Strongman: The Doug Hepburn Story Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Tom Thurston has done a brilliant job of portraying Doug Hepburn's remarkable life.Hepburn seems to have wanted to be depicted "warts and all" and Thurston's rendering is unflinching.
Born with a club foot and badly crossed eyes, Doug Hepburn had the courage and strength of will to become arguably the strongest natural (i.e. trained without benefit of steroids or other performance enhancers) man in history.
Weight lifters and others who wish to train without risking their health--Hepburn retained his incredible strength into his later years--can use this book as a training manual. It ought to be required reading for young athletes.
But Thurston's book is much more than a training manual, or dry recitation of weights lifted and contests won (although the book has all of these statistics). The raw honesty of its narrative coupled with the astonishing achievments of its subject combine to make it make it a compelling read. It's a page turner as hard to put down as a best selling novel.
And yet it's all true, often painfully so.This is no mere homage or whitewashed "Biography Channel" version of Doug Hepburn's life. Thurston depicts those qualities of spirit which determined Doug Hepburn's greatness as an athlete, while at the same time letting us see those aspects of his life and character which were at odds with his natural gifts and self-determined destiny.
In short, a great read even if you don't care about weight-training, or other athletic achievment at the world-class level, and a must read if you do.

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Product Description:
Tom Thurston has written the first biography of one of Canada'sathletic legends, Doug Hepburn. Born in Vancouver with a club foot anda severe alternating squint, Doug decided as a boy to surmount hisdisabilities by training with weights, setting his sights on becomingthe world's strongest man. And this he achieved. Doug is now known asthe grandfather of modern power weightlifting. He was WorldWeightlifting Champion in Stockholm in 1953, and he won the gold medalin the British Empire Games in Vancouver in 1954. In addition, Dougwent on to become an eloquent advocate for drug-free sport, and hemade a reputation as an inventor. For those interested in building asuper-strong body that will last well into old age, Doug's complete,drug-free training secrets are revealed in a way that are easy tounderstand and employ. For those looking for the inspiration to tacklesome of their own goals, Doug Hepburn presents a splendid rolemodel. Thurston's biography does justice to every aspect of Doug'slife, illuminating the fortitude with which he met his manychallenges. Includes many black and white photographs.

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