Think strength is all about six-packs and gym selfies? Think again! Dive into the wild, inspiring, and sometimes bizarre history of human strength—from ancient Greek legends to modern strongmen and the rise (and fall) of bodybuilding. You'll never look at your dumbbells the same! Subscribe for more deep dives and let us know in the comments what blew your mind the most! #strength #fitness #history #bodybuilding #motivation
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with @kramola_online
0:00 - Modern Strength Perceptions Versus the Past
0:52 - Legendary Feats and Early Record Holders
4:56 - Ancient Strength: Greeks, Romans, and Gladiators
9:44 - Strongmen and the Rise of Physical Culture
18:25 - Aleksandr Zass and Iron Samson Era
24:52 - Anabolic Steroids: Origins and Early Use
26:18 - The Bodybuilding Boom and Training Evolution
31:47 - The Purpose and Power of Strength Today
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with @kramola_online
0:00 - Modern Strength Perceptions Versus the Past
0:52 - Legendary Feats and Early Record Holders
4:56 - Ancient Strength: Greeks, Romans, and Gladiators
9:44 - Strongmen and the Rise of Physical Culture
18:25 - Aleksandr Zass and Iron Samson Era
24:52 - Anabolic Steroids: Origins and Early Use
26:18 - The Bodybuilding Boom and Training Evolution
31:47 - The Purpose and Power of Strength Today
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00Today, strength is a six-pack with 5% body fat and well-placed lighting.
00:06The world doesn't stand still, and it seems that modern training technologies, sports
00:11nutrition and the chemical industry are doing the impossible with the human body.
00:15But what is strength, really?
00:17Did athletes of the past have unbeatable records, like Milon of Croton lifting a bull, or Alexander
00:24Zass lifting a horse without creatine, blenders, or cutting?
00:27By summer, like a farmer who managed to lift a platform with two cars weighing almost
00:322.5 tons on his back, he turned out to be stronger than these guys.
00:37Scientific magic helps modern athletes quickly achieve abnormal size, but it also often leads
00:43them to die at 35 to 40 years old.
00:46Maybe something very important has been lost in the race for appearance, and it's worth
00:50remembering how it all began.
00:52Here is footage from 20 years ago.
00:562005 Dimitri Khalidji lifts a stone weighing 152 kilograms over his head with one hand.
01:03This record was entered into the Guinness World Records.
01:06Thus, Dimitri broke the record of the ancient Greek Bybon, who, according to the inscription
01:11on the stone, lifted a stone weighing 143.5 kilograms.
01:15It is believed that it was the Greeks who first started using stone and metal weights.
01:20At that time, athletics was not split into bodybuilding, weightlifting, or track and field.
01:26The Greek athlete was a universalist – strong, enduring, and well-built.
01:30Over 30 years ago, in 1993, you saw these shots when Canadian farmer Grek Ernst lifted a platform holding two
01:40cars with drivers.
01:442,422 kilograms
01:47Grek is not just a farmer.
01:49He is a well-rounded, good-natured man, plays several musical instruments, and loves singing with his sons.
01:55As a teenager, he and his father did hard physical labor, such as clearing heavy stones from the field.
02:01And as an adult, in 1992, at the traditional World's Strongest Man competition in Iceland,
02:07he carried the legendary Husafel stone for a record 70 meters.
02:13The stone weighs 410 pounds, about 186 kilograms, and only relatively recently was this record broken by Hafthor Bjornsson,
02:21who carried the heavy Husafel stone for 90 meters.
02:25As for that very platform weighing almost two and a half tons,
02:29it took the Guinness Book 22 years to officially recognize the record.
02:34In 2015, Grek's incredible lift was finally officially notarized.
02:39Today, more than three decades after it happened,
02:43the event is still officially recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the heaviest weight ever lifted by a
02:51human.
02:51Why did it take so long to verify?
02:54Because almost a hundred years before Grek, the French strongman Louis Cyr lifted a platform with 18 men weighing about
03:02two tons.
03:03There are no photos or guarantees of the exact weight, since the strongman earned his living performing worldwide.
03:09And the title of the strongest man on earth, lifting more than two tons, was a necessity.
03:15Nevertheless, it was this athlete who made it into the very first Guinness Book of Records in 1955,
03:22described as the greatest weight ever lifted by a human.
