Amazing Samson. Gymnastics from the strongest man in the world

A person's possession of remarkable strength has always attracted the attention of society. General admiration for the physical capabilities of individual unique individuals has not diminished in intensity throughout the entire history of human existence.

Those who have seen with their own eyes the manifestations of the developed abilities of strongmen do not remain indifferent. And everyone asks the question: How is this possible for an ordinary person?

The life story of a magnificent athlete, ways of developing the strength and strong-willed character of Alexander Zass, will reveal the secrets of the amazing abilities of this amazing person.

Short biography. The birth of the power of Iron Samson

Little Sasha was born on February 23, 1888, in the family of a simple peasant. He was the third child in a family of seven people: father Ivan Petrovich, mother Ekaterina Emelyanovna and two more brothers and two sisters Alexander. They lived in the Vilna province of the Russian Empire, on a small farm without a name.

Childhood, youth and circus

Soon after Sasha's birth, the whole family moved to Tula, and then to Saransk, since Ivan Petrovich received the position of clerk. The landowners' estates, which were managed by his father, were located between Saransk and Penza.

The management of bank accounts and household management was completely taken over by the purposeful and strong-willed Ekaterina Emelyanovna. The entire life of the Zassovs was arranged in such a way that each family member worked constantly, as hard as he could. From memories it is known that the family did not need, there was plenty of food and drink, but all this was obtained through hard, incessant work.

Alexander’s childhood was not full of interesting events, but his father had high hopes for his son: he trusted him with the transportation of large sums of money to be credited to a bank account and saw Sasha as a locomotive driver in the future. His father was ready to provide him with a good technical education, but the boy himself was not drawn to this profession.

The soul of the future athlete strived for bright, enchanting circus performances.

One day, after a successful transaction for selling horses at a fair, Ivan Petrovich went with his son to a performance of a traveling circus. The spectacle deeply shocked Sasha with its festive splendor. I especially liked the strongman who bent an iron rod around his neck and easily juggled heavy weights.

The incredible sharpness and intensity of the emotions received at the performance did not allow Sasha to fall asleep that evening. And then he committed a terrible crime - he ran away from the room at the inn where he and his dad spent the night and, at his own expense, watched the artists perform again.

After such disobedience, the father severely punished his son and then sent him to work as a shepherd in a remote village. The boy was 12 years old when he learned to manage large herds of horses, cows and camels, and also gained undeniable authority among six ferocious and capricious wolfhounds, who obeyed him well in his work.

Thoughts about the circus did not leave Alexander all this time. He learned to shoot well, protecting the herds from predators. mastered the basics of training, teaching horses circus tricks. All this was useful to him later.

Returning to Saransk, Sasha began studying the biographies of famous gymnasts, athletes and circus performers. His idol was Evgeniy Sandov, the most famous strongman of the 19th century.

The boy enthusiastically collects literature on the development of physical capabilities and body strength, studies the works of famous athletes, masters exercises using available materials: wood, stones, and carries a calf on his shoulders.

And although Sashenka was a weak, sickly child as a child, regular exercise brings significant benefits to the health and endurance of the body. he feels his muscles strengthen and his body’s strength capabilities expand.

When Alexander turned 20, his father sent him to Orenburg to study as an assistant driver. At the same time, the famous Andrzhievsky circus comes to the city on tour and, of course, the young man goes to the performance.

The boundless love for the circus, the skills acquired through regular training and the desire to realize his lifelong dream add courage to Alexander. And he turns to the director of the circus with a request to hire him. To his surprise, he receives approval with the explanation that for now he will only be hired as a laborer and his life will be very difficult. But the future artist, hardened by difficulties, is not afraid of obstacles on the way to his dream and goes to work in the circus.

Strength records

1. Alexander Zass
2. Bruce Lee
3. Milo
4. Albion athletes
5. Russian bogatyrs
6. How the steel rose
7. Unbeatable records
8. Exotic feminization
9. Pyramid of Dikul
10. Krasnoyarsk Hercules
11. Masutasu Oyama

Alexander Zass (Iron Samson)

This happened in 1938 in the English city of Sheffield. In front of the crowd, a truck loaded with coal ran over a man sprawled on the cobblestone street. People screamed in horror. But the next second there was a cry of delight: “Glory to the Russian Samson!” . And the man to whom the storm of jubilation was felt, stood up from under the wheels as if nothing had happened, bowed to the audience with a smile. Alexander Zass , who performed under the pseudonym Samson , has not left the circus posters of many countries . His repertoire of power routines was amazing:

• he carried a horse or a piano around the arena with a pianist and dancer located on the lid;
• caught with his hands a 9-kilogram cannonball flying out of a circus cannon from an eight-meter distance;
• he tore a metal beam with assistants sitting at its ends from the floor and held it in his teeth;
• having threaded the shin of one leg into the loop of a rope fixed under the dome, he held a platform with a piano and a pianist in his teeth;
• lying with his bare back on a board studded with nails, he held a stone weighing 500 kilograms on his chest, which was hit by those from the public with sledgehammers;
• in the famous attraction “Projectile Man” he caught with his hands an assistant flying out of a circus cannon and describing a 12-meter trajectory above the arena;
• he broke the links of chains with his fingers;
• He hammered nails into 3-inch boards with his unprotected palm, and then pulled them out, grasping the head with his index finger.

