TROMP VAN DIGGELEN Tromp Van Diggelen had a very sickly childhood and almost died on three occasions from bouts of pneumonia as well as bronchitis and pleurisy. Perhaps this helps to explain his life long search for adventure and challenges as quite often children who have to fight for their first breath or struggle for health and strength in their childhood go on to develop very strong, independent personalities as adults. His first wrestling coach, Ferdinand Gruhn upon hearing of Tromp's struggles with his health as a child said." Yes, that is always the way; those that start worst make the most effort, if they have the guts, and then they go furthest." Tromp was lucky that he had a very strong mother who was determined that her son would be strong and healthy, She set up an appointment in 1897 when Tromp was 12 years old and took him to see Eugen Sandow. Sandow prescribed the use of strands to build up his strength. Later when Tromp tried to exercise with the strands he found that he wasn't even strong enough to pull them. It is interesting how a determined person looking for something can intuitively find the answers that they are looking for and how favorable circumstances to the solution of their problem seem to appear out of no where. Tromp's science teacher, Mr. Tatham, saw how lonely Tromp was and how his weakness had isolated him as he was even too weak to participate in sports. Mr. Tatham gave Tromp a physiology text book and started instructing him in physiology with the hope that it would give him increased knowledge of the human body and might give him some ideas on how to strengthen himself. |
Tromp at 12 Months old
 Tromp Aged 16 |
One day when they were talking Mr. Tatham said,"When you pinch a muscle with your fingers you hinder or impede the blood flow in that muscle and then when the muscle is released, the blood, which was kept back, flows forward again with increased impetus. If you have a little stream of water and you hold back the flow by putting a spade across the small furrow, the water builds up behind the spade, and when you lift the spade again, the extra water runs forward strongly." Then Tromp inspired by that simple picture said, " but Mr.Tatham, if I make the muscle in my arm hard, the blood-flow in that muscle must surely slow down?" Mr. Tatham said, "By Jove you are right." Tromp then pointed out that when he relaxed again the blood flow must fill it even better for a few moments, and so if he contracted his muscles extra hard and then relaxed them he would be creating a better blood flow in them. Tromp reminded Mr Tatham that he had always taught him that blood is a river of nourishment and it would be bringing extra food to the muscles and nerve centers. Then Mr. Tatham said, " You have said something very important, it seems that it is not the exercise that develops muscle, but the blood that the exercise brings to the muscle."
Tromp said" One must conserve energy when exercising and expend as little as possible. If, for instance, you swing indian clubs to develop your pectoral muscles, you will not get the splendid and quick results that you will by strongly contracting your muscles for a couple of seconds, and then relaxing them thoroughly for a couple of seconds, and then repeating this simple procedure till you feel that the pectoral muscles are properly flushed with blood.
Enthusiastic with his new knowledge Tromp started to stand in front of a mirror and concentrate on his muscles while he was flexing them and then relaxing them. At the same time he visualized them becoming larger and stronger while keeping in his mind's eye the photos of Sandow's ideal physique that he had seen on display in Sandow's office during his visit there. When his mother saw him again she couldn't believe her eyes. In 1899 she took him to see Sandow again. Sandow didn't remember him and had to check his notes to refresh his memory. When Tromp told him that he hadn't used Sandow's expander, but instead had acquired his development by flexing and relaxing his muscles, Sandow encouraged him to continue with that practice since it had worked so well for him.
It was after Sandow had the final meeting with Tromp and his mother in 1899 that he adopted a form of "muscle control" or " isometric pulse contraction" that he referred to a "flicking" as the only exercise that he did when he was traveling. Perhaps feeling competitive pressure from Alois P. Swoboda's course, Sandow wrote a letter to Swoboda in 1905 questioning how one could get a build like Swoboda's just using the methods that Swoboda was then teaching. Swoboda fired back with a response asking Sandow which one of his friends told him that he was the world's best built man. Business competitors; both asserting their strong egos.
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Tromp Van Diggelen made many contributions to Physical Culture as an athlete, teacher, stage performer, author, and promoter. Perhaps none was more important than the discovery of Max Sick who he brought to London and changed his name to Maxick realizing that a name like Max Sick was not appropriate for a strongman. Maxick, like Tromp had been a weakling as a child and when his father had not allowed him to have weights he had intuitively developed the Muscle Control or isometric pulse contraction technique which he had used to develop his physique. Tromp set up the initial promotion of Maxick when he arrived in London and introduced him to Monte Saldo who had been preparing a mail order course that featured exercises that were then little understood. Tromp mentioned that he could introduce him to a man who could show the world what mentally controlled movements could do for the body. Monte Saldo said that he could alter the course to include the exercises used by Tromp and Maxick.. A meeting was set up between Monte Saldo, Maxick and Tromp at the Apollo-Saldo Club and it was at that meeting that the famous "Maxalding" Course was conceived.
Maxick was not Tromp's only protégé. He also promoted Josef Steinbach, a one time world champion lifter, and Herman Goerner who is undoubtedly one of the strongest men who ever lived. Tromp Van Diggelen was his own best testament that his system of exercise developed functional strength and let him live life to the fullest rather than spending four hours a day on some gym. He was an adventurer in the truest sense of the word who grew up and lived much of his early life on the South African Frontier of the late 1800s and early 1900s where wild animals roamed free and you didn't want to get too far away from your gun, |
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 Lifting 210lb (1914-18 period) |
His accomplishments were in big game hunting, fishing, mountain climbing (including being in the first group of 3 climbers to climb the sheer walls of the Bastei Felsen in Switzerland), a very successful wrestling career where he lost only one match out of 100 in an era before wrestling was faked. He also won the Mr. Apollo Contest which was a forerunner of the current Mr. Universe contest. and had his own muscle control and strength act where he was billed as the "South African Apollo." He was the Founder of The British Amateur Weightlifting Association and also had a successful career as a mining engineer. I have not listed all of his accomplishments by any means. The thing that is most interesting to me is that Tromp Van Diggelen proved with his own life the value of the system of exercise that he created in allowing one to live a full, exciting, and adventurous life.
Gordon Anderson |