Sry about the face, guys. I had shingles. 0/10 Wouldn’t suggest getting it.

It was so chaddy, when dudes asked what an RDL was, they were just like: it’s an exercise I use for my back

hi, ex weightlifter here, son a weightlifter (my uncle too was one). wonderful video, well reasearched too: my dad and uncle were always talking about Paul Anderson and Yuri Vlasov .-- he was called "the engineer" (in italian: "l'ingegnere"). *1)* technique is very different when not touching the barbell: you have to pull more with your back and so you get a horizontal component: so either you jump forward, if you want to squat clean/snatch, or you do the split clean/snatch. it's a question of stability on the "rocking axis" (to use some aeronautics' terms). *2)* putting down the barbell was necessary, as the iron plates had different diameters for different weights: if you slam the bar on the floor, the sleeve on the barbell gets a shear force form the plates touching vs not touching the floor and gets damaged. the 25 - 20 and 15 kg had some 1 inch (2,5 cm) difference in RADIUS, so twice that in diameter.... it's like a pair of scissors trying to cut your barbell sleeves in pieces I have one barbell that made the 1960 Olympics in Rome at home, and it - nonetheless - is damaged. it all changed with the bumper plates: they are made of rubber, and they all touch the floor in the same moment (ok, provided the bar slams horizontally) *3)* the press was way too difficult to judge. since it was eliminated, the athletes could practice S / C&J more. this tended to favor short legged athletes, too, given the importance of the leg drive... earlier, you might notice the men had a much more robust torso/arms, while their legs were often long and not so strong... Vlasov himself being a good example of that. *4)* back then, PED's were called "the bomb" and it was something that you weren't supposed to take; it would have been cheating... haha I enjoyed the video very much thank you for your work on that!

Zack looks like he didn't use the Manscape lawnmower 4.0

The old time beer garden lifters of Germany and Austria had large bellies, so the continental was easier for them. When the continental was banned the Germans came up with the squat style in the 1920s. It allowed the belly to fall between the legs so was easier for at least for their superheavies. Their way was very precarious, with the lifter squatting on his toes! Not surprisingly few used it. The Good brothers pioneered it in the USA but their style was still on the shaky side. It wasn't until Larry Barnholth of Akron Ohio came along and perfected the style. His lifters all used it, most notably the recently deceased Pete George. Soon after came Dave Sheppard. These two did much to popularize the style in America through the 1940s and 1950s although most of the world still was splitting in 1960. Paul Anderson was the first major superheavy to use it. After that though the squat started gaining ground. By 1970 only a few holdouts remained (think Baszanowski, Hekel and Kalinichenko). Today the only splitters seem to be those of Masters age who do not have the required flexibility any more.

a) this was really fun and I hope you do more pieces on the history of weightlifting! b) next time you appear on camera with visible wounds on your face, at least tell us how you got into a fight and whether or not you won.

One of the things that made me realize how strong Lasha is was watching him doing no contact power snatches with like 140 kilos, for reps, easily.

I'm 74 years old. Started exercising at 8 and lifting at 13. I started weightlifting, switched to powerlifting and won 7 IPF world masters championships- in my 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. BUT, my strength heroes were always the weightlifter from the 50s and 60s, especially Kono and Bednarksi. In my 40s I went to Honolulu and went to Kono's Gym to workout and, I hoped, to meet Tommy Kono. He wasn't there. But, I asked when he'd be there. The desk employee said he'd be in sometime in the next 2-3 hours, but wouldn't be staying long. I sat down and waited until he came in. One of the greatest moments of my lifting career. Txs for the video and bringing back memories.

Tommy Kono is dope as hell. Crazy to think he went from an Internment camp in WW2 to being one of America's greatest Olympians.

The reason the continental was dropped has a lot to do with World War One. The French used the clean method of pulling while the Germans and Austrians and others favoured the continental (which could move more weight). They did not settle this debate until the French ended up on the winning side of the war. The Germanic countries were barred from international meetings for some years after the Armistice. The French used that situation to their advantage and banned the continental. Thereinafter everyone used the clean method in all pulls. By 1960 coaches realized that pulling the bar closer to the body made for greater poundages (and a double knee bend). At first below the knee contact was tolerated. Eventually more and more lifters were touching the thighs. Then a "brush" was tolerated but not a "violent bounce", then full contact. It is now still considered "clean" if the bar moved up continuously and does not stop along the way like the continental did.

