Greg Newton
11-13-2008, 06:10 PM
First, I want to invite Superbeast to add to this, because he is the biggest Woody Strode fan on this forum and he has collected several magazine interviews with Strode. Second, I have finished Goal Dust and I am in awe of the man as an athlete, an actor and as a human being.
According to Goal Dust, during his time in high school/junior college Strode began doing pushups, knee squats, and situps daily. He did not go into the training specifics other than to say that the knee squats were like the Great Gama's, so they were done on the toes. Because of the time period, early 1930's, I'd have to guess that the situps were of the straight legged, unsupported variety.
That time period is important in another aspect. Strode worked up to 1000 reps of each exercise. The situps and squats were done continuously and the pushups were done in sets of 100. To some this is mind boggling because a workout like that would take at least 2 hours to perform, and if you did the same thing everyday, that would take an incredible level of concentration. However, we are definitely looking at someone from a different and simpler era. You worked out simple and did it. Strode was focused on becoming a decathelete and a football player and he did what he thought it took.
Strode was also a big fan of Johnny Weissmuller and got a chance years later to tell him his Tarzan movies were what inspired him to train so hard. When Weissmuller asked him how he stayed in shape, Woody told him that he trained everyday because he wanted to be like him. That focus stayed with him throughout his life, because during the time his wife was sick and dying and he was tending to her at home, he began daily running in place, two hours at a stretch.
One of the things about Strode that we've commented on previously is that at 6-4 and 210 pounds, he dwarfed other actors and athletes, even men bigger than him. According to Woody, his training gave him the look of a weightlifter without the bulk. He said he was just as strong as the guys who weighed 250, but he prefered the wiry strong look over the bulky look, and he felt his pushup training was what gave him his look.
Other things he did for exercise over the course of his career were the running he did for the football and track. He often played Indians in the movies, and he said that bareback horse riding strengthened the legs in a spectacular way. Along the way be began roping, and learned to shoot an eighty pound bow. During a rehab period for a broken shoulder, he did flexing and lifted a five pound weight. Because as an athletic actor he did so many of his own stunts Woody was inducted into the Stuntman’s Hall of Fame.
I wish there was more to say, but I get the feeling that Strode did his pushups and situps and took it for granted. That is what he did to stay in shape and you did it every day. He may have tapered back his workouts as he got older, although 500 pushups a day for the most of us is not tapering, but he trained hard until the end of his days.
At the end of Goal Dust, he had this to say,
"If you ever run across Joe (Nameth) ask him about how old Woody caught the stagecoach. I made a 200 yard run, jumped fom my horse to the runaway horses, and reined in that six horse team. Joe sat there watching me and could not believe it. I was fifty-seven years old and it was the first time I had ever done that.
Well, I’m too old to catch any stagecoaches. In my last three pictures I’ve done work that is too hard for me. But I always stay in shape. I don’t go to a job out of shape, because the man looks at me and wonders, “Can he still do the job?” My camoflauge is close fitting tee shirts, and I parade in them like an old racehorse.
Last Sunday I went fishing down on Huntingdon Beach. You don’t hardly see any black people down there. We went into a hamburger stand to get some cold drinks. A bunch of big muscled white kids, surfers, discovered me. They said, Woody Strode, my God, we’ve watched you all our lives. They talked about my Tarzan film with Jock Mahoney.
I said, “That was over twenty-five years ago”
They said, “You were an animal!”
You can imagine the good feeling that gave me. Imagine how that fed my ego. I have done enough films that when I get around a group like that; they admire me because I just stayed in such good shape. I got all my fans based on this look. I can still attract attention stepping off any plane in the world. I can still half-ass fight. I can do all that ballet stuff; the only thing I can’t do is fall off the horses.
I’m an old man, but life will never make an old man out of me. As long as you look like you can run on Santa Anita’s race track, even if you take last, you’ve still made the field. People see that horse and wonder what it is doing out ther. They don’t know its 100 years odl. Well, this is how nature has left me, so it is good."
According to Goal Dust, during his time in high school/junior college Strode began doing pushups, knee squats, and situps daily. He did not go into the training specifics other than to say that the knee squats were like the Great Gama's, so they were done on the toes. Because of the time period, early 1930's, I'd have to guess that the situps were of the straight legged, unsupported variety.
That time period is important in another aspect. Strode worked up to 1000 reps of each exercise. The situps and squats were done continuously and the pushups were done in sets of 100. To some this is mind boggling because a workout like that would take at least 2 hours to perform, and if you did the same thing everyday, that would take an incredible level of concentration. However, we are definitely looking at someone from a different and simpler era. You worked out simple and did it. Strode was focused on becoming a decathelete and a football player and he did what he thought it took.
Strode was also a big fan of Johnny Weissmuller and got a chance years later to tell him his Tarzan movies were what inspired him to train so hard. When Weissmuller asked him how he stayed in shape, Woody told him that he trained everyday because he wanted to be like him. That focus stayed with him throughout his life, because during the time his wife was sick and dying and he was tending to her at home, he began daily running in place, two hours at a stretch.
One of the things about Strode that we've commented on previously is that at 6-4 and 210 pounds, he dwarfed other actors and athletes, even men bigger than him. According to Woody, his training gave him the look of a weightlifter without the bulk. He said he was just as strong as the guys who weighed 250, but he prefered the wiry strong look over the bulky look, and he felt his pushup training was what gave him his look.
Other things he did for exercise over the course of his career were the running he did for the football and track. He often played Indians in the movies, and he said that bareback horse riding strengthened the legs in a spectacular way. Along the way be began roping, and learned to shoot an eighty pound bow. During a rehab period for a broken shoulder, he did flexing and lifted a five pound weight. Because as an athletic actor he did so many of his own stunts Woody was inducted into the Stuntman’s Hall of Fame.
I wish there was more to say, but I get the feeling that Strode did his pushups and situps and took it for granted. That is what he did to stay in shape and you did it every day. He may have tapered back his workouts as he got older, although 500 pushups a day for the most of us is not tapering, but he trained hard until the end of his days.
At the end of Goal Dust, he had this to say,
"If you ever run across Joe (Nameth) ask him about how old Woody caught the stagecoach. I made a 200 yard run, jumped fom my horse to the runaway horses, and reined in that six horse team. Joe sat there watching me and could not believe it. I was fifty-seven years old and it was the first time I had ever done that.
Well, I’m too old to catch any stagecoaches. In my last three pictures I’ve done work that is too hard for me. But I always stay in shape. I don’t go to a job out of shape, because the man looks at me and wonders, “Can he still do the job?” My camoflauge is close fitting tee shirts, and I parade in them like an old racehorse.
Last Sunday I went fishing down on Huntingdon Beach. You don’t hardly see any black people down there. We went into a hamburger stand to get some cold drinks. A bunch of big muscled white kids, surfers, discovered me. They said, Woody Strode, my God, we’ve watched you all our lives. They talked about my Tarzan film with Jock Mahoney.
I said, “That was over twenty-five years ago”
They said, “You were an animal!”
You can imagine the good feeling that gave me. Imagine how that fed my ego. I have done enough films that when I get around a group like that; they admire me because I just stayed in such good shape. I got all my fans based on this look. I can still attract attention stepping off any plane in the world. I can still half-ass fight. I can do all that ballet stuff; the only thing I can’t do is fall off the horses.
I’m an old man, but life will never make an old man out of me. As long as you look like you can run on Santa Anita’s race track, even if you take last, you’ve still made the field. People see that horse and wonder what it is doing out ther. They don’t know its 100 years odl. Well, this is how nature has left me, so it is good."