Eugen Sandow’s Life, Workouts and Wisdom

Eugen Sandow posing (Image source: Wellcome Collection gallery. Edited with title after the fact.)

The Grand Father of Modern Bodybuilding

Eugen Sandow was a pioneer bodybuilder and strongman. He popularized physical fitness and exercise at the turn of the 20th century.

Sandow is known as the ‘Grand father of bodybuilding’ because he’s considered the first man to use strength training to sculpt the ‘perfect physique’.

I like to showcase the bronze era bodybuilders like Eugen Sandow because they built their bodies without steroids.

The Bronze Era body builders were natural. No smoke and mirrors, no photoshop to alter their physique, no instagram filters to make them look like perfect 10’s. Just high effort training. It’s important to study bodybuilding history to stay based.

(Sure, the old school bodybuilder hit all the right angles in photos to look their best, but the fact remains that these guys were jacked without a steroids. So it just goes to show you what can be accomplished without drugs. While the Golden Era bodybuilders like Frank Zane were strong and aesthetic, they were also on juice.

I’m not diminishing their accomplishments in the slightest by saying that. Because these guys inspire people to get healthy and fit. Just trying to level with you what is attainable naturally in terms of muscle building and physique development.)

Eugen Sandow’s physique can be achieved naturally

Most men can achieve a physique like Eugen Sandow. To clarify, 80-90% of men in good health and no medical problems can reach his level. (There are always exceptions.) His level of muscle mass can be built in several years of training and his level of leanness can be achieved with the right diet.

Sandow’s physique is not easy to build, but it is possible and quite realistic with the right exercise routine and diet.

If you’re part of the 10-20% of men who will have trouble getting a physique like Sandow’s, it’s likely because you are an endomorph body type. Your genetic nature makes you better suited for powerlifting as you fit well into the brawny lumberjack archetype.

In this case, you’re naturally heavy set, husky, or big boned and won’t be that lean without SERIOUS effort. The good news is that you are naturally strong. Stronger than the average man. The flip side is that it takes you more effort to get shredded.

It will be harder for you to get there and stay there compared to your ectomorph and mesomorph counterparts. I say that to not give you false hope as sometimes people are genetically predisposed to be leaner than others. Just like some people are taller, faster, smarter, more talented naturally in one thing or another.

Either way, regardless of how genetically gifted you are you can only get a body like Eugen’s with dedicated physical training, diet, and lots of time in the gym.

Eugene Sandow’s younger days

Anyway, Eugen Sandow was born Friedrich Wilhelm Muller in Königsberg, Prussia (modern day Germany), on April 2, 1967.

He’s often referred to as the “Father of Modern Bodybuilding” and was well known for his impressive physique and strength. Sandow was trained by world renown physical cultureist Ludwig Durlacher, better known as Professor Attila.

Attila was the first ever personal trainer and his clients included the elite society of the time. Attila trained members of royal families and the best athletes of the victorian era.

A little backstory – Sandow left Prussia in 1885 to avoid military service. Which many people probably wouldn’t blame him given the horrors of war and political motivations.

Four years after fleeing, Eugen made his first appearance on stage in London circa 1889. He also performed feats of strength as a circus athlete, such as bending steel bars and lifting heavy ass weights to showcase his power.

Eugen Sandow wasn’t the only strongman of the Victorian era. Every country had a strong man to rally around. But Sandow is the most popular.

Part of the reason Sandow was so popular was due to his promotion. He had good promoters that saw dollar signs after seeing the crowd’s reaction to Sandow’s bulging muscles.

His promoters read the room and saw that the audience was most impressed by Sandow’s figure than the weight he could lift. So they started promoting that angle. And BOOM. A star was born.

This was Eugen’s big break. Sandow quickly gained fame for his posing routines and being toted the finest specimen of male form. He had groupies of Sandow admirers at any stage he went. They swooned over his flexed muscles. And he became something of an international sex symbol . Eugen wasn’t satisfied being just a strongman. Sandow turned his fame into many successful business ventures and positively impacted physical culture across the world. He plunged into the world of scientific and physical culture and turned it into bone fide fitness enterprises.

He was well promoted and the first strongman to be on film. He also had the advantage of being displayed on a new medium that was incredible technology at the time. Almost like magic capturing moving pictures in great detail. This new technology immortalized Sandow in a way not seen before.

Physical culture influencers

As a young impressionable lad, young Eugen wondered through the natural history museum gawking at Ancient Greek and roman statues.

He was captivated by the beauty of the human form and strived to develop the perfect body through physical fitness. You could say that the greek gods of old were the original fitness influencers. 

Eugen Sandow Posing

Eugen Sandow carried out “muscle display performances” along side feats of physical strength with barbells and the crowd thrilling breaking-a-chain-around-his-chest move. Where he’d flex his pectorals and burst out of a fucking chain.

