The long lost grandfather of strength - Arthur Saxon
Born Arthur Hennig, in 1878 in Germany, Arthur was one of the strongest men to ever live. The history of weight lifting is a fascinating one, and performers once filled theatres with spectators wanting to witness their feats of strength. The modern day equivalent would be The World's Strongest Man competitions.
Arthur Hennig became Arthur Saxon when he started performing under his stage name with two other men, called 'The Saxon Trio', because they were born in the Saxony region of Germany. By the age of 19 he was considered one of the strongest men in the world and was regularly packing out theatres all around Europe.
In 1898, during a performance in London, he challenged anyone in the audience to try and outlift him. Little did he know that the famous strongman Eugen Sandow was in the audience that night, who took up the challenge! The challenge was to perform what was known as the 'Bent Press' or what I often hear called 'the Saxon Press' (see below photo).
Eye witness accounts tell us that Arthur Saxon managed to lift the weight on his second attempt. Eugen Sandow took five attempts and on the fifth attempt he 'completed' the lift, though many people in the audience claim that he did not have the weight fully extended. Arthur could perform this Bent Press with 168kg, a world record that has still not been broken to this day.
I have one of his two books, written in 1910, called The Text Book of Weightlifting. I'll leave you with a paraphrased quote from the opening of the book, because I think it's very powerful.
"To my mind, every man should devote at least some small attention to Weight-lifting. I don't think that I have come to this conclusion simply because I myself have gained some distinction as a weight-lifter, but rather for the reasons set forth below.
First of all, why does a man learn to box? Well, because it is asserted that every man should learn to defend himself in case of necessity. A good and sufficient reason.
Now, beside that, every man in every walk of life is certain, sooner or later, to be confronted with a heavy object, bulky or otherwise, which he strongly desires to lift. This may occur both in his business and in his private life, and I am willing to bet that each and every man on such occasion entertains a certain amount of regret for the wasted hours which he might have advantageously devoted to pratice with weights"
A man like Arthur Saxon is fascinating because he was one of the first people to use weights to develop his body. He is a fore-runner, a god-father, of modern fitness. For that, I admire him and thank him. Sadly, Arthur died young in 1921 from Teburculosis but his legacy lives on in everyone who ever lifts a weight.
A slightly different post from me today! I hope you enjoyed,
