Legends of Physical Culture: Bruce Wilhelm

Note- the Legends of Physical Culture is a new series I am writing for this blog that details important people in the history of strength based athletics. It will cover people who have competed in bodybuilding, powerlifting, weightlifting, strongman, throwing sports, and even sports such as football. I feel it is important that we look back to the early pioneers of these competitions so we know how they were shaped. When the information is available I will also post the way that they trained (often times this is based more on hearsay than facts so keep that in mind). Many of these men competed in multiple fields of strength based sport. This first entry in the series covers Bruce Wilhelm, a shot and discus thrower, Olympic weightlifter, and winner of the first and second World's Strongest Man Competition.

Bruce Wilhelm

Born in Sunnyvale, California in 1945, Bruce Wilhelm would become a track and field star athlete for his high school. In 1963 Bruce won the California Interscholastic Federation's California State Meet shot put championship and was a runner up in the discus competition. He would go on to attend Stanford University competing in shot, discus and wrestling. He finished the 1965 season undefeated in wrestling with 21 victories. 

He placed in the top 10 US Men's shot rankings for 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1973, and still holds #251 on the All-time World Shotput Records. After the 1972 Olympics Bruce committed himself to the sport of weightlifting. Wilhelm became a weightlifter, and was the US National AAU Super Heavyweight Weightlifting Champion for both 1975 and 1976. He won a silver medal for the United States at the 1975 Pan-American Games in the +110 kg division, and placed 5th at the 1976 Olympic Games.

Much of this information is courtesy of Wikipedia

Big Bruce Getting Ready for a Lift

Billed as 6'2" in height and 320 pounds, Bruce Wilhelm was a big man with a big personality as seen in his victories at the first and second World's Strongest Man competitions(1977 and 1978). These first few World's Strongest Man competitions were much different than what they have later become. They were largely contested by Americans and included powerlifters, weightlifters, throwers, pro-wrestlers, football players, and even arm wrestling champions. For the first few events the winner would be determined by a one on one tug of war match at the end. For the 1978 finals Bruce Wilhelm was pitted against legendary powerlifter (and eventual 1979 WSM champion) Don Reinhoudt. 

 

There was some legitimate animosity between the two competitors. Don Reinhoudt was a very humble and likeable man and Bruce was a bit of a loudmouth and cocky person. He kept calling Don Reinhoudt a fat boy and seemed to not respect him as an athlete. For his part, Don had a lot of respect for Bruce but did not like the attitude Bruce had towards their fellow competitors. For most of the even Don was beating Bruce though by the last even Bruce had regained the lead. Having watched the even myself, there is no doubt that Don was the much stronger of the two men but Bruce was likely the much better overall athlete. 

Rather than describe the actual tug of war match I will simply post a link to a youtube video of the event. I would highly recommend taking the six of so minutes to check out the video. It is a great back and forth battle. 

It would seem that after 1978 Bruce Wilhelm retired from competing but has remained very active in the strength athletics world. He has written numerous books and articles on training. I am going to post up a few tidbits from things he has written over the years. 

This is a routine he said he used in preparation for the World's Strongest Man.

Tuesday
Power Snatch – up to 330 or 352 x 1.
Snatch Grip Hi-Pull – up to 396 for 2 sets of 3 reps.
Stiff-leg Deadlift – 474 x 10.
Back Squat – 683 for 2 sets of 3.

Thursday
Bent-Leg Good Morning – to 396 x 5.
Push Press – 462 x 3.

Saturday
Power Clean and Jerk – to 452 x 1.
Clean Grip Hi-Pull – 507 x 2 sets of 3.
Back Squat – 485 x 5 sets of 3.

 Now this was posted in an article he wrote on deadlift training so I am not sure if this is simply what he did for his deadlift and his complete training regime. There is only one upper body lift but the majority of the early strongman events focused solely on lower body strength. He did say that doing heavy bent leg good mornings really improved his deadlift and I have found the same to be true for me. My deadlift has never been stronger than when I did very heavy good mornings. Unfortunately for me I have found that good mornings tend to bring about upper back spasms so I have had to avoid them (and my deadlift has suffered as a result). 

 I would highly recommend looking into more things that Bruce Wilhelm has written. He is a pioneer of strength athletics and holds a wealth of information. 

Coming Next- Bruce Wilhelm's rival, Don Reinhoudt.