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I would prefer the physique of a bronze era bodybuilder over that of a mass monster any day.

Let's not overlook the fact he also looked absolutely killer in a suit. I might have to get that book.

The most impressive thing is that he built that physique without headphones.

What impressed me the most is how well-spoken and smart his writing was, he clearly wasn't a "meat-head" but a learned athlete and intellectual which I think more gym-bros should strive to be.

Hackenschmidt must have had the most insane stabilizers. It's absolutely insane, doing a leg press by balancing the bar on your feet. No wonder this guy was a top level wrestler.

How people are saying these guys are small/unimpressive is beyond me. They look jacked af and 99% of the population would be beyond happy if they had a physique like those.

HackenChad in 1908: *understands progressive overload* Gym bros 120 years later: E G O L I F T

Can we acknowledge the fact that "Hack" built that physique without steroids and obviously was doing something right in that he lived just short of one hundred years, no modern "advanced" bodybuilders, strength competitors, or fitness stars are coming close to that these days. Just an opinion! By the way, love your channel and what your doing with your videos.

I learned in his book that today men are taught to shovel as much food in their mouths as possible and lift for two hours a day to get big and strong. Hackenshmidt and his colleague Arthur Saxon had a completely different idealogy. They taught that looking after every aspect of mental and physical health made you better and stronger. He emphasized not only sleeping well, but taking care of your own skin by not wearing tight clothes, exposing your skin to the sun everyday for a given time, keeping your bed chambers clean because you spend most of your life in there, and much more things that are never brought up when trying to get physically strong. Simply fascinating

Hackenschmidt’s advice about not expecting too much from light weight, high repetition training, is a not so subtle dig at Sandow’s light dumbell system, which was popular at the time.

I remember reading he was refused induction into the army, because the doctors thought he was so muscular, there had to be something wrong with him.

WTF who says these old school guys were small? They were huge given they didnt have multiple gyms to choose from, a GNC around the corner, educational material at all to tell them how to get big, etc. This is insane. They had to have basically trained in a super natural way and guess as to what nutrition to go towards, how to train and everything. Amazing to me that they did any of this.

Hackenshmidt is such an inspiration to me, he was massive, he was freakishly strong for the time period, he invented staple exercises , the bench press and the hack squat, and an original philosopher of training.

George is regarded as one of the greatest and influential wrestler of all time. He was a visionary honestly.

Am I the only one that's impressed by the fact he made it to a ripe old age of 90! Did he ever mention his diet?

I have been a bodybuilder for 67 years and haven't known some of thouse very interesting exercises. I'm now 82 still working out. This is very interesting. Thanks !

those bronze era guys may be small in todays standards, but i guarantee you p4p they were stronger than many gym bros, especially their tendons Wouldn’t be surprised if many of them never got seriously injured

This is probably my favorite video you've made so far. It was really cool seeing all those movements that nobody does anymore

the fact that this dude was accurately talking about the differences between strength, endurance, and hypertrophy training *literally over 100 years ago* (!!!) is absolutely mind-boggling, what a legend strong, huge, intelligent, influential, and lived a long life... hackenschmidt is such an inspiration man

14:10: Bear in mind that in Hackenschmidt's time, the leg press would usually be done while wearing dress shoes with raised heels -- allowing the barbell to be balanced easier on the feet. They also often sat the bar on two chairs & performed the exercise while lying on the floor between them.

What I like the most about this is knowing just how inefficient and unpolished a lot of these exercises are, but seeing just how effective they ended up being because of his commitment. You hardly need anything to do these exercises, but you can still get great results if you're just persistent; likewise, seeing how easy it is for us to do more refined movements and use better equipment now, it really shouldn't unthinkable that a guy could get an impressive physique naturally as long as he's consistent.

It's not said in the video, but it's worth mentioning that Hackenschmidt is also usually credited as the originator of the bench press. This is probably why he had such a huge chest!

