 60-pound draw weight to be difficult. Doable, but difficult. Now there is something to be said about muscle memory, neuromuscular efficiency, and training on a bow from childhood but a massive well of strength is still required for some of the larger bows in history.
Additionally, it’s believed that your average athlete would be gassed/exhausted and on the verge of dying if he were to row on a Viking ship back in the day.
You See The Evidence
There are still plenty of dudes today bending steel like The Mighty Atom and Alexander Zass. Scientists have even measured their ability to activate the muscles in their bodies. Their abilities don’t seem so outlandish when you see some folks replicating them.
And this goes for anything else. Bent pressing, Muscle Control, hand balancing, it’s all possible.
You Experience The Evidence
The last piece of the puzzle is anecdotal evidence. If you experience it and many others have, what more evidence do you need? Now, I don’t ignore studies and cite several of them, but they are not the end all be all of determining truth. I’m all about time and time could be wasted sifting through papers with high-brained language some of which contradict one another.
“And one of the things I speedily discovered was that for many hours could this kind of physical stimulation be kept up. Instead of wasting energy, this, on the contrary, was retained.” (p 116 Amazing Sampson)
Anybody who has utilized overcoming isometrics has noticed this phenomenon from the quote above. You give it your all during a workout and you come out feeling refreshed.
It was the accounts of strongmen and various authors that started me down the path I am now. If you’re healthy and have a good bill of health, don’t knock it till you try it.
Wrap Up
Was there some fluff with the feats of strength the old-timers pulled off? Possibly. But benefits can still be achieved with their mindset and training. These benefits also serve as a way to validate them. Maybe we’ll see some replicate more of their feats in the near future.
“This is why a seeker of truth should give credit to the ideas of those that have preceded him in his work, because of those, great or small, had to make their effort…to bring their share of truth to the world.” - Antoine Bechamp
Thank you for making it to the end and comments are below.
Until Next Time…