Alexander Zass's performances were triumphant. This is explained not only by the original athletic numbers, most of which could not be repeated by any athlete, but also by the fact that he was not like many strongmen of that time, who had massive figures and great weight. His height is 167.5 cm , weight is 80 kg , chest circumference is 119 centimeters , biceps are 41 centimeters each . He liked to say that big biceps are not always an indicator of strength. Just like a big belly does not mean good digestion . The main thing is willpower , strong tendons and the ability to control your muscles . Very often Samson had to answer the question of how he achieved such power. He replied that this was the result of purposeful work, enormous tension of all spiritual and physical forces. If you trace the entire life path of Alexander Zass , you can see that it consisted of constant training and a strict regime. In one photograph, where Samson is captured sitting at a table near a samovar, there is his note: “5 minutes of rest,” but he was then 74 years old, and he continued to work, although not in the strength genre, but as a trainer, but often included in their performances are power tricks. So, at the age of seventy, he carried two lions around the arena on a special yoke! Of course, Alexander Zass had enormous natural strength, which is what distinguished his ancestors in general. Once in his native Saransk he visited the circus with his father. The boy especially liked the mighty strongman who broke chains and bent horseshoes. At the end of his performance, the artist, as was customary at that time, addressed the audience, inviting them to repeat his tricks. Alas, no one was able to bend a horseshoe or lift a ball barbell with a thick bar off the ground. And suddenly Alexander’s , Ivan Petrovich Zass , rose from his seat and entered the arena. Alexander knew that his father was very strong. Sometimes he demonstrated his strength to the guests. And so the strong man handed the horseshoe to his father. To the surprise of the public, the horseshoe in the hands of Zass Sr. began to unbend. Then Ivan Petrovich tore the huge barbell off the platform and, straightening his torso, raised it above his knees. The audience applauded like crazy. The circus strongman was embarrassed. He called the uniformist over to him. He ran backstage and brought a silver ruble. The artist raised his hand with a ruble and said: “But this is for your feat and for a drink!” The father took the ruble, then rummaged in his pocket, pulled out a three-ruble ruble, and handed it to the athlete along with the ruble, saying: “I don’t drink! But take it, but drink only tea!” Since then, his son lived only in the circus. In the backyard of the house, with the help of adults, I installed two horizontal bars, hung trapeze bars, got hold of household weights, made a primitive barbell, and began to train with incredible persistence. I tried to repeat what I saw. Having mastered the “sun” (large rotation) on the horizontal bar, he began to fly from one bar to another, doing backflips not only on the floor, but also on a horse. I did one-arm pull-ups several times. But all these activities were unsystematic. He convinced his father to order books on physical development from Moscow. And soon a book by the then famous athlete Evgeniy Sandov, “Strength and How to Become Strong,” arrived. The author talked about his athletic career, about victories over famous athletes, and even about fighting a huge lion, which before the fight was given a muzzle and special huge mittens on its paws. Sandow several times , but he threw him off each time. Then came eighteen exercises with dumbbells, that is, what was especially necessary for Alexander . And he began to study according to the Sandov system - his idol. But he soon realized that exercises with dumbbells alone could not develop the strength that a professional strongman needs. He turns for help to the famous athletes Pyotr Krylov and Dmitriev-Morro, who did not ignore the young man’s request, and soon Zass received methodological recommendations from these athletes. Krylov recommended exercises with weights, and Dmitriev - with a barbell. He squeezed two-pound weights simultaneously and alternately (“mill”), pressed them upside down, and juggled. With the barbell I performed mainly bench presses, clean and jerks, and overhead presses. With his own weight of 66 kg, young Zass twisted (press with torso deviation) with his right hand 80 kg. But most of all he was attracted by the power tricks that he saw in the circus. And he visited the circus constantly. His sports props began to be replenished with horseshoes, chains, metal rods, and nails. And then he realized that repeated attempts to perform a trick - breaking a chain or bending a thick metal rod - bring tangible results in the development of physical strength. In essence, these were the now widely known isometric exercises. Thus, purely empirically (based on experience), Alexander Zass came to the conclusion that athletic strength can be developed by combining dynamic exercises with isometric ones in training. He later published his isometric system, and the pamphlet created a sensation. Once in the circus, Zass at one time worked as an assistant to the legendary trainer Anatoly Durov, then as an athlete Mikhail Kuchkin, and he often told his assistant: “Someday, Sasha, you will become a famous strongman, I have never seen anyone who was so strong , like you, having such a small height and weight.” In general, Zass worked in the circus for about sixty years and almost forty of them with athletic acts.

In 1914, world war broke out. Alexander Zass was drafted into the 180th Vindavsky Cavalry Regiment. One day an incident occurred that amazed even those who were well aware of Alexander’s . One day he was returning from another reconnaissance mission, and suddenly, already close to the Russian positions, they noticed him and opened fire. The bullet shot through the horse's leg. The Austrian soldiers, seeing that the horse and rider had fallen, did not pursue the cavalryman and turned back. Zass , making sure that the danger had passed, did not want to leave the wounded horse. There was still half a kilometer left to his regiment, but this did not bother him. Having shouldered the horse, Zass brought it to his camp. Time will pass, he will remember this episode and will include carrying a horse on his shoulders in his repertoire. In one of the battles, Zass was seriously wounded by shrapnel in both legs. He was captured, and the Austrian surgeon began amputation. But Zass begged not to do this. He believed in his powerful body and the therapeutic gymnastics that he developed for himself. And he recovered! Soon he, along with other prisoners, was sent to heavy road work. He made several unsuccessful escapes, after which he was severely punished. The third escape was remarkable. Having escaped from the camp, Alexander found himself in the city of Kaposvár in southern Hungary, where the Schmidt Circus, known throughout Europe, was on tour. Presenting himself before the owner of the circus, Zass openly told him about his misfortune, as well as about his work in Russian circuses. Immediately the director suggested that he break the chain and bend a thick metal rod. Of course, hungry and tired, Zass was not in good athletic shape, but through an effort of will he coped with the task. He was taken to the circus, and soon the news of the amazing athlete spread throughout the city. But one day the military commandant came to his performance. He became interested in why such a strong young athlete was not serving in the Austrian army. That same evening it turned out that Samson was a Russian prisoner of war. He was taken to the basement of the fortress, into a damp, dark room. But his strength and will were not broken. He made a new escape by breaking the chain connecting the handcuffs and breaking down the bars. Now he gets to Budapest, where he gets a job as a loader at the port, and then at the circus arena. The wrestler, world champion Chaya Janos , whom Alexander met back in Russia, helped him. Zass with sympathy . He took him to the village to his relatives, where Alexander’s gradually recovered. He then competed for three years in a wrestling troupe led by Chai Janos , alternating mat wrestling with athletic performances.

