Among the many topics my friend Craig Rullman and I palavered on during the Elko Raid was the actual demands of the physical culture of warriors and Frontier Partisans. I think we got on the subject because of the “viral” snark about Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ “dad bod.” For cryin’ out loud! The man is an elite athlete among elite athletes, a playmaker of Tier One proportions, bound for the NFL Hall of Fame. No, he is not jacked. And it doesn’t matter. (Edit, Sunday, February 11: OT, 4th and 1 — bust a run. Bust another run. Win Super Bowl. Again. Legendary feat. ’Nuf said.)
Craig’s experience in the U.S. Marine Corps confirmed what is almost a trope — the jacked dudes often break down under miles of rucking in ugly conditions on bad food and no sleep, while the 5’7″ 145-pound kid just keeps crushing it.
Selous Scouts recruit. Not jacked.
It bears keeping in mind that the demands of the life of the hunter or warrior are often more about endurance than main strength, and they’re all about the go and nothing about the show. Even in hand-to-hand combat, where strength is a considerable factor, it won’t do you any good if you gas out in a minute.
Donald McBane’s multiple-attacker scenario that we just explored is a case in point. Skill and the ability to keep moving without gassing out are paramount. Main strength is not decisive.
Some frontier cultures became legendary for their endurance, none more famously than the Apache. Trainer Mark Hatmaker notes:
The Apache, like the present-day Tarahumara tribe profiled in Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run were a running culture. The difference between the tribes is that the Apache were using running to build warriors who could do what a horse was not able to do in a punishing terrain and climate. There are several military reports from various forts and outposts in the territory at the time that record Apache scouts and/or “hostiles” travelling as much as 70 miles in a single day. Keep in mind these reports of distance are not outliers, but commonly reported occurrences.
“Plunder From Sonora” Art by Howard Terpning. The Apaches could raid over hundreds of miles, on foot when necessary.
Natives and French voyageurs could paddle a canoe endlessly.
Art by Robert W. Griffing.
The legendary feats of Frontier Partisans tend to show profound levels of endurance — fueled by the sheer will to live, or to save others. Robert Rogers nearly did himself in moving ahead of his men on the return from the St. Francis Raid in 1757 trying to secure them succor. Adam Helmer’s legendary run to warn the Mohawk Valley settlements of the approach of British Rangers and Iroquois raiders during the Revolutionary War is a true epic.
Perhaps the most famous Frontier Partisans run-for-life is that of early Mountain Man John Colter, captured by Blackfeet warriors and made prey in some fox-and-rabbit sport. This episode is well-depicted in INSP’s Into the Wild Frontier:
Ranger Captain Samuel Brady made a tremendous leap over the Cuyahoga River in 1780, escaping from Wyandot warriors who his Rangers had tangled with in the forest of eastern Ohio.
There is some debate as to whether Brady’s Leap is history or folklore. It was a mighty long-jump of some 22 feet, and it’s hard to determine from the modern river exactly where it happened or how. What cannot be doubted is that Captain Brady was an exceptional athlete, capable of extraordinary physical feats. The last surviving member of his Ranger company, John Cuppy, described him thus:
Brady was . . . tall, large — with muscles of steel, when he ran he appeared to fly over obstacles, and never appeared fatigued. He could throw a tomahawk straighter and further than anyone I knew.
The great Frontier Partisan Simon Kenton was an impressive athlete as well. His athleticism served him well when he was forced to run multiple gauntlets when Shawnee warriors caught him stealing their horses.
Art by Steve White.
Kenton was, by all accounts, a very big man. Allan W. Eckert has him at 6’5″ and 250 pounds, which would have made him a giant in the time. Eckert did have a tendency to exaggerate a bit (shooting the head off a turkey at 300 yards comes to mind) and other sources depict Simon as a burly six-footer, maybe an inch or two taller. No matter; we know he was a big, powerful dude — but also capable of speed and endurance.
The deadly Lewis Wetzel was renowned for his swiftness — and for the ability to load his muzzleloading rifle on the run (as could Kenton).
Arrested by the U.S. military for the murder of a friendly Indian, Wetzel talked his captors into removing his leg irons — and simply sprinted away.
By now, I’m sure, you’re detecting a pattern. The physical demands of legendary feats of the Frontier Partisans revolve around movement — running, jumping, throwing. Of course, we must seek out Continuity & Persistence: Just a few days ago, the great Norwegian biathlete Johannes Thingnes Bø put on a masterful display of moving and shooting in a World Cup mixed relay competition.