My father lifted weights when he was in his early twenties and had a book by Bob Hoffman on weight training and had pictures of the old-time weight lifters . needless to say, it was inspiring to me as a young boy and set the stage of a lifetime of weight training which a cornucopia of health benefits was derived.

I can’t recommend the book enough. It’s my favorite health and fitness book ever. He even goes into Olympic weightlifting exercises not mentioned in this video.

Did some of these exercises when I started lifting in the 60’s as Hack, was still living and still of legendary strength. The floor presses were painful at bottom, the leg presse (obviously) quite dangerous as were "thumbless" bench presses. Look closer at foot position in diagrams; split clean and "splot" (feet out) in some cases. I vaguely remember a pic of him "floor pressing" well over 400 in his 80’s I think. Thanks for reminding me of those painful hack squats . Lol

So glad to see this vid. I started my fitness journey 50yrs ago and have stuck with it. I noticed in my 30's the new generations coming up were leaving the grassroots and wanting their 15sec of fame trying to "pioneer" new things, but there is "no new thing under the sun" want to start out with isolated movements instead of spending the first year doing tried and true compound exercises looking for short cuts. I used to explain it to my students this way, "when building a house you don't build the roof first you build a good strong foundation first", hence you start building your own foundation with compound movements.

Great format!! showing the print, the demonstration, and the explanation 👍👍

I think the main reason he was so big is due to the fact in every single exercise he did, or at least as was portrayed in this video, he had to seriously stabilize his entire body which means more muscle gets involved during any one lift than might otherwise happen with more modern training methods and equiptment. Picture a dip vs a tricep extension for instance or a pull/chinup vs a dumbbell/barbell curl. Hell, just doing a kettlebell front hold into a squat is one helluva of shoulder, core and leg workout that fries stability muscles.

Having been studying and using old time training methods and lifts for a good while now, its really amazing to see more and more people getting intereseted in this stuff. It's all part of the NATTY RENAISSANCE

I'm really enjoying all of your oldschool bodybuilding videos. You're doing a great job, please keep going :)

One thing I really like in this video about Hackenschmidt, is the implementation of his exercises. This was before gyms so he got creative and really aimed at isolating the muscles in the muscle groups he wanted to build. Absolutely impressive and it showed why he gained such a physique. He refined his exercises to gain the most potentially useful gains from them. Clearly he was a pioneering genius in bodybuilding

In comparison between these exercises and modern machine equivalents, I believe you are missing one important distinction. Hackenschmidt's exercises have a very large stability component to them. Modern machinery takes all that stability work away essentially holding the weight in the range of motion for you. From my own experience, stability challenges greatly increase overall intensity of any given exercise. Looking at these exercises, I couldn't help but compare them to basic gymnastics moves. The more I look the more I am convinced that gymnastics is probably the inspiration for much of these exercises, just tweaked so that they can be externally loaded. Try this for yourself. Try doing a weighted barbell lung. then try doing that same weight in a lateral lung. The difference is astonishing.

Great video; it helps a lot seeing you do the exercises rather than just the pictures in the book.

This is awesome, we should all enjoy and try new things, or old. Have fun with what you do. I would have never heard of this guy without you, so Ty.

Thank you for researching & sharing history of past bodybuilders.

Your vids have a chill vibe always nice to watch. Keep up the great work💪

Wow. What a great video and demonstrations.

I learned about Hackenschmidt (and Hack squats) from knees over toes. Nice to hear someone else talk about him and get even more info. Thanks!

Best video you’ve made so far ! More on Hackenschmidt please !

What a beast he must have been. This Leg Press is just wild even to look at

Thanks for posting and showing. Very informative. Much appreciated.

Loved the video! Never even thought about the beginnings off bodybuilding, I just trained and ignored the mass monsters... Subscribed and will check all your videos, this is great!

This guy is an absolute legend and was an absolute unit. I'm glad you actually made a video about him, I think he was one of the first to actually spread how to get big from a bodybuilding standpoint.