For five months during the pandemic, before I built a home gym, I lifted with iron plates in a public parking place, and it was very humbling to see how grueling it was to put down the bar after every snatch and c&j slowly and carefully in order not to damage the floor. Those guys in 1960's and 1970's had to be much tougher than we are today.

Zack, about drugs before 1958; Look into cycling, they used drugs since at least 1913 in the Tour de France. There was an interview from a 1913 newspaper where cyclists were mad that they had to find accomodation and food with locals along the route rather than have aid or aid stations etc, something rights related and then a description of their cycling life, which was ofc their bike, their food/drinks and ... meds. They used cocaine, morphine syringes, alcohol for pain and strychnine for muscle issues. After 1913, nitroglycerine (heart) was used, as well as amphetamines from at least 1949 and huffing ether through cloths was common as well.

A Hungarian's comment: TOMMY KONO was well-known and well-respected in Europe's communist block, too; recognized as exceptional both as a weightlifter and as a bodybuilder. (He died quite a couple of years ago though, so the info that he passed some months ago cannot be correct.)

My man broke his Gillette in the middle of shaving, so he proceeded to continue with an angle grinder (wire brush disc)

I really wish there was a way to bring the Clean and Press back while eliminating the subjective and political crap that got rid of it to begin with. Such an amazing thing to see a human press that much weight overhead.

Thank you for making this video! My grandfather competed in the 1952 Olympics, he was the only athlete Guyana sent. He always tells me that it was very clear that a lot of the larger nations and the more famous athletes you mentioned were using PEDs, but I think it's important to note that not all of the athletes were... they just wouldn't stand a chance to win unfortunately. Love seeing this old footage and wish I had some of my grandpa from when he competed.

I always wonder whether the road to standardisation and specialisation in professional sports is inevitable. As soon as more money gets involved, every discipline seems to lose at least part of its spark and freedom.

Thank you for talking about the dropping weights when weightlifting. Was going clean and jerks in the gym yesterday and some guy came up to me and told me to put the weight down quietly cause it was “distracting”, the guy was clearly very new to the gym. I didn’t, cause it’s non of his business and also I’m not risking an injury cause if some guys delicate ears but it was still very frustrating

Tommy Kono was the man. He actually passed away in 2016, and they had that special google memorial of him in honor of 5 years since he passed. I had the opportunity to meet him a few months before he passed away, was gracious enough to autograph a collectible trading card of himself for me. I will always remember that.

Would love to see vintage clean and press vids. Paul Anderson 402 is some Herculean shit!

Man I had to put the weights down like that in the gym. There's no bumper plates, just normal rubber ones and a normal barbell that might break if I drop it with weights.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Tommy Kono was coaching free weightlifting classes in a YMCA here in Hawaii for several years. No one in there knew him other then his students. I wish I never stopped going to his classes

Kono began weightlifting because he was in a WWII Japanese internment camp and that’s what he was permitted to do. He was a bodybuilding champion, in addition to a weightlifting champion. Arnold says he got into weightlifting and bodybuilding because, as a child, he went to see Kono compete in Austria. His books are still a good read today. I hung a photo of Kono up in the gym I go to. Amazing man!!!

So Happy to have found your channel. Appreciate all you do brother.

Loved it. Keep doing these mini documentaries. They’re sick

Great post! Tommy Kono was a winner of the Mr. World bodybuilding contest and he won the Mr. Universe contest 3 times, 2 gold and 1 silver medal at the Olympics, amazing!

One of the best videos you’ve done Zack, I’ve been wanting you to review old school split snatches split cleans and Paul Anderson for so long.

Vlasov wrote a book “Overcoming Yourself” which I really liked as teenager. Very motivational but also wider view at strength training and health. Not sure if it was ever translated to other languages

The split snatch makes sense at least for newbies as it can be considered safer end position so u dont topple over and snap ur arse or chip a tooth

The lift at 0:38 is by far one of the greatest lifts I've ever seen

Awesome video! Love the passion and insight into the sport’s evolution.

