The other week I posted this on Instagram and Facebook.
People got MAD!
I’m sharing it here too even though I know the same thing will happen. 🙂
First a few words of warning. I am a professional strongman. Doing so involves some potentially dangerous feats of strength. For example, in the past, I have juggled flaming kettlebells and supported half a ton on top of my wrestler’s bridge. Both absolutely had a dangerous element to them.
Related to that last feat, I’ve developed quite a strong neck. Sure, I could keep bridging and push up the weight there, but I’ve been looking for a new challenge.
After reading Willoughby’s The Super Athletes last year I started working on the chin hang. That is where you hang from a bar with just your chin over it.
But even with that feat, which I’m still working on too, I had in mind the following feat.
I first heard about this from Martin “Farmer” Burns. He was a famous strongman and wrestler. His most famous feat was to take a 6-foot hangman’s drop and hang there while whistling Yankee doodle dandie as pictured here.
Quite literally a death-defying feat of strength if there ever was one!
Modern-day strongmen such as Mike “The Machine” Bruce and Matti Marzel have pulled off the hanging part. So he wasn’t simply a one time freak of nature. I say if it’s possible for them, it’s possible for me.
Warning! Don’t try this at home. This is how many people in the past have died so one mis-step and you could join them.
One idea I like is that if you’re going to be stupid, be smart about it. Certain safety precautions are being taken as I go after this. (And I have no intention of ever trying the drop and I haven’t heard of anyone replicating that. To me that part is ballsy! The rest, the hanging part, I see as achievable.)
So I’m working up to this feat now. It’s hard to judge when I’ll pull it off without support, but I’m confident I’ll get there.
For those that worry that impressionable young kids will see this, think it’s a good idea and end up hanging themselves, well I really don’t know what to say to that. By that line of logic, you should never do anything dangerous ever for fear that someone will follow suit.
For those that ask why? I like a challenge and surviving hanging by neck strength is a feat of strength only a few full have pulled off. I say why not? Besides I choose to pave my own path in a way that very few others have.
Once again, I am NOT recommending this to anyone, I’m just sharing what I’m doing.
P.S. If you want to develop a strong neck, in a far safer manner, I do recommend the wrestler’s bridge as a good place to start.