THE CLEAN...

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straight, and drive the elbows under and up beneath the weight as it turns in to the shoulders. The position you should be in at the bottom of the split clean is that of a one-legged squat on the forward foot, with the back leg for balance. Most splitters do not do this. An easy way to learn to go low is to try the squat position in front of a mirror. In the full squat, thrust one leg back. Learn to drop into this position automatically and your split clean will improve.

Norb Schemansky is one of the finest clean lifters in the world. He has cleaned and jerked 425 pounds. Notice his positions in the sequence pictures with this article. Clyde Emrich is unmatched among the heavier squat lifters. The action pictures show just how he does his Clean with 415 pounds. The other two sets of sequence photographs show Ike Berger with 315 pounds and Dave Ashman with 410. Both are fine squat stylists. Berger has about the best position possible, and we could find no better model anywhere for teaching the squat technique.

Dave Ashman was a recent sensation at Daytona Beach. He cleans exactly like big Paul Anderson, with feet spread wide, arms inside the knees, a position that possibly may be better suited to some big men than with hands outside. But you need one of the most powerful backs in the world to lift in this fashion. This style was first seen back in 1936 when Anwar Ahmed, the Egyptian lightweight, used it. Thus proving there is nothing new under the sun.

As we have said, the most important part of the Clean is the Pull. At York, all our lifters over the years have practiced to improve their pulling power with high heavy pull-ups and with power cleans. But they also practiced day after day to improve their lifting form. Correct style combined with strength will set the highest records. You can go just so high with correct style, and so high with terrific strength. It takes a combination of the two to meet the problem of international competition today.

At left, Dave Ashman demonstrates his unique clean style (just like Anderson) with an easy 410 lbs. at Daytona Beach. He cleaned this weight twice but missed the jerk.

At right, the matchless Ike Berger, 132 lb. Olympic champion, shows perfect style in the squat clean with the stupendous weight of 315 pounds!

STRONGMEN I REMEMBER BEST by SIEGMUND KLEIN

Three of the most famous barbell men of forty years ago: Charles MacMahon, Henry Sincowski and Antone Matysek, posed with the famous Milo Triplex Barbell.

The Milo Idols

HE PHOTOGRAPH on this page will probably seem somewhat strange to newcomers to the Iron Game, but I will bet it brings a wave of nostalgia to all oldtimers. The three young athletes in the quaint costumes and Roman sandals were once the idols of the weight world. They are, left to right, Charles MacMahon, Henry Sincowski and Antone Matysek. They are posed with the once famous Milo Triplex Barbell. As a matter of fact this is frankly an advertising picture, and each man is holding a separate form of the Milo bell, the kettlebells at left, the dumbell in the center, and the barbell at right. The fitted plates on the floor went inside the spheres, and thus gave the bell adjustability.

I first saw this photo as part of a full page advertisement of the Milo Barbell Company (since absorbed by the York Barbell Company) back around 1919 in the old Physical Culture magazine. I can still remember the headline of the ad, which read, "What is a Barbell?" This line alone is a tip-off on how little people knew about barbells in those days. Only a few hundred people used weights at that time, and in order to sell the idea to others, they had to explain what a barbell was!

I thought this picture would be interesting to present day muscle fans as a study in the change in barbell-

NOVEMBER, 1957

built physiques. This picture was taken about 1916, and the 15 inch arms of these three Milo pupils were considered very good at that time. MacMahon came from Camden, N. J., and was employed by the Milo Company as an instructor. He had a mail order course, featuring cables, similar to the one made popular by Earle Liederman, but actually built his body with weights. He was a very good semi-pro baseball player in his spare time. He stood about 5'9", and weighed. about 165 lbs. The center man, Henry Sincowski, lived in Baltimore. He was about 5'6" tall and weighed about 155. I have always thought he had a very shapely body. The man at the right, Antone Matysek, was also from Baltimore, and was Alan Calvert's star pupil. He was about 5'8" and weighed about 168 lbs.

You will note these men carried no extra bulk, and that their legs were particularly muscular on the outer thigh. This is probably due to the practice of the bent press and a modification of the "Hack" squat, which they all used in the old Milo course. They all show fine deltoid development and a good taper of the latissimus muscles, again due to side and bent pressing with one arm. All of these men could do upwards of 200 pounds in the one hand bent press. Matysek made an official record of 242 lbs.

We have come a long way in forty odd years. . . or have we?