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| A classic photo of old-time wrestling and weightlifting champion, George Hackenschmidt. He's thick and massive from head to toe - but take a close second look at the thickness of his neck. Almost all of the old-timers specialized in neck training - and it shows! |
Hail to the Dinosaurs!
Did you know that many of the old-time
strongmen and weightlifting champions
were also wrestlers?
And that many weightlifting gyms were
also wrestling gyms - and vice-versa?
It's true.
At least, it was true back in Europe.
Not so much in the USA, simply because
there wasn't much weightlifting in the
USA back then.
Back in the day - the 1860's or 1870's
through World War I (or perhaps even
into the 1920's), most of the top strong-
men and weightlifters in Europe also did
plenty of wrestling.
George Hackenschmidt, the famous
"Russian Lion," was both a weightlifting
champion and record holder and a great
wrestling champion.
George Lurich set a world record in the
one-hand jerk - and also won plenty of
wrestling titles.
George F. Jowett was a famous lifter and
strongman - but he also doubled as a
wrestling champion.
Arthur Saxon was one of the most famous
strongmen of the era - but he also did
plenty of wrestling.
The list goes on and on. It includes all or
substantially all of the old-time European
strongmen and weightlifters.
In Europe, the strongmen traveled from
city to city, engaging in hugely popular
weightlifting contests. Back in those days,
weightlifting contests were a popular thing
to see, and people paid good money to
watch an afternoon of top notch lifting.
And people also paid good money to see
top notch wrestling.
So the promoters got smart, and paid
what it took to bring the strongmen to
town - but then doubled their ticket
sales but hosting TWO events with the
same men - a lifting event, and a
separate wrestling event.
One of the results of this was that all old-
time strongmen had truly excellent neck
development.
That's because wrestling builds the neck
muscles - and because wrestlers do plenty
of bridging - and because the old-school,
stand on your feat weightlifting that these
men did was great for building the traps
(which is a necessary part of effective
neck training).
Later, wrestlers and weightlifters drifted
apart.
In the 1940's, Henry Wittenberg, one of
the best amateur wrestlers in the USA, had
to do his weight training in secret so his
coach wouldn't find out about it. (It worked,
too, because Wittenberg won an Olympic
gold medal in 1948 and a silver medal in
1952.)
And when bodybuilding became the big
thing on the weight training side of things,
some men actually stopped training their
neck at all - because they thought it would
make their arms and shoulders look bigger!
Anyhow, I happen to think that the old-
school way of doing things was the best.
Nothing beats a combination of all-around
strength training PLUS specialized neck
training.
It builds a strong, thick, massive, and
impressive neck - one that tells the entire
at the very first glance that YOU are a man
to be reckoned with!
That's the kind of development you want.
A strong, thick, powerful neck - just like
all of the old-timer champions.
To help you do that, I've included an all
new, complete neck training course in
the November issue of The Dinosaur
Files newsletter.
You can find it right here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_files.html
Go ahead and grab it today - and start
the neck course tonight - and build the
very biggest, thickest and most powerful
neck possible.
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. The November Dino Files is available
in a PDF edition with immediate electronic
delivery.
The PDF is printable, so if you prefer a
hard-copy, order the PDF and print it --
and you'll have an instant hard-copy to
save in your collection.
If you don't have a printer, send me
an email and we'll see what we can do
for you.
Also, if you prefer to subscribe to The
Dino Files rather than order each issue
as it becomes available, shoot me an
email and we'll work up a special
subscription package for you.