For a while in the late 60s-early 70s there was an interesting time where there were some guys who squat cleaned but still split snatched. Bill Starr from USA and Solar from Czechia are two examples

Steroids became illegal in weightlifting starting on 1 Jan 1973 and then the competition for who had the most undetectable chemicals really started. What was illegal before that year were any type of stimulants like adrenaline. American heavyweight Norbert Schemansky snatched 165kg in Tokyo '64 and barely missed 170kg. Yuri Vlasov pressed 195kg in 1964 without a belt and no bending of knees or back. The press became very controversial because the rules required a no more than 27 degrees of back bend, no knee bending but an arched at the most and judging became difficult and erratic. Anyway, it became a matter of reputation and the Eastern Europeans could get away with just about any type of infraction. I saw the American middleweight Russel Knipp in Munich '72 press 167.5 kg in a very strict press for a World record only to be turned down 2 to 1 because two judges thought he brought the bar down too quickly which was total bullshit and the crowd booing was so thunderous that the head judge has to had to beg the audience to stop to no avail. Oscar State who was the announcer and MC at every major championship for decades pleaded with audience until the booing subsided. The Russian middleweight Kanygin pressed 165 at the same competition in what was basically a standing Bench Press (he bent the back so far back that from the front you could not see his face and yet he got three white lights. The Russian bombed out in the snatch anyway. The strict press lasted until the late 1950's and the rules started to relax and it became a free for all by the late 1960's and it gave cause for its elimination after the 1972 Games. Actually the rules could have been tightened but the IWF also wanted the competitions to take less time so the easy way out was to eliminate the Press. This affected a lot of Press specialists like Russel Knipp and many retired after that. As far as the thigh brushing is concerned, it was the Poles and the Russians that started the style and forced a change in the rules since most of the world champions from Eastern Europe had changed their styles. Back then the Eastern Europeans had complete domination of the sport. In fact if you take a look at Soviet Super Heavy Zhavotinsky's winning world record C&J in Tokyo '64 you can see that he was already brushing his thighs something Vlasov never did. Chidlovsky's web site Lift Up has many of those lifts in videos.

would love to see you reacting to the bent press! proper old school lift

I am now a 61-year-old Master. My original competitive period was 1976 - 1986 (age 16 - 26). All of my training was on York Olympic sets with metal plates. We did not do much in the way of "core" work in those days, didn't really need to as we had plenty of core work lowering the weights. I appreciate the luxury of bumper plates today (though at this age I'm not lifting much). At the same time when I see young lifters tossing the bar from arms length overhead i am annoyed at the lack of respect for the equipment and platform.

You should check out Serg Reading's 502 lb Clean-and-Press. He really got robbed.

one arm lifts should be brought back in that one from klokov was brutal as fuck

"Метан -- хлеб штангиста" -- поговорка тех времён. (Metan(dienone) is weightlifter's bread).

This video could be an hour long and still it would be too short. Thanks man for this very valuable and entertaining information!

Alexeev first to Clean & Jerk 500lb. Ken Patera first to Clean & Press 500lb.

As much as I would love to see the reintroduction of no-contact lifts & the press, I think we’re too far into the current iteration of WLing that we can’t do a 180°

So instead of referring to them as cleans and no contact cleans, they should be referred to as contact cleans and cleans.

All of the crazy no contact lifts make you wonder what some of these guys would have lifted with modern rules

Just subscribed because of this video and the memories. I competed from age 15 to 20, at 123 lbs in both Olympic and Power lifting in the mid to late 70's. I was fortunate to win a few state titles in both and place 2nd in the teenage nationals in PL. I have to say that dropping the bar from overhead still gets to me. I was one of the old timers who always brought the bar back down to the floor. My daughter olympic lifts and I'm very excited to see that happening, so much so that I'm really thinking of training for a masters meet. I have kept in shape my entire life through running, cycling and lifting, so maybe I'll give this a second time 'round? Love your content, glad I found you.

When i was a young man i did cleans with contact. Now i do without contact because i like it, i am not weightlifter and i am old school enthusiast. Clean and press 3 times a week. No bench presses.

