The Milo Principle

There was a time when wrestling was serious business, deadly serious. Prior to modern Olympic wrestling, combatants often wrestled to the death. Milo of Kroton understood the risks and decided to come out a winner. Born in southern Italy, where Greece had many colonies, Milo won the boys’ wrestling contest in 540 B.C. At more than 40 years old, he continued to wrestle and win titles. In order to gain the advantage over his opponents, he knew that he had to gain weight and strength. There were no Gold’s Gyms, mail order physical fitness programs, barbell companies, or steroids. Weight training—progressive resistance exercise—was not even conceptualized at the time. Even so, Milo understood the principle and applied it in a novel way. Legend has it that he would train in the off years by carrying a newborn calf on his back every day until the Olympics took place. By the time the games were held, he was carrying a four-year-old cow on his back the length of the stadium. The principle is simple. As the calf gained weight, Milo progressively got stronger with each day’s workout. The example of Milo translated into a business venture in the twentieth century with the founding of the Milo Barbell Company in 1902, the first barbell manufacturer in the United States that applied the Milo principle to adjustable barbells. The company was eventually purchased by Bob Hoffman in 1935. Hoffman turned the company into the international fitness conglomerate The York Barbell Company. The principle of steady and incremental persistence over time is a great lesson, but once the goal is achieved, some forget what life was like at the start While the Bible says “power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9), Milo let his strength go to his head. Thinking himself to be the mythical Hercules, Milo was wandering through the forest when he found an old tree trunk with wedges inserted into it. The strongman saw this as an opportunity to test his strength. Milo placed his hands into the cleft of the trunk and tried to split apart the wood. All he succeeded in doing was loosening the wedges. When they fell out, the trunk closed on his hands, trapping him. According to legend, he fell prey to wild beasts. The Bible sums up the end of Milo’s life: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling” (Prov. 16:18).

American Vision P.O. Box 220, Powder Springs, GA 30127, 800-628-9460, www.americanvision.org . History Unwrapped by Gary DeMar.

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