Atlas Time Line

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1892 Angelo Siciliano [ Atlas] is born in Calabria, Italy

1903 Atlas and his parents Santos and Theresa Siciliano move to the

United States. Angelo became an only child after his older brother,

Victor, died at aged 5 years in Italy. Angelo was a strong and

healthy child, but grows thin and sickly after the culture shock of

moving from rural Italy to the mean streets of Brooklyn really hits

him. He gets beat up frequently by neighborhood bullies if he didn't

have a friend to walk home with after school. He loses interest in

school work and shuffles aimlessly through his early teenage years,

eventually getting a job in a factory that makes ladies leather

purses.

1909 Atlas goes to Brooklyn Museum of Art and is motivated by Statues

of Greek Gods. His teacher tells him that muscles come from exercise.

He started to read Bernarr MacFadden's " Physical Culture Magazine' "

and sends away for the Swoboda Course. Atlas is motivated mostly by

the Swoboda Course and will later say, " Everything that I know I

learned from AP Swoboda. " He starts doing exercises from the course

that today we would refer to as Self Resistance and Visualized

Resistance type exercises ,but in the late 1920s Roman

would make famous under the name of " Dynamic Tension. " He started to

haunt the YMCA to watch people exercise and tried all of the exercise

equipment. Since he was too poor to buy one he made is own barbell

out of a sticks and two twenty-pound stones and worked out in his

room at night. He also made his own pulley device modeled after one

that he had seen at the YMCA. The motivational writer and speaker

Millard was a member of the YMCA at the same time as Atlas

and says that he did a wide variety of exercises including

calisthenics, gymnastics, wrestling, swimming and hand balancing.

Atlas says in articles before he was being promoted that he really

preferred bodyweight exercises.

1910 While on Coney Island with some friends. They pointed out that

he looked like the statue on the nearby Atlas Hotel. Since Angelo's

nickname was Charlie his new name Atlas was born.

1914 He teamed up with strongman known as Young Samson in a

vaudeville and strength act.

1916 Atlas starts to model for artists and becomes one of the most

popular models in America over the next 5 years posing for many

prominent works of art created by some of the top sculptors of the

day. he even modelled some non-apparatus exercises for Physical

Culture magazine.

1917 He performed a strength and posing act in Henry Brill's Show at

Coney Island. While at Coney Island Atlas met and became friends with

Joe Bonomo. They worked out together and Bonomo taught Atlas, who was

8 years younger, the strongman business.

1918 Married Margaret Cassano. Siciliano (later Atlas Jr)

born on December 12. Atlas and Earle Liederman appear on Vaudeville

in a strength and posing act known as the " Orpheum Models. " Earle

Liedernan starts his mail order course and uses Atlas to promote it.

1919 Atlas is listed in Earle Liederman's Promotional brochure as his

outstanding student. Atlas and Earle Liederman demonstrate cable

exercisers in store windows along New York's Third Avenue. Their

employer was Abe Boshes, an earlier winner of one of Bernarr

MacFadden's perfect man contests. Daughter Diane Siciliano (later

Atlas) is born.

1920: Atlas started demostrating and selling cables on his own.

Frederick Tilney, a course writer for Bernarr MacFadden's physical

culture empire sees Atlas and introduces him personally to Bernarr

MacFadden.

1921 Atlas wins Bernarr MacFadden's contest for " America's Most

Handsome Man. " The selection was made by MacFadden himself from

photographs sent in by contestants.

1922: Atlas is employed by MacFadden to star in a film titled " The

Road To Health " which was never released. Each day Atlas and Tilney

would drive back and forth to the studio together and became good

friends. During one of the drives Tilney suggests to Atlas that they

start a Mail order course. and Atlas agrees.

1922 Atlas wins the title " America's Most Perfectly Developed Man " in

Bernarr MacFadden's Physical Culture exhibition in Madison Square

Garden. Angelo Siciliano legally changes his name to Atlas.

During November of 1922 Atlas and Tilney run their first ad for their

new mail order course. They ran the new company out of Tilney's home

for the first six months. Atlas is no longer listed as a student of

Earle Liederman in Liederman's 1922 promotional brochure.

1922-1928 Atlas and Tilney are partners and successfully run the

course.