Johannes Thingnes Bø won the Biathlon World Cup in 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2022/2023. He has 78 individual World Cup victories, including victories at the Winter Olympic Games. His ability to run his targets fast after skiing fast is truly phenomenal, putting him among the greats of the sport. Check this out:
He shoots like that consistently.
Now, I’m not one to low-rate feats of sheer strength. Pure strength is always impressive. In a moment of synchronicity, right in the middle of the high desert palaver, I received a text from my brother John with this video of Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson pulling 1,000 pounds in a deadlift a few days ago, ramping up to the Arnold Strongman Classic competition.
Thor, as he is affectionately known, shot to international fame portraying The Mountain on Game of Thrones.
He’s not just for show, though. He may be the strongest man in history. Per Wikipedia:
He is the first and only person to have won the Arnold Strongman Classic, the Europe’s Strongest Man, and the World’s Strongest Man competitions in the same calendar year and holds numerous Strongman titles from multiple strength federations, including multiple world records. With 30 international competition wins, he is the third most decorated strongman in history, behind Lithuania’s Žydrūnas Savickas and Poland’s Mariusz Pudzianowski, and in terms of pure brute strength, many strength analysts and strongman experts regard Hafþór as “the strongest man to have ever lived.”
That 1,000-pound deadlift comes nine months after he tore a pectoral muscle — loudly and gruesomely — on a benchpress. The whole world wants to see Thor make a full comeback — and it looks like he’s going to.
My guess is that Thor is more agile and athletic than his 400-pound carcass might lead you to believe. Nonetheless, if you’re looking for a modern archetypal Frontier Partisan athlete, you’re not going to find him in the Strongman world. Your modern Frontier Partisan athlete is going to be more along the lines of Johannes Thingnes Bø.
And you’d never know it if you ran into him on the street…
Matthew says
It is weird that some people are more concern about how someone looks (i.e. is jacked) than what they can do.
JimC says
Yep.
Matthew says
It is just shallow and frankly is like catty women talking about another’s appearance. (I am NOT saying all women act like that.) It’s effeminate though I imagine those who do it think they are Real Men.
lane batot says
Yeah, can I elaborate on this theme endlessly! And not just regarding humans, but other animals as well! One can write huge tomes about show dogs versus working dogs, and ditto with horses! Of course it’s not only about bloodlines, but also simply what one is accustomed to. I’ve gone on hikes with people who can kill it in the gym, but what I consider an easy ramble over mountain terrain has left them knackered!(but in all fairness, they, no doubt, could outperform me in a gym…..) It also has to do with the QUALITY of one’s muscle–not just the size–which is why many smaller wild animals will MANGLE larger domestic critters that attack them, with embarrassing ease! I once read where it takes ten pounds of developed human muscle to equal five pounds of lion muscle, which is why you have little chance(without an artificial weapon) in a hand-to-hand contest with a lion that also outweighs you by several hundred of those superior muscled pounds! Not to mention those claws and teeth….. AND, as they say, it’s also not how big the dog is in the fight, but how much fight is in the dog! I have been in very few actual physical fights with another human, but as a kid, I was something of a runt, and had to put up with endless bullying by other kids virtually always considerably bigger and brawnier than myself. Until I’d bloody well had enough! And in every case when I DID fight back, I went in to do DAMAGE, and those few opponents always ended up bleeding considerably! And were SHOCKED that such a little runt packed such a punch! But while they were laying around most of the time watching TV or playing video games, I was out running through the woods, climbing rocks and trees, and wrasslin’ with big dogs! It’s more what yer accustomed to, that counts in the end!
JimC says
This is critical. The Frontier Partisans of yore generally had a pretty sketchy diet with a lot of feast and famine. They had very rudimentary medical care, no climate control, and they wren’t getting massage and chiropractic treatments. They got cryotherapy working in icy beaver streams. Yet they accomplished prodigious physical feats because they were accustomed to very hard work for extended periods of time. Of course there was a physical price to be paid, and I am convinced that one of the factors leading to rampant alcohol abuse amongst so many Frontier Partisans was a need for pain relief.
But, ultimately, they were accustomed to hardship and extreme conditions, and thus were able to get after it hard.
lane batot says
In-doob-it-ably! And it also has a lot to do with MIND-SET, no doubt. People physically accustomed to certain endurance tasks, or uncomfortable climatic situations, are not as stressed mentally by them, and can just shrug off what totally depletes or mentally destroys someone unfamiliar with such……
Andrew Wills says
Love this. Great work, Jim.
