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Big
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Strength News Archive
While
reading the classic "The Super Athletes" by Willoughby recently, I noted with interest a lift by the great leverage lifter, Paul Von Boeckmann. He would strictly lever an 80-pound, 20-inch, Iron Indian
club from floor to overhead. The lift would start with the club parallel to the floor, up and "over his shoulder." I wondered how I would do with this lift, and the results are in the picture to the right. I found that I could lever 65-pounds in this manner, but for the picture I needed to swing the weight up because the self timer would go off before my top down lever. This is about 650 inch-pounds of torque. I believe with practice and patience I can duplicate Von Boeckmann's feat. It was said that Sandow and Charles Atlas tried the club, but failed to make the lift. Only Joe Nordquest "with great effort" could lift the club in the prescribed manner. 12/2/01.
For those interested in Kettlebells, this Russian site "The String King" features Vladimir Sineglazov performing very impressive feats of strength and flexibility. American readers may be familiar with Pavel Tsatsouline's training methods with kettlebells. Pavel sells authentic Russian kettlebells on his Dragondoor site. 11/18/01.
SAMSON power is a great website devoted to the sport of Strongman. A few months ago they had this great article written by J.V. Askem on the Omega Force Strength Team. The highlight of this page is John Brookfield bending a nail with a sledgehammer on his chin, a feat that I have practiced myself. Actually, I'm much better at the bending than the balancing! Also shown are feats from the other members of the Omega Force Team blowing up hot water bottles, ripping phone books and bending steel in their teeth, something that I have done on occasion. 10/17/01.
Georges Christen has amazing grip and jaw strength. I've searched the web for information on Georges and found some interesting items. In the first, Georges pulls an 8 ton truck 9.5 meters with his teeth! This apparently is not his record because the following page sets it at 13.65 tons for 28.50m. Check out the other world record holders on this site. I believe that the spike bent in his teeth is 7mm x 20 cm or 21cm. Finally, here is a machine translation of this German page into English, describing George bending 250 and 368 nails in an hour on two separate occasions. The size specified doesn't seem to be available in the US, which is too bad because the 20cm listed would be 5 cm longer than the standard 6" nails that I bend. These would probably be easier to bend, but it depends on the quality of the steel. Great stuff all around from a great strongman. 10/10/01.
This entry describes an old time Strongman that I have never heard of before. Galen Gough, according to this page, barely survived World War I with a ravaged body. By force of will he recovered, and in a classic case of overcompensation became a Strongman, billing himself as "The Strongest Man on Earth," "The World's Miracle Strong Man" and "The Daring Daredevil in The World." While these headlines may have been overdoing it, considering many great strongmen of the era, Galen Gough's story still is inspirational. 10/3/01.
Dennis Rodgers is one of the great strongmen of our time. This Article shows him ripping a phone book, and describes a show that he did with fellow strongman Ken Henderson. They are part of a growing group of people known as "strength ministers." In the show they also broke bricks, and bent metal. Dennis bends 1/2" x 18" steel rod around the back of his head! He has also teamed up with Bill Kazmaier (although the article mistakenly mentions "Ken Kazmaier"). 10/3/01.
I stumbled upon
this page while surfing the web looking for interesting
people. 
Natalia Kim is a Russian Champion of sports
aerobics, former champion of Europe in art gymnastics, and a Ms.
Fitness. I was struck by the professionalism
of this page, although it appears to be a machine translation from
Russian to English. Natalia is certainly a physical culturist in the
truest sense. On her Media
page there is a newspaper clip showing her pulling a car and arm wrestling.
Her homepage is in Russian
and English.
10/03/01. The picture to the right is Arthur Saxon lifting two dumbbells continental style.
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