One day, Janos introduced the Russian strongman to the famous Italian impresario Signor Pasolini Zass's athletic capabilities . The Italian offered to conclude a contract. Zass's European tour begins , his fame grows. Finally, he comes to England, where his performances generally aroused fantastic interest. Famous athletes such as Edward Aston, Thomas Inch, Pullum began to try their hand at repeating Zass' , but not a single attempt was successful. Mr Pullum, director of the famous Camberwell Weightlifting Club and editor-in-chief of the sports magazine Health and Strength, wrote of him: “A man has arrived straight into the heart of England, capable of performing feats that common sense refuses to believe. If he had been a huge fellow, his performances might have been perceived as believable. But pay attention at least to the chest excursion (the difference between inhalation and exhalation) of this short man. It is equal to 23 centimeters, which says a lot to specialists. Therefore, I say that he not only has unprecedented physical strength, not only a magnificent artist, but also a man who uses his mind as well as his muscles.” And here is what the poster of the famous Alhambra hall, where Alexander Zass : “In Manchester, during construction work, Samson, suspended with one leg from a crane, lifted a metal beam from the ground with his teeth, and was carried to the top of the building by a crane, in while the crowd stood below with their mouths open. If the Russian had opened his mouth, the crowd would never have been able to tell what they saw.” Posters and newspapers did not lag behind. Daily Telegraph: “ Mr Samson is certainly the strongest man on earth. You can believe this when you see how easily he ties iron rods into knots.”

Manchester Guardian: "According to the advertisements, he is the strongest man on Earth, and after we have seen him for ourselves ... this statement can be considered irrefutable."

Health and Strength Magazine: “In Samson we have a strongman whose achievements are completely open to scrutiny. Truly, his muscles are made of steel."

At the end of his life, Alexander Zass invented a hand dynamometer, designed and manufactured a circus cannon for the “Projectile Man” attraction . Samson died in 1962. He was buried near London, in the small town of Hockley.

Bruce Lee

In addition to the fact that he fought well, he pinned the US 110kg champion Van Williams . The result of such targeted training was the forearms. Powerful, amazing strength. They felt as hard as a baseball bat. Van Williams spoke . One day Bruce offered to fight him. I sat down at the table with the idea of ​​playing along with him as a friend. I was 112 kg then. How could I compete with Bruce seriously! However, it turned out that I did not have enough strength to overcome the resistance of his hand! Moreover, I could not move his hand even a millimeter. In a conversation with Herb Jackson, Lee jokingly said that he could become the World Arm Wrestling Champion. about Bruce Lee , but with a weight of 65 kg, he picked up 2 dumbbells of 37 kg each and held them on outstretched arms for 20 seconds.

Milo

The famous Hellenic athlete Milo from the city of Croton lived in the 6th century BC. He was unbeatable in strength training and wrestling for twenty years, winning the overall winner's crown at the Olympic Games six times. He developed phenomenal strength, which became proverbial, almost according to modern principles of training: duration, continuity, gradual increase in load. Milo first lifted the bull on his shoulders when he was a calf, and subsequently carried him around the stadium arena every day. As the bull grew, so did Milo's strength . The end of the attraction is for the needs of the ancient public. Having lowered the bull to the ground, the athlete killed him with a punch between the eyes. Milo stood on a disk greased with lard or oil, and none of the spectators could push him off this slippery pedestal. A stone weighing 136 kilograms was thrown six meters. He put six people in a chariot, lifted it on his head and carried it around the arena. But he saved the most amazing of his tricks for last. Milo squeezed a ripe pomegranate in his palm and invited those who wanted to take it out. No one succeeded. The athlete unclenched his hand - the pomegranate was completely intact and not even dented: to such an extent, by tensing the muscles of his fingers, he was able to simultaneously relax the muscles of his palm. During the war between his native Croton and the city of Sybaris, Milo was elected commander. Like Hercules, the famous hero, dressed in a lion's skin, fought with a huge club in his hands, replacing an entire squad. The death of the strongman was tragic. Having gone into the forest to get firewood for his old mother, he hammered wedges into the crack of a thick trunk and tried to tear it in two with his hands. But the released wedges fell to the ground, and the tree pinched the fingers. Milo did not take into account that with age, even champions lose strength. He was unable to free his hands and found himself chained to the trunk. Helpless, hungry and exhausted, the famous athlete was torn to pieces by wild animals. Milo of Croton died , to whom a marble monument was erected and whose name was included six times in the lists of winners of ancient Olympia. Milon of Croton wrote the scientific treatise “Physics” and became famous as a singer - throughout his life he confirmed the ideal of harmony of body and soul. This ideal was put forward by Pythagoras, known to us from school, an Olympic champion and an excellent fist fighter. The father of medicine, the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, had phenomenal physical strength and stood out among the Hellenic wrestlers and horsemen. The winners of the highest awards for sporting valor were the famous philosophers Plato and Socrates, and the tragic poets Sophocles and Euripides. Many of the most prominent philosophers and poets, statesmen and generals of Ancient Greece (remember, for example, Pindar and Alcinades) were outstanding athletes and winners of Olympic competitions. The combination of greatness of strength and nobility of spirit was demonstrated by the ancient Greek hero Polydamus of Thessaly. He was relaxing with friends in a cave when the earthquake began. Polydamus supported the vault until his companions left the cave, but he himself was covered with stones. It is known about this athlete that he killed a lion with his bare hands, which in ancient times was considered something of a standard for the title of master of sports.