JimC says
Thank you!
Mike says
As someone on the smaller side–let’s go with wiry–I love the point and generally agree with the thesis. BUT, as you say, feats of strength (Festivus or otherwise) still hold a special place. There does seem to be at least a connection to many of the cultures that showed up on frontiers. Check out Rogue Fitness’s lovely films on the history of stone lifting for great examples. The Scottish Highlands here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhQlNwxn5oo and Iceland here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Tcsg2Yac8. They also have one on the Basque country that I haven’t been able to watch yet. Are the guys doing this representative of the average historical Frontier Partisan? Probably not. Do the cultures that gave us so many of the great Frontier Partisans seem to value raw strength? Probably. Would I want the guy that could lift those kinds of stones next to me in a shield wall? Absolutely. On a long hunt? Still a yes I think: “I don’t have to be faster than the bear Thor…”
JimC says
That’s funny — I had the same thought. Bring Thor along to wrassle the bears. Thanks for the links. I reckon that feats of strength were common festive elements in frontier life — and even the wiry guys were likely pretty damn strong. Country strong, as they say. Chopping down trees and pulling stumps… They weren’t always running the woods.
lane batot says
Reminds me a bit of a discussion I had on another blog awhile back involving the gladiators in the movie “Pompeii” with GOT Kit Harrington as the lead actor. He got super ripped for the film, but he isn’t that BIG, yet the movie had him slicing and dicing all manner of heftier gladiators. Some of those in the discussion thought this unrealistic, but I begged to differ! Someone so SKILLED with weapons, who could move far faster than the bigger, slower guys, had ALL the advantages! If I had a nickle for every wiry little guy I’ve seen PUMMEL the big softies, I’d have quite the nest egg!
Ugly Hombre says
Really a interesting and important topic-great thread. Esp since American physical fitness overall is at a very low ebb. American youth in general are out of condtion, overweight and unhealthy to the point that it effects the pool of those fit to serve. Some say this situation is so bad it effects national security. Not a combat guy was just a support troop but I always tried to stay fit and learned how to use a rifle, pistol, and shot gun as best I could. I remembered what happened in 41′, what happened in 50 in the Korean war when out of shape troopers in occupied Japan found themselves in Korea, and what happened in the post 9/11 military during the sand box wars.
“Here’s your rifle get in the truck”.
“But, but I am computer security”.
“Yeah I know you are – get in the truck”.
Saw it a lot, a long story- a wake up call was needed but some things are too deeply asleep to be woke.
I always thought that a martial arts based exercise regimen whould have been just the ticket for general fitness, combat ability, health and the ability to do the job- also would have been a hell of a lot more fun than running (Dog will be chasing me) weightlifting (will be unloading a truck and getting paid) Or jumping jacks ( deminished cartiledge in knees so Tai Chi for health is now my story ) lol. A book and history nerd one time long time ago I came across Captain Allan Corstorphin Smith’s Ju Jitsu booklets used to train Doughboys- in combatives in 1917 got the most of the series minus one iirc. A Scot who had a adventuresome life- post 1920 or so the man disappeared. Pioneer of Asian martial arts in the west gone in the mist.
“Allan Corstorphin Smith was a pioneer of judo-based combatives instruction in the US Army. He was also the fifth Caucasian, and the first Scot, known to have been graded shodan at the Kodokan. [EN1]Smith lived in Scotland fo r the first 17 years of his life. Where, I don’t know, but Corstorphine is a place on the edge of Edinburgh.Young Smith fancied that he had some ability in boxing, and so, one night in a Glasgow theatre, he decided to accept the offer to meet all comers made by some Japanese jujutsu expert. Smith’s effort to defeat the Japanese was completely unsuccessful. He was impressed with the ability of the small Japanese to deal with much larger opponents, and this gave birth to his interest in jujutsu.
