Only the Strong Shall Survive
Back to the
Rack
R
eaders have been
asking me to write
about power rack
training as taught
by Dr. John
Ziegler. I’d been pondering
the subject for some time but
couldn’t figure out how to
cram all the pertinent infor-
mation into one article. Then
I decided I didn’t have to: I
should cover the deceptively
simple training method over
Neveux \ Models: Hubert Morandell and Markus Reinhardt
a period of several months,
dealing with the critical
points and bringing in side
issues related to the overall
rack-training story.
Rack Rack Rack
224 JULY 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
Muscle Size-and-Strength
Revival, Part 1
by Bill Starr
One reason I wanted to
do a series on the power
rack is that we can’t afford
to lose this valuable form of
strength training. Still, only
a handful of people fully
understand the system laid
down by Doc Ziegler and
know how to incorporate it
into their overall program.
They were the ones who
worked directly with Ziegler
and are the only ones I con-
sider to be authorities: Bill
St. John, Bill March, Dick
Smith, Louis Riecke, Tommy
Suggs, Joe Puleo, Tony
Garcy and yours truly. Bob
Bednarski, Homer Brannum,
Vern Weaver, Dr. John
Gourgott, Grimek and
Stanko have moved on to
the big weight room in the
sky. If I’ve overlooked some-
one, I apologize.
I didn’t put Bob Hoffman
on the list, though, for good
reason. He never grasped
Ziegler’s concept and
couldn’t actually put an ath-
lete through a power rack
workout. What he did
grasp, however, was the
economic potential of
Ziegler’s brainchild, and he
made the most of it.
 Back to the Rack

My point? Well, there just aren’t

that many of us left who had the
opportunity to learn from the man
who invented it how effective power
rack training was for gaining
strength. As I’m the only one of the
lot currently on a strength-training
beat, I feel obligated to pass along
the beneficial information that
seems to have fallen in my lap.
Which is fine with me.
Before I go into the specifics of
training that you can do in a power
rack, though, I want to give you a
picture of how the concept revolu-
tionized what went on in the weight
room in the early ’60s. It was then
that power rack training became an
essential part of the routines that
gave competitive weightlifters,
bodybuilders and others who lifted
an edge in their chosen sports. I also
want to talk about what jerked rack
training from the forefront and
pushed it into disfavor—so much so
that by the end of the decade only a
few athletes still used Ziegler’s pro-
gram.
We have to put the principal
players on the boards because with-
out them there’d be no story. It was a
period of the most dramatic change
in American weightlifting history,
and it all happened because of Doc
Ziegler’s creative genius. I plan to
give credit where it’s due, fix blame
accordingly and clear up some mis-
conceptions about what actually
went on at the York Barbell Club.
I’ve always thought that what hap-
pened during those few short years
was a fascinating tale and hope
you’ll agree.
Power racks as we know them Power racks as we know
Muscle Size-and-Strength Revival

today didn’t exist until the ’60s,

Some of the old-time strongmen
like Paul Anderson and Bob Peoples
them today didn’t exist
trained on racks, but they were until the ’60s. Some of the
homemade rigs used primarily for
supporting heavy weights. Sid old-time strongmen like
Henry, an engineer by profession,
designed one for the Dallas Y weight Paul Anderson and Bob
room that was the most ingenious I
ever used. We lifted in a tiny space Peoples trained on racks,
next to a squash court, and when
Sid determined that the staircase but they were homemade
Most trainees today use the
rigs used primarily for
power rack more for safety supporting heavy weights.
than for isometric work.

226 JULY 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

 Back to the Rack

squat rack was taking up too much

room, he built one that served a
similar purpose but could also be
used for exercises besides squatting.
Sid’s rack consisted of two four-
by-fours set on a 45 degree slant
against the wall. He drilled holes
every four inches and offset them so
that they wouldn’t split the wood.
Into the holes he inserted metal
pegs that he could move up and
down the sturdy supports. It was
extremely functional. You could do
a variety of exercises—flat-bench
presses, inclines, overhead presses,
jerks, squats and shrugs. For front or
back squats, overhead work or
shrugs, you only had to take a short
step back from the rack before
doing the lift, whereas in the stair-
case rack you had to walk backward
four or five steps. That was a gen-
uine plus if you were handling
heavy weights, and it’s still a great
idea for any home gym—economi-
cal and space saving.
When the Isometric Contraction
System burst on the scene, the role
of the power rack changed
overnight. Hoffman’s York Barbell
Company was then the dominant
manufacturer of weight-training
equipment in the world, and it
began selling thousands of well-
built power racks. According to him,
the rack was necessary for anyone
doing the new, advanced form of
strength training.
That was lie number one, at least
on that particular subject. Having a
York rack wasn’t necessary at all, phenomenon that occurred in the
and lots of people figured that out late ’70s. Colleges, high schools,
When the Isometric
rather quickly. It was pretty easy to YMCAs and other institutions in- Contraction System burst on
build one using two-by-fours and volved in sports loved the idea. the scene, the role of the