Albion athletes

Cornish farmer Payne had a son, Anthony . Already as a child, he was distinguished by his extraordinary strength: he could put one of his peers on each arm and run up a steep hill with them. Being a huntsman, he went to hurry the servant, who was supposed to bring firewood on a donkey. He shouldered the donkey, the firewood, and the servant - and brought it all home. As you remember, a test of strength in ancient times was an exercise with a lion, and in the Middle Ages it was replaced with a harmless donkey. What degradation! Strength was not the privilege of only tall people. Owen Farrell, 113 centimeters tall , toured Ireland . He danced with two adults under his arm. And he walked freely, carrying four people. Thomas Topham , born in London in 1710, enjoyed great fame His tricks were amazing. On May 20, 1731 (this number shocked the audience so much that even the exact date of its performance was preserved) at a performance in Derby Topham lifted three barrels of water with a total weight of 863 kilograms on a belt thrown over his shoulders and neck.

Russian bogatyrs

The strength of heroes in Rus' is traditionally combined with selfless courage. During the battle in 1240, when our army under the command of Alexander Nevsky victoriously repelled the Swedes, the Novgorod warriors showed courage and extraordinary strength. Gavrilo Oleksich , Sbyslav Yakunovich and Yakov Polovchanin , who went down in history, especially distinguished themselves . Working magnificently with battle axes and swords, they crashed into the thick of the enemies and paved the way for the entire army. Interest in people of outstanding stature and heroic strength was persistent. Peter I issued personalized decrees, according to which heroes were wanted throughout Rus'. This is understandable - courageous people who reliably held weapons in powerful hands were always needed by the Fatherland. Orlovsky , a man of enormous stature and phenomenal strength, lived in St. Petersburg He could juggle a two-handed sword while holding it with three fingers. Having gone to someone's home and not finding the owner, Orlovsky would leave a poker tied in a knot as a sign of his visit. This is what they wrote about the captain of the frigate “Raphael” Vasily Lukin , who died in the Battle of Athos during the war between Russia and Turkey: “His strength was amazing, but it was difficult to force Lukin to use it - only in a cheerful hour among friends. He easily broke horseshoes, could hold pound cannonballs in his outstretched hands for half an hour, press a nail into a ship wall with one finger; could fold a massive silver plate into a pipe so that it was impossible to determine what it was originally. Once, defending his sailors from drunken, riotous English sailors, Lukin killed a dozen brawlers on the spot, and the rest shamefully retreated from the scene of the massacre.” In the second half of the 19th century, wrestling of a purely forceful nature gained popularity. Poddubny , Zaikin , Shemyakin , Gakkenshmidt , Kashcheev had gigantic strength . Everyone knew the leading athletes, young and old. The pages of magazines were full of photographs of strongmen, their portraits were exhibited in store windows, and products were advertised with their names. In those years, there was still no orderly assessment of strength, and athletes came up with various feats such as bending a poker, lifting stones, and horses. They tore chains in front of the audience, tore apart a folded deck of cards with their fingers, weaved patterns from nails...

How the steel rose

It was difficult to say who was stronger until an objective opportunity for an answer appeared - the barbell. A standard projectile, lifted according to strictly defined rules. And here the heroes of our Motherland proved that they are fully worthy of their mighty ancestors: domestic weightlifters are, without a doubt, the strongest in the world. The largest number of records in weightlifting was set by the Soviet athlete Vasily Alekseev - 80 world records. He was the first to lift 600 kilograms in triathlon. Olympic champion Yuri Vlasov set 28 world records . Other Russian heroes performed in the international arena to match them - A. Voronin , N. Kolesnikov , Yu. Vardanyan , D. Riegert , L. Zhabotinsky , Yu. Zaitsev and many others. So we can rightfully say: our athletes today are the strongest people on the planet.

Unsurpassed records

As the crowd watched, a truck loaded with coal ran over a man sprawled on the cobblestones. This trick was demonstrated by Alexander Zass (Samson) . With his own weight of no more than 80 kg, he carried a horse weighing up to 400 kg on his shoulders. He lifted an iron beam with his teeth, at the ends of which two assistants sat, the total weight was 265 kg. For fun, he could lift a taxi and drive it like a wheelbarrow, break horseshoes and break chains. He lifted 20 people on the platform. Grigory Kashcheev walked around the circus arena, shouldering 12 two-pound weights (384 kg), and once lifted a forty-pound (640 kg) beam. Pyotr Krylov , the King of Kettlebells, pressed 114.6 kg with his left hand and bent rails on his shoulders. He set several world records in weightlifting: bench press on a wrestling bridge - 134 kg, bench press with a two-pound weight with his left hand - 86 times, spread his straight arms to the sides, holding a weight weighing 41 kg in each. Yakub Chekhovskaya demonstrated a sensational strength trick in 1913 - he carried six soldiers of the Guards regiment (at least 400 kg) around the arena at arm's length, for which he was awarded an honorary gold belt. This record number has not yet been repeated by any athlete in the world. World champion in French wrestling Nikolai Vakhturov threw a two-pound weight over a railway carriage, and world champion in wrestling Ivan Zaikin lifted a 40-bucket barrel of water onto his back and carried it around the arena. Athlete Hermann Gerner , holding 50 kg in each hand, ran 100 meters in 18.4 seconds. Athlete Ludwig Chaplinsky , as a joke, jumped over the dining table (80 cm high and wide) with a ram in his hands, and athlete Pyotr Yankovsky, as a bet, squeezed three-pound weights into his palm while sitting on the floor. Georg Hackenschmidt lifted an iron core weighing over 585 kg twice in a row, lifting it from the platform by 10 centimeters. The greatest weight ever lifted by a person is 2844 kilograms. He was held on the shoulders of American weightlifter Paul Anderson . The great Leonardo da Vinci , of course, is familiar to each of us. But few people know that, possessing enormous strength, he swung with one hand such church bells that only four people could swing at the same time.