03:25Among other things, Louis held back powerful horses, stood in a crucifix position,
03:31with dumbbells weighing 44 kilograms in his right hand and 40 kilograms in his left,
03:36and for 10 seconds lifted 860 kilograms off the ground with both hands.
03:42In 2014, the Arnold Strongman organizers honored Louis by adding his seared dumbbell exercise to the program.
03:51A historic move.
03:53Louis
03:53Sir broke the record of Yevgeny Sandov when, in January 1892,
03:59he lifted a dumbbell weighing as much as himself, 124 kilograms, over his head with one hand.
04:06Well, and now the modern records of the year 23.
04:10Jimmy Kolb set the equipped bench press record by lifting just over 635 kilograms,
04:16although, of course, his bench press causes a lot of debate among specialists.
04:21Nevertheless, this is the greatest weight officially lifted by a person lying on their back.
04:25And in this footage, Georgian super heavyweight Lasha Telakadze in 2021, clean and jerked 167 kilograms.
04:34This is the heaviest weight officially lifted from the floor to fully extended arms in competition.
04:41And this is the recent deadlift record by Hafthor Bjornsson, over half a ton, 510 kilograms.
04:48And after all this, let's rewind as far back as possible and start from the very beginning,
04:53with those whom historians place in the deepest past.
04:56Starting with the athletes of Greece and Rome, Mylon of Croton is seen as the real-life Hercules,
05:03six-time Olympic champion, nine-time Nemean Games winner, and ten-time Isthmian Games champion.
05:09As a boy, he carried a calf on his shoulders, and as it grew into a bull, his strength increased
05:15too.
05:16You could say it was systematic training with living weights.
05:20The diet was surprisingly simple. Bread made from whole barley and wheat, rich in fiber, vegetables,
05:26fruits, olives, goat's milk, sheep's cheese, honey, and of course, fish.
05:32Accessible, affordable, and protein-rich. A nutritionist's dream.
05:37As for so-called ancient Rome, the focus here was on practicality and endurance.
05:43There were no professional weightlifters in those times, but professional soldiers were a necessity.
05:50The life of an ordinary legionary was hard and unremarkable, with enormous physical demands.
05:56The marching kit included weapons, construction and cooking tools, food rations for several days,
06:02and clothing—everything that might be needed on a difficult campaign.
06:06The weight ranged from 35 to 45 kilograms.
06:09This allowed the army to remain mobile without a large number of supply wagons,
06:14and made the soldiers more independent.
06:16Legionaries were incredible walkers, since only a few could go to war on horseback.
06:21Only the commanders and very wealthy people.
06:24For example, Crassus' legions once marched 37 kilometers without stopping,
06:29and Caesar with his legions covered 8 kilometers in a day, though with a short three-hour break.
06:36At the end of the march, the soldiers didn't simply collapse from exhaustion.
06:41At best, right after the forced march, they would start building a camp,
06:45which was essentially a fortified small town with trenches and wooden fences.
06:49Well, in the worst case, there would be a sudden battle with the enemy or an ambush.
06:54As for the diet, it was two meals a day, in the morning and in the evening.
06:59According to historians, breakfast included millet cheese, a handful of lard, and a generous portion of wine.
07:05After all, clean water wasn't always available everywhere.
07:09To round it off, breakfast amounted to about 3,500 calories.
07:13And with a less caloric dinner, the total was around 5,000 calories a day, if there were no supply
07:19shortages.
07:20Wheat made up most of the diet, so 78% was carbohydrates.
07:26With protein added for balance, as modern nutritionists suggest.
07:30The legionaries hunted all moving things.
07:33Geologists discovered bones of domestic animals and wild species like boars, deer,
07:39wolves, bears, beavers, and foxes near camps in England and Germany.
07:44And here's another ancient male profession.
07:47Gladiator.
07:48Their training was fundamentally different from that of Roman infantrymen.
07:53Gladiators, unlike legionaries, were individual fighters and underwent serious training in special schools.
08:00Skeletons found in the Ephesus cemetery show bone changes from intense training.
08:06For example, one gladiator's sword arm was nearly five centimeters longer than the other.
08:12The same is observed in table tennis players, although they hold a much lighter racket than the gladiator's swords.
08:18The training weapons were twice as heavy as the real ones, which helped develop speed in using them during actual
08:24combat.
