Elephant Lifting

Elephant Lifting

Strongman Joe Ragusa shows one way to lift an elephant: via back lift. Ragusa regularly performed this feat in nightclubs and television shows.

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Professor Anthony Barker

Professor Anthony Barker

Professor Anthony Barker was a great Oldtime Strongman in the New York Area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was also very proud of his fine head of hair - hair pulling or lifting was a favorite method of several oldtime strongmen for demonstrating strength and they could withstand quite a pull with no ill effects.

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The Mighty Atom - A Different Kind of Horseshoe Bending

The Mighty Atom - A Different Kind of Horseshoe Bending

Many of the Oldtime Strongmen bent horseshoes but nobody could do it like The Mighty Atom - Yow! The cool thing is, Slim The Hammer Man still has the Mighty Atom's bending post in his Dungeon Gym.

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The Hip Lift

Hip Lift

Mr. Roy L. Smith demonstrates a Hip Lift of a train axle weighing 2250 pounds. Smith did not begin to lift weights until he was over 30 years of age, but using MILO Barbell methods he put on over 40 pounds of muscular bodyweight and was featured in the MILO Barbell Company advertisements.

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Rolandow Jumping The Barbell

Rolandow Jumping The Barbell
One of the signature feats of the great strongman G.W. Rolandow was jumping back and forth over a loaded barbell. This barbell was loaded to 130 lbs. but his record was over 200 lbs. Note that he is only able to hold the barbell with three fingers while performing this stunt.

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Mac Batchelor Plays the Violin

Mac Batchlelor Plays the Violin

Mac Batchelor was a man of many talents...Besides Arm Wrestling and Bending Bottlecaps he could also play the violin... Of course, like any strongman, he added his own unique twist, that's a pair of 50-pound Milo Kettlebells hanging from his right arm.

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Bert Elliott's 276 Pound Bent Press

Bert Elliott's 276 Pound Bent Press
Bert Elliott performs a bent-press with 276 pounds on a russian Olympic set at a strength show at Pasedena, California in the 60's. This lift was approximately 100 pounds over bodyweight for Bert. That's Pat Casey spotting on the right.

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Louis Cyr's Backlift

Louis Cyr's Backlift
A rare woodcut of the great Louis Cyr's famous backlift. Cyr astonished the world with a lift of 4337 pounds!

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Joseph Vitole

Joseph Vitole
At a bodyweight of only 150 pounds, Joe Vitole broke the World's Record with a teeth lift of 550 pounds. Needless to say, teeth lifting builds incredible neck strength. While you may not necessarily want to include teeth lifting in you routine, you should unquestionably be training your neck.

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Sig Klein's Neck Bridge Feat

The era of Strongmanism, several generations ago, used to feature many strongman stunts that baffled and amazed the public. Here's a rare shot of one of the feats performed by Sig Klein and his stage partner Jack Bier. Here Sig holds a Neck Bridge while holding a globe barbell at arm's length as his partner stands on his chest. -- that's several hundred exta pounds supported by Sig Klein's neck alone. Having accomplished a similar feat, I can say this is NOT easy!

Sig Klein's Neck Bridge Feat

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Jack Walsh

Jack Walsh
Jack Walsh from Trenton, New Jersey, is the strongest man you've never heard of.

Over his career he performed all kinds of crazy strength feats, including lifting elephants, towing trains and letting trucks run over his body. At a bodyweight of 190 pounds, he even broke Louis Cyr's backlift record.

Anyhow, here's Jack Walsh jerking a 230-pound dumbbell overhead -- That's damn strong! Do you know anybody that can jerk more than bodyweight overhead with one arm?

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How did the oldtimers train with Kettlebells?

How did the oldtimers train with Kettlebells? The answer might surprise you. In his book The Textbook of Weightlifting, Arthur Saxon lists a few of the different exercises he used: the crucifix, one arm press, and several grip and forearm exercises. Of course, kettlebells also worked pretty well for Combination feats just like this one. (I think that's Kurt Saxon being pressed overhead.)