Exotic feminization

Lidiya Rybakova (her weight is 68 kg) lifted a barbell weighing 900 kg from the ground. At the age of 33, on March 4, 1990, she started off and dragged a LAZ bus with 48 passengers in the cabin with a total weight of 10 tons 850 kilograms along the asphalt.

In December 1991, 20-year-old Svetlana Gavrilina Before her record, Svetlana studied... ballet for seven years. Her height is 164 cm, weight is 56 kilograms. Now she confidently lifts 500 kg on her belt, as well as a bar attached to her belt, on which 7 adult men are sitting. On April 15, 1895, American Josephine Blatt (1869-1923) held a load of 1,616 kilograms slung over her shoulders. This women's weight lifting record has not been broken to this day.

Pyramid of Dikul

Valentin Ivanovich Dikul (born in 1947) is an outstanding athlete of our time. He performed two unique strength acts in the circus arena: holding a metal “pyramid” weighing a ton on his body, and holding a Volga car on his back (the load was 1570 kilograms). The uniqueness of these numbers is also in the fact that the athlete performed them after a serious spinal injury - he could not move for almost seven years and, with the help of exercise equipment of his own design, managed to restore his previous form. Now V.I. Dikul heads the Center for Rehabilitation of Patients with Spinal Injury and Consequences of Cerebral Palsy.

Krasnoyarsk Hercules

Klementy Bul was born in 1888 in Achinsk;
Soon the family moved to Krasnoyarsk. In 1911, for the first time he had the opportunity to participate in an international classical wrestling tournament held in St. Petersburg. The tournament brought together the best European wrestlers: the great Grigory Kashcheev, the Dutchman Van Riel, the Volga hero Nikolai Vakhturov. The high-profile titles did not bother the Siberian; in 16 fights he emerged victorious and won the title of champion. Buhl has established himself as an unsurpassed master of wrestling techniques. Being a heavyweight, he acted with extraordinary ease; his style was even compared to acrobatics. Boul met with the best carpet masters of that time - Poddubny , Shemyakin , Zaikin , Lurikh . In the final of the match, which took place in the arena of the Kursk circus in October 1928, he fought with Ivan Poddubny himself. Within an hour, Buhl was able to withstand the six-time world champion and won a well-deserved victory. Subsequently, Klementy Bul did not know defeat in the championships in classical wrestling, and in the mid-30s he switched to coaching. In the Dynamo society, he trained dozens of first-class wrestlers, including European champion Konstantin Koberidze .

Klementy Iosifovich Bul died in 1953, at the age of 66.

Masutasu Oyama

This man, 1000 photos, trained 12 hours a day, lived in the mountains for 3 years, fought 270 fights without a single defeat, a fight with him rarely lasted more than three rounds (it’s good that they fought with gloves), and usually lasted no more than 10 seconds . In live combat, he killed a person with one blow; if the person blocked, the limb would break. Demonstrating the capabilities of a person, Oyama fearlessly went into battle with a bull and cut off the horns of the enraged animal with a blow of his hand. He took part in fights with the strongest wrestlers and boxers of that time, and always emerged victorious. For his incredible strength and talent, admiring Americans dubbed Oyama “the hand of God.” Then they looked at him as a miracle, something supernatural. It took years for the secret of the great master to be revealed to all of us - any person who practices Kyokushin karate . All you need is desire and perseverance in achieving your goal. During his life, he killed 52 bulls, 3 of them died on the first blow.

In 1957 in Mexico, at the age of 34, he was on the verge of death when a bull gored Oyama . Oyama managed to knock down the bull and cut off its horn. He was bedridden for 6 months recovering from a usually fatal wound. The Humane Society of Japan protested Oyama's fighting with animals after Oyama announced his intention to fight with a tiger and a bear, although the bulls killed by Oyama were intended for slaughter. Here is a list of exercises that Oyama performed every day:

During a period of short but fruitful asceticism in the mountains, Oyama lived according to a strictly developed regime, which often appears in biographies of the master and serves as an edification to frivolous students:

• 4 o'clock in the morning - rise. Meditation with closed eyes - 10 min. Running in the mountains - 2 hours.
• 7 am - cooking.
• 8 a.m. - meal, combining breakfast and lunch.
• 9 a.m. – start of training. Perform a set of five exercises ten times:
  1. lift a sixty-kilogram barbell 20 times;

  do push-ups on your fingers 20 times;

• do 20 handstand push-ups;
• do pull-ups on the bar 20 times;
• deliver 20 punches from the right and left to the makiwara.

After completing each complex, do breathing exercises and immediately begin the next complex. After completing this complex ten times, rest for up to 11 hours.

• 11 a.m. - performing kata.
• 2 pm weight lifting. Lift a sixty-kilogram barbell 20 times, then gradually increase the load.
• Do 1000 push-ups: 200 times on two fingers, 200 times on four fingers, 400 times on five fingers. Before each complex, take a short break. Sometimes, for variety, do 1000 push-ups with fists, with a break after 500.

