Alexander Zass

Alexander Zass was a noted strongman from the early 20th century. His claim to fame was his ability to bend thick iron bars and to snap chains with his bare hands. What makes Zass so unique was not only his ability to perform these astounding feats of strength, but the way in which he developed the strength to be able to do these things.

As a Russian prisoner of war held in Austrian prison camps during World War I, he developed a powerful physique and tremendous strength by pulling on his prison bars and chains. He had been a strong man prior to the war, having worked out religiously as a young man, but as a prisoner, he discovered the means by which extraordinary strength could be achieved. At one point, Zass found himself shackled in solitary confinement. He was concerned that, being unable to exercise properly, he would deteriorate and loose the strength and physique he had spent so many years developing. It was then that he began pulling on his chains and prison bars as a means of exercise. To his great delight, he discovered that this type of training actually increased his strength. Finally, when the time was right, he bent the bars to his prison window, snapped the chains of his manacles, bent one of the bars clear around to be used as a j-hook for scaling a wall, and made good his escape! After the war, he went on the road as a strongman and gained fame throughout Europe and England as "The Amazing Samson" . He also sold a course of strength-building utilizing the methods he had developed as a prisoner of war, and which he, himself, practiced throughout his illustrious career.

With the advent of the Internet and a growing interest in the early Iron Men, Alexander Zass has been resurrected from virtual obscurity and is today being hailed by many as the Father of Isometrics. Our modern day familiarity with Alexander Zass, as well as with many of the Iron Men of the Golden Era, is due to the efforts of two men, Roger Fillary and Gil Waldron. These two men, along with contributions made by Gordon Anderson, have worked tirelessly and continue to do so to chronicle the photos, lives, and workout programs of the pioneers of physical culture on their site, Sandow . This is the definitive site on the subject, and both Roger Fillary and Gil Waldron deserve enormous credit and thanks for their important contribution to posterity. You can go to this site to find Alexander Zass's fascinating autobiography. Not only did he live an extraordinary and exciting life, but his well written autobiagraphy also lends insite into European and British culture at the turn of the twentieth century.

Through a lot of research and digging, photos of Alexander Zass demonstrating his exerciser have surfaced, but the actual course of exercise that he sold has yet to be found. Among practitioners of Isometrics, the Alexander Zass course is the "Holy Grail" of workout programs, and a worldwide hunt ensues in hopes of finding it.

And now, tao has made his own Alexander Zass exerciser and has developed his own program of exercise.


 

Click Here to go to tao's site for step-by-step instructions on making the Alexander Zass Isometric Exerciser.