Around 1908, Smith arrived in Japan as an officer of some unnamed, but almost certainly British, company. His office and lodgings were in Yokohama, and finding that it was difficult to travel to Tokyo and the Kodokan as much as he wished, he made his own dojo and invited others, presumably foreigners, to attend. Soon these other members dropped off, and he was left with a Japanese 3-dan friend, Sato, as a training partner. Occasionally, however, other Japanese turned up. One notable visitor was Kyuzo Mifune. Mifune was ranked 5-dan at the time, so this visit would have been before 1912. In 1915, Smith published a book in Yokohama called Little Lessons in Japanese. I have not seen this book, so cannot say anything about it.On January 19, 1916 (Taisho 5), Smith received his shodan certificate at the Kodokan. Contemporary illustrations show Smith, in kilt (minus bonnet and plaid) receiving his certificate amidst dozens of onlookers. The occasion was the most important ceremony of the Kodokan year, the New Year’s rice cake cutting ceremony called kagami biraki.An interview with Smith appears in the March 1916 issue of the Kodokan magazine Judo (volume 2, number 3, page 3). In the accompanying photograph, Smith is shown wearing the full formal Highland dress of kilt, bonnet, plaid, and skean dubh. In this interview, Smith expressed his pride in being a Scot; he even managed to get the Scottish victory over the English at Bannockburn in 1314 into the conversation. (This is the battle featured in the Mel Gibson movie, Braveheart.) Smith said that Scots took pride in their traditions, just like the Japanese took pride in their traditions. He added, however, that Germany was exaggerating the enmity between the Scots and English, saying, “We are all British now.” Of course, the First World War was on, and Japan was a British ally in those days.
https://ejmas.com/jnc/jncart_bowen_0603.htm
Above is some background on the man from EJMAS on line- more below.
“Smith turned up in the United States, apparently in the company of his 3-dan friend, Sato. How Smith and Sato got to America is still unknown. While in the United States, Smith managed to become captain in the US Army, as in 1920, he published a work in seven volumes entitled The Secrets of Jujitsu: A Complete Course in Self Defense. This book was modestly subtitled, “By Captain Allan Corstorphin Smith, U.S.A. Winner of the Black Belt, Japan, 1916, Instructor of Hand-to-Hand Fighting, The Infantry School, Camp Benning, Columbus Georgia, and at the United States Training Camps and Cantonments, 1917 and 1918.” This work is interesting because it makes frequent references to the shita hara, or lower abdomen, which Smith abbreviates, “Stahara.” The Stahara is also mentioned in the US Army’s Field Manual FM 21-150b, Unarmed Defense for the American Soldier, of 1942.After that, Smith disappears again”.
https://ejmas.com/jnc/jncart_cptsmith_0700.htm
Those guys were ripped and in those days to get a black belt in Japan you had to be real. Tuff looking devils some cut like Bruce Lee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga4zLsMmkE0
You can see what it looked like in the video above. Fun to watch it. Some of those guys look like “They could kill with either hand” lol no joke. Much of it would work today. I think the Marines are doing something like it current- I get mixed reports about it from my Jarhead pals at the gym. The Army has their thing as well-l been told. The 1917 version is trench warfare biased they did not fook around back then
” You will hold your post- you will hold your post alive or you will hold it dead”. Duty instructions 1917 USA manual, (rude hovel library.)
What might have been? If it or such a program was standardized and developed- improved moderized from 1917 to today? Lemay did something of the same with his SAC Combat Judo Program – but that died out as well..
A pity imo.
JimC says
Thanks for the links. Agree on a martial arts-based fitness porgram. It covers all the bases pretty thoroughly.
Ugly Hombre says
Welcome! yep, I all ways thought so too. Traditional Martial Arts are not popular now in the military now from what I have seen. The young men like MMA. Thats great stuff but the traditional schools have a lot to offer, weapons, yogic aspects, body repair etc. imo. That would be good for over all general fitness.. Marines seem to be in good shape overall. Army have not seen many of them lately. Air Force?
“The Airforce- don’t know Squat about physical exercise”. old zoomie pard always said.
The Space Force?? Dunno but… there’s no gravity in space.
lol
Ugly Hombre says
https://archive.org/details/The_Secrets_of_Jujitsu_Captain_Alian_Corstorphin_Smith/mode/2up?view=theater
Addendum: Above is the complete series of Captain Smiths “Secrets Of Jujitsu”, from the internet archive.
Will says
An excellent and thoughtful post! I can’t help but think this is why Robert E. Howard described Conan as “lithe as a panther,” not jacked as the Governor.
JimC says
By Crom, that’s right.The ‘pantherish’ aspect is almost always overlooked in other depictions of the Cimmerian.