In addition to this eloquent document, we note that many kempo devotees and enthusiasts adhered to such a daily routine not for a year or two, but for twenty, thirty years or their entire lives.

In 1952, Oyama went on tour across the United States, where he created a sensation and completely dismayed the public by demonstrating superhuman performances. In fact, how should American spectators react when a visiting master pounded huge cobblestones like porcelain, tore off the necks of beer bottles without the bottles falling off, beat himself on the knuckles with a hammer, punched thick boards with his hands and feet, (about 30 cm) tiles laid in fifteen to twenty layers and three or four bricks lying on top of each other? Oyama traveled throughout the United States for a year, demonstrating his karate skills live and on national television. For his students, Oyama developed a whole cascade of breathtaking tricks that embody the highest achievements of karate on a physical level:

• punching a sheet of thin rice paper suspended on two threads with blows of the fist and fingers;
• splitting a board (or brick) suspended on a rope with blows of the fist, elbow, edge of the palm, edge of the foot and forefoot from a standing position on the ground or while jumping;
• splitting several inch boards in the hands of two assistants with all possible blows of the hands and feet, including jumping at a height of about two meters;
• splitting a one-inch board floating in a barrel of water;
• splitting up to twenty layers of tiles with hands, feet and head;
• splitting three bricks laid on top of each other with a “hand-sword” or “iron hammer” blow;
• splitting with a sword-hand blow three ice slabs, each three inches thick, stacked one above the other at intervals;
• breaking through an ice block with your hand and head;
• splitting massive cobblestones with the base of the edge of the palm;
• cutting off the neck of a standing bottle;
• penetration with a “hand-spear” blow into a tightly tied bundle of bamboo rods;
• piercing a suspended cow carcass with a hand-spear blow.

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At the new place, Sasha does the hardest “menial” work. He meets and begins to help the athlete Kuratkin prepare for power routines. With his determination and perseverance, Zass earned the sympathy of the strongman and he teaches the young man the wisdom of circus performances.

Thanks to self-training and competent mentoring, the young man begins to perform in the arena within a few months.

In the future, Alexander Zass will perform in the Yupatov and Khoitsev circus, constantly improving his athletic abilities.

War, captivity and escapes

The outbreak of the First World War suspended the development of the career of the great strongman. And, after mobilization, Alexander Ivanovich Zass was enlisted in an infantry regiment, and then in reconnaissance, where he made mounted raids behind enemy lines.

He turned out to be a skilled and fearless warrior, his developed fighting qualities and skills ensured a quick promotion, and his brave deeds were legendary.

Thus, the story of how Alexander brought a wounded horse back to his regiment was very popular.

But we didn’t have to fight for long. In the battle, the athlete was seriously wounded and captured. Doctors wanted to amputate both of his legs, but the indecisiveness of the doctors and regular passive exercises from the personal system made such an operation completely unnecessary.

The prisoner, thanks to incessant training, left to his own devices, learned to walk again. After some time, he not only walked on crutches, but also helped care for other patients.

Four escapes from captivity speak of the great perseverance and fortitude of the Russian hero. Each time, overcoming any obstacles, Alexander found himself free and tried to get to his people. Three times he was caught, and, after severe punishment, he was returned to hard work or imprisonment. And only on the fourth time, we managed to break free completely.

Life in Europe and circus acts

Having suffered in the war and in captivity, Alexander Ivanovich decided that there was no place for a soldier of the tsarist army in Soviet Russia and remained in Europe. In the early 20s of the last century, the athlete took the pseudonym Samson, under which he performed in the Schmidt Circus. With his unique abilities he won worldwide fame and enormous popularity among the European public.

He performed briefly in Paris, then at 24 he received an invitation from Oswald Stoll, the head of British variety shows. Having moved to England, he settled there until the end of his life.

Throughout his life, Alexander Ivanovich Zass studied and analyzed the physical capabilities of the human body. He tested his knowledge in practice, proving by personal example the effectiveness of the exercise systems he used, and now we can apply his wealth of experience in improving our body.

Strength of mind

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Nowadays it has been proven that moral strength actually significantly increases a person’s energy. In particular, scientists from the American Sports Association experimentally established that the muscular abilities of a person under hypnosis, when he was told that he has incredible strength, are significantly higher than when doping is injected into the blood. The fact is that the force of muscle contraction depends on the power of the electrical impulse coming from the brain through the central nervous system. The more intense this impulse, the more calcium ions are released, affecting a person’s strength. Alexander Zass did not know all these scientific intricacies, but he believed that the concentration of mental strength increases physical strength. And he also believed that the “strength of spirit” in the Russian people is strong.

Training principles of Alexander Zass

The athlete started training very early. Little Shura used available means, such as a heavy barrel, stones, and wood. Trying to lift the barrel, he noticed how he was gradually becoming stronger in everyday life, although he had not yet been able to overcome the projectile. Thus, drawing conclusions during the training process, he derived his own principles for the development of strength indicators.

Focus on tendons

The first principle includes the development and strengthening of tendons, which, according to the master himself, are the second strongest tissue in the body, after bones.

Large muscles without a strong tendon base are not a guarantee of great physical strength.

I don't believe in big muscles unless there's real big tendon power next to them. You can see physical fitness enthusiasts who have quite large muscles. But what good are they if there is no powerful foundation - developed tendons. They are unable to fully utilize the strength of their muscles during an actual test of strength. And therefore their power is only an illusion.

Increasing tension, with an action that is obviously impossible, without including motor muscle contraction in the process, is the basis of isometric exercises.

Pushing a wall, trying to lift a truck, breaking a chain, etc. Such efforts best strengthen the tendon system of the body.

The importance of dynamic exercises

The second principle is to increase muscle size through the use of dynamic exercises.