The other reason Eugen was so popular was because he was the first to do many things that got attention at a notable scale.

Eugen Sandow found his way into a movie in 1894 by the Edison Studios. The film showed him posing and flexing his muscles in a fluid motion. This captured the viewer in awe of the smoothness of witnessing Eugen’s performance on the moving pictures.

He also appeared in a Kinetoscope film that was part of the first ever commercial motion picture exhibition in history. (A kinescope looks a jukebox you look into to watch the motion picture.)

Eugen Sandow created the Institute of Physical Culture, which was a gymnasium for body builders and fitness buffs. And later founded a monthly periodical, aptly named Sandow’s Magazine of Physical Culture. (Since it was his magazine on Physical Culture.)

Eugen Sandow organized the first major bodybuilding contest at the Royal Albert Hall on September 14, 1901. The first bodybuilding was called the “Great Competition” and was judged by and Eugen Sandow himself, and two supporting cast members: athlete and sculptor Sir Charles Lawes (who’s credentials include decorated rower and having works of art exhibited in the Royal Academy of Arts), and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote a little known novel about a character names Sherlock Holmes.

Eugen Sandow Workout

Eugen Sandow’s training methods were ahead of their time (clearly). Sandow believed in the importance of a balanced training regimen that included both weightlifting and cardiovascular exercises

Sandow obviously performed all the traditional strongman movements, like bent press, overhead press, etc. These were the core of his training and did the most to build his legendary strongman physiques. 

Sandow trained with light dumbbells for many reps. The idea was to put the mind inside the muscle. The light dumbbells were used to help focus on the muscle being worked. This was less about building huge muscles and more about learning muscle control. In fact Eugen famously shilled his ‘Sandow light dumbbell system’ which was a training program designed for using very light weights.

(Light exercises can still be highly effective for beginning trainers, and even experienced trainers who know how to train with intent and command their muscle to grow. More about that at another time.)

He also emphasized the importance of proper nutrition and rest in order to build and maintain a healthy, muscular body.

In addition to weight lifting, Sandow incorporated a variety of other exercises into his training routine. His exercise routine included calisthenics, gymnastics, and boxing to build strength, stamina, and grit.

Training variety is also a good way to keep things fresh. Bronze era bodybuilding workouts in general were a combination of heavy lifting and total body workouts. 

Eugen Sandow Workout Routine

As a pioneering bodybuilder and strongman, Eugen Sandow believed in the importance of a balanced training regimen that included a variety of exercises. In addition to weightlifting, Sandow would also incorporate calisthenics, gymnastics, and even boxing into his training routine.

He was known to perform a number of strongman feats, such as bending steel bars and lifting heavy weights, in order to showcase his strength and physical prowess. Some specific exercises that Sandow may have performed include:

• Bench press
• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Pull-ups
• Push-ups
• Sit-ups
• Lunges
• Dips
• Bicep curls
• Tricep extensions
• Calf raises

It is important to note that these are just examples of the types of exercises that Sandow may have performed, and that his exact training routine would have varied depending on his goals and the specific needs of his body at the time.

He also incorporated static holding exercise such as the iron cross to build up his shoulders.

Broad shoulders are needed to get the grecian ideal male physique. You know the look. The V shape torso with wide shoulders and a thin waist. He also developed exercises for chest expansion to further reach those classic bodybuilding proportions.

Its’ safe to say Sandow performed exercises like the other strongmen of the 1800 and 1900’s such as bent press, clean and press and club swings.

And, although not know for his chest bulk, Sandow dabbled with the chest press and push ups to strengthen and shape the upper body muscles.

Eugen Sandow Diet

As a bodybuilder and strongman, Sandow followed a balanced diet that included a variety of nutrient-rich foods in order to support his monster training sessions and physical activity.

He ate by instinct. It is also important to note that Sandow lived and trained in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and that nutritional value of food was different at that time compared to today.

The food was natural back then. Much better for you than today. Less bastardization. No addition of artificial ingredients, synthetic fillers and soybean and seed oils. What I’m saying here is that the food was more nutritious, and blended with the humans system better since it was easier to digest.

He ate protein from animals, nuts, seeds, and seasonal fruits and vegetables and local fair based on travel. Eugen Sandow ate clean and he ate well. He also preached moderation so a little bit of this and a little bit of that from time to time was fine. Don’t over indulge but don’t deprive yourself either.

Eugen Sandow drank beer and wine too but he avoided strong spirits and liquor.

Mastication

The old school bodybuilders and Victorian strongmen of the Bronze Era were big masticators. They masticated so much. They believed that you could never have too much mastication. These masticators chewed their food into a fine paste because this made the food easier to digest so your body could utilize the nutrients better. Good digestion is essential for good health by extracting maximum nutrition value from food.