Muscle Size-and-Strength Revival

drilling holes in the wood where you
wanted them. You didn’t need an
Olympic bar or any weights in order
to do the system, just a straight
metal bar or a length of pipe. For
example, I built one in the Marion
Neveux \ Models: Hubert Morandell and Markus Reinhardt
Isometrics were easy to learn, sim-
ple to do and best of all extremely
safe. No free weights cluttered the
area, spotters weren’t needed, and
the entire workout could be com-
pleted in as little as 10 minutes—
rack changed overnight.
ball squad would zip through a
workout after regular practice ses-
sions. At night, when I didn’t lift at

YMCA weight room all by myself. It
might have been the ugliest power
rack in the country, but it got the job
done. Trust me: If I could build one,
so could anyone else with half the
effort.
Fueled by Hoffman’s success
stories in Strength & Health, York’s
house organ, the isometric craze
swept across the country like wild-
fire. The only thing I can compare it
with is the running and jogging
even less if you were in a hurry. An
administrator’s dream.
I was a student at Southern
Methodist University when isomet-
ric training took off. The athletic
department there had resisted every
attempt Sid Henry, an alumnus, and
I made to install a weight room for
the football team, but they eagerly
joined the isometric movement. Ten
racks were built out of two-by-fours
under the stadium. The entire foot-
the Dallas Y, I’d climb the security
fence and do an isometric circuit in
the dark.
The York Barbell Company had a
monopoly on commercial power
racks for many years, and Hoffman
was smart enough to take full ad-
vantage of the situation. He offered
a wide selection, the big seller being
the Super Power Rack. I think every
YMCA in the country bought at least
one. Made of tube steel, they were

www.ironmanmagazine.com \ JULY 2005 227

 Back to the Rack

stout puppies; you can still find

them in home gyms and older lifting
facilities. The supports were eight
feet high with 550 holes in them.
Attachments held the device to the
wall, and flanges and four pins se-
cured it to the floor. It cost $99.95—
a mere pittance today, but it was the
Kennedy era, and a hundred bucks
was a great deal of money (roughly
the weekly wage for most Ameri-
cans).
A 310-pound Olympic set cost
$129.50, which made the Super
Power Rack a major investment.
Realizing that, Hoffman offered two
cheaper wooden versions. The two-
by-four model could be had for
$34.95, and the one made from
four-by-fours was $49.95. Hoffman
discontinued the wooden racks
early on, however, when he figured
out that customers were using them
to make copies. He replaced them
with a smaller metal model that he
called the Portable Power Rack. It
would have been difficult to dupli-
cate unless you had access to a
metal shop.
The Portable Power Rack sold for
half the price of the Super Power
Rack and was made with lighter
metal. Much shorter than the big
guy and with its own platform, it Many of the first all-in-one machines
was ideal for anyone who trained combined free-weight moves with
where there was a low ceiling, such isometric options.
as a basement or an apartment.
York also marketed a truly portable
apparatus, the Strength Builder. In 1961 an American Olympic training system. The answer is
That consisted of two 18-inch metal weightlifting team toured Europe simple: He didn’t. Hoffman was
bars and a length of chain that you and Russia, lifting in Moscow, capitalizing on what Ziegler had
could attach to the bars at different Leningrad, Kiev, Tblisi, Paris and found in his research.
intervals so you could do a wide London. Sid Henry was the heavy- Unlike Hoffman, Ziegler was a
range of isometric movements. It weight, and he told me that some man of science. A surgeon and
Muscle Size-and-Strength Revival