One cool thing about Kono is that he wore heeled shoes because he realized that they helped put him into better positions. 🤘

nice video! btw Schemansky snatched 363 (165 kilos in 1963) for a new world record. he did it split style. I remember at the time it made a tremendous impression. Also he just missed a 380 world record snatch at the 1964 Olympics

I actually learned the split snatch by my coach. He used to weightlift in the 60/70s. He is so hardcore…

Awesome deep dive into the roots of the sport! I'm really enjoying struggling with my weak ass weights, but love learning more about the sport and trying to soak up all those tips and technical details that can help me improve. I wasn't sure why I found strong man so fascinating (shout out to Alan Thrall's videos) - but I think it's that bad ass element you're eluding to. As things get refined over time something is lost and you don't have those "self evident" (to the masses) feats of strength you might have had earlier on. On the other hand you do have something with a lot less room for craziness (more like other Olympic sports). But then there's strong man to try and fill that void! 😅

Zack, the glasses are to avoid flash photography.

👍👍❤️Zack, Rip is the biggest proponent today of the press technique from old school clean and press. He says it is medicine for whatever ails my delts. I have heard that old schoolers would spend about 40% of their training on this lift. Can/would you analyze Serge Redding’s technique and comment/speculate on this movement as a way to develop immense power in the shoulder? I want a solid analysis and tutorial. Also, would you go visit knees over toes guy and try/talk about split squats?

Lifting was insanely bad ass

I do my OHP just like these guys

Do David Rigert next!

Thanks for using my suggestion, love the appreciation for the history of iron game. Great video as always!

the shades are so killer i can't get over it

thumbs up for the doggo

Neat video. I didn't know the clean was named when the lift was without contact.

8:55 I don’t think we can go back to it. But the truth is that the average person will never be able to tell you who the worlds top weightlifters are.

I like the press. I’d be way more willing to take up weightlifting if the press was in it

Head how that D-bol was endemic in weightlifting and mixed lifts in the mid to late 60’s and early 70s from my father. I can still remember stories from even his first “powerlifting” meet in ‘64 (provincial championships) and how most people were on roids ( his words) but it wasn’t a “issue” unless People were stacking then they got crazy….. Also this brought back a lot of memories for me, being 10 and having my father teach me the Olympic lifts (including the clean and press, though as I was young it was what would be called a muscle clean now…and trying to keep the bar with a Judge’s, or my father’s in this case, finger)…..dropping weights was BAD, They are expensive (and living on a farm hours drive from the nearest sporting goods store) The floor was concrete covered with a sheet of plywood (apparently that plus a carpet was often all the smaller meets he had been to had) Controlling and deliberately placing the bar down was seen as an very important part of the lift.

My grandpa was Paul Anderson's neighbor.. oh the stories

Powerlifter Terry Todd talked about taking steroids but it was so minuscule compared to later years

Thanks for introducing me to Tommy Kono! Very Japanese attitude and body aesthetic. I also appreciate the old-school lifters controlling the weight to the floor. Modern lifters dropping the weights always felt sloppy and disrespectful to me.

8:47 “they were known names because they were strong, not because they were good weightlifters… I don’t know, I don’t know if that’s what we should get back to..” *[Mark Rippetoe liked that]

Miyake won gold in Tokyo, '64. I saw his final clean and jerk of 336lbs - it tied Issac Berger's lift but Berger did it first and therefore was credited with the world record in the featherweight (132lbs) class. Berger did it "clean," while Miyake clearly bounced the bar off his thighs, and it passed without a problem. A few years later, we all were at least brushing the thighs.

Some of us keep the split snatch alive! Splitting is Winning! Also, Norb was an animal.

OOOF those presses make my lower back hurt

This is such a dope history lesson

The GREATEST FOUNDATION OF STRENGTH TRAINING EVER WRITTEN..........

The squat snatch took years before athletes perfected it. You rarely see splitters anymore (virtually none in senior international/Olympic competition) because squatting is a more efficient style, both in the snatch and the clean. The press became a glorified jerk; thus it was dropped after the Munich Olympics in '72.

