This blog was originally posted on my former site: http://adamfarrah.net/muscle-smoke-mirrors-book
I just started reading – for the SECOND time – one of the best books I’ve ever come across. The book is Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors, Volume 1 by Randy Roach. Volume 1 starts off in the late 1800’s and leaves off right around the 1960’s – just at the point bodybuilders started experimenting with steroids. The book is impeccably researched and documented. I’d even go so far as to call it scholarly. It’s just that complete and well researched – Volume 1 is over 500 pages itself. Randy does a fantastic job of telling the story of where and how Physical Culture originated and grew in the United States. It’s just a fascinating book!
For me, these are a few of the highlights:
- The book mentions Kettlebells a bunch of times. It’s interesting and instructive to know that they WERE being used in the US around 1900. AND, some of the greats in early Physical Culture were using them.
- Randy does a GREAT job of interweaving the early bodybuilders or Physical Culturists with early nutritional pioneers like Weston Price, Francis Pottenger and Robert McCarrison. He goes into painstaking detail to illustrate the types of diets early bodybuilders were eating and why they were eating them. And I’m talking about INDIVIDUAL diets here. Some of Bernarr McFadden’s dietary theories are particularly interesting to me because he included fasting and a lot of raw food in his routine.
- The book shows that MOST of the early bodybuilders were on Paleolithic type diets consisting of lots of meat, fat, raw milk, raw cream and raw butter.
- Randy also goes into great detail on how our current medical establishment came to power and what that meant to other health practices at the time. I was surprised to learn that our current medical establishment has only been in power since the turn of the 20th Century. Before that, the allopathic model was just one of many models that were considered equally valid.
- Roach also does a great job of showing how our food supply slowly degraded and how this was all connected to the growing Pharmaceutical Industry and other political and industrial factions.
And he does all this within the context of the early days of bodybuilding and weight training. It’s really just a spectacular book.
The website for the book is here: Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors Book
ttys
Adam
So many observations, just from what you’ve posted: Raw milk/cheese are part f my diet – it’s hard to find because the local health dept yanks it where-ever they find it. I also am starting to prefer grass fed meats over organic. Organic produce, yes! It’s easy to avoid grains when you have a gluten sensitivity – although I do like potatos and GF breads (sometimes). Alternative medicines are coming back, but it’s caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). Acupuncture is licensed and regulated in all 50 states, but not naturopathy (my chosen profession). If anyone is looking for an ND who is trained at an actual on-site, four year program much like a medical school (cadaver lab and all), check out the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (google it!).
Thanks for the comment, Vicki! And let’s not forget my post about the medical establishment – Allopathic AND Alternative 🙂
http://adamfarrah.com/where-did-the-science-go
Adam