One-Arm Deadlift Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Art Walge

Posted on Monday, March 5th, 2018 by John Wood

Art Walge was a great strength athlete out of Philadelphia in the 1950’s and George Eiferman’s sometimes training partner. Art appeared in the 1951 feature film ‘Quo Vadis’ in the part of Croton and also did a bit of pro wrestling as “The Cardiff Giant.” Big Art had a pretty strong pair of mitts as evident by this 400 pound one-arm deadlift.

Goerner’s Deadlift

Posted on Monday, January 20th, 2014 by John Wood

Goerner's Deadlift

Hermann Goerner was a big fan of deadlifting and he picked weights up off the ground in every conceivable way. Goerner deadlifted with two fingers of each hand… he deadlifted with only his middle fingers… he deadlifted with offset weights… and he deadlifted with one hand. Shown here is Goerner’s one-arm lift of a stone block of 660 German pfunds – the standard measurement at the time. (That’s 727 pounds!)

Goerner’s feat was featured on an advertising poster for the Greco-Roman wrestling championships held in Dresden, Germany from September 8th to the 12th back in 1920.

The One-Arm Deadlift

Posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2012 by John Wood

There’s no question that if you want to be truly strong you’ve got to have a strong grip. Many people think you need a laundry list of exercises to accomplish this goal but the truth is that focusing on a few simple exercises is all it takes. One of the very best exercises for doing so is the basic one-arm barbell deadlift, a lift that can be done in any gym in the land.

Above is Mr. L.A. Chappell, the World’s Amateur Heavyweight lifting champion lifting 448-1/2 pounds. A short while later, he improved this lift to 502 pounds! Chappell was a studen of J.C. Tolson, The Young Mighty Apollon.

Note the unusual cambered bar used for the lift. Though it may make the lift a little easier because it does not rotate like a normal Olympic barbell, notice that this bar is also a little thicker. We may possibly have a bar like this available at some point.

If you are interested in learning more about the One-Arm Deadlift, or possibly adding it to your workout, there is a fantastic article about it in The Dellinger Files, Volume I.

Goerner The Mighty

Posted on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 by John Wood

Hermann Goerner lifts a large globe barbell above his head

The great German strongman Hermann Goerner was known as “Goerner The Mighty” — and for very good reason. Among his many amazing feats were a one-arm deadilift of 734.5 lbs and a “leg press” of 24 men sitting on a plank, a total weight of 4123 lbs. Above, Goerner lifts his famous challenge barbell, which was 330-3/4 lbs. and had a 2-3/8ths-inch handle.; Goerner’s challenge was to clean and jerk this unique barbell without moving the feet, something which he could do easily but which no one else was ever able to duplicate.