We assume no liability for the information provided in NaturalStrength articles. Q: That's quite a routine, Bruno. Old-School Ass Kicker Bruno Sammartino Extended Interview This legendary professional wrestler held the world title for a record 11+ years straight in the 1960s and '70s. And so, while in uneasy retirement, Sammartino railed against steroid use and other workplace safety issues in Vince McMahon Jr.s federation, stating in one especially heated 1991 interview that the WWE was infested with drug abuse and running sham steroidtests. A: In the wrestling world, I'd say Gorilla Monsoon. Email articles to the editor: bobwhelan@naturalstrength.com. From episode 13 of 10 Bell Pod.We discuss some of Bruno's lifting stats and a sweet workout tip from Kevin Sullivan. You are seeing this page to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 ("CCPA") and other California privacy laws. In private conversation, a well-established member of the Greek community in Pittsburgh told us that he trained alongside Bruno in a basement gym. Skip to main content . For many years Bruno trained at my gym in Manhattan while he was a professional wrestler. In response, Sammartino decided to develop his body through wrestling and weightlifting. 118d Mike Coppinger. Because I had reached the top, and I felt like I could provide my family with a better living than I had growing up. Heck, I didnt know that there were different wrestling groups all around the country. Bruno Leopoldo Francesco Sammartino [1] (October 6, 1935 - April 18, 2018) was an Italian-born American professional wrestler, best known for his work with the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, now WWE). Bruno started with his 330.when he reached 20 repetitions all the members came over to watch this strongman do his thing. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you would do three sets of six reps of the following lifts: Parallel squat, bench press, barbell curl, press behind the neck, and upright rowing. His story resonates with many of us who dealt with or deal with being skinny, thin or out of shape and have to deal with being bullied. My mother, a first-generation Southwestern Pennsylvanian, recalls fondly how Sammartino reminded her of her swarthy Slovak grandfather. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Old-School Ass Kicker Bruno Sammartino Extended Interview, Healthy (and Tasty) Tips for Your Super Bowl Party, 4 Proteins You Should be Eating, But Probably Arent. Due to his foreign accent and a body that was suffering from malnourishment because of his experiences during the war, Bruno was often picked on by bullies. He was 82. It was such a thrill, and you could feel the power this coal mining man hadthats the power I saw in Bruno, too. From Episode 147 of Jim Cornette's Drive ThruArtwork by Travis Heckel!Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: CornyDriveThru@gmail.com Follow Jim and Br. No Bench, No Problem: Build Bigger Pecs with Little to No Equipment. Before I turned pro as a wrestler I competed in both Olympic lifting and powerlifting. Battle Royal: Winner: Bruno Sammartino. Again I use a cheating style, and really don't pull the weight that high, just up to waist level or a bit higher. Bruno Sammartino held the WWE Title for 2,803 consecutive days The Italian hero's unfathomable 2,803 days as WWE Champion began on May 17, 1963, when he dethroned "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers in an unheard-of 48 seconds. The first step was not an easy one for him because he was still unknown and could not get the big money bouts. Whats your exercise regimen like today at 77 years old? Then he got a break and wrestled for the Canadian Heavyweight Championship, which he won. Q: What were your bests in Olympic lifting? We would try to get in benching three times per week. If you disable cookies, this site will not work properly. then I'll do an endurance set for pump, as I previously mentioned. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); 1. I do 10 sets of 10 reps with 135 to 175 pounds. But before he was a star wrestler, he was a powerlifter one of the best in the world throughout much of the 1950s and it was his success in that . Without these hidden heroes of wrestling, this sport would be vastly different today. by Joe Wuebben Born: October 6, 1935 Height: 5'10" Weight: 275 pounds (when he was a pro wrestler) Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA A: True. ! (Note: It's worth doing some digging to find just how "weight lifting strong" these brothers were!). Then I come home I have a well-equipped gym downstairs and I do about 800 leg raises and leg crunches for stomach work, and then I stretch a little bit. Q: How did you get started in weight training? Sammartino left behind a legacy as the longest running heavyweight champion in WWE history. what do you do for a routine now? I do freehand squats now to warm up before my matches, and find them to be perfect. Workout A done M/W/F . I keep as good form as possible, for in the bench press I do not