Was Eugen Sandow on Steroids?

It’s safe to say Eugen Sandow was natural. Steroids hadn’t been invent during Sandow’s time. Plus, he wasn’t that big. Sure, he was in amazing shape and most men would kill to have a physique like that. But compared to your run of the mill fitness influences Sandow is small.

Synthetic testosterone was probably swirling around in the shadows for a while before it became public. He was of German decent so maybe he had the hook up. It’s possible but very unlikely because testosterone wasn’t available until the 1920’s. Sandow was passed his prime at that time.

There are rumors that he enjoyed a fresh line of Columbian cociane from time to time to stay lean and trim. There could be some truth to that since doctors could prescribe the stuff. Cocaine is a stimulant that can give you energy and strength to train hard, and it also could stifle your appetite so you stay lean and mean.

Hard to know for sure if Mr. Sandow dabbled with booger sugar but cocaine was just a doctor order away back then so could be true.

How Strong Was Eugen Sandow?

Sandow could one-arm snatch 180 pounds and bench press 270 pounds.

So he was Pretty damn strong.

He was one of the strongest victorian strongman, he may have even been the world’s strongest man at one time. He was certainly the most well known strength athlete of the Bronze era. In fact, the Eugen Sandow award is given to the reigning champion of body building, Mr. Olympia, if given a bronze statue of Sandow for their victory.

How Did Eugen Sandow Train Legs?

Eugen Sandow did dumbbell lunges to build his quadriceps, hamstrings and hips.

Jumping, lots of walking, step ups and general all-around heavy lifting built his legs. As you need a strong foundation to keep standing while holding several hundred pounds.

Sandow very likely did knee bends or bent knees exercises which you and I refer to as squats.

Eugen Sandow was an inspired and intellectual individual. The Eugen Sandow quotes include some of the following wise words:

Eugen Sandow Quotes

Here are some quotes from the man himself. They encapsulate his training philosophy.

“Health is a divine gift, and the care of the body is a sacred duty, to neglect is to sin.”

“Life is movement. Once you stop moving, you’re dead. Choose life.”

“Nothing, in my opinion, is better than the use of the dumbbell, for developing the whole system, particularly if it is used intelligently, and with a knowledge of the location and functions of the muscles.”

“You may go through the list of exercises with dumbbells a hundred times a day, but unless you fix your mind upon those muscles to which the work is applied, such exercise will bring but little, if any, benefit. If, upon the other hand, you concentrate your mind upon the muscles in use, then immediately development begins.”

Eugen Sandow’s Training Philosophy

I believe some of Sandow’s Training philosophy can be captured in his quote below

“In bringing the body to its highest pitch of perfection, various moral qualities, the value of which it would be difficult to over-estimate, must necessarily be brought into play. The first essential to success is the power of concentrating the will upon the work.

Muscles are not developed by muscular action alone. Physical exertion, however arduous and long continued, will not make a man strong, or the day labourer and the blacksmith would be the strongest of men.

Mechanical and desultory exertion will never materially increase a man’s strength. He must first learn the great secret, which ought to be no secret at all. He must use his mind. He may not be able to add a cubit to his stature, but by taking thought a man can most assuredly increase the size of his muscles, strengthen all his organs, and add to his general vitality.

But he must put his mind, as well as his muscles, into the work. And by exercise and practice the will-power is greatly increased, until, in course of time, the whole organism is so absolutely under its control that the muscles can be kept in perfect condition even without what, in ordinary language, is called “ exercise.”

That is to say, that without violent exertion, but merely by the exertion of the will, the muscles can be exercised almost to any extent. Can it for a moment be supposed that this cultivation of the will-power is not of great value to an individual, no matter what sort of task or work he may be engaged in?”

– Eugen Sandow

Advocated nasal breathing. Which is a good thing to do. It fitlers the air as it enters your lungs and strengthens the facial muscles and structure.

He also trained in the open air.

Eugen Sandow Dumbbell

If Sandow’s resume wasn’t long enough, he was also an inventor. He invented a dumbbell with two parallel bars pushed apart by springs.

You gripped and squeezed the bars together while performing dumbbell exercises. This built internal muscular tension to enhance gains and nerve force.

Sandow’s system got many men and women into great shape. Sandow’s arms were his predominant feature, molded through many many reps of bicep curl.

Eugen Sandow Books

Sandow published several books about fitness and life. Sandow’s books are packed to the gills with exercise routines, physical training tips, and lifestyle advice.

Get your very own leather-bound copy of ‘Life is Movement: the physical reconstruction and regeneration of the people (a diseaseless world)’, for a collector’s price, written by Eugen Sandow himself.

System of Physical Training

Strength and How to Obtain It

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