08:25The training followed the Tetrad system with a cyclical alternation of exertion and rest.
08:30The first day was dedicated to preparing for upcoming challenges.
08:33The second to intense training at the limit of one's abilities.
08:37The third to rest and recovery.
08:39And the fourth to moderate exercise before starting a new cycle.
08:43This was an intuitive grasp of supercompensation.
08:46The blend of exertion and recovery, rediscovered in our time for maximum effectiveness.
08:52The staff doctor closely monitored the student's health.
08:55For example, the renowned Roman physician Galen spent many years specifically at the Imperial School of Gladiators.
09:02He also monitored the gladiator's diet, which mainly consisted of barley and pudding made from ground beans.
09:10However, Galen criticized this diet, calling it the cause of excess.
09:15At the beginning of those years, gladiators were very strict and could not be in order with the amplitude.
09:21For strengthening bones and healing fractures, gladiators consumed a drink made from bone ash and vegetables.
09:28Dried fruits were one of the main sources of carbohydrates and vitamins.
09:32Nowadays, you might hear that gladiators were vegetarians, but that's not true.
09:37Gladiators did eat meat, although with certain restrictions, they couldn't eat raw or smoked meat or salted meat.
09:44Now, let's move to more recent historical times and take a look at athletes who were famous all over the
09:50world about 100 years ago.
09:52This is how strongmen looked before anabolic steroids became common in sports.
09:57All of them were born about 100 years before bodybuilding appeared in its familiar form.
10:03They trained with weights not to gain muscle mass or to build a beautiful body.
10:08Their goals varied. Some wrestled, others worked in the circus, lifted weights, bent iron, broke chains, and amazed crowds.
10:16None of them worked out for appearance's sake.
10:19Physique was a side effect of strength and functional training.
10:22The most famous athlete of that time was someone for whom appearance was just as important as substance.
10:28Evgeny Sandow was a weak and sickly child, and later, as a student, he became interested in anatomy and physical
10:35culture.
10:36He initially performed in the circus, showing strength and wrestling skills.
10:40After a successful 1899 European tour, he went to America in 1894, promoted as the world's strongest man.
10:49Sandow promoted sports equipment, books, and exercise machines, becoming the face of his era.
10:55He sparked a boom in kettlebells, barbells, and fitness.
11:00Since 1897, he lived in England, continuing his performances and promoting his own training system.
11:07We even have video recordings featuring him, which is unique material for those years.
11:15Sandow's height was 170 centimeters. Other parameters, such as weight and measurements,
11:20are not documented and are often exaggerated. It is claimed that he weighed about 88 kilograms with
11:26a minimal body fat percentage. Here are some of his feats. Holding a 24-kilogram kettlebell in each hand,
11:33he would stand on a handkerchief, then jump and do a backflip, landing precisely on the same spot.
11:40A rough equivalent in these shots, a platform was placed on his chest, and he held three horses on it.
11:46In another act, there was a grand piano and an orchestra of eight people on the platform.
11:51In 1894, he set a world record by pressing a barbell with huge hollow spheres, each containing a person
11:59inside, with one hand. The weight of the unusual barbell was 122 kilograms, and in 1895,
12:07Sandow performed an extremely difficult strength trick. He lifted a 115-kilogram barbell with his
12:16left hand, squatted, lay on his back, then stood up without lowering it. And here's a very amusing fact.
12:23In 1902, at a weightlifting competition in New York, Sandow was defeated by an 18-year-old girl
12:30named Katja Brumbach. She lifted 136 kilograms over her head, while Sandow could only lift that weight
12:37to his chest. After that, the winner took the stage name Sandwina, and she began performing in circuses.
12:45Even then, the world-famous strongman launched his own offline body transformation course,
12:50which cost $10. Without online marathons, mobile apps, or social media advertising. The training program
12:57had to be sent by mail, along with a form, for tracking your own progress. Sandow began publishing
13:04a magazine on physical culture. There was also a marketing trick here. Buy the magazine for $1 and get a
13:11chance to win a personalized training program. Thomas Sandow. Thomas Edison made a short documentary film
13:18starring Sandow, the first movie in history about bodybuilding. Sandow's book, Strength and How to
13:24Obtain It. James Joyce put it on the shelf of the main character in Ulysses, one of the most prominent
13:29and influential novels of the 20th century. Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes books, became
13:36interested in bodybuilding and even judged the first strongman competition with Sandow. Spectators at
13:42Yugen Sandow's performances could buy a very important person ticket, which allowed them to go backstage,
13:47see the athlete's body up close, and even touch his muscles. Sandow was a master at posing, which
13:55attracted countless photographers. Despite the emergence of cinema, photography remained a more
14:00familiar form for the masses. They appeared in newspapers, magazines, and on paper postcards.
