Library
What to read, where to read it
A short, opinionated bibliography. Primary sources are listed first, since many are in the public domain and freely readable; scholarship comes second; archives last. No affiliate links, no book-buying links — citations and, where a copy exists, free reading links to the Internet Archive.
Part OnePrimary sources
Books written by the figures themselves, or by their immediate contemporaries. Most are out of copyright in the United States, and many have been digitised.
Strength and How to Obtain It
Sandow's first major training book, with his exercise programme and photographs of the author. The training advice is dated; the autobiographical material is useful but promotional. Available at archive.org.
Body-Building, or Man in the Making
Sandow's later training manual, from the years when he ran his institutes and magazine. An early book to use "body-building" in its title.
The Development of Physical Power
The most direct training book of the music-hall era, with Saxon's own account of his methods and records, including the bent press. Public domain; a reprint is available at archive.org.
The Way to Live in Health and Physical Fitness
Hackenschmidt's training and health book: exercise with and without weights, diet, fresh air, and moderation. Reissued many times. Public domain; a 1911 edition is at archive.org.
Les Rois de la force
The standard French-language history of strongmen up to 1911, by the man who knew many of them personally, with several hundred photographs and drawings. Particularly important on Apollon and the French school. In French; a digitised copy is at archive.org.
Super Strength
Calvert's most important training book: progressive training with the barbell, and an early American argument for heavy leg work. Calvert's earlier The Truth About Weight Lifting (1911) is also worth reading.
The Key to Might and Muscle
Jowett's best-known training book, from his years with Milo and Strength. Reprinted in modern editions.
Goerner the Mighty
The principal record of Hermann Goerner's career, by a friend and admirer. The source for almost every figure attached to Goerner, which is both its value and its limitation. Out of print.
Strength & Health magazine
York Barbell's magazine and for decades the dominant American lifting magazine. Hoffman's editorial voice is partisan; the contest reporting is invaluable.
Strength magazine
Calvert's magazine, founded in 1914 to promote weight training and the Milo barbell, and continued by the company's later owners. One of the first American magazines devoted to lifting.
Part TwoScholarly works
Books and journals produced by historians of physical culture, or by careful enthusiasts working to historiographical standards. The line between the two is blurry and that is fine.
Sandow the Magnificent: Eugen Sandow and the Beginnings of Bodybuilding
The standard scholarly biography of Sandow and, by extension, the most thoroughly researched account of the late-Victorian strongman tradition. University of Illinois Press; in print.
Muscletown USA: Bob Hoffman and the Manly Culture of York Barbell
The best account of the York period and the post-war American lifting world. Penn State Press; in print. The treatment of the steroid era is unusually careful.
Venus with Biceps: A Pictorial History of Muscular Women
The standard work on the strongwoman tradition, with Sandwina at its centre. Arsenal Pulp Press; in print.
The Iron Game: An Illustrated History of Weight-Lifting
An early substantial English-language history of lifting and strongmen, by the Scottish coach and Highland Games organiser who rediscovered the Dinnie Stones. Out of print; the standard secondary reference for figures and dates before the academic literature caught up.
The Super Athletes
An assessment of historical strength records by a careful amateur statistician. Conservative in its treatment of contested figures and useful as a check on more exuberant accounts.
The journal of the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center
The academic journal of the field, founded by Terry and Jan Todd. Back issues are freely available as PDFs at starkcenter.org/igh; the journal is the indispensable reference for any specific question about a figure or feat.
Academic articles and the Physical Culture Study site
An active historian of physical culture, particularly good on the British and Irish traditions and the mail-order strength industry. physicalculturestudy.com.
The Strongest Man in History: Louis Cyr "Amazing Canadian"
The English-language reference biography of Cyr. Read alongside Paul Ohl's later French-language biography Louis Cyr: Une épopée légendaire (Libre Expression, 2005), which is more thorough on the Québec context.
Books on Frank Gotch and the Hackenschmidt–Gotch matches
The Iowa wrestling historian's books are the standard American reference for Gotch and the two Hackenschmidt matches of 1908 and 1911.
Part ThreeArchives and institutions
The institutional holdings, in order of importance to the field. The first is in a different category from the rest.
The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports
At the University of Texas at Austin. Built around the Todd-McLean Physical Culture Collection; holds books, magazines, papers, photographs and artefacts, including a Cyr dumbbell. Publishes Iron Game History. The single indispensable institution. starkcenter.org.
The Internet Archive
Many pre-1928 training books and runs of early physical-culture magazines are scanned and freely readable here. Search by author and title; quality and completeness vary. archive.org.
York Barbell Weightlifting Museum and Hall of Fame
At York Barbell's headquarters. York memorabilia, photographs, and a Cyr dumbbell.
Musée National du Sport
France's national sports museum, which exhibits the original Apollon's Wheels.
The Dinnie Stones
The Dinnie Stones are still at Potarch, by the hotel. Registers of successful lifters are kept by enthusiasts at thedinniestones.com and liftingstones.org.
The British Library
As a legal deposit library, the place to look for British physical-culture periodicals such as Health and Strength, and for the books of Inch, Aston and their contemporaries.
Part FourVisual sources
Film is a useful introduction, and some early footage survives.
Fullsterkur (2018) and Stoneland
Rogue's feature documentaries on Icelandic stone lifting, including the Húsafell Stone, and on the Dinnie Stones, with interviews with historians including Jan Todd and David Webster. Free online.
Thomas Inch on film
Newsreel footage survives of Inch performing in 1915 and raising his dumbbell in 1939, at the age of 58.