John Maddox Roberts says
Conan is also described as “Wolfish.” In his letters to his publishers Howard has things to say about how Conan is drawn by the illustrators. He never once complains that Conan isn’t muscular enough. In fact, in the old illos Conan looks like John Carter – lean and mean. Speaking of which, I can personally attest that Green Berets in the ’60s were not bulky and ripped. As one training sergeant told us, “We don’t care how much you can bench press or how fast you can run the hundred-yard dash. What we care about is can you force march twenty miles carrying 100 pounds of gear and fight a battle at the end of it.” I was that 5’7″ 145 lb runt but I could do it. We’d ridge run the Great Smokies for a week without sleep and almost no food until we were hallucinating from hunger and fatigue, go back to the barracks for a hot shower and a decent meal and we were ready to go the next day after a good night’s sleep.
JimC says
X-ring. And we here at Frontier Partisans salute you, JMR.
Quixotic Mainer says
I think the link between endurance and the functioning of the wits during combat/emergency/survival situations is overlooked. With poor breathing comes poor thinking, condition black if you will. I am always one to push endurance as foremost in fitness, and try to convince my rookies as such.
Plus, Bjj rolls, rattan fencing, cross country runs or long jaunts on the snowshoes are just better for the spirit.
JimC says
Outstanding point. I once had a trainer tell me “You aren’t panicking if you’re breathing.” That always stuck with me.
One of the principles that kettlebell folks push is “strength endurance.” TechnoGym has a very detailed explication of what that is: https://www.technogym.com/gb/newsroom/training-endurance-strength/
Training for strength endurance is good for avoiding that gassing out problem.
I’ve been doing some trap bar deadlifting the past few weeks, and, of course, the temptation to set a benchmark (400#) for a single rep is there. I think I need to focus on a lower weight for reps. The 400# will probably take care of itself, and building capacity is much more important for me.
Quixotic Mainer says
That’s a fantastic benchmark! I enjoyed that article as well, thanks. I think the philosophy is very similar to that of the steel mace, which I’ve become enamored with. Build the capacity to just do more work.
Good luck with that heavy bar!
lane batot says
Regarding animals on this subject(I warned you I could ramble on on this subject endlessly!), reminds me of another discussion at a Conformation Dog Show I had with someone showing a Siberian Husky–a breed I’ve had 10 or so of over the years–more than any other breed I’ve had experience with(so far…..) AND I was running a dog sled team at the time……Anyhoo, this Dog Show person was elaborating on how(after I’d mentioned I ran sled dogs) how the AKC “STANDARD” maintains the workability of the breed, with their “form follows function” mantra, and a bunch of other nonsense platitudes Conformation Showers like to spout. And it’s NONSENSE, of course! As I told this lady(which she didn’t much appreciate, from her expression!) “you’d learn more about what makes a good sled dog in five minutes on the back of a dogsled, compared to trotting them around a show ring for ten years!”
JimC says
Right?
Steve Collins says
I remember in the Special Forces Assessment & Selection we had a lot of guys we thought would breeze through quit after less than two weeks, including two captains from the Ranger Battalions. The dude who impressed me was a mechanic from a line unit who had broken his ankle two days prior to our 25 mile road march. He got told he could go home and come back later, but he’d have to go through the whole thing again, or they could wrap it up so he could march and be done with it. He said, “Wrap it up. I’m not doin’ this again!”
I just lost two toenails and fractured my left foot. That kid though, was hard as nails.
JimC says
Holy smokes!
John Maddox Roberts says
That’s the Special Forces I remember.
Craig Rullman says
I found the best regimens for my career whe. I adopted the Crossfit mantra: train for the unknown and unknowable. Constant variety at high intensity. I was a crossfitter early, before it became a cult, but still believe in the principles which put me and many others in a position to go from a seated position to a physical fight for my life at a moments notice.
David Wrolson says
Re-“Country Strong” as mentioned above.
Jim and I are roughly the same age-I was born 1966 and I have always lived in the same area and when I was in high school there were still a lot of “Country Strong” boys from the small livestock farms still around. Nowadays, not so much.
We go to a lot of high school basketball games and some wrestling matches and I enjoy picking out the kids who still have some “Country Strong” in them.
Wayne says
Let’s not forget we descendants of Europeans are the great, great, great, etc. grandchildren of men who successfully hunted mammoths, wooly rhinos and cave bears with homemade spears in knee deep snow. If they hadn’t, we wouldn’t be here. None of them spent a day in the gym.
Excuse me, I have a face cord of wood to move and stack.