Anecdote Of An Old Timer Who’d Greco-Roman Wrestled In His Youth :
This is not my content, it’s something I came across years ago, can no longer find, and is useful information that groks to my recent experience with weighted calisthenics and calisthenic volume.
I write by recollection, paraphrasing. Here it is :
The author was sitting in public and struck up a conversation with an old timer seated nearby.
The old timer a small man at maybe 5’7″ 140lbs, he spoke of having wrestled in his youth, greco roman wrestling to be exact.
The old timer spoke of fitness in a prior era, possibly in Europe as where in America can one practice greco?
He told some stories :
Wrestling at around 125lbs he became able to bridge nose to mat with a heavyweight and 160lber both sitting on him.
The smallest man in the room, he was strong enough to wrestle live with the heavyweight, but did not particularly like doing so.
All the wrestlers essentially had this same pound for pound strength, it was just most striking on him being the smallest.
Everyone in the room became capable of bridging with one or more seated atop them.
Strength was built old school :
Deep knee bends, pushups, chin ups, straight leg situps, bridging, some partner resisted stuff including the calisthenics.
They did a lot of reps, and of course plenty of wrestling.
No one touched a weight, their coach was adamant about that.
They got strong from high rep calisthenics, partner resisted dynamics/isometrics, and wrestling. Adding another wrestler to the calisthenic exercises from time to time.
(↑ The above is pretty ideal.)
Those built in the gym, weight lifters, in the present are far heavier than anyone in that wrestling room was.
The heavyweight then was the heavyweight because that’s the size he was going to grow to irregardless.
(My note : you can grow muscularly, as a “natty”, past your ideal athletic weight to the point you’re less dangerous in a fight.
Not just cardio, but “muscle bound” which means overly tense in layman’s terms (muscle bound is easily defined as overly tense from large muscular development not kept loose), and according to my research due to physics involved of the head and neck…easier to knock out.
You want your neck to be thicker than your head, otherwise you’re not ideally developed.)
There wasn’t moving up a weight class, you walked around your natural weight, and likely had a crazy by current standards weight cut to wrestle in competition.
The old timers handshake was noticably strong.
Persistence & Tenacity