I’m pretty new to the channel, and while I have forgotten a lot of my strength exercises, I must say this video is totally fascinating. Thank you for clearly demonstrating what was shown in the book. I would love to see more like this.

Thanks for summarizing this!

Enjoying the series!!

I've been training 45 years. We did a lot of these exercises back when I started, when there weren't a lot of machines to distract us. We did things like Zottman curls as well which almost Nobody does today.

Truly a pioneer of modern strength

One of the best videos on that topic. Kudos!

Thanks brother 🙏🙏🙏💯 This is what I've been looking for.

This was a real bodybuilding athlete, totally overlooked today. The bronze era bodybuilders are favourites of mine up to the era of Frank Zane after which bodybuilding today represents something totally different.

Dude your channel is insightful coming from a former competitive power lifter here. Keep up the great work brother!

That old school playlist is the best idea ever !

These bronze era guys had great natural physiques. Great content, it's good to see someone making good natural body building content in this era of instagram and steroids

good idea to demonstrate the exercises it makes the video way more entertaining.

Bravo✌️il più bel video sullo sport di forza mai visto,mi ha letteralmente gasato 💪💪

Excellent video! I enjoyed it very much. Thanks for Old School Muscle 💪 History Class!!

7 years lifetime natty here, and I absolutely love the old school nattys. You earned a sub with this vid.

Love your videos man, tanks

No school like old school. Thank you very much for posting this.

Thanks for your effort, I really enjoy your channel!

definitely implementing more shoulder work in my routine now, didnt notice how little i do until now

I´ve also spent some time experimenting with old-timey techniques; some are surprisingly effective, if often mechanically difficult, while others are just impractical or simply unsound. The idea of repeat sets seems to have eluded many of them, with sometimes insane (100-120) rep limits per single set. Hackenschmidt´s techniques seem like the closest to today´s protocols, but you can still see the primitive understanding of body mechanics that underpinned many of the exercises.

This channel is a goldmine. Especially in a time like this when PEDs seem to become the new norm. And with the amount of young people around to be influenced. Thank you.

Your videos are THE BEST!

No way I'm doing that leg press, lol. Absolute madmen in the Bronze Age!

Love your vids keep making more ✨

Good videos. You come across as a really nice guy. Your English is concise and very well presented. These old school videos are very entertaining.

I'm gonna find this book. I've been looking for one big compilation of exercises that will hit all of my muscles in different ways. I'm glad I stumbled onto this video.

I've also read the book, he emphasized specially on running as well

8:17 is a barbell, just shown from a side angle. Works your forearm stabilizers as well as your pressing muscles.

Great documentary, thank you !

Loving this. Subscribed!

What a lot of people don’t understand is bronze era also trained for strength much more than mass. This means a LOT more.

Imagine he had todays nutrition, equipment, and knowledge, no one would believe he was natty.

Really loved his emphasis on training the neck. It’s definitely one of the most overlooked muscle by most people. Nonetheless, it’s one of the most important to look massive. It’s also amazing to see how much importance he gave to the neck and other muscles that contribute to the yoked look. I appreciate Alex for popularizing neck training on KZfaq. Awesome work! I’m enjoying these videos so much. This video really motivated me to start training my neck again seriously. 💪

Looks like an extremely interesting and well written book. Thanks for the info 👍

It's true about the supinated overhead press because I train it specifically, even while I don't ever lock out my elbows, and I do it for a few reasons but it definitely makes certain things in life a lot easier, especially when you were working with things above your midsection, you definitely want to overload the supination aspect long before you pronate to avoid shoulder injuries. Anybody that has shoulder pains even when putting dishes away in the cupboard can benefit from supinated pressing through the lats shoulders and biceps

"The Hackenschmidt give me strength" made me laugh pretty hard. That leg press was terrifying lol

Really great video thank you

Thanks man!! This seems VERY Interesting & Informative!

