“Physical Training is merely the proper use of the entire muscular organism… One who practices it persistently and intelligently finds that not only that his muscular power is greater, but that his health is better, his eyes clearer, the skin improved in color, the digestion stronger, and the mind buoyed with a confidence which comes only with a high state of physical vigor. ” (p6 Mcfadden’s Physical Training)

Birth of Physical Culture 

It was a time in history when western civilizations started to focus more on physical fitness and health Why this is could be for several reasons. 

For one society was comfier than during periods in the past. Large buildings, fireplaces, and a better abundance of food among other things. These comforts afforded more time to the average individual for other pursuits. These comforts also took away something from us as well. 

“The Office man, the brain worker, to acquire or regain strength and vigor of body and clearness of mind, must have physical training.” (p12 Mcfadden’s Physical Training)

In the past, the average person lived a more physical lifestyle. They tended to their own garden, built their house, etc. They were walking everywhere and engaging every muscle in their body throughout the day, Therefore, there was not much of a need for developing a good physique because the basic necessities of life needed to be taken care of 24/7. 

If you were a soldier in some army then it would be important to engage in some type of training as your life depended on it.

Even then there was more of a focus on function rather than form however, someone who happened to be well-developed was still intimidating and admired. 

With the comforts afforded by modern society and the relieving of physical labor for the average individual brought about a problem in both our form and function. Hence why Physical Culture came to be. Being separated from the field there was a path back toward a strong heart, powerful lungs, and efficient musculature. 

Training Modalities 

Physical culture took many forms From various forms ofnon-apparatuss training to various forms of apparatus training. What I found interesting about this period in time was the number of approaches to fitness that were outside of my fitness paradigm at the time of stumbling upon this. 

If you had told me a decade ago that certain levels of strength and muscle could be developed without weights I would have told you that you were crazy. 

Yet this is the case. Keep in mind the people that used various forms of non-apparatus training, meaning no weights, were very impressive for their time and some still are. 

Due to our modern society with the overabundance of food, weights, and drugs, our ideal of what is considered strong, healthy, and impressive has shifted. 

Though I see in some areas a return to what was originally desired. 

Just Flex it. 

I’m sure most of us have encountered something like this growing up where a relative cheers us on to, “Show our muscle.”  I came to find out that something akin to this was utilized by some of the physical culturists who utilized non-apparatus training. 

This idea of flexing the muscle for development whether that be strength or muscles was expanded upon by those exploring “Muscle Control” like Maxick, Monte Saldo, Otto Arco, Alan Calvert, and many others. Instead of just flexing they would over time ensure that only the muscles they choose would come into play or be activated. This was for two reasons one of them being better strength and energy efficiency when performing movements and the other being muscle building of a “Healthy Tissue.”

“To understand my meaning it is necessary to consider the senseless waste of energy which occurs when any big muscular effort is made by an individual who knows not how to relax those muscles which he is not requiring at the moment. 

A muscle that has been brought into prominence and condition by means of muscle control is full of energy and resistance, ready to work, and well fortified whereas the muscle that has been tired by heavy work is usually lacking in resistance, and jaded” (Great Strength by Muscle Control)

This, “Healthy Tissue” concept was one I found interesting as the average individual(including myself) believes that a muscle needs to undergo some type of massive stress that leaves us exhausted thereby bringing about a significant change in our musculature. You damage the muscle and it regenerates to become stronger. Maxick believed that you nourish it with some laser-like focus on the muscle and it will increase in tissue volume. Who knows maybe sometime in the future we’ll discover that tissue build-up by these means is in some way superior to the break-down method. 

Flex and Lift It 

Going into the apparatus territory is the light dumbbell system. In this system, you would have a lightweight and perform a movement whether it was a curl, shoulder press, or something else. It would generally be for high repetitions far into the double-digit range. Apparently, this produces some good results in size but from a strength point of view according to Earle Liederman, it left little to be desired.

Move Your Body In A Progressive Manner

Bodyweight exercise has been around since the dawn of time and during the Physical Culture movement it got a bit of love too. For the upper body, you can see pictures of push-ups, archer push-ups, and handstand push-ups both against a wall as well as balancing, pull-ups, rope climbing, and monkey bar work.

“To mount a ladder as Winship did teaches one the knack of strong muscular contractions, because, as you come near the top of the ladder, if you miss you take a 15 or 20-foot fall. Winship’s muscles grew rapidly in strength; so as to give them harder work he would skip a rung each jump. This produced strength so rapidly that ordinary chinning became child’s play to him and to chin the bar with one arm was no trouble at all.”

(p 100 Liederman Secrets of Strength)

For the legs, you see squats, explosive squats,Hindu squats, and a few one-legged squats here and there.

“He has but a limited time in which to exercise and so had to concentrate. He made his squatting more vigorous by the simple expedient of jump directly upward… He claimed that 30 such jumps gave one as much work as ten times as many ordinary squats, and produced much bigger muscles. Certainly, he has developed splendid thighs in that way.” (p 99 Liederman Secrets of Strength)

Lifting Iron

With mass production becoming a thing here is where you start seeing the first barbells. During this time some of the lifts that you see stray from the norm of what we see today. For example, there’s what’s called the bent press which is a mixture of pressing with one arm while moving the body down sideways. Once you hit parallel and your arm is fully extended you come back up with your whole body. Arthur Saxon could perform such a lift with over 350 pounds.

Those who try to practice this feat today can only come so close. Some will say that these lifts were just magician tricks cleverly utilizing leverage which although this might be true, part of me thinks it’s just a cope.

This stems from humans on an upward progress worldview and the tools/approaches we use today are superior to the past. 

There was also a great deal of overhead pressing during this time as the bench press had not come about yet. The result of this was that the average physical culturist had well-developed triceps, shoulders, and traps, while the chest was pretty flat. 

Mind Over Matter

“The mind commanded, the body reacted, and the object inevitably succumbed.” (p 102 The Spiritual Journey of Jospeh Greenstein)
There were also dudes during this time that exerted their strength by bending objects that most humans could not bend and this still exists today. 

The amount of force it takes to bend these is extremely high. Although not large by today’s standard these men had a  strong mind-muscle connection where they could perform feats of strength that most could only duplicate if under a, “Fight or Flight” type situation.” 

Muscular Development

Your average Physical Culturist was not jacked and would not win most bodybuilding contests today but I don’t believe that matters. Their feats of strength whether with barbels or acting upon steal could barely be replicated today. Their strength and function came first and then the form would come. 

And this was for most of history. Could you do the job or task the needed to complete? Moving brick after brick to build a church or castle or training to fight an opposing army. 

Me - *Builds a time machine to travel to the past*

Me -“Hey bro how much of a calorie surplus are you in?”  

Roman Soldier - 

The human body is capable of building large amounts of muscle but at what cost? Can it be sustained and improved upon in the worst conditions?

My worldvieiw

I enjoy history and learning about what brought us to the here and now. I also haven’t bought into the humans are on an upward progress paradigm nor do I think the past was all sunshine and rainbows. We brought about some good things but threw out some beneficial approaches along the way. The way these people trained seemed very simplified compared to today where most of the information in your average personal training certification book is convoluted, unnecessary, and provides a way to gatekeep in this society that's built on expensive education over practical knowledge. 

Thank you for making it to the end and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

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