Arthur Saxon

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George Eiferman's Favorite Strength Feat

George Eiferman was the 1948 AAU Mr. America and 1962 IFBB Mr. Universe winner and was particularly well-known for his chest development. On of the ways in which he built such a deep and impressive chest was regular trumpet playing. Eiferman used to like to show off a bit too and was fond of playing the "Hawaiian War Chant" on his trumpet with one hand while holding a loaded barbell overhead with the other. -- Talk about core strength. He regularly performed this feat at Muscle Beach.

George Eiferman

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Louis Cyr Rock Press

It was said that the great Louis Cyr could pretty much lift whatever he wanted -- this photograph, however, was obviously staged. On May 7, 1896 Louis Cyr is credited with several impresive lifts, and among them was a one-hand Jerk of 254 lbs. Of course, lifting rocks is an altogether different animal.

Louis Cyr

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Jack Walsh's Bridging Feat

Jack Walsh's Bridging Feat

The great strongman Jack Walsh from New Jersey performed some very unique feats of strength over the years. Here he holds 300 pounds in the wrestler's bridge position -- he claimed to have once held 520 pounds like this!

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Armand Tanny's Favorite Exercise: The One Arm Clean

Armand Tanny's Favorite Exercise: The One Arm Clean
Armand Tanny (brother of Vic Tanny) was a very successful bodybuilder in the late 40's and 50's, and a regular at the original Santa Monica Muscle Beach scene.

Tanny competed in many major bodybuilding contests and won the Pro-Mr. America in 1950. His favorite exercise was one you don't often see these days: the one arm clean.

Its hard to tell how heavy the bar is loaded to in this shot -- I'd say at least 225 or so, and you sure won't find any bodybuilders who could do that these days.

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Rolandow's Jumping Feats

The great strongman G.W. Rolandow was very well known for his traditional feats of strength and the oldtime equipment that bears his name but he also excelled at feats of jumping. Shown here, he could hold a 75 pound globe dumbbell in each hand and jump over a table that was 36 inches high and 25 inches wide. He could also turn a somersault holding dumbbells in each hand.

G.W. Rolandow

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Archie Vanderpool

Archie Vanderpool
The Mysterious Mr. Vanderpool performs a pretty unusual feat of supporting strength... With his back against a stone wall, Archie braced his legs against a car driven at full throttle for 52 seconds. -- The tires were worn to ribbons!

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The Dumbbell Side Press

The "side press" is a looser version of the dumbbell press - contrast the picture on the right with the one here. Because it's a bit of an "anyhow" lift, much more weight can be used than a strict dumbbell press. You should be able to press well over a hundred pounds in this manner. Paul Anderson could side press over 300 pounds with ridiculous ease.

The Dumbbell Side Press

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Bert Assirati - Hand Balancing

Bert Assirati Does a One-Hand Handstand, circa 1948
While many hand balancers experts are of the smaller, "gymnastic-type" physique, there were actually several larger strength athletes who could perform hand balancing feats with ease.

The great Canadian Champion Doug Hepburn was a great hand balancer, as was the famous British strongman and Professional wrestler Bert Assirati, (shown here.)

At a young age, Bert was taught how to do all manner of hand balancing feats by an ex-circus performer. You can certainly tell by this picture that he has power to spare.

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The Mighty Atom - Nail Biting

The Mighty Atom - Nail Biting
There are several good steel benders in the world right now but here is a feat we are unlikely to see again any time soon: The Might Atom could actually bite through nails. As Bob Hoffman and other members of the York Gang look on, "The Atom" bites a nail in half during one of his appearances at the York fair.

I don't know for sure but I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being the bitten nail that can seen in the The York Barbell Hall of Fame.

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Can You Curl Like John Davis?

