Max Sick
| Max Sick | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
June 28, 1882 Bregenz, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | October 5, 1961 (aged 79) Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Occupation | Strongman, bodybuilder, gymnast |
Max Sick (28 June 1882–10 May 1961) was a German strongman and gymnast who performed as 'Maxick'. With Monte Saldo he developed the Maxalding system of bodybuilding through muscle control.
Born in Bregenz in Austria in 1882 to Swiss parents, Sick's father died at the age of 24, and his mother then married a Bavarian, Herr Sick; later Max Sick became a naturalized German citizen. Between the ages of 2 and 5 Max Sick was unusually weak, suffering with lung problems, rickets and dropsy. His illnesses affected him so severely that he only learned to walk at the age of 6. Aged 10 he made his own weights and created his own regime of physical exercise and fitness. However, his parents opposed his weightlifting and destroyed his homemade weights.
Determined to develop his body despite this setback, Sick began a series of muscle control exercises. In 1896, at the age of 14 he had made such strides in his physical development that he was invited to join the local athletics club. For a while he served in the army. Sick trained as a mechanic at a local engineering works but at the age of 23 he left that employment and decided on a career that could better use his physical attributes, moving to Munich where he joined a gymnasium and where he quickly found work as an artist's model. He was just under 163 cm (5′4″) tall and weighed around 67 kg (147 lb).
Sick began to appear in German music halls, and as part of his stage routine he would make his various groups of muscles twitch in time to music. He would also take a man 20 kg (40 lb) heavier than himself and lift him in the air sixteen times with one hand, while holding a mug of beer in the other hand without spilling it. His tremendous physique made him a very popular performer.
After Tromp Van Diggelen, the South African physical culturalist and founder of the British Amateur Weightlifter's Association (BAWLA), saw Sick's stage act he went to London where he persuaded Eugen Sandow to invite Sick to appear in England. Accordingly, on October 26, 1909 Sick arrived in London where he quickly became a serious contender for the world professional middleweight weighlifting title. However, Thomas Inch, the then middleweight champion, was quickly putting on weight and did not think he would meet the middleweight limit by the time of the match. By early 1910 Inch had been recategorized as a heavyweight and so relinquished his middleweight title to Edward Aston, and a competition was quickly arranged between Aston and Sick. Maxick, as he was now known, made his British lifting debut on 19 January 1910, displaying a much-admired double bodyweight continental clean and jerk.
...
Wikipedia