1928: Tilney wanted to move to Florida, but Mrs Atlas didn't want to

move away from her family in Brooklyn.Business for their course is

also starting to slow as the recession approaches. Tilney sold his

interest in the business to an advertising man by the name of

P. Roman who was given their account by the agency he worked for.

Tilney's interest was sold to Roman for $500.00 The sales of the

course had started to flounder by 1929. Roman developed a whole

new " storyline " and redirected the advertising to Super Hero Comic

books that were being read by adolescent and preadolescent males-a

very good target market for a bodybuilding course. Roman's ad of

the " Making Of Mac " where the underdeveloped weakling transforms

himself into a muscle man and gets the girl was very effective. That

together with Roman's renaming the course " Dynamic Tension "

really hit a nerve.

1965: Atlas's wife developed a tumor and died after an unsuccessful

operation to save her life. Atlas goes into a deep depression for

nearly two years, almost giving up physical culture altogether as he

contemplates joining a monastery.

1968: Atlas poses for publicity photos on the beach to take the

pressure off Roman in New York from the media wanting to know where

Atlas disappeared to. Atlas visits his adult children during the

summer and has grandchildren in Brooklyn and Santa .

1970: Atlas, now living almost exclusively in Palm beach, Florida

with a live-in companion (Anne) receives visitors almost daily,

including pupils, fans, and reporters.

1971: Atlas develops diabetes from his mothers side and goes on a

high protein diet.

1972: Atlas suffers from chest pains while exercising and is

diagnosed with heart trouble in September. Three months later the

pain worsens and he is hospitalized. He dies in his sleep on the

evening of December 24 1972 from heart failure. The media report that

he was 80 years of age. Both Roman and Atlas Jr said

later that he was closer to 81.

1999: Roman dies aged 92.

2006: Atlas Jr still lives in Santa . A Sister Diane

Spinelli now lives in Brooklyn

>

> Atlas synthesized a course that incorporated all the best

> aspects of the non-apparatus methods he had used to build his

> physique and offered it as a course. Over the years more than

thirty

> million people have purchased it worldwide. If anyone has ever

> bothered to see the pics of his students thru the years, one knows

> the system works. The pics you will see are photos of men after

just

> three or four months training with DT but they look like men who

have

> lifted weights for a couple of years.

>

> The Dynamic Tension course consists mainly of Dynamic Tension

> exercises. These are exercises that pit one muscle group against

> another in a full range of movement. Modern exercise physiologists

> have demonstrated that these exercises follow an almost perfect

bell

> curve of effort, unlike weights. In weightlifting the resistance

> remain the same throughout the movement. That's not good because

> one's strength varies throughout any movement. By using one's own

> muscles to work one's own muscle, the resistance varies perfectly

> with the fluctuations in strength throughout movement. A near

perfect

> bell curve. Isometrica are also included in the Dynamic Tension

> course, though DT is not isometrics. However, all DT exercises can

be

> and should be performed in an isometric manner as well as isotonic

> ally, just as Atlas did. The Atlas Course also includes

calisthenics,

> most of a more advanced nature, such as pushups between chairs and

> one-legged knee bends.

>

> Look online for pics of Marlon Birch, an all-natural bodybuilder

such

> as myself. He uses the Dynamic Tension system of Atlas:

> Exercises that pit one muscle group against another, isometrics,

and

> advanced calisthenics. Marlon Birch came up with some tremendous

> advances in isometrcis that a certain author used without paying

> Marlon or giving him credit. The author lured Marlon to his home

with

> talk of a book deal, and then simply put Marlon Birch's ideas in

his

> own book. Leaving Marlon holding the bag. Great guy, huh? He is

> certainly a man to idolize and look up to.

>

> Not.

>

> Marlon Birch does not use steroids. That's the whole point of

natural

> bodybuilding. His development is the equal of any natural

bodybuilder

> using weights. This entire mind set that one has to use weights to

> become large and muscular (if one chooses to be large) is

fallacious,

> disproved by thousands of Atlas students.

>

> This author that I mentioned recommends exercises that I will refer

> here to as " Looney Pretend Exercises. " In these " exercises " one is

> told to visualize lifting weights, and then flex the muscles and go

> thru the exercise motion as one pretends one is lifting a weight.