14:07Cheap cards of the half-naked Sandow in striking poses acted as adult magazines for ordinary people.
14:14In Russia, he had many fans and followers, and Sandow's books were quickly translated and distributed
14:21according to his method. In Saint Petersburg, Russian philanthropist Georgi Ribepier used his
14:27method to train many top wrestlers, including famed strongman Ivan Podobny. But in Russia, it was not
14:34bodybuilding that was respected, but purely feats of strength. Ivan Podobny himself would joke,
14:39while looking at the numerous photographs of Sandow with a fig leaf. Very perfumed, just for the ladies.
14:46The story of the rise and fall of his personal network of super luxurious sports clubs is very
14:51telling. These clubs, aimed at training the British elite, were called Sandow Institutes. At that time,
14:58physical labor and weightlifting were considered activities for the working class, and Sandow sought to
15:04attract high society, which preferred yachting and golf. A membership at his premium clubs, featuring a
15:10spa, personal program, and private exercise booths, cost about $2,500 in today's money. By the early 20th
15:19century, Sandow had established gyms in Birmingham, Manchester, and Sheffield across the United Kingdom.
15:26He used aggressive and innovative advertising methods for that time, including limited-time offers,
15:32before and after photos guaranteeing results, and he actively engaged influencers for endorsements.
15:39For example, Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, paid the press to run lengthy ads disguised
15:46as investigations. Around 1907, Sandow changed his brand, shifting the focus from strength to health,
15:53longevity, and curing diseases. He claimed that physical culture could cure such ailments. By downloading
16:00the influence on certain individuals produced among life makers, Bozov became interested in further
16:06attention given to, preferably, physical means. Transfinanskaya began making highly controversial
16:14statements, claiming that she could cure 99% of all clients using only exercises. To maintain the image
16:21of medical authority, Sandow hired doctors for his institutes so they could determine whether a new member
16:27needed medical assistance or if exercises would help them. But due to diagnostic errors, people with
16:34serious illnesses slipped through the system. This led to tragic cases where visitors died from
16:40undiagnosed or incurable diseases. Public outcry was caused by a case in 1908, when a woman died from
16:48third-degree burns she received in one of Sandow's bathhouses. Another reputational blow was dealt in 1910,
16:55when the Maine Medical Council sued three of Sandow's doctors for cooperating with his advertising campaign,
17:03which violated rules designed to distinguish real doctors from numerous charlatans. Two doctors lost their
17:10licenses, damaging Sandow's public reputation. The final nail in the coffin was World War I, which caused an economic
17:19crisis and anti-German sentiment. Sandow, who was born in Prussia and spoke with a strong German accent,
17:26became the target of false rumors that he was a German spy, and even that he had been executed in
17:32the Tower of London. As a result, in 1916, the Sandow Limited Company collapsed and the entire chain was
17:39shut down. Sandow, however, kept his very first institute on St. James's Street, funding it out of his own
17:46pocket until his death, which occurred in 1925. The athlete died at the age of 58 from an aortic
17:53aneurysm. The man whom the press called the healthiest person in Britain did not even live to be 60.
18:00However, despite the complicated history and controversial reputation, Sandov's elite gyms
18:06became the true prototype of the modern fitness club, and his mass advertising campaigns, including
18:11the use of limited time offers and before and after photos, still influence the health and fitness
18:16industry to this day. And at the most prestigious competition, Mr. Olympia, the winners are awarded his
18:22statuette, the bronze Sandov. Let's look at another legendary strong man whose approach contrasted with
18:30Sandov's. A big bicep is not a measure of strength, just as a big belly is not a sign of
18:36good digestion.
