There Is No System: 1962 Part II
Misinformation Engineering©
Andrew Charniga, Jr.
www.sportivnypress.com
2009
There Is No System: 1962
Part II
Section A: Marketing Functional Isometric Contraction
The commercialization of Functional Isometrics/Power Racks shifts into high gear while America’s weightlifting fortunes continue to decline.
“The fact of the matter is that a predominant development of strength can have a negative effect on the development of speed.” (“The Dependence of the Snatch and the Clean on the Athlete’s General and Special Physical Preparedness.” A.V. Chernyak, Tiiazhelaya Atletika. Sbornik Statei. Fizkultura i Sport, Moscow, Publishers, 1971:99–109. Translated by Andrew Charniga, Jr.Sportivny Press©)
The 1965 June issue of Strength and Health magazine featured an article written by Terry Todd entitled “The Bob Hoffman Foundation” (S&H 06:28-30,71:1965).
“The Bob Hoffman Foundation was founded in 1961 shortly before the announcement by Strength and Health magazine of the recent developments in the field of the application to sports of isometric contraction….The term ‘isometric contraction,’ virtually unknown a short four years ago, is a household phrase today. It was a combination of the scientific genius of Dr. Ziegler and the promotional genius of Bob Hoffman that started the big ball rolling: a ball that has grown in size to become a veritable avalanche of isometric racks. They have sprung up like forests in the schools of our country, and other lands around the world are following suit.”
Never were truer words spoken.
However pleased Bob Hoffman would be, were he alive today to see how ubiquitous his power rack has become in the American high school, university, and professional sports team weight rooms, he would no doubt be surprised that the words of Terry Todd about power racks springing up like forests were not hyperbole.
The marketing of functional isometrics (FIC) and the power rack was intensified in all of the 1962 issues of Strength and Health.
In his report of the 1961 World Weightlifting Championships, Bob Hoffman declares (S&H 01:14:1962) that, “The days of US and Soviet domination are over.” T. Kono wins his fourth Mr. Universe title at the Worlds championships. Hoffman notes that W. Baszanowski of Poland who wins the 67.5 kg class “does not look like a weightlifter.”
This is an often repeated theme to be found in Hoffman’s reports of the major championships of the early to mid 1960s. The physical appearance of champion weightlifters, who are very different from those weightlifters of the era of absolute strength (particularly the American lifters), contradicted Hoffman’s ideal of a weightlifter with a well developed physique. The “muscle less” weightlifting champion became, for him, an unsolvable puzzle.
In an article entitled “A Minute A Day” (S&H 01:14:1962) at the end of which appeared an ad for FIC training manuals and power racks, Hoffman wrote, “I predict that all records in weightlifting, track and field, swimming, and other sports will be broken and rebroken in the next two years by men who train in the Functional Isometric Contraction way. It pleases me to make such a prophecy….”