was only $5.95.
Hoffman teased Strength &
Health readers with bits of data on
how to do the new isometric system,
but he never revealed the details of
the entire program. The 34-page
manual on the subject was available
for five dollars.
The thing was, once you figured
out how to do an isometric exercise,
you really didn’t need any equip-
ment to work some bodyparts. All
you needed was an immovable
object against which you could pull
or push for the designated length of
time, and you were in business. A
low doorway served as the top press
position and a car bumper as an
isometric pull.
of the lifters tried doing isometric
pulls on the ancient plumbing
pipes in a Russian hotel, ripping
them completely out of the wall.
That ended the team’s isometric
training for the duration of the trip.
The emergence of isometric
training put Hoffman, the self-
proclaimed father of American
weightlifting, in hog heaven. He’d
hit the mother lode, and the vein
seemed to grow wider and deeper
each month.
You may be wondering how a
former oil-burner salesman with
no formal education or
background in kinesiology or ap-
plied anatomy could possibly
come up with such an original
general practitioner in Olney, Mary-
land, a suburb of Washington, D.C.,
he specialized in physical rehabili-
tation. His interest in that field of
medicine came from being severely
wounded during World War II while
serving with the marines in the
Pacific. He carried metal plates in
his head and leg for the rest of his
life. Weight training had helped
him rebuild his body, and he re-
tained a fondness for that activity
and for athletes who lifted weights.
He believed that Olympic
weightlifters were the strongest
men in the world, so it was only
natural for him to be interested in
what was going on at the York Bar-
bell Club, just 90 miles from Olney.

228 JULY 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

 Back to the Rack
Hoffman and Ziegler hit it
off right away. They were both
big men, over 6’4” and weigh-
ing close to 300 pounds.
Ziegler had the more assertive
personality, which would even-
tually lead to conflict. Hoffman
had to be the center of atten-
tion at all functions, and Ziegler
often overshadowed him—no
small feat and one that Hoffman
didn’t appreciate. In the begin-
Muscle Size-and-Strength Revival
ning, though, that wasn’t a prob-
lem. Ziegler liked the idea of
being associated with the York
weightlifters and bodybuilders,
and Hoffman liked the idea of
having an M.D. as a part of the
York organization. Hoffman wrote
articles using the name Dr. D.A.
Downing, figuring the medical title
would add credibility to his mes-
sages. Dr. Downing was his dentist.
In 1954 Ziegler traveled as team
physician with the U.S. Olympic
team to the World Championships
in Vienna. What he learned there
set in motion events that ultimately
changed strength training, body-
building and competitive sports
forever. The event was a pivotal
230 JULY 2005 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
Neveux \ Model: Abbas Khatami \ Equipment: Powertec power rack, 1-800-447-0008 or www.Home-Gym.com
moment for him because the
American coaches and lifters
didn’t like the Russians and avoid-
ed fraternizing with them. Ziegler,
on the other hand, was very gre-
garious and loved to party and
happily joined the Russians for
their nightly revelries. The Rus-
sians took to him right away,
impressed by his size, friendly
demeanor and intellect. Mostly,
though, they admired his ability
to drink as much vodka as they
could. His capacity for mass
quantities of alcohol was
amazing.
During the drinking bouts in
the wee hours of the morning
the Russians’ tongues began
to loosen. Ziegler learned that
they were experimenting with
strength-enhancing drugs
and a form of exercise that
made athletes exert pressure
against a barbell in a fixed
position.
Hoffman sold a portable isometric
device that consisted of two metal
bars and lengths of chain.

Back home, Ziegler’s research
convinced him that the Russians
were on to something potentially
beneficial to the York lifters. He
encouraged Hoffman to sponsor
some testing, but Bob ignored him
for several years. That type of train-
ing reeked of the dynamic-tension
system that had brought Charles
Hoffman even sold books on the subject of pulling and
pushing against immovable objects to build strength.
Atlas fame and fortune,
and Hoffman had skewered Atlas
and dynamic tension often in
Strength & Health. He believed that
Ziegler’s concept, which the doctor
called isometrics, was too much like
what Atlas had been selling for
years.
Back to the Rack
The York power racks were
big business, hyped as part
of the new revolutionary
isometric-training system.
What finally changed Hoffman’s
mind was a study out of Iowa State
University that Dr. C.H. McCloy
submitted to the magazine for pub-
lication. McCloy showed that non-
apparatus exercises led to marked
strengthening of muscles. Hoffman,
Muscle Size-and-Strength Revival
first and foremost a businessman,
understood that if he didn’t grab the
new form of training and run with
it, someone else would. Someone
like Joe Weider or Dan Lurie.
Hoffman ran McCloy’s article in
1959 and agreed to sponsor the
testing of Ziegler’s ideas. Now test
subjects were needed. That’s where
the other three members of the cast
step onstage.
Continued next month.
Editor’s note: Bill Starr was a
strength and conditioning coach at
Johns Hopkins University from 1989
to 2000. He’s the author of The
Strongest Shall Survive and Defying
Gravity. IM
www.ironmanmagazine.com \ JULY 2005 231