Long Lost Public Domain Fitness Books Reveal The Secrets of Sleek, Sexy Abs & Ridiculously Muscular Physiques!
Today I got an interesting comment on the blog that I wanted to highlight here…
Hi Debra- thought you might be interested in this: Lifehacker is running a post about a 100 year old fitness system that some people still use today. It just shows that the power of good information carries on and on. Good lessons there about public domain.
~ Joe Ghostwriter
First off…thanks, Joe!
You’re absolutely right about this – the power of good information does carry on and on and fortunately for us, much of this “good information” is also in the public domain.
The Lifehacker article Joe references above links to a more in depth article here and it discusses a system of fitness developed by J.P. Müller (Jørgen Peter Müller 1866-1938) which has been fully documented in his 1904 book, “My System – 15 Minutes’ Exercise A Day For Health’s Sake”.
Scanned digital versions of “My System” can be found online in the Internet Archive here, Google Books here, and Hathitrust here.
Now, in all fairness, I have not had the opportunity to actually read through this book yet but the brief bits I did manage to take a quick look at lend me to believe this is the type of book that could definitely work well when published in “Masters Mode” (see The 5 “Modes” Of Public Domain Publishing for more information about Masters Mode) and aimed at hardcore fitness and strength training buffs hungry for old-school “secrets”.
A few minutes digging around the web revealed plenty more muscle-bound public domain gems…
- Muscle building: practical points for practical people (1905)
- A Natural Method of Physical Training: Making Muscle and Reducing Flesh Without Dieting Or Apparatus (1895)
- Health, strength & power (1904)
- Eating for Health and Strength (1921)
- The Olympian System of Physical and Mental Development (1919)
- Sandow on physical training : a study in the perfect type of the human form (1894)
- Strength and how to Obtain it (1897)
- The Online Physical Culture Museum (lots of vintage muscle-building books)
So get out there and flex those publishing “muscles”!
Want more Public Domain “Hidden Treasures” just like the one above?
The Public Domain Treasure Hunter’s Survival Kit hands you over 500 sources of online Public Domain content. Download your copy today!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great find, especially during the same week of Jack LaLanne’s death, who passed away on January 23 this year at age 96. Perhaps he modeled his program after this system.
Paul Slater´s last [type] ..New Roof For Church Buildings
The link which you have mentioned for Lifehacker article is not showing any article. Could you please check the link for that article.
Mark Johnson´s last [type] ..Correct Usage of English Grammar
Hi Mark… as that article was published Jan. 2011 – I’m wasn’t sure where or if it’s still live. It is!
http://lifehacker.com/5741780/use-mullers-exercise-system-for-a-15+minute-no+equipment-workout