Oldtime Strength Blog

Here’s a strongman I guarantee you’ve never heard of before. In the early 1900’s, C.N. Hagel of South Peoria, Illinois billed himself not only as “The South Peoria Samson” but also as The Speed Dumbbell Lifting Champion of the World. Hagel lifted with one hand a 13-pound dumbbell twenty times in twenty seconds, a 30-pound bell twenty times in 16 seconds, a 6-pound bell fifty times in sixteen seconds, a 10-pound bell, eighty one times in forty one seconds, a 61-pound bell, fourteen times in eighteen seconds, a 6-pound bell 100 times in forty seconds, a 55-pound bell nineteen times in twenty two seconds, and a 70-pound bell ten times in fourteen seconds. Whew! As far as we know, his records still stand.