18:37Short 66 kilograms. At the beginning of his wrestling and athletic career, he confused the
18:44audience by defeating huge opponents, breaking chains and horseshoes, tying metal rods into bows,
18:51and holding back horses pulling in different directions. He had one day to gain muscle to
18:56dispel the audience's doubts about deception. Nevertheless, throughout his entire circus career,
19:02his weight never exceeded 80 kilograms. You need to develop what's at the core of the muscle,
19:07especially the tendons, not just muscle volume. In the early 1960s, Americans rediscovered the effect
19:14that ZAS used, calling these exercises isometric and static. Since then, tendon exercises have become an
19:22active part of sports practice for developing strength, overcoming sticking points, and forming new
19:28trajectories of power movements. Alexander Ivanovich Zas was born in 1888. He was one of five children
19:36of Ivan Petrovich and Ekaterina Emelyanovna Zas. The main discovery for Zas in his childhood was the circus.
19:43From Alexander's recollections, it is known that he was afraid of being punished by his parents,
19:48but he still ran away from home to watch the performances. The boy tried to carefully hide his passion,
19:53because his father considered this kind of activity unserious. Left without support, Alexander still
19:59continued his training, considering that there was no proper sports equipment in the village.
20:04Zas used any available means, even tried to bend thick tree branches. Later, this helped Alexander
20:12develop his arms enough to break chains and drive nails with his palms. In 1908, his father sent his son
20:19to Orenberg to study to become a train engineer. Alexander decided to go against his parents' wishes,
20:25and got a job at the circus. To his father, however, Zas wrote that he was working hard at the
20:31depot.
20:31In reality, he was mastering new complex tricks. One of them was called the samovar balance,
20:38where during the performance, the artist had to place a samovar filled with hot coals on his forehead
20:43and walk with it around the auditorium. Alexander Zas worked in three circuses over eight years.
20:48On August 1, 1914, Alexander was drafted into the army. After being sent to the front,
20:55Zas never returned to Russia, but in the arena he was always announced as a Russian performer.
21:00During World War I, he served in the 180th Arvindov Regiment. His soldiers carried out reconnaissance
21:07in dangerous areas of the Austrian front. In the war, Alexander became famous for carrying a horse off
21:14the battlefield during combat. A shell exploded near Zas, wounding Alexander's legs with shrapnel
21:20before he was taken prisoner. The artist had severe limb injuries, which were usually treated
21:26with amputation. However, at his request, Austrian doctors saved his limbs. When Alexander began to
21:33recover with the help of exercises he developed himself, a new goal arose before him, to escape from
21:40captivity. The artist escaped to freedom and found refuge at the Schmitt Circus in Kapusvar only on
21:46his third attempt. Soon, Zas was found and returned to the fortress where he belonged. He was to stay in
21:53a
21:53solitary cell for an indefinite time until the war ended. Later, in his memoirs, Zas wrote that he
21:59continued to train in prison and looked for ways to escape. Moreover, Alexander began to develop his own
22:05training method, which he later described in the book The Amazing Samson, as told by himself. He
22:12studied strength development using isometric exercises, which Zas could do even inside the
22:18fortress. He trained hard in prison, believing despair was the worst thing in the world. Alexander
22:25Zas' method included not only static, but also dynamic exercises with a bag. And the complex tendon
22:31training involved not only static holds, but also working through the full range of joint motion.
22:37After some time, Alexander made another escape. This time, once he was free, he went to Budapest
22:42and got a job at a circus run by an old friend. Zas began preparing for one of the most
22:47dangerous
22:48stunts, the human cannonball. For this act, it was necessary to design a special cannon that could fire
22:55cannonballs. The performer, weighing 90 kilograms, had to stand on the opposite side of the arena and catch it
23:01with his hands. Alexander made the task harder by replacing the cannonball with his assistant.
23:06After returning to Schmitt's circus, he achieved impressive results. One of Alexander's most
23:12spectacular acts was the Devil's Forge. During the show, the artist lay on nails while assistants placed
23:18a half-ton stone on Zas' chest and smashed it with sledgehammers. It was at Schmitt's circus that
23:25Alexander began to be called the Iron Samson. On May 20, 1923, the life of the famous artist changed
23:33dramatically. On this day, Zas signed a contract and went to work in Paris. Alexander also made an
23:39agreement with the Italian impresario Pasolini and many other people who wanted to invite the Iron
23:44Samson to perform in their arenas. Zas toured, winning over audiences in France, Switzerland,
23:50Italy, and the United Kingdom. In 1924, Alexander settled in the town of Hockley near London,
23:58performed shows, and went on tours. Audiences would always remember the feats performed by Alexander
24:04Zas because only the Iron Samson could lift a piano along with the performer, lying under a moving car,
24:11holding back strong horses pulling apart, and staying unharmed.
