Body-Building and Self-Defense

By Myles Callum and Ira Mandelbaum

This book presents methods for building muscular strength and an attractive masculine physique, for using strength and increasing skill and endurance in athletic performance or gymnastic competition, and for learning and applying the traditional methods of self-defense. Inherent in developing strength and the ability to defend oneself is the building of confidence, the calm, quiet confidence of the person trained in the Oriental arts of self-defense—by means of which one reacts to attack but never provokes physical reaction.

The body-building programs are comprised of “muscle tension” exercises, setting-up exercises, tumbling, gymnastics, and weight-lifting. The fundamental rolls, stands, springs, bends, flips are presented before the basic throws and releases of the Oriental systems of self-defense, among them judo, jiu-jitsu, karate. The exercises and movements are illustrated by photographs of athletes in actual work-outs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Muriwai Books
• Release date: Dec 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781789126075

Myles Callum

MYLES CALLUM is an American freelance writer, former magazine editor, and the author of two books, Body-Building and Self-Defense (1962) and Body Talk (1972). Born on April 4, 1934 in Lynn, Massachusetts to Abraham Edward and Ann Edith (Caswell) Callum, he attended the University of Connecticut from 1951-1953, before serving with the U.S. Army’s Counter-Intelligence Corps Army from 1955-1957. He then worked as a private investigator in Stamford, Connecticut for two years, before he joined Leisure magazine as associate editor for another two years, all whilst studying at New York University from 1958-1961. He joined the staff of the Good Housekeeping magazine in 1961 as assistant editor, working his way up to director of the special publications division in 1969. He became a White House consultant in 1968, writing Federal health programs, and was managing editor of Better Homes and Gardens in Des Moines, Iowa from 1971-1975. He then joined the TV Guide in Radnor, Ohio, in 1977, where he served as senior editor and writer for the next ten years and, finally, as contributing editor for two years from 1996-1997. Callum is a member of MENSA, the United States Chess Federation, and the Greater Philadelphia Search and Rescue. He is a veteran puzzle creator whose crosswords and other puzzles have been published in The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Brain Games books and numerous newspapers. IRA MANDELBAUM is a noted political photographer. His photographs have also been published in many periodicals and educational publications. Born in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York, he grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He worked as a freelance photographer for approximately 25 years until deciding that the other side of photography—working in the darkroom to produce the best possible image from a given negative—was his true calling. He continues to work as a master printer in the face of the rising digital tide.

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Text originally published in 1962 under the same title.

© Muriwai Books 2018, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

BODY-BUILDING AND SELF-DEFENSE

BY

MILES CALLUM

Photographs by Ira Mandelbaum

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 4

1. A Sound Body 5

2. Muscles Can Be Fun 10

3. Tumbling 21

4. Setting-up Exercises 39

5. Should You Lift Weights? 46

6. Weight-Lifting 48

7. Interesting Exercises 68

8. Self-Defense 75

9. How to fall 82

10. Ketsugo, judo and jiu-jitsu 93

PART I—THE THROWS 93

PART II—RELEASES 114

11. Serious Business 121

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 126

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Exercise equipment shown on pages 14, 15, 17, 19, 22 and 24 by courtesy of Voit, a subsidiary of American Machine and Foundry.

The author also wishes to thank the boys who modeled for the pictures in this book, Wayne Weissman and Alan Sosnowitz. Both are versatile teen-agers whose academic and extracurricular accomplishments match their athletic skills. Wayne Weissman was the Connecticut State Tumbling Champion in 1960.

1. A Sound Body

Studies at Yale University, the United States’ Military Academy at West Point, and the University of Illinois have proved that the physical fitness of Americans is in a state of gradual deterioration. We are not nearly as fit as young people in Great Britain or Japan. In fact, many British girls are physically superior to American boys in the ten-to-thirteen age group.

Most people aren’t physically fit—including a lot of athletes. A few years ago a research organization, called Sports College, made a very interesting study of 2,700 athletes engaged in all kinds of sports. Not one of them did better than 65% of his possible peak performance. Almost all were below par in strength, speed, and endurance; almost all were weak in arm and shoulder strength.

Here is an example: A physically fit person should certainly be able to do twenty-five two-hand push-ups without great strain. Yet only one in seventeen of the athletes tested could do that. Only one in seventy-four of them could do a single one-arm push-up—admittedly a much more difficult feat. Only one in eighty-two could do a single one-arm pull-up on a chinning bar. While they’re not as good as they should be, the athletes obviously are in better shape than the rest of us. How do you stack up? How many push-ups can you do? How many pull-ups? How long can you run without getting winded?

Body-building exercises and self-defense training activities probably appeal most to boys and young men from the ages of 10 to 25; but anyone can benefit greatly from this kind of exercise, if it is approached sensibly. At least from the viewpoint of physical fitness, the 10-to-25 group is, ironically, the group that needs this book least. In terms of strength, speed, endurance, and general fitness, the peak years are reached at 17 to 19, and the peak in physical condition continues for the next 7 to 9 years. Physically, these are your best years. This is the time to take advantage of your abundant energy and high muscle tone. Physiologically, middle age begins at 26. At this time your physical condition begins to gradually decline. Thus, the 30-year-old man needs physical training even more than his 15-year-old brother.

You would not be reading this book if you were not conscious of your body. Your physical appearance and your muscular growth are important to you—as they should be. You want to look well, feel well, and perform well.

You have seen and admired the excellent physiques of others—friends, athletes, weight-lifters, gymnasts—and want your own physical appearance to be as good. You want to be proud of your body, not ashamed of it or self-conscious about it. Nobody wants to be skinny, or fat; every healthy boy and adult man wants to be solid, strong, and confident.

But I hope you believe, as the Roman poet Juvenal believed, two thousand years ago, in a sound mind in a sound body. For this is not a book for muscle-heads. The guy who is nothing but an athlete is certainly no better off than the guy who’s nothing but a bookworm. Your goal, I hope, is to achieve a full and balanced life in both directions.

A great many boys and young men are dissatisfied with their physical appearance, perhaps even embarrassed about their poor development. They lack confidence, especially in their ability to defend themselves. They may never have had a physical encounter; they may guiltily suspect that they’re cowards.

If you’re not a bully, you should never have to suffer from those miserable feelings of guilt. Nobody is born a hero. Physical confidence and courage must be trained and developed.

I hope to show you how to build up your body. Even without training in self-defense, body-building will do a great deal for your physical and psychological well-being. People who are small, or at least not very strong, often enroll in judo classes because they’ve heard that size and strength don’t necessarily matter. To a degree this is true. But you must become quite expert at any gentle art of self-defense before you can feel really confident.

Why should you accept weakness? You can’t do much about being short, but there is plenty you can do about being weak. Learning to defend yourself is part of the answer; body-building is another part.

Maybe you’re not physically unfit. You may be in excellent physical condition, active in