What is Maxalding?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Maxalding is an exercise system of muscle control using a form of isometrics. Books and pamphlets teaching the system were first published in 1909 and continued until Maxalding ceased to trade in the late 1970s.
System
The Maxalding system, like the ‘dynamic tension‘ system of Charles Atlas and those of others, did not use weights. Where the other systems concentrated on muscle development, Maxalding went one stage further and taught muscle control. The methods taught had been around since the early 1900s and indeed many of the photos used in the instruction leaflets, even those sold in the 70s, date from that period. Some exercises of Maxalding, involving isolating the muscles of the abdominal region, are similar to the yoga exercise called nauli. The methods of centralisation and central isolation of the abdomen and other exercises must have seemed revolutionary when first released and do not seem to be generally advocated elsewhere so would seem novel even today.
Founders
Maxalding (originally called Maxaldo) was a name created from those of the founders, Maxick and Saldo, and first came into being in 1909.
Maxick, real name Max Sick , was a German strongman. He was born in Württemberg on June 28, 1892 and moved to Britain in 1909, where he met Monte Saldo. He died in South America on 10 May, 1961 while exploring the Amazon and Matto Grasso rivers. The Maxalding principles are based mainly on exercises and techniques which appeared in his book ‘Muscle Control’, written in 1911.
Monte Saldo was the professional name of Alfred Montague Woollaston who was apprenticed to the great Eugen Sandow in 1897. He took this stage name at the turn of the 20th century while touring Europe demonstrating strength and gymnastics. He was also an artist’s model and in 1914 he published a book called ‘How to Pose’. He provided the financial means of promoting Maxick’s methods and starting the Maxalding postal course. His son F.H.C. Woollaston took over, using the professional name of Courtlandt Saldo. He carried on the business until sometime in the late 70s. Courtlandt Saldo died in 1983 at the age of 72.
External links
- http://www.maxalding.co.uk/
Maxalding Stomach Vacuum Video
Exercises for all levels of fitness!
By: www.getinshape.ipcor.com
Exercising to improve physical fitness has been done throughout the ages and it is no different today. But, how do you know what exercises are right for your fitness level? Whether you are strengthening muscle groups or increasing your aerobic capacity you need to know what exercises will work best for your fitness goals. Here, you will find information on various forms of exercises for all levels from beginners to advanced.
The following article focuses on isometric exercises for any fitness level that you can do anywhere. If you are a traveler, or a stay-at-home mom, these exercises will help you get in shape and improve your fitness without using heavy and cumbersome equipment. Isometric exercises are a low cost easy way to strengthen muscles and lose weight.
An Introduction to Isometrics:
– In 7 SECONDS you can develop new muscle tissue and reduce body fat. by Paul J.O’Brien In 7 SECONDS you can develop new muscle tissue. That mean in less than 4 hours a year you can develop a whole new body adding anything from 12 – 25 lbs of muscle on to your frame while substantially reducing your body fat. A statement like that seems unrealistic. Fantastic – a figment of a delusional comic book writer explaining how a superhero became incredibly strong. I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that. I though the same and I’m approaching it form the cynicism of a seasoned fitness instructor and personal trainer.
There’s just one little, teeny-tiny problem though. It’s possible. More so that that it’s a reality for thousands of people every day.
And no, they’re not on steroids or drugs or part of military experiment creating super soldiers. They are everyday people like you and me. They hold down 9-5 jobs and don’t have time for exercise between the kids and mortgage payments.
So how are they doing it?
The answer is Isometrics and I’m going to explain what Isometrics is and how you can start doing it as you read the rest of this article. That’s right. By the time you have finished this you will have completed two exercises, the first to trim and tone your waistline the second to tone and firm your chest.
Ready ?
Isometric Abs
1. Sit up tall and straight in your chair.
2. Breathe in deep and suck in your stomach as hard as you can.
3. Now tense your stomach hard as though bracing for a punch – still keeping it sucked in
4. You feel that tightness, a slight quiver in the muscles? Good, that’s the start.
5. Breath out tightly making an SSSSSSSSS sound. You’ll feel your abs getting tighter.
6. As you breathe out crunch your abs really hard rotating your pelvis upwards and your rid cage inwards.
7. Breathe all the way out
8. Relax
How did that feel? If you did it right it should feel great. Yours abs will be warm, worked, feel relaxed and slightly tired. Now do it again and repeat until you’ve finished this article. Your abs will be tighter, firmer and more toned tomorrow morning then they are right now. Diligent practice of this one exercise will tighten and tone your stomach faster than 1,000 sit ups.
