Thick Handle Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Lorenz Geer – King of The Snatch

Posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2018 by John Wood

Lorenz Geer, the popular oldtime strongman from Munich, Germany, was known as “King of The Snatch” in the later part of the 19th century. He achieved a right-hand snatch of 165 pounds and 9 reps with 142 pounds. Geer was particularly fond of working with thick-handled equipment.

Arthur Leslie

Posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2018 by John Wood

Arthur Leslie was just a guy who trained at Sig Klein’s Gym in New York City. The reason Leslie began training in the first place is that he became tired of being weak and overweight. At 46 years years old he had never touched a weight before but soon after he began training he began to see tremendous results. In fact his results were so dramatic, Sig Klein featured him in several occasions in his publication Klein’s Bell. Here he is with a great Thick-Handled show barbell. Leslie was 59 years of age when this picture was taken.

Melvin Tampke

Posted on Saturday, February 17th, 2018 by John Wood

Melvin Tampke, from San Antonio Texas, was frequently featured in Alan Calvert’s Strength Magazine. Here he does a one arm clean and jerk with an excellent Thick Handled globe barbell. Tampke made it into Ripley’s Believe it or Not by doing 200 straight pushups. It was also reported that he drove a no. 20 nail through three 1-inch yellow pine boards and two pieces of no. 15 gauge iron all stacked one upon the other with one blow of his fist!

The Thomas Inch Dumbbell – Lifted At Last!

Posted on Friday, November 10th, 2017 by John Wood

History is made! John Gallacher of Glasgow became the first man in modern history to decidedly lift the Thomas Inch Dumbbell at the 1957 NABBA Mr. Universe Contest held in London, England.

Mr. Gallacher fully deadlifted the Inch Dumbbell THREE times that night and was awarded the Special Plaque by Thomas Inch himself. As you should well know, the famous Thomas Inch Dumbbell weighs 172 pounds and has a 2-3/8th inch diameter thick handle making it a tremendous grip challenge for anyone who attempts to lift it. This challenge weight defied thousands of athletes until Mr. Gallacher came along. As luck would have it, Mr. Gallacher called my office a few years back and I got a chance to speak with him at length about the special training which allowed him to lift The Inch Dumbbell.

Small Inch Dumbbells

Posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2014 by John Wood

Thomas Inch is famous for his Challenge Dumbbell which weighs 172 pounds… What most people do not know, however, is that there where actually three other Inch Dumbbells which were smaller and which allowed him to progressively gain strength in order to lift the biggest one. The smaller “Inch” bells weighed 75, 140 and 153 pounds respectively.

Since the original Inch Challenge Dumbbell is now sitting in my living room in Cincinnati, I recently, decided to commission a series of smaller bells which would not only keep that tradition alive but also better help in bridging the gap while training with the 172-pound Inch bell.

These dumbbells were cast in a far off land and brought to the U.S. at great personal expense. They are currently the only bells of this sort on U.S. soil. The two larger ones weigh 53 kg (116.6 pounds) and the two smaller bells in the back weight 40 kg (88 pounds). I wanted to get a pair of each size for farmer’s walk training.

You’ll be seeing more of these bells soon…

Thomas Inch Dumbbell REPLICAS

Posted on Monday, September 8th, 2014 by John Wood

In the late 90’s, the Staver Foundry of Virginia, Minnesota produced replicas of the famous Thomas Inch challenge dumbbell. These solid globe dumbbells weighed 172 pounds but the handle is slightly thicker (2.47″ vs. 2-3/8″ on the original.)
172 Pounds may not seem like much of a challenge to lift but the thick handle makes it nearly impossible.

Thousands of athletes have tried to lift the Inch Dumbbell but only a few have succeeded. You’ll need a very strong grip if you want to add your name to the list. There IS a secret to lifting the Inch Dumbbells, something that we’ll cover on another occasion…

(NOTE: we do not have Inch Dumbbell replicas for sale.)

W.A. Pullum’s Challenge

Posted on Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 by John Wood

W.A. Pullum was a great British Strongman who set scores of strength records during his competitive career. Like many Oldtime Strongmen, Pullum had his own strength challenge. Using the special thick-handled globe barbell shown here, a lifter had to do a “Two Hands Anyhow” with a poundage equal to 1-1/2 times his own bodyweight and simultaneously lift a kettlebell loaded a third of the barbell poundage with the other hand.

Pullum used to perform this “double-bodyweight” feat twelve times per week but in all his years, his “challenge” was never accepted.