believe in arching. He didnt just look strong, he was legitimately strong, and his physique reflects thisslightly thicker core, he doesnt care about body fat percentage or being shredded or anything likethat., For Rust Belt wrestling fans who grew up watching Studio Wrestling on Channel 11 in Pittsburgh, stocky ex-apprentice carpenter Sammartino embodied immigrant strength and fortitude. Bruno published a book about training and wrestling. He came to United States of America in 1950. But whats interesting to me is that because he arrives later to the U.S., in the 1950s, bodybuilding, weightlifting and powerlifting were already being separated, and Sammartino clearly went down the weightlifting and powerlifting route. During his childhood in a small Italian mountain town, Bruno Sammartino heard stories about how the streets in the United States were paved with gold. I was a victim of malnutrition, and even after we moved to this country I continued to be sickly and run down. Watch the Trailer. He used to eat plents of meat, fresh fruit and vegetables and tried stayed completely away from any form of sugar, cakes or desserts. A: I pressed 365 . Namely, he ate all of the time, consuming thousands of calories a day in the form of milk, eggs, organ meat (especially liver) and thelike. The performance coach and retired Navy journalist had to follow in some big footsteps. He got me interested, even though at the time I weighed only 105 pounds, and I started lifting at the East Liberty YMCA in Pittsburgh. Well, bench pressing and squatting, of course, are exercises that bodybuilders and everybody does, so I was pretty good at those. Also, Bruno urged trainees to include some running or jogging perhaps a mile or two a couple of times a week. Articles about nutrition are not especially wanted and will most likely be rejected. To be fortunate enough to survive that, and then to later be recognized as the champion, that had to be as big a deal as anything. Sign up below to receive our newest workout routines, recipes, news stories, and offers from our partners. oral steroid Dianabol had yet to truly disrupt, Dynamic Tensions: New Masculinities in the Performance of Fitness, consistently denied all allegations of steroid use, Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect, Real Italians Put Hot Dogs and French Fries on Their Pizza, The Other Drug War: Inside the World of Counterfeit Viagra, The $65 Million Art Heist That Put Oceans Eleven to Shame. . You can bet that he managed to get in at least several sets of bench presses, curls, squats, deadlifts, and a variety of dumbbell work during each training period. The weight lifting work out was as follows: (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), The bodyweight work out looked like this: (Tuesday, Thursday). Answer: Far from it! He wanted to keep his strength up but also most important to him was his endurance in the ring. As a matter of fact, later this month I'm going for a two month tour of Europe and Australia, including a visit to my old home in Italy, and a private audience with the Pope. What were those workouts like?I loved working out with those guys because not only did they have great bodies, but they used fairly good weights too. Does modern bodybuilding make you sick? Like many of you, on Wednesday April 18, 2018, we learned about the death of the living legend, Bruno Sammartino. Due to this he was bullied in school which drove him to weightlifting to build his body up. With the right plan and the right discipline, you can get seriously shredded in just 28 days. The only exercise I did with Bruno was the bench press, which was also his favorite movement. . Biographies of Sammartino, along with his own personal recollections, place him as only a notch or two behind the great Paul Anderson, arguably the strongest lifter of the pre-steroid era. Question: First of all, Bruno, have you always been rugged and powerful? He would work out with the University of Pittsburgh wrestling team, compete in bodybuilding shows, and, in 1959, he set a record with a 565 pound bench press. Bench 3 x 64. Sammartino, a product of Pittsburghs Schenley High School, was bench pressing more than 500 pounds and deadlifting 700-plus during the early- to mid-1950s, when the number of humans capable of doing so could be counted on your fingers and the oral steroid Dianabol had yet to truly disrupt the powerlifting and weightlifting scenes by sending world records into the stratosphere. His weight training had only been for short bursts with the weights, and he had neither endurance nor the quick coordination and balance for wrestling. Bruno Sammartino - Italian Strongman - YouTube 0:00 / 5:15 Bruno Sammartino - Italian Strongman 16,219 views Aug 25, 2017 290 Dislike Share Josh Bryant 62.4K subscribers Get Jailhouse Strong:. At the time I was training with the amazing Karl Norberg in San Francisco I was using 150-pound dumbbells. And it was this power he brought to the ranks of professional wrestling, altering the competitive dynamics of a field headed by lanky, limber