Zack, I recently did a cycle with split snatches and cleans. Here is my question/comment for you, and stay with me bc it may be confusing. We see all these old time videos and pictures of a FULL SPLIT snatch/clean aka knee fully going over toe,(shout out to KOT Guy)...great fine dandy, but how come in your opinion we have never seen a FULL SPLIT jerk? I asked Everett the same question at some point. Bc in reality, his versions of these lifts are "POWER" split sn/cl aka caught higher or "above 90"...sort of like a regular jerk where it's "caught higher"...I know the answer to this question bc I actually tried training this so called "full split jerk"- it was very difficult to stand from lol..so I think I kno my answer just curious yours. Why did we see full split sn/cl, but not full split jerk..and why now, do people tend to only train this power split sn/cl..how could there is zero videos ever of someone doing a full split stance jerk? I suggest u try them...killer...peace

Hope you get better soon man!

Great vid Zack!

Zack started using the secret sporting souces

Facts 🔥💯

Wasn't Kono part of starting the WSM shows. I'm pretty sure I remember him as a judge or something. Awesome video tho, hoped to see some Bruce Wilhelm or Ken Patera if I remember correctly both of them started in weightlifting!

Vlasov is a legend, RIP.

You forgot. Ken Patera!!!!

Love this new content

Grimek admitted to taking test in the 1940s

The San Diego Chargers were on D-bol in the 60’s administered by their trainers

Came for the commentary, stayed for the dog

Make d-bal great again???

And here I was hoping to get some love for Lee James. :) Admittedly, I only remember him because I went to church with his folks.

Awesome video, zach

we need an experience.... testing greatest Snatcher (squar style) in Split snatch ... and calculate real lost of performance.....

Bruh...Paul Andersons upper thighs look like they'd measure 40 inches.

KAKAROT BIT CHIN CONFIRMED

I think that I'd read somewhere that in the pre-Bumpers era of Olympic Weightlifting, the lifter, after a successful lift, was required to lower the weight under control to the floor. You could be penalized for dumping the weight after lifting it. Powerlifting used to do that too - if you dumped the weight after deadlifting it, your lift was 'No Good'. There's a video on Bill Kazmaier competing at the World Powerlifting Championships, and the judges declined his successful deadlift because he dumped the weight. So, Kaz had to do the lift again and the 2nd time he lowered the weight slowly, under control.

The history of plate loading is interesting as well. The use of rubber bumper plates was introduced some time in the 80’s I believe and the introduction of a universal color scheme was introduced sometime later. Change plates were added at some point near 2005. Before then, weights were added by increments of 2.5 kg. I know there are a couple of exceptions to this that have always confused me so maybe someone can explain it to me. Leonid Teranenko’s clean and jerk record was 266 kg. How were the plates loaded? Was it 265 kg plus a half-kilo on either side?

I had not heard of Tommy Kono until today.... Time to forget about work and read all about him

Norik Vardanyan includes no touch cleans and snatches in his training. I think he said that it was about 80% of his max but felt like he was doing a max lift.

The Soviets admired and respected WL much more than Americans, which is why they surpassed the USA by the early 60s.

One of the best old weightlifting video is the one named ' Polish weightlifting methods and technics". It would be awesome if you reviewed this shit

I started to do power cleans today for the first time and I can't manage to contact. So I can just say I am doing it the old school way when contact was banned? Haha.

Super cool

It's interesting how a power clean usually indicated that a clean and press was coming up, because the weights are a bit smaller than the ones you would clean and jerk.

Your dog’s name. Love it!

I don't have much experience with weightlifting, but I used to do raw powerlifting and in the off-season every year, I would do a variant of smolov, whereby I would implement a safety bar, or cambered bar for squats, or even try squat more like you guys, similarly I'd implement a bench variation for an entire block. What I found if that a 40lbs increase during this cycle would be a composite of say a 20lbs increase in strenth and a 20lbs increase due to technical alterations made. How this might relate to you guys, is that while you might not have a good split snatch, it's just because you never train it. By no means am I taking anything from the old timey athletes, but what I am saying is maybe dick about and have some fun in the off-season, and see if you can push these lifts. :)