Hail to the Dinosaurs!
I thought you'd enjoy 10 little known
facts from the ever elusive and always
interesting history of the grand and
glorious Iron Game. See how many of
these are new to you:
1. Health crusader Paul Bragg, the man
who invented the Health Food Store,
also invented deep dish pizza while
working at a small neighborhood deli
in Chicago. Bragg's original deep dish
pizza included nuts, sun-flower seeds,
protein powder and wheat germ.
2. Paul Anderson set a Heavyweight
World record in the tractor lift at the
Macon County Fair in 1953. Anderson had
a bit of an off day, but still managed
to press a John Deere tractor overhead
for six reps.
3. Bob Hoffman almost missed the 1948
Olympic Games (where he coached the
USA weightlifting team to victory)
because he took time off to go to
Warsaw, Poland to compete in the
World Polka Championships. Hoffman
managed a credible fifth place
against a field of international
Polka stars.
4. World Weightlifting Champion John
Davis doubled as a pro-wrestler when
he needed extra cash to travel to
lifting meets. Due to his great strength
and power, Davis wrestled as a one-man
tag-team, and did amazingly well, with
a six-year unbeaten streak from 1946
through 1952.
5. At the 1936 Olympic Games, John Grimek
represented the USA in weightlifting team.
But Grimek also represented the USA in
the the men's 100 yard freestyle in
swimming, when he filled in for an
ailing Johnny Weissmiller. Grimek might
have won the race, but he insisted on
wearing street shoes in the pool and
finished in fourth place.
6. A recent study rates New York cheesecake
as the healthiest of all foods. It's rating
is even higher when topped with fresh berries.
7. Another recent study has determined that
Dino style strength training is better for
you than chess, checkers and shuffleboard,
but burns less calories than tai chi and
table tennis. Curiously, the lead researcher
is a former table tennis champion.
8. Steve Stanko won the 1954 North American
Horse Shoe Throwing Championship with an epic
heave of 473 feet, 5 inches. Stanko modestly
credited his success in the event to barbell
training, clean living, and practice throws
with a small cannonball pilfered from the
war memorial in the York town square.
9. When Mr. America and Mr. Universe winner
Steve Reeves played Hercules in the movies,
he insisted on doing all of his own stunts,
including a scene in "Hercules Saves the
World" where he wrestled a 1200 pound
Kodiak grizzly. Moments after Reeves pinned
the grizzly, the massive beast body-slammed
the physique star, knocking him unconscious
for several minutes. Referee Cecille B.
DeMille disqualified the bear and barred
him from future films.
10. Although he set a World Record in the
lift that has never been matched even to
this day, Arthur Saxon disliked the bent
press and would only agree to perform it
in his strongman show if his contract
provided for three large slices of German
Chocolate Cake for lunch and dinner. Saxon
and his brothers ate so much chocolate
cake in the Fall of 1907 that they caused
the virtual collapse of the chocolate
industry as supplies dwindled to almost
nothing.
There you go -- 10 little known facts from
Iron Game History! Brought to you straight
from Dino Headquarters on this grand and
glorious April 1!
Oops . . . I just gave it away, didn't I?
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. Start the new month by grabbing a copy
of this little monster:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_armtraining.html
P.S. 2. My other books and courses are right
here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "A smile adds more
weight to the bar than a frown." -- Brooks Kubik