stars who had enjoyed earlier success as amateur wrestlersSammartino by contrast brought a hairy ursine chest and an unbreakable bear-hug finisher. Required fields are marked *. In 2013, Bruno Sammartino was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his old lifting partner, Arnold Schwarzenegger. In those days going thirty to forty minutes in the ring with someone like Killer Kowalski (who was know for his endurance) would totally drain you, you had to be able to endure hence the reason for the many sets and reps. I had hip replacement, and the doctors tell me I can walk as fast as I want, but Im not allowed to run. He had some amateur wrestling training, and allegedly had a partial wrestling scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh on the table, but it was as a powerlifter that Sammartino truly excelled. He is as enthusiastic about power training as I am, and at one time several years ago I found myself in San Francisco for three months, wrestling only one or two nights a week. I use bench presses as the cornerstone of my training, doing 10-12 sets. From the first days of his weight-training experience Bruno Summartinos goal was to develop superabundant strength and power. by tfurman | Dec 15, 2011 | Blog | 0 comments. "Bruno Sammartino proved that hard work can overcome even the most difficult of circumstances. 1. He took up power lifting and Olympic lifts as his workouts to build himself up. He writes about the extreme sides of fitness, the weirder sides of MMA and pro wrestling, and the unorthodox lifestyles of professional athletes. Because of the limited motion I handle more weight, usually about 550, for 5-7 sets of 3 reps. Sammartino eventually caught. The next day, I work out with the weights. Unlike too many of the present day strongmen who specialize in the so-called odd lifts, Bruno is not afraid to show what he can do in public in open competition. He said this was particularly important if you were trying out for a high school sports team. But there were a lot of things. Curiously, he was edged out by the legendary Paul Anderson, who outweighed Sammartino by some 70 pounds. He also found that drinking milk made him sluggish in the ring. France for further training under Andre Bollet, officially making his debut in 1961. On the bodyweight work, you did whatever reps you could do at the beginning and gradually added reps, working up to 100 reps in Hindu squats and Hindu pushups, and 15 reps in pull-ups. But the war erupted, and it was not until 1949 that the Sammartinos were all reunited and in their adopted land. The coach there offered him a scholarship, but Bruno turned it down in order an apprecntice carpenter for a number of years. The late Ray Van Cleef witnessed it, by the way. I feel you have to set up a routine that suits you personally and what you want from your weight training, not follow every new exercise or routine that comes out. Sammartinos training, which could be observed at various YMCAs and other community centers throughout Pittsburgh when the future champion wasnt making the rounds as an apprentice carpenter, consisted of performing the three principal powerlifts (squat, deadlift and bench press); the strict shoulder press; and Olympic weight lifts such as the snatch and clean and jerk. He believed in many sets of the basic exercises are shown in the photos. The rags-to-riches story of Sammartino, a Pittsburgh legend and WWE icon who survived the Nazi invasion of his Italian hometown, resonated with the audience, Elliott Flacione, executive director. I usually do 10 sets, working up in 2-rep jumps to my maximum. 1. Welcome to the TribLIVE.com California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) landing page. Several local heavyweight pugilists suggested in public that the weightlifting giant was musclebound and implied that he couldnt do a thing with his muscles other than lifts weights. But Sammartino was also a liminal stage of champion, a squat beer barrel of a competitor straddling the line between carnival-strongman-cum-powerlifter and bodybuilder. I have a set power training routine I used before I got into wrestling, and I pretty well follow the same routine now whenever I get a chance to train more extensively than the routine I just mentioned. I really enjoyed weight training and soon started entering Olympic lifting and power lifting contests. . You did 3 sets of 6 repetitions on all of your exercises. We would try to get in benching three times per week. By the time he was a teenager and into his early 20s, Sammartino was competing in strongman and. Mind you, he wrestled the night before in Philadelphia and that morning drove into Manhattan. NaturalStrength.Com has maintained a reputation as one of the most well informed, truthful and introspective sites on the 'net since 1999. Q: Who would you consider the most powerful person you've met? So I was very pleased to work out there because I think I lifted as good and better than most. The Legendary Bruno Sammartio The trainer came up with Partner Interval Training to make workouts