Alois P. Swoboda was born in Vienna on March 8th 1873. In 1881 he emigrated to the USA and arrived at New York City with his father, Adolf Swoboda, to live with a relative.

At present little is known about his early years other than that he went on to become one of the leading Physical Culturalists in America.

Charles Atlas was quoted as saying that "everything he knew he learned from A.P. Swoboda. "The Peoples Almanac Of The 20th Century" has the following statement: "He [Charles Atlas] wrote away for the Swoboda Course." The Swoboda course featured self resistance exercises [pitting one muscle against the other] and basic muscle flexing and tensing exercises of the type that Charles Atlas later included in his Dynamic Tension Course.

When Bob Hoffman was promoting isometrics in the 1960s he said that his father had one of the best builds that he had seen and that all he did was flex his muscles which he learned from taking the Swoboda Course. Hoffman also said that they were the first exercises that he was exposed to.

At the age of 28, just 10 years after reaching the US, Swoboda had become a millionaire and his family, including daughters Helen Aloisia, Emilie & Lillian, were raised in elegant luxury. Helen attended finishing school in England and Lillian appeared in silent movies under the name of Evona Dione.

Apart from his highly succesful exercise course (only partly available on this website at present) he also produced other courses on more general topics, some which you will see below.

Are You On The Kinetic Level?

Letter to pupils - 1925

Contributed by 'Upbuilder'

The Dangers of
Athletic and Gymnastic
Exercise

date unknown

Contributed by Alfredo J. Martinez

You have been warned!

Click here to download a PDF copy