24:16The last public performance as a strongman took place in 1954 when the athlete was 66 years old.
24:24Later, he worked as an animal trainer. He had several horses, ponies, dogs, and monkeys. He also
24:31trained elephants and lions at the zoo, and during performances, he would carry two lions at once on a
24:36special yoke. In September 1962, a van carrying monkeys for Zas' show caught fire, and he rescued them
24:44from the flames. He suffered extensive burns to his head and was taken to the hospital, where he died
24:49of a heart attack at the age of 74. Now, let's move further along the timeline to 1931 Germany.
24:57The importance and significance of sex hormones was already known, but it was the German chemist Adolf
25:03Boutenant who was the first to isolate and purify the hormone called androstenone. And after him,
25:10another German chemist, Leopold Ruzica developed a method for synthesizing hormones that were safe
25:16for human use. From that moment on, the snowball effect could no longer be stopped. And in cooperation
25:22with Boutenant in 1935, Ruzica managed to synthesize the first batch of synthetic testosterone.
25:29This marked the beginning of the era of anabolic and androgenic steroids. The discoveries were
25:34considered so groundbreaking that both scientists, Boutenant and Ruzica, were awarded the Nobel Prize
25:41in Chemistry in 1939. And already at the end of the 1930s, the first ever injection of testosterone
25:48propionate was administered to a human. Starting from the late 1940s, this anabolic steroid became
25:54widely used in the Soviet Union. For some time, athletes from the Soviet Union performed at a very high
26:01level. And this lasted until the doctor of the United States Olympic team synthesized
26:06methandrostenolone, better known simply as methane. United States Olympic weightlifters quickly
26:13incorporated testosterone and methane into their routines, narrowing the gap. The gap between the
26:19United States team and the Soviet Union. The era of doping began, starting from the 60s and lasting
26:26until the late 80s. The expansion of anabolic and androgenic steroids was enormous, with newer and
26:32more advanced types being developed year after year. It seemed like variations of testosterone were
26:37getting better every day. But there was a catch. Synthetic analogues of testosterone are essentially
26:43a medicine that helps you recover from injuries, burns, and maintain muscle mass during serious
26:48illnesses. And even if such medicine helped athletes run faster and jump higher, the price was high.
26:55When taking artificial testosterone, the body stopped producing natural testosterone,
27:00with all the resulting consequences. Since the late 1940s, competitions like Mr. America in the
27:06United States of America and Mr. Universe in England began, featuring athletes like John Grimmick,
27:12Steve Reeves, and Reg Park. The standard for muscle mass gradually increases, and bodybuilders begin to
27:19experiment with steroids and hormonal drugs. Methandionone allows an athlete to gain 10 26 pounds of muscle
27:25mass in 5-6 weeks. Initially, it spreads among Olympic weightlifters, but quickly becomes popular with
27:33bodybuilders. The 1960s to 1980s are considered the golden era of bodybuilding, or, as experts call it,
27:41the era when steroids took over. Athletes like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Franco Colombo, Frank Zane,
27:47Mike Menser start to appear on the scene. The center of world bodybuilding is California. Brothers Joe and Ben
27:54Weider founded the International Federation of Bodybuilding in 1965, and from 1967 to 1969, they held the Mr. Olympia
28:04contest. The holder of this title is the Cuban Sergio Oliva, a former member of the Cuban Olympic
28:10weightlifting team. Some reports say Oliva sailed from the island of freedom to Miami on a homemade
28:16raft. He repairs TVs, works as a police officer, and forges himself in the evenings. Super athletes
28:23in those years mainly focused on achieving the right proportions. Muscle mass is important, but along
28:29with it, judges at competitions evaluate a bodybuilder's ability to keep a flat stomach. A 55 center bicep
28:36becomes the norm. Arnold Schwarzenegger teaches to train six times a week, splitting different muscles
28:42by days. New machines appear, and a large number of isolated exercises are used to work and pump
28:49individual muscles. What about steroids? In the 2000s, Arnold admits, yes, we used them, but not on the same
28:56scale as now. We saw it as a way to improve our results. We did it without fanaticism. From the
29:0380s to the 2000s, bodybuilding became massively popular. The 80s were all about the muscular hero.