> This book also hands out left handed compliments to Atlas,

> and leaves out many of the most important Atlas exercises. I

called

> my chiropractor, Dr. Gray, as well as my former physical

> therapist, Jeanine, and asked if they had heard of these exercises

> (by the real name of the " exercises " ) Dr. Gray told me that he had

> heard of the exercises because he had purchased the same book I

had,

> and that the exercises are sheer bunk They did not work for Dr,

Gray

> or any of his patients. He is not only a chiropractor, but is now

> himself a physical therapist. Jeanine said the same about the

Looney

> Pretend Exercises but added laughter, and she liked my name for

these

> faux exercises. She called it " physiological snake-oil " and told

me

> she too had been foolish enough to try these exercises with a few

of

> her patients.

>

> They don't work. They're horse feathers.

>

> I began the Atlas System of Dynamic Tension thirty-three

> years ago and gained 25 pounds of muscle in about four months! I

> wound up putting on 70 pounds of muscle over a period of six years.

> Admittedly I have unusual genetics, and I also accomplished this by

> doing a far more extensive workout with DT than the " perpetual

> lesson " of ten exercises that Atlas recommends to his students at

the

> end of his course. I also invented ten of my own Dynamic tension

> (muscle pitting) exercises that closely mimic important barbell

> exercises known to add muscular bulk. Neither my DT exercises, nor

> those of Atlas, are easy by any stretch of the imagination.

I

> also incorporated isometrics into my routine, of course, since the

> Atlas course course includes some ALL of the Atlas Dynamic Tension

> exercises can and should be performed both isotonically and

> isometrically.

>

>

> I worked out for about ninety minutes to two hours every other day

> during that six year period, then went on a maintenance program.

The

> exercises are not easy by any stretch. I proved, however, that the

> same results can be had using the Dynamic Tension course of

> Atlas as using weights. The " muscle pitting " exercises can be

> performed at varying speed and intensity, cycling one's training

back

> and forth from bodybuilding (lighter intensity/pressure, greater

> speed, more reps) to strength training (higher intensity/pressure,

> slower speed, resulting in less reps). This cycling back and forth

> over a period of months is in fact the best way to train with

> progressive resistance, giving the trainee the best of both worlds.

>

> Having purchased my first copy of the Atlas system over

> thirty-three years ago, and again just a month ago as a PDF, I can

> attest that the course is written very clearly. The positive

thinking

> and motivational material is inspiring indeed, and the nutritional

> advice has been updated. The old info was accurate, but more needed

> to be added. Some of the course has been reworded. The description

of

> the exercises is clear, and supplemented by sufficient photography.

> Right now the Atlas Ltd company is struggling, but has

plans

> to produce and exercise DVD within several years.

>

> Beware of books and individuals that give left-handed compliments

to

> ANYONE, Atlas included. The author I mentioned is one such

> source of left handed compliments. The author praises Atlas in his

> book, then runs him down on his web-site. Atlas performed feats of

> strength and endurance utterly beyond that author, such as pulling

a

> train car weighing 145,000 pounds for 112 feet. He carried a 500

> pound barbell for a city block to demonstrate his strength when

> Bob " I walk on my thumbs " Hoffman (The now dead founder of York

> Barbell Co.) took him to court saying that no one can develop

> strength without barbells. Hoffman lost and was ordered to shut the

> hell up by the court, to cease and desist defaming Atlas. The

> document is posted on the Atlas web site. Atlas also swam

> over a mile through a storm to rescue a row boat full of women who

> had lost their oars. He tied the boats rope to himself and pulled

the

> boat to shore by swimming with it behind him. This was witnessed by

> Ripley of Ripley's " Believe It Or Not. " Atlas also pulled a

> line of heavy 1940s sedans for several miles.

>

> Let those who claim to be as strong or stronger, as fit or more

fit,

> than Atlas PROVE it with equal or greater feats of strength and

> endurance! Not by demonstrating pretend exercises and their

physique

> which is far inferior to that of Atlas. Otherwise, let them simply

> shut up and buzz off, leaving the ranks of real men behind to go

and

> sit with the ladies and swap recipes.

>

> Now as to what this has to do with BW, I agree with Rich that BW

> training can be a very helpful addition to Dynamic Tension. Or to

> weights, Bo-flex, or anything else.

>

> Namaste,

> Nate

>