Alexander Zass: How a Russian athlete became the strongest man on Earth

Zass easily could carry around a horse, lift a piano along with a playing pianist, catch 90-kilogram cannonballs fired from a cannon and easily break chains wrapped around his body. A native of the Russian Empire, Alexander Ivanovich Zass was considered to be one of the strongest people of the first half of the 20th century; in Great Britain, they did, in fact, call him ‘the strongest man on Earth’.

But, despite all that, Zass didn’t even look like a strongman. His height was only 168 centimeters, he weighed just 75 kilograms and his muscles didn’t astound with their size. 

“A big bicep is as much an indicator of strength as a big belly is an indicator of good digestion,” Alexander Ivanovich believed. “It’s the tendon that tightens the bicep, which contracts. Tendons and their development – that’s the secret of my strength. I’m strong with my tendons.”  

A life’s passion

Zass became passionate about the world of strength records when he was a teenager, after he attended a circus performance for the first time in Orenburg. Having returned home, he began actively training, using everything he had available.

“Nothing captivated my thoughts more than the wish to become truly a very strong man, such that can do things beyond regular athletes,” Alexander Ivanovich once remembered.

Zass achieved impressive results; however, his father believed his son’s strength training to be a pointless pastime. He sent his son to study to become a machinist, unaware that he got a job at a circus instead, where he constantly mastered different complex stunts.

When World War I began in 1914, Alexander Zass was drafted in the army cavalry. There, he became famous for once carrying his wounded horse on his shoulders back to camp.

After a serious injury, the Russian strongman was captured. However, thanks to the efforts of Austrian doctors, he managed to keep not just his life, but also his health.

Zass was put in a POW camp, from which he tried to escape. He was, however, caught and thrown into a cramped separate cell of a fortress with only a small barred window.

A unique method

“Due to the fact that I was tightly chained day and night – the guards removed my chains only twice a day for meals – my psyche began to erode,” Zass recalled. “And, upon a good reflection, [I] decided that the only way to stop the deterioration of my physical state was to tone my muscles in a different way as compared to what I had done when I had full freedom of movement.” 

In the condition of the stiffness of his movements, Zass began to actively develop and practice a system of isometric exercises during which muscles are tightened, but they don’t stretch or contract. “I quickly realized that this type of physical stimulation can be performed for long hours. Instead of spending energy, it was, to the contrary, only stored.”

The athlete managed to not just keep his shape, but also develop stamina, strengthen his ligaments and tendons, improving their elasticity. He created his unique training method in extremely harsh conditions, having to constantly endure horrific pain from chains tearing his skin bloody.

At the end of the war, Zass’ imprisonment conditions were eased and he immediately used it to try and escape again. This time – successfully.

‘Iron Samson’

Alexander Ivanovich joined one of the circus groups that toured Europe after the war. In 1924, he finally settled in Great Britain.

For his incredible strength and amazing stamina, the audience dubbed Zass ‘Iron Samson’. The press called him “the strongest man on Earth”.

The athlete could easily carry a large horse around the arena. He deftly caught a 90-kilogram projectile, shot from a special cannon, which was later replaced with a human assistant.

In his ‘devil’s smithy’ stunt, Alexander Ivanovich laid down on nails. A 500-kilogram block was then put on his chest that his assistants split with sledgehammers.

In another stunt, the strongman was lifted under the dome of the circus upside down. He, meanwhile, held a rope in his mouth, on which hanged a piano with a playing pianist.

Zass was able to hold a suspended platform with more than ten people standing on it on his shoulders. Once even the future prime minister of the country, Winston Churchill, took part in this stunt.

From weights to animals

‘Iron Samson’ performed in the arena until 1954. By the age of 66, it became hard for him to amaze the public with strength records.

So Zass switched to taming animals, which he did with delight right until 1962. Then, an accident happened in the circus – a wagon with monkeys caught fire and Alexander Ivanovich rushed to save his animals.

The strongman received extensive burns and died soon after in a hospital from a heart attack. Sadly, he never managed to fulfill his old dream to visit Russia at least once more.