Neck Strength Archives - Page 2 of 5 - www.oldtimestrongman.com

The Great Peters — The Man With The Iron Neck!

Posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2018 by John Wood

Aloys Peters was a German acrobat who developed an unusual skill — he could jump off a platform 75 feet in the air with a hangman’s noose around his neck and yet not hang himself. He had figured out the knack where he could maneuver his body mid-air and “tame the arc” taking the jolt out of gravity’s cruel grasp. Peters performed this feat initially for the famous Strassburger Circus in Berlin and then the Sells-Floto Circus on US shores in the early 1930’s.

The Wheel of Death!

Posted on Wednesday, November 8th, 2017 by John Wood

Indian Strongman Najeeb Goswami allows a cart loaded with a few hundred pounds of passengers to pass over his neck – a feat that he terms “The Wheel of Death!” Mr. Goswami was not the only one who accomplished this feat.

The Wrestler’s Bridge 3

Posted on Tuesday, October 31st, 2017 by John Wood

Another fantastic shot of The Wrestler’s Bridge in action. Unfortunately, it was not recorded who these gents were but the fellow on the bottom performs a picture-perfect nose-to-mat bridge to save what would probably have been an easy pin. Superb.

Joseph Vitole’s Strong Teeth

Posted on Friday, October 20th, 2017 by John Wood

“… looming before my vision as a standout, was a feat by Joseph Vitole, a 155 lb. lad whom I trained right after World War I. Vitole had the most perfect teeth I have ever seen. Each tooth met the other in his bite. He had a square jaw, a stocky neck and a rugged all round build. He specialized in all teeth and jaw hobbies. He really liked to bite and grip with his jaws and this lead to the lifting of weights with his teeth alone. He had a leather “bit” which was attached to a strong chain. This chain had a link-clasp at the other end. Joe would simply wrap one end of this chain around the bar of a bell, then take a firm grip upon the leather mouthpiece, place his hands upon his lower thighs and pull with the back of his neck until the weight raised a few inches off the floor. He trained a lot with this sort of novelty lifting. gradually his poundages increased until he was absolutely sure of doing the unheard of (then) total of 550 pounds! I have seen him do this lift many times in practice. Finally, Bernarr McFadden promoted a physique contest for both men and women in 1921.

At this affair which ran for one week at the old Madison Square Garden, NYC, there were staged various unique events and one of these was a contest in teeth-lifts. I was a judge in this particular affair. Joseph Vitole then and there made an official record of 550 lbs. in the teeth-lift which, to the best of my knowledge, has never been broken. Now please check up on what I have written: Vitole weighed only 155 lbs. himself, yet with the power of his back, neck, jaws and teeth, he lifted this weighted barbell, which was officially tested and checked by many assigned for that particular purpose, and found to weigh 550 lbs. Vitole often told me afterwards that he could easily lift much more than that poundage…”

~ Earle E. Liederman

Saxon Brown ~ The Man They Cannot Strangle!

Posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2017 by John Wood

Saxon Brown clearly has a very strong neck! Here he is in a rare newsreel shot dated April 5, 1929, showing Mr. Brown resisting the pull of five men yanking on a rope around his neck. So well are Mr. Brown’s neck muscles developed that the tugging in no way effected him! Brown’s other hobbies were snapping horseshoes in half with his hands and biting steel chains apart.

Extreme Neck Strength in Action

Posted on Thursday, September 28th, 2017 by John Wood

I was going through some old tapes and while I knew I had the still photo, I found some footage that I didn’t even know I had. About ten years ago, Pat “The Human Vise” Povilaitis and some other buddies all got together at my house in Cincinnati, and well, when strong hombres get together, sometimes interesting things happen. Here’s Pat bending a spike while standing atop yours truly, John Wood, while I’m holding a nose-to-mat neck bridge. The video quality isn’t great, but hey, we had to take what we could get back in the day. (Video has sound.)

Ditka’s Neck Training

Posted on Monday, April 10th, 2017 by John Wood

It is important for football players to increase their neck strength in order to be better prepared to play the game. This was a fact not lot on “Da Bears” as shown by this rare training camp shot. Check out the guys bridging in the background, and yes, that’s Mike Ditka himself doing a headstand. Look closely and you’ll see that his whistle has fallen down around his face. If you have no other equipment available, a simple headstand like this can be an excellent method for building neck strength.

Tyson’s Neck

Posted on Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016 by John Wood

Tyson’s Neck

Above you’ll see an iconic photo for several reasons:

1.) There is no question who is is, even when seen from the back, which I find pretty awesome.

2.) Mr. Tyson made many bad decisions in his life, but one of the good ones was to make a point to build a big, strong neck. Genetics undoubtedly DID have a had in it, but he also did specific training, as you’ll see in the rare video clip below. Obviously this is pretty important if your occupation is boxing (or any other full-contact sport.)

3. This photograph was pinned to the bulletin board of my home weightroom as I was growing up. Aside from the many benefits that neck training brings to any high school football player (especially one with a long neck, like I have) an aspect that should not be overlooked is that “image” is pretty important to young folks, and this photo “got over” the idea that a bigger neck was a relatively easy way to “look strong,” ideally for the purpose of picking up girls –Inspiration (and motivation) often comes from unusual sources. Whether or not this was the intended result is unclear, but I certainly benefited greatly onfield and off in either case.

Interestingly, I recently came across this footage of the great modern boxer Anthony Joshua doing some excellent bridging — this is impressive, someone clearly showed him how to do it right.

“Ya Gotta Use Your Head!”

Posted on Monday, August 22nd, 2016 by John Wood

Steve Jeck is fond of saying that “if you want to be a great stone lifter then ya gotta use your head.” Here, he shows what he means — at least in one sense. I don’t know the weight of that particular stone but it sure doesn’t look light.

Albert Maes’ Strong Neck

Posted on Saturday, August 13th, 2016 by John Wood

Albert Maes, Belgian weightlifter and strongman shows his stuff with this VERY impressive feat: a combination of handbalancing and platform lifting. Considering that’s got to be close to half a ton, being supported, that’s a pretty strong neck.