| Bigsteel Readers Gallery Welcome to the Bigsteel Readers Gallery. Over the years people have been kind enough to send me pictures of things they have done, not with the idea for publishing on Bigsteel, but just sharing their accomplishments. I've wanted to start a gallery of these pictures, but never had enough at any one time to start up a page. If you would like to have a picture here, go to this page.
It appears that Bigsteel has already outgrown this format and now I will switch to individual pages for each person in the Gallery. I'll probably redo them all, but lets start with another entry from Stefan Straub and Steve McGranahan.
| Below are pictures of Greg Matonick. These pictures of Greg performing feats of strength were taken in the 1980's, however, after a long lay off due to two (2) serious car accidents causing severe shoulder damage and being diagnosed with diabetes, Greg has recently been bending steel among other things again. The first picture to the left is Greg bending a 34" half-inch piece of rebar across the bridge of his nose. This was performed December 6, 1985 at a Bench press contest. The middle picture is Greg bending a 3/8"x12" spike on October 22, 1983. The final picture is Greg blowing up a hot water bottle in his gym, an awesome feat of strength that has never been seen on Bigsteel before. Editor's note: this is a very dangerous feat since the air can blow back into your lungs- do not try it, I mean it! In those days Greg also bent 60-penny nails un-braced as well as horseshoes. Greg could also bend a 4-foot x 1"x1/2" bar, the same dimensions that Slim the Hammerman is known to perform in his shows. Greg, now 52, is once again doing strength shows along with motivational and inspirational talks to youth groups and adults. |  |  |  |
Below is Police Officer Kevin Mc Bride,. 6'2" and 240-pounds of America's finest, and obviously tough as a brick. The lift he is performing is a variation of the Herman Goerner Brick lift. Actually, as it turns out, there is not a very clear description of Herman Goerner's lift, and this is the way Kevin decided to do it. I believe Goerner actually pinch lifted the bottom brick, but Kevin's lift is also a valid, and difficult, way of lifting a stack of bricks. |
 The first picture Kevin sent was too dark so he took some more and in the process made a new PR, 10 bricks! I tried this and could only muster eight 4-pound bricks and it was hard. |
 This is Nik's brother, Stefan Straub, doing an unusual lever with a sledgehammer. Stefan is only 15 years of age, yet is already closing the #2 gripper for reps, and can do a one hand deadlift with a 180-pound dumbbell, which is over his bodyweight of 170-pounds. I estimate the torque on Stefan's wrist in this picture to be about 120-inch-pounds, and considering that this is an awkward position for the hand, that is quite a bit of torque. I think both Nik and his brother Stefan will be future Captains of Crush on the #3 gripper. You saw them here first! |
| This is Arne Persson performing a very strict plate curl on a preacher bench. Not only is this an excellent feat of strength, it illustrates one of the best ways to do the exercise. Using the preacher bench eliminates body swing that could be used to "cheat" the weight up. The plate is a 15kg Eleiko plate (33-pounds) and Arne's best is 10-reps in strict style (wow). |
 Arne describes his wrist during the curl as not dorsal flexed. As with many grip and wrist strength feats, what makes this difficult is the torque caused by the plate. I've calculated that a 35-pound plate is 2.8 times harder to do than a 25-pound plate and a 45-pound plate is 4 times harder than a 25-pound plate. Think about that if you try this feat with a mere 25-pound plate, which is very difficult for most people. (March 18, 2003) Arne has sent me pictures before, inspiring the Sept. 2001 article "A Virtual Journey." |
Shades of Sorin! This is Rick Walker, recent Captain of Crush, showing the creativity of a great Grip Master. Rick is pinch lifting a round electric motor with a width of around 5.5". The plate and chain brings the weight up to 38-pounds, a huge lift on this very wide implement. Rick is already zeroing in on the famous Beef Builder Elite, a bear of a gripper, stronger than the Ironmind #3. Rick has also sent me a picture of himself lifting a 120-pound anvil by the horn. To give an idea of Rick's overall strength let me add that he has recently deadlifted 600-pounds for 3 reps. That should give you an idea of the hand strength required for this related feat.
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 Here are two more pictures of Rick Walker. Rick sent me many pictures, but I choose these two for very particular reasons. The first picture shows Rick with a #3 gripper in his right hand, and an 8-pound hammer in his left. I picked this one because I could not duplicate it myself. First, I'm still very shaky with the #3 gripper and two, it would take a very long hold to get the hammer into place as well. |
I picked this picture because I am envious that Rick owns an anvil. It weighs 120-pounds and Rick picks it up so casually it is amazing. I mentioned to Rick before he sent this picture that I have not seen many pictures of sledgehammer levering on the Internet (or anywhere else for that matter) and thought his pictures would be a good start to the Readers Gallery because the sledgehammer and anvil were such unusual lifting implements. |
Copyright March 2003 |