An increase in muscle mass occurs due to monotonously repeated muscle contractions with a gradual increase in the mass of the projectiles used.

Alexander Ivanovich considered increasing muscle volume a priority in achieving a spectacular appearance, giving preference to the development of tendon strength.

Children's hobby

Alexander Ivanovich Zass was born in Vilnius . My love for the circus began with my first visit to the show. What shocked the boy the most was the performance with trained animals and the performances of the athletes. The event that happened at the end of the speech determined the path of life. When the circus performer invited those who wanted to unbend the horseshoe, Sasha’s father came on stage and repeated his act. The boy realized that he had potential, but it needed to be developed.

Alexander read many books about physical development, got acquainted with the training of Anokhin and Sandov. The latter’s book on body building became a sports bible for the teenager. He built a trapeze arena, stone weights, and began using dumbbells. I trained my agility with the help of a throwing board, grabbing a flying stone in the air. The sports corner was constantly improved by adding new equipment.

Alexander Zass training program

The training program, developed on the basis of personal experience, includes a set of isometric and dynamic exercises. In addition to using special exercises, the master noted the need for a healthy lifestyle without alcohol and nicotine.

Alternating exercise with rest, accompanied by high-calorie nutrition, daily jogging of 3 km, gymnastics.

But the athlete considered the development of tendon strength to be the basis of all success. And only after strengthening the tendons can you begin to improve the muscular system.

Glory

There was a lot of tragedy in Zass's life. He survived the First World War, was captured, broke his chains three times and escaped. The last time he was lucky, and Alexander made it to Hungary, where Schmidt’s circus was touring. He passed the strength test and became a member of the troupe. Here he met wrestler Chai Janos and signed a contract for a world tour. The press wrote:

“Zass is the only one in the world whose mind and body are in harmony. What he does, no one else will repeat.”

In total, Zass devoted 60 years to the circus. During this time he came up with a wrist dynamometer and a cannon for the “Man Projectile” attraction. Hard training did not prevent me from living in good health into old age. The strongman was buried near London in the town of Hockley.

Zass tendon exercises

They consist of two training sessions, developed on the basis of personal knowledge and practical experience of the master. It must be remembered that these exercises create the basis for the successful development of all physical abilities of the body and are dominant in the athlete’s system.

Basic rules for performing tendon exercises

• A positive attitude is required. All exercises are performed with pleasure, readiness for stress and concentration of the whole body.
• The whole body is subject to training. The main goal will be to create a force wave in the body, not lifting weights or breaking a chain.
• Calm, even breathing when tension increases.
• Smooth entry and exit from gain, without jerks or sudden movements.
• Full training no more than twice a week and no longer than an hour in duration. Gains for 5 repetitions would be correctly distributed as follows: 1. - 75%, 2. - 90%, 3. - 95%, 4. - 90%, 5. - 75%.
• The interval between exercises is 30-60 seconds.
• To maintain tone, select 5-8 exercises and do them daily, performing 1 - 3 efforts, with tension distribution: 60% - 90% - 75% for each exercise.
• Maintaining gradualism and consistency.
• Mandatory regularity of classes.
• Paying attention to your well-being.

First set of exercises

Second set of exercises

1. We bend and raise our arms with the chain in front of our chest. elbows at shoulder level. Stretch to the sides.
2. Bent arms behind head. We stretch the chain by changing the grip width.
3. Two chains with loops at both ends. By changing the length of the chains, we pull them straight up to the shoulders, at the level of the head and above it, alternately.
4. We pass the foot of the right foot into the lower loop, and hold the upper loop in our hand. Pull the chain by straightening your arm upward. We perform the exercise alternately and simultaneously.
5. We wrap the chain around the chest while inhaling and secure it. We try to inhale more, expanding the chest.
6. Legs wider than shoulders. Loop on the right foot, bent left arm at waist level, pull the chain. Repeat for the right hand.
7. We attach the chain to the wall at waist level, pull it with our hands, trying to pull it out of the fastening.
8. We attach one end of the chain to the floor, and on the other we attach a handle at knee level. pull, trying to tear the chain out of the fastening. Can be repeated at different grip levels.

Correct exercise test

Once a week you can conduct a small test, which will be an indicator of the progress of strength and its quality:

Keeping your arms down, try to stretch the towel using 95% effort. After finishing, listen to the sensations of your hands; if everything is in order with the muscles, then you can raise your hands first to the sides, then up.

An excellent result and evidence of progress will be the ability to stretch the towel for more than 90 seconds.

The inability to complete the test within 60 seconds indicates overexertion when performing basic exercises and indicates the need to reduce the load.

Zass's original set of exercises involves the use of chains. However, the chains can be replaced with any durable fabric. Below are two sets of isometric (static) and one set of dynamic exercises by Alexander Zass

Dynamic exercises

Despite the fact that Alexander Ivanovich placed the main emphasis on tendon exercises, over time he began to note the need for dynamic ones, which play a significant role in acquiring a spectacular appearance. After all, at the beginning of his career, he did not impress the public with his enormous, superbly developed muscles, which, however, did not prevent him from showing miracles of strength capabilities.

The exercises are presented with weights in the form of a special bag, the weight of which was increased by gradually replacing the filler with a heavier one. From 7 kg of sawdust he moved up in weight, gradually replacing them with sand, shot, and then lead so that the final weight reached 70 kg.

1. Feet shoulder-width apart, bag on the floor, slightly bending your legs, lift the weights to your chest in one motion. After a pause, press up above your head and fix the position, then return to your chest and to the floor. (10-15 times).