Now to give you something entertaining to read as your tighten and tone your stomach here’s the fascinating and scintillating science behind Isometrics.
Iso (meaning the same) and metric (meaning distance) is a method of tensing the muscles without moving the angle of the joint they are connected to. The abs exercise above is an example of this. So is pushing against an immovable object. Try as hard as you can, tense every ounce of muscle fibre against something that can’t move, you’ll feel you’ve done great workout and in many ways you have!
Back in the old school days of physical culture, the Victorian era’s introduction to bodybuilding and strong men Isometrics was all the rage. Skinny weak sickly kids turned to tensing their muscles in a specific way and transformed themselves into well toned living Greek Statues, strong enough to press grown men over their heads with one arm. Their feats of strength astonished the men of the time and women marvelled at their physiques. Okay, they couldn’t leap tall buildings in a single bound, or hold back a locomotive but they could easily walk up walls lift horse over head and in one demonstration lift a platform on top on which ten men were standing.
One such guy was Maxick. Maxick, born Max Sick was a very weak child from birth and was not supposed to live. But he fought on and survived. A young Max once saw a strong man at the circus and determined to be as strong as the Greek Hero Hercules (their equivalent of Superman). So little Max started lifting weights.
Fortunately his parents soon put an end to this – as he was too weak and fragile to take the strain. Still determined Max began to experiment with his body. Tensing his various muscles as hard as could and learning to control each one individually. Soon Max started to get stronger, more muscular.
One day in his teens Max went in to a local gym, too young to join he just watched. Then on invitation from one of the chief physical culturists (an old school name for bodybuilders) tried to lift a weight. Of course they were expecting Max to fail and have a good laugh at his expense. Max out-lifted the strong man.
People were stunned. Max became a local celebrity in his home time, demonstrating feats of unbelievable strength and muscle control. He could make his muscles jump and dance with a simple thought. And lift seemingly impossible weights.
He traveled to England where he developed a reputation as being incredibly strong. It was here he teamed up with fellow strong man Saldo and developed his Isometric Training system called Maxalding . You didn’t lift weights; you did Isometric Exercises where you tensed and relaxed your muscles, just like your abs.
How are they doing by the way? Pretty tired? Okay give it a rest. Instead let’s try this one for the chest.
Isometric Hand Press
1. Stand tall and straight
2. Hold your arms out in front of your chest
3. Make a slight bend at the elbow, creating a triangle from the wrist to the elbows
4. Press your palms together
5. As you do so concentrate on making your chest as tight and hard as possible.
6. After a few seconds you should feel you’re chest and arms shaking all over – this is the muscles tiring as they work really hard – this is Isometrics.
7. Hold this Position for 30 seconds.
8. Slowly release – this is important, after intense contraction your body needs time to unwind.
Now how does that feel. Repeat it ten times as you scroll down.
The Maxalding system was an early whole body Isometric Training system. His students got stunning results, and they weren’t the only ones. Years later, a man named Charles Atlas achieved phenomenal fame as the Worlds Most Perfect Man while promoting an Isometric System he called Dynamic Tension. It’s still around.
However time advances, people on the look out for new fads move on and Isometrics was forgotten until recently. With a new fitness and physical culture renaissance approaching people are turning back to the old methods. And science is discovering some amazing things.
Like it only takes 7 Seconds to stimulate new muscle growth.
That said, there is one small detail – it has to be incredibly intense stimulus. Isometrics just happens to be the most intense exercise in the world and in a little as 7 seconds you can completely exhaust your muscles. The wonderful thing is it doesn’t matter what your current level of fitness is, because the force you generate while doing Isometrics is in direct proportion to your current level. You can’t really go too far. Isometrics is also incredibly safe because it does not require any weights (except at very advance levels) making it ideal for rehabilitation, seniors and everyone else too busy to get to the gym.
If you’ve followed the directions in this article you will have just worked out two of the biggest muscle groups in the body, the chest and the core muscles of abs. In future articles I’ll explain a little more about some of the specific benefits of Isometrics and give you some more exercises, as well as reveal how it blowtorches fat, and strengthen your digestion system, your internal organs and even reverse the again process. For now enjoy, the feeling of a firm toned waist and a lean powerful chest. Practice these two techniques every second day and remember to breath correctly.
If you can’t wait for the next article and need to know how to get in the best shape of your life RIGHT NOW, check out my website – the largest online resource dedicated to Isometric Training
Your Isometric Expert,
Paul J.O’Brien
