Thumb Strength Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

An Unusual Grip feat from Mac Batchelor

Posted on Thursday, October 11th, 2018 by John Wood

“The great Mac Batchelor had quite a set of strong mitts. As reported in by John McCallum in The Complete Keys to Progress, Mac could pinch a wine cork between forefinger and thumb, press down as shown and split the cork in half.

Try it…

Al Berger

Posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 by John Wood

Al Berger was a great strength athlete and classic bodybuilder during the 1940’s. Berger was a very good bodybuilder but was most well-known for his ability to perform incredible feats of strength while “pinch gripping” rafters in his basement. He could do 12 pinch-grip chins on rafters 30-inches apart, 6 with an additional 10-pounds and 1 with an incredible 43 additional pounds. In addition to his pinch-gripping feats, Berger could perform a reverse curl with 165 pounds.

Saxon’s Kettlebell Press

Posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2018 by John Wood

Something that I find pretty interesting is that Arthur Saxon demonstrated this unique Kettlebell pressing exercise in The Textbook of Weightlifting back in 1910, yet with all the hubbub about kettlebells these days, I have never seen it listed or performed in any modern kettlebell training course. Saxon wrote that this exercise was good for building thumb strength and I agree.

Bruce Lee’s Thumb Pushups

Posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017 by John Wood

The great martial artist Bruce Lee was a big proponent of physical training and with good reason. He understood… he “got it” … which is why he also made it a point to train his grip. Building stronger fingers, wrists, hands and forearms is obviously very important in combat settings. Here’s Master Bruce doing pushups on only his thumbs in between takes while filming Game of Death – an incredible feat. Can anyone today do this?

Eugene Waddell

Posted on Saturday, October 24th, 2015 by John Wood

Eugen Waddell was a member of the famed “Jackson Trio” and the only man we know of who could replicate Bob Jones’ signature feat of standing atop a series of Indian Clubs and flicking them away one-by-one until left balancing only on his thumbs.

Bob Jones: Handbalancer Extraordinaire

Posted on Friday, November 4th, 2011 by John Wood

Equaled in talent only by his mentor Professor Paulinetti, Bob Jones performed feats of handbalancing mastery that will likely never be duplicated.

Pictured above is one of his most famous feats: Jones began in a full handstand position with an Indian club underneath each fingertip.
One by one, he flicked away each Indian club until he was balancing on his thumbs alone, an absolutely mind blowing feat of strength and dexterity.