2. Feet shoulder-width apart, the bag in the palm of one hand near the shoulder, squeeze the weight up, fix the position and rotate the projectile using the wrist as the axis of rotation. Repeat for the other hand. Complication: with the bag raised at the highest point, we make alternating movements with our fingers, as if we are trying to lift the projectile even higher. We perform to the maximum possible repetitions.

3. Standing with your heels together and toes apart, hold the bag on your chest. We squat on our toes, simultaneously squeezing the bag up, and fix the position. Next, we return the weight to the chest, while straightening the legs. (10-15 times).

4. Legs wider than shoulders, bag on the palm near the shoulder. Pushing with the strength of our legs and arms, we transfer it to the other hand so that the projectile describes a semicircle in the air. We gradually increase the force of the push and the magnitude of the flight path (10-15 times).

5. Feet wider than shoulder width, knees slightly bent. We hold the bag at knee level. simultaneously straightening the legs and torso, we throw the projectile up and catch it on the shoulder blades, absorbing the blow with our legs. We throw it to the left and catch it with our hands. Repeat for the right side.

6. Lying on your back, bag behind your head at arm's length. We take the bag in our hands and lift it up with straight arms to a vertical position, lower it onto our chest, then squeeze it up and return to the standing position. (10-15 times).

7. I.p. the same as in ex. 6. The bag is at the level of the ankles of straight legs, take it with your feet and lift it up, transfer it to your feet and do a bench press. We return to IP. (10-15 times).

8. Standing with your heels together and toes apart, hold the bag with your hands on the floor. Raising the projectile up through the left side, we describe an arc above the head and lower it through the right side. Repeat clockwise and counterclockwise. (10-15 times).

Examples of Bruce Lee's isometric exercises

Another legendary athlete who used isometrics in training was Bruce Lee. He mainly used isometric exercises for the legs, shoulders, arms and core muscles.

Biceps curl at the bar

Imitation of lifting a barbell upward using a fixed bar (you can use any apparatus that needs to be fixed at the level of the upper abdomen). Firmly grasp the bar and pull it up as hard as you can for 6-12 seconds. Use two lifting options, at the peak point (arms closer to the shoulders) and the initial point (at abdominal level).

Lifting on your toes

Place a bar or any platform in the machine just above shoulder level. Rise onto your toes and press the bar with maximum effort for 6-12 seconds.

Pull from below

Place the bar at the level of your upper thighs (so that your arms are extended while holding). Firmly grasp the horizontal bar and pull up with maximum effort for 6-12 seconds.

Squat rise

Place a Smith machine bar or any bar at shoulder level in a position where you sit with your thighs parallel to the floor. For 6-12 seconds, try to press into the bar, trying to straighten your body.

Deadlift

Place a Smith machine bar or bar at mid-calf level. Bend your knees and grab the bar with a shoulder-width grip. Try to pull the stationary bar as high as possible while performing deadlifts for 6-12 seconds.

World fame Zass

With his unique abilities, Iron Samson won enormous popularity and love from the audience. The contingent of his admirers spread from ordinary people to nobles. The fame of the amazing athlete thundered throughout the world.

The phenomenon of Iron Samson haunted many. Imitators of the amazing athlete appeared. The artist's international tours were extremely popular with viewers.

His photos appeared on the covers of magazines next to images of Evgeniy Sandov, who forever remained Zass’s idol.

Books dedicated to the Russian hero were published: “The Amazing Samson” - published in London in 1925.

All his life until his death, Alexander Ivanovich Zass remained an active, strong man. He demonstrated his last strength performance at the age of 66, subsequently training animals.

This wonderful man died as a result of an accident. While rescuing animals from a burning van, he suffered serious burns to his head and was taken to hospital. A few days later, Alexander Ivanovich died of a heart attack and was buried in Hockley, near London in 1962.

A Love Called Betty

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Having joined the English circus, Alexander Zass developed a unique circus act in which pianist Betty Tilbury acted as an assistant. The act consisted of the strongman hovering under the circus dome and holding a rope in his teeth, on which was suspended a platform with a piano and a girl playing music. Soon love broke out between them, lasting ten years. However, Zass liked other women and had fleeting affairs. “We can’t fix you, we’ll remain just friends,” Betty once told him and married the clown Sid. But the “Russian Samson” never found his family. He wrote to his sister Nadezhda in letters that he was endlessly lonely.

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Records of Alexander Zass

The amazing capabilities achieved with the help of a independently developed unique system of exercises still amaze the imagination:

• He carried a horse and a piano with people on his shoulders.
• He withstood the weight of a truck loaded with coal moving over him.
• I caught a cannonball weighing 90 kg, fired from a distance of 8 m.
• He was holding an iron beam with people in it with his teeth.
• Lying on a board with nails, he held a cobblestone weighing 500 kg on his chest, which anyone could hit with a sledgehammer.

The most important thing is self-control. I have been on the verge of death dozens of times. And only the ability to pull myself together, remain calm, and make a sound decision kept me alive.

The hero himself always said that strength lies in a person’s character and will, as well as in the strength of tendons and the ability to control muscles. Iron Samson left a trail of glory shining in history and his memory will never disappear.

What are isometric exercises

Isometric training is a type of physical activity in which a muscle is tensed without contracting. Classic fitness movements, such as bicep curls, are eccentric in nature. Such exercises almost always have two phases of movement, in one of which the muscle contracts. Isometrics is the opposite type of load to eccentric. The most popular example of isometric exercise is the plank. Despite the absence of a contraction in which the muscle would perform its direct functions (flexion of the body), the bar perfectly loads the abdominal area.

Isometric exercises are suitable for developing strength, although to a greater extent they train endurance and the ability of muscles to not acidify for a long time. This leads to a gradual increase in the anaerobic threshold, which dramatically affects the level of overall fitness and physical fitness.