Bobby Pandour was an old-time strong man of the Bronze Era of bodybuilding. He was born Wladyslaw Kurcharczyk in Poland, but changed his name because, let’s face it, ‘Wladyslaw Kurcharczyk’ doesn’t sound like a headliner.
Pandour was a showman known for his feats of strength and athleticism. He grew up as a gymnast and made a living touring the world and performing physical stunts and dramatic posing. He’d show off his muscle control, hand balancing, and stunning physique while performing with his brother Ludovic in the Ringling Brothers Circus. The Pandour Brothers were known as “The Herculean Marvels” and crossed the country on the Vaudeville circuit. He also had a side hustle as an artists model, where they paid to paint, draw or sculpt him.
Bobby Pandour was around the same time as Eugen Sandow “Father of Modern Bodybuilding”. Sandow was #1 at the time and Bobby Pandour lived in Eugen’s shadow, even though Pandour had a very impressive physique on equal footing with Sandow.
Boddy Pandour Workout
It’s hard to find specific information about Bobby Pandour (Much of his life is a mystery). So we don’t know exactly what his training methods were. But, we can assume his training was similar to gymnastics training during his era. Which probably included gymnastic exercises like floor exercises (tumbling), pommel horse, rings, vaulting, balance beam, parallel bars and horizontal bar and uneven bars.
Pandours body is akin to modern gymnasts. So we can draw more evidence about Bobby’s training methods from them. Modern Olympic gymnasts train HARD. 3-6 hours a day with a routine to not only train their gymnastics skills, but also endurance, conditioning, and flexibility. So Pandour very likely ran, stretched and did plyometrics and calisthenics. Think explosive movements and push-ups, pulls, levers, inverted rows where likely part of his training routine.
But what about his legs?
Gymnasts are top-heavy, but Bobby Pandour had a proportionate physique with developed legs. Bobby carried his brother Ludwig up several flights of stairs to build his monstrous legs.
Bobby Pandour Training Mindset
We don’t have many artifacts to go off of to determine his personality and attitude but it’s safe to say that Bobby Pandour trained with intention. He was a competitive sportsman and trained like one. Trying to get better each day.
Bobby Pandour Weight Training
Most information out there claims that Pandour refused to train with heavy weights and used 10-pound dumbbells instead. There may be some truth to this. If you pump up behind stage at a bodybuilding competition, you use light weights and high reps. But to be clear, no-one built a body like Bobby Pandour with just 10-pound weights.
The 10-pound weights helped etch in the fine details into the muscles, but wouldn’t help much for building muscular size. Especially after a certain point. And Bobby Pandour passed that point. You could use those dumbbells to train shoulders and maybe a few other muscle groups if you get creative with your training, but my opinion is that the 10-pound dumbbells were a small fraction of Bobby’s training.
Another angle is that this was a marketing scheme to sell muscle building courses and dumbbells to normies.
Bobby Pandour Diet
We can say it was all natural, seasonal, local and fresh. Very likely bread, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, game meats, beef, pork, goat, lamb, chicken and fish.
Enough to build and sustain his muscled frame and provide energy to train and perform.
Concluding Thoughts
Bobby Pandour is a great example of how big you can get as a natural bodybuilder and athlete. He had a compact frame and was able to train
5’6″ and 160 pounds.
Yes, it’s very likely Bobby Pandour built his physique naturally. However, there are claims that strongmen of the time dabbled in amphetamines and cocaine to stay lean. But this is hear-say. Please draw your own conclusion.
Leave a Reply