Don't Just Get Tough! Get COMMANDO Tough!

George Jowett who after an accident he was in as a teenager went through years of training to become a professional weightlifter from Ontario, Canada. He later became the editor of Strength magazine and an author. In 1927,was billed as the "world's strongest man" as he founded the Jowett Institute Of Physical Culture. The institute would run ads in various comics throughout the 1940s trying to get dupable new recruits by claiming that their system could help someone not merely get tough, but commando tough. George Jowett now labeled himself as the "world's greatest body builder", and that he had developed something he called the Progressive Power Method which would not only make you stronger but also claimed to make you handsomer. It's more than likely any fitness program will help make its subjects stronger, but the insistence that Jowett's system would make you more beautiful is desperately subjective. Beauty is obviously in the eye of the beholder, but if you happen to have a face that would make a train take a dirt road, it wouldn't help your chances of getting a date better just because you can comfortably answer the eternal question of "Do you even lift, bro?". The Jowett Institute's sales pitch was that you could be as "tough as a marine" with a series of five different books as part of their 10-day free trial that let you decide whether you want to build a mighty arm, legs, grip, back, or chest. Their deal also offers you a free copy of the Jowett's Photo Book of Famous Strong Men which is nice if you're into vintage circus oddities. Each of the five books are available for either a quarter each or to buy all of them for a dollar, so all in all not the worst deal a comics ad had to offer, even though by today's standards it would be a minimal of $15. Granted, even a series of handcrafted fanzines cost even more than that nowadays, but not a deliberate rip-off in anyway. So, if you want to get "commando tough", this basic physical routine wouldn't be the worst ruse you might fall for.

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