Alexander Zass

Alexander Ivanovich Zass was a Russian strongman, professional wrestler and animal trainer, born in Vilnius in 1888 and known to audiences by the stage names The Amazing Samson and Iron Samson. He served in the Russian army in the First World War, was captured four times and escaped each time, and later credited his prison-cell pushing and pulling against bars with the development of isometric training, which he went on to promote. After the war he toured internationally with a circus, performing feats such as bending iron bars, driving a spike through a plank with his palm and carrying heavy loads on his shoulders. He published his autobiography, The Amazing Samson, in 1926, lived in Hockley, Essex, from the 1930s, and died in 1962.