29:10Throughout the 80s, Hollywood churned out action movies one after another, starring Schwarzenegger,
29:16Stallone, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. The world's top bodybuilder is the black athlete Lee Haney.
29:22He wins the Mr. Olympia title eight times, one more than Arnold. Another representative of that era
29:29is Tom Platts, who had monstrous thighs with a circumference of 77 centimeters. Women start
29:35entering bodybuilding, and their muscles are almost on par with men's, a sad example of women's
29:41experiments with male hormones. The life of Dennis Rudkowski, a vibrant girl, second place at Miss
29:47Olympia in 1993. By the 2000s, Dennis had turned into a balding woman. Even in those years, the idea
29:54of proper proportions was becoming a thing of the past. The main focus was the pursuit of mass,
30:00for which athletes would go to any lengths. In the early 90s, synthol, an injectable oil that inflates
30:06muscles, appeared on the market. In February 1997, an anonymous bodybuilder told Iron Man magazine,
30:13he did up to 20 injections daily. These include steroids and drugs to counter their side effects.
30:20From 1992 for six years, Dorian Yates ruled Mr. Olympia. He displays phenomenal muscle mass,
30:28never seen before. The focus of training during these years shifts from strength exercises to isolation
30:34and pump, maximizing blood flow into the muscle. The training frequency increases to seven or more times
30:40a week. The next stage is from the 2000s to the present day. Ronnie Coleman, a black athlete,
30:47matches the training record of his predecessor, Lee Haney. Coleman wins the Olympia eight times in
30:52the off-season. He weighed nearly 150 kilograms and was 61 when the film was released. After more than 10
30:59surgeries, his back, now filled with metal, causes him pain. And just recently, the athlete was
31:05hospitalized due to a blood infection. After him comes the era of Jay Cutler and Phil Heath. In 2012,
31:13a new branch separated from classic bodybuilding, men's physique or beach bodybuilding. Here,
31:20athletes with less mass compete, whose goal is an aesthetic physique. Arnold Schwarzenegger calls this
31:26the era of pot-bellied bodybuilders. Abnormal mass demands excessive food and large hormonal drug doses,
31:33causing both muscles and internal organs to grow abnormally. Athletes on stage can't suck in their
31:39stomachs, despite visible abs. Schwarzenegger urges Olympia judges to focus on proportions over mass.
31:47In our information overloaded age, interest in athletics continues to grow. Besides bodybuilding and
31:53weightlifting, many other disciplines are also growing rapidly. Not only powerlifting, with its many
31:59federations and championships, but also other less well-known types of lifting, such as arm lifting,
32:06where the main task is to lift and hold weight using your grip, and street lifting, where pull-up bars
32:11and parallel bars are conquered with additional weight. Kettlebell sport, involving maximum repetitions
32:17in a set time, most closely resembles the style of past athletes. Strength extreme, where modern athletes
32:24lift awkward stone blocks, tree trunks, and pull all kinds of vehicles. A huge number of such competitions
32:32and strength shows are held all over the world. For example, at the largest annual festival in Russia,
32:38Seraquel Power Expo. In addition to powerlifting and arm wrestling championships, there are also exotic
32:44things like jiu-jitsu in a car, wrestling rings, glute bridge competitions, where Daria Pluzhnikova set a new
32:52record of 515 kilograms, and much more. The history of such events goes back decades. For example,
33:00in Soviet times, there was the Yuri Artemov Strength Theater. It was not just a strength show,
33:05but a whole open-air museum with reconstructed burial mounds and sculptures of bogatiers.
33:11The program included old circus tricks, such as juggling kettlebells, axes, and sledgehammers,
33:18swinging a 16-kilogram sword being run over by a car, and much more. Yuri Artemov talked about his
33:25unconventional training path like this. He had already been working as a gym trainer and performing
33:30since he was 17. He bent horseshoes and twisted nails, but the real breakthrough came after reading
33:37about Prince Rakhmatov in Chernyshevsky's What Is To Be Done. The hero sought strength by working among
33:43ordinary people as a barge hauler, a loader, and a hammer man. Artemov also began combining evening
33:49workouts with heavy physical labor during the day. For example, unloading train cars and moving tons of
33:54sacks, weighing 50 to 70 kilograms each. Soon, he could easily handle enormous weights, carrying three
34:01sacks of flour at once, hauling paint barrels weighing 265 kilograms, or even a piano weighing 360 kilograms.