John Davis

Can you curl like John Davis? -- In Dinosaur Training, Brooks Kubik looks at John Davis' curling ability in detail. John Davis, as reported in an article in The Iron Master by Osmo Kiiha, could curl 215 pounds at a bodyweight of just 193 pounds. -- That's 1.11 times bodyweight, a staggering feat of strength. Here's John Davis curling 205 pounds in damn good form.

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Milo and The Bull

Milo and The Bull
Milo of Crotona was one of the greatest athletes of antiquity, winning the wrestling title in the ancient Greek Olympiad six times.

It was said that he built his great strength by carrying a newborn calf on his back each day. As the calf grew larger, so did Milo's Strength. After many days of this, Milo was able to carry a full grown bull on his shoulders -- and thus progressive resistance exercise was born.

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The Iron Cross

The Iron Cross

Much of the origins of strength training and physical culture come from gymnastics. The Iron Cross as performed on gymnastic rings, is one of the most impressive gymnastic feats. It takes a great deal of strength and plenty of skill to perform The Iron Cross properly.

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Paul Anderson Backlift

Paul Anderson Backlift
Paul Anderson's 6270 pound record backlift stands alone as the heaviest weight ever lifted by a human being and certainly one of the greatest strength feats of all time. This is not a picture of Anderson's record lift but one of many backlifts he performed in front of crowds as he traveled the country giving speeches. Including the human weight and weight of the platform, this is probably close to a ton and "Big Paul" makes it look easy.

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The Double Bent Wrench

The Double Bent Wrench
It's hard enough to bend a wrench one time but Dennis Rogers can bend one twice... It's a very tough feat that takes incredible grip strength to accomplish.

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The Richard K. Fox Heavyweight Strongman Championship Belt

The Richard K. Fox Heavyweight Strongman Championship Belt

Warren Lincoln Travis, wearing his Championship Belt

Richard K. Fox was the publisher of "The Police Gazette" a 19th century magazine which reported on boxing, wrestling and feats of strength that might interest the public. It was Richard K. Fox who introduced the idea of the "Championship Belt" to the United States -- bestowing "The Police Gazette" championship belt to Jake Kilrain (and won shortly afterwards by John L. Sullivan in a greuling 75-round bare knuckle match.) The idea was simple -- whomever wanted the belt had to win it in a challenge match. Richard K. Fox also created a similar belt for the "Heavyweight Strongman Champion" of the world, with the first "title holder" being Louis Cyr whom Fox had managed on several tours of England.

Cyr retired undefeated and eventually passed his title on to the great Warren Lincoln Travis who held it for his entire life. I will provide Travis' Challenge feats on a diiferent date.

The Richard K. Fox Heavyweight Strongman Championship Belt now resides at the York Barbell Company Hall of Fame in York, Pennsylvania.

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Bill Pettis: 23-1/4 Inch Arms

Bill Pettis: 23-1/4 Inch Arms
There were a lot of big guys during the 1970's West Coast Bodybuilding Scene -- but none bigger than Bill Pettis.

He's not a name you see mentioned much because he had no interest in competing - just building the biggest and strongest arms he possibly could.

Looks like he succeeded.

As reported by Iron Man Magazine in 1975, his workouts were legendary -- 100 sets of arm work, standing triceps curls with 315 pounds on the bar, 180 pound curls and endless sets of pushups to "flush gallons of blood through the great muscle mass and get an extreme pump."

On several occasions his entire workout consisted of 3000 or more pushups (which took him five hours!)

Among his other lifts you can also add a 475 bench press and a squat with 620 pounds.

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Pat Povilaitis: Baseball Bat Break Over Head

Pat Povilaitis: Baseball Bat Break Over Head
Do NOT try this at home! Pat Povilaitis is a trained professional, plus he is a little crazy which helps when he does something like this. Yes, that's a genuine Louisville Slugger. You can catch some of Pat's other crazy strength feats in 336 Pounds of Fury