Another great bronze age video. The original hack squat is an eye opener as I don't have a hack/leg-press machine. You should do more videos on these important compound movements like they used to do (or do today) for those who don't have the necessary equipment. As for the barbell leg press, I think I'll pass lolll. (lever arm leg press seem like a good alternative)

Great video sir. I am a New York city police officer, and it has to be said, you have to stay in shape. Keep on working on you and everything will be ok. My job puts me in very high stress situations. Love to see that the old school method of training still reflect a great emphasis on progressive overload!!

Amazing video man of a true pioneer of the strength training game

From what I’ve seen on your videos there all champion body builders plus to be honest I’m totally blown away at the science of body builders back in those days totally professional and commitment to there craft. These ladies and gentlemen were way ahead of there time! Love your videos thank you 😊

Dude was an absolute unit

Looking at all these old excercies, it's quite amazing how far sports science has come.

This was fascinating, thank you!

Outstanding video!

Probably the #1 thing that people ignore about the bodybuilders of yesteryear: Flexibility. Some of these moves in the video really cannot be performed properly if you have stiff hamstrings for example. And I bet bunch of modern bodybuilding exercises have systematically gotten rid of the moves that are super good, but require flexibility.

100% of all those people saying those guys looked small and tiny are people who are delusional about what a good body looks like and probably cant get a girlfriend because they want to be big and dont realize that women mostly prefer men who leaner and fit and not jacked monsters.

This video is excellent. People need these neck exercises since everyone is always using devices. They get neck pain. Even though I am a female, I will do these exercises for my toning routine. Thank you for demonstrating these exercises. I enjoyed watching them.😉

Superb video. Well done for getting through it all. I remember people in the 1960’s using straps (usually hanging off a power rack) to make safer the leg press with barbell (when they didn’t have a leg press machine).

15:12 Guy was before his time! It's crazy, people still believe these myths today 😂 Love his emphasis on the importance of progressive overload 💪

Love this. What an impressive man. Reminds me of my first trainer (my ex). He was a real renaissance man, and a natty bodybuilder. 5’10” and very similar build to George. Loved learning these exercises, and plan to add some to my workouts. Keep up the good work!

These videos are so motivating. I love them. At 50 years old, I’m still trying to get bigger, stronger and overall muscular. I like how I look in a t-shirt but never satisfied. 6ft 210-225, eat lots, eat healthy, push beyond, constantly adjusting routines so they are never routine.

The extremely slow progression is very interesting. 1 rep a week...this would give much more time for tendons to grow.

I started lifting weights in 1982 and most of those exercises where still in use. In fact I did leg presses that exact same way. It was not common to see a power rack or squat rack in every gym and almost no one owned one at home. You either did leg presses like that or you did the Jefferson Squat, Hack Squat, clean and front squat or clean press and back squat or you had to have fantastic collars and lever the bar into position on your back! So you seldom could do enough weight on squat to truly challenge your legs like you can today. Now by 1986 I was old enough that I could go to the gym if my mom or dad signed me in and that was a entirely new world. They had Nautilus machines, heavy duty bench's, Universal Machines, Power Racks, Squat Racks even industrial treadmill. Mind you this was at an Army Field House the treadmills where $15,000 each and they only had 2 in a gym the size of 2 Super Walmarts. Some of the earliest Universal Gym's did not have a leg press station you put your feet on the inward facing rooler handle of the bench press station. This is when the bench press handles went inwards before they switched them to outward and added a leg press station. I lived through the development and multiple generations of Nautalis, Cybex, Hammer Strength, Atlas, and many more. The weight rooms looked like dungeons full of chalk and the machine rooms looked like Car Dealership with plants and no chalk at all!

I'm old school. 57 years old, about 203lbs, lean. I did a lot of research into Jack Lalaine, Vince Gironda, Steve Reeves, I have most of their material... but, I've never heard of George until now. Just found a copy of the book, ordered. It will prove useful as I bulk to 217lbs over the next few months... Thank you for sharing😊