34:09This extreme overload caused a phenomenal strength increase. Another self-taught talent who didn't fit
34:16into standard molds tried to rethink the experience of past athletes and create a method that would be
34:22as applicable as possible for anyone. Anatoly Ivanovich Samodumov. He started with weightlifting,
34:29but his anatomy wasn't very well suited to the classic sports discipline. Realizing that he wasn't suited for
34:35records in weightlifting, he began to look for another approach to lifting weights. Samodumov was
34:41intrigued that strongmen of the past typically capped their maximum demonstrations at 80 poods,
34:47or about 1,300 kilograms. Samodumov overcame this barrier using his low amplitude super heavyweight
34:55lifting method. It's very similar to how Greg Ernst lifted two cars. The uniqueness of Samodumov's
35:02approach was that anyone could start training at any age and with any initial physical condition.
35:08However, the method is not well known or widely accessible. Since training uses free weights,
35:14it's hard to ensure safety with a barbell. It can shift sideways without warning,
35:19posing a danger and risking injury when handling maximum loads. That's how the attraction system was
35:25created, which uses the same exercises but on special equipment, making training much safer and more
35:33convenient. The weight is lifted just one to several centimeters, and this short range of motion allows
35:39people without developed muscles to work with heavy loads, since the main stress is placed on the bones,
35:46ligaments, tendons, and fascial matrix. Here's another example of reviving a sensible approach to the
35:54training process. Smart Athletics is a project by Yegor Gomajan, a powerlifting champion, founder of the
36:00World of Strength magazine, and author of numerous articles and methodological materials in the field
36:06of powerlifting and athletics. The author's method is designed for those for whom athletics is not a goal,
36:12but a means. A means to strengthen health, longevity, aesthetics, and a way to gain life energy. Yet,
36:19when we consider the remarkable strength of record holders past and present, those lifting huge
36:26weights, bending steel, and breaking chains, it's easy to think these are just unique individuals with
36:33special genetics. And many athletes of our time, as a product of the evolution of the industrial
36:38approach to the human body, are not suitable at all to be role models for ordinary people. Then,
36:44the fundamental question remains, why does a person need energy at all? Not a record holder,
36:49but an ordinary person who works, raises children, and grows old. Strength training has a paradoxical
36:55but well-studied effect. Moderate, progressive, and regular exercise doesn't break the body,
37:01but on the contrary, strengthens it. Osteoporosis often develops with age, causing dangerous bone
37:08fragility. For instance, a hip fracture can be fatal. But all studies in recent decades say otherwise.
37:15One of the best ways to keep your skeleton strong in old age is strength training. When muscles pull
37:21on the bone, when weight presses from above, the body gets the signal that it needs to strengthen itself,
37:27and the bone really does become stronger. The other side of strength is not just the total weight on the
37:32barbell, but also that sometimes we see in the most ordinary people a sudden, almost unbelievable display
37:39of power. Stories where someone lifts a car to pull a loved one out from under the wheel. For example,
37:45a daughter saved her father, and a teenager did the same by pulling his father from under a car.
37:52There are countless accounts where a mother literally pulls her child out of danger,
37:56acting faster and stronger than her age, and build would suggest. These cases are called super
38:02strength in extreme situations. An adrenaline rush, the mobilization of all reserves when there is no
38:08room for error. But ideally, the reserve should be accumulated so that there is something to mobilize.
38:14A body that is used to at least minimal strength training is capable of more in a critical moment.
38:20Then strength stops being an attribute of circus athletes and professional Olympians.
38:25It becomes a basic survival function, just like endurance or coordination. Pure strength is not
38:32just the world of records and medals. It's the quiet, unnoticed work that gives a person the right to
38:37remain a support for themselves and their loved ones. At both 30 and 70, each of us has our own
38:44personal
38:44personal platform.
39:00And we'll see you next time.
39:01We'll see you next time.
39:01We'll see you next time.
39:01We'll see you next time.
39:01We'll see you next time.