a team effort. The details of his passing were minimal at the time, but we now know the 82-year old's cause of death. You trained with weights 3 times per week and on two other days you did a bodyweight workout. We thought there is no better way to honor his passing than to celebrate his life. John Grimek witnessed Mr. Summartino benchpressing: When it comes to bench pressing, Ive never seen anyone handle heavy poundages the way that Sammartino does. In 1959 he set a record in the bench press with a lift of 565 lbs. Is there one achievement that stands out from the rest?I had a pretty tough childhood, being in Europe during the war and all that stuff. Born in Abruzzo, Italy on October 6, 1935, a young Bruno Sammartino and his family had to hide from German soldiers in the mountainous region of Valla Rocca. Steveson (heart) now training full-time at WWE. 3. Brunos personal habits were moderate and he kept a good body builders diet. Sammartino was the longest reigning champion of the World Wide Wrestling Federation, holding the title from 1963 to 1971, and again from 1973 to 1977. . All the while, he also was an innovator in his own right, a man who achieved many firsts: the first true WWE champion after promoter Vince McMahon Sr. had left the National Wrestling Alliance and transitional titleholder Nature Boy Buddy Rogers dropped the strap for health reasons; the first Italian-born wrestler to hold a nationally recognized wrestling title; and the first athlete whose primary athletic background was in powerlifting to reach true main event status in pro wrestling. Over time, he felt that small increases in weight would mean big gains. During the height of your wrestling career during the 60s and 70s, what was your training like?I was working out three, sometime three and a half, hours a day with weights. at a height of 6, 1 and a body weight of about 280 pounds. At age 62, "Big Bill" shares his wisdom to dominate one of the ultimate strength marks. Back . I was fortunate enough to have trained with one of the worlds strongest men.Bruno Sammartino. After World War II, the Sammartinos moved to Pittsburgh. WWF House Show - House Show @ Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. I would do 8 , usually 3-5 reps, and work up to a maximum of 650 every workout. Im 215 now, maybe 220 with my clothes on. I've given up squats since I began to wrestle with regularity, for I found squats to be the worst exercise for wrestling. Actually Bulldog Brower slammed Haystacks as well. His story resonates with many of us who dealt with or deal with being skinny, thin or out of shape and have to deal with being bullied. How often did you have wrestling matches?Just about every night. Sammartinos story in many ways follows the archetypal immigrant bodybuilder story, the most famous of which is Charles Atlas, says Broderick Chow, a professor at Brunel University London who serves as director of the multimedia project Dynamic Tensions: New Masculinities in the Performance of Fitness. Originally posted on NaturalStrength.com on November 29, 1999. Sammartino, an Italian immigrant who ruled the WWE throughout the 1960s and 1970s, died Wednesday at the age of 82. My family, living in Italy during World War 2, suffered greatly. I tried and discarded exercises I feel wouldn't help me in my quest for power and size. As this stage of his career Bruno didnt bother with a rigid course schedule, preferring to vary his workout tu suit his mood and immediate goals. Q: This isn't the routine you used for developing all your power, of course. Nothing really heavy anymore, because, #1, Im old; #2, Im not as heavy as I was; and #3, I dont want to put too much stress on the joints at this stage of my life. Arguably the greatest wrestling champion of all time. The dirt bike pro recovered from a rare heart condition to get back on track. Youre in great shape.Three days a week I do roadwork. He walked a great deal, which he believed improved his endurance. Editors note: Do you want to read more about Bruno or his role model John Grimek? . . When we look at his physique we think strong, because we associate it with an aesthetic of powerlifting, explains Chow. Q: Tell us how you developed your training routines. I do 5 sets of 5 with heavy dumbbells. As far as training philosophy was concerned, Bruno was an advocate of progressive overload in his workouts. Sammartinos physique, then, was the most critical component of his performance, a body that told a story even more impressive than the moves and holds he deployed. His chest, shoulder and arm muscles bulge under his workout clothes, a sweat suit with "Built in Bloomfield" printed . Dirt bike pro recovered from a rare heart condition to get in benching times! To him was his endurance 28 days it down in order an apprecntice carpenter for a number of years some. Weightlifting to build himself up sickly and run down do an endurance set for pump, I... Little to no Equipment would be vastly different today did with Bruno was an advocate progressive! 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