I haven’t done any serious bending for quite some time, but I started training again recently. During this workout I tried to bend a Grade 8 bolt and that’s first time I tried it since I bent one long time ago. Here’s my recent bend: And here’s the one from …
The Great Antonio
The Great Antonio was a strongman born in 1925 in Croatia as Anton Baricevic. He was quite an eccentric figure, so it’s not a wonder that there are many anecdotes about him – like the one where he was able to uproot trees using a cable around his neck, at …
Thomas Topham
Thomas Topham was a strongman born around 1710 in London, where he was known as “The British Samson”. His strongman career started in his own pub, where he used to entertain the crowd by performing various feats of strength. Topham performed many feats which are still popular today, but a …
Otto Acron
Otto Acron is a strongman from Australia who was born on May 12 1935. As a young boy, Otto read Captain Marvel and Superman comics and that’s what initially pushed him towards feats of strength. At the age of 14 Otto sustained a serious brain injury while boxing in a …
Ottley Coulter
Ottley Coulter was born in 1890 as the smallest male in a large family of big men, but through persistent training and good diet he managed to reach the highest strength level of them all. He is one of the few circus performers who had at least some kind of higher education, …
Siegmund Breitbart
Siegmund Breitbart was born in 1883 in a Jewish family and he is best known for his strongman acts as a circus performer. He had a strong background as a blacksmith which was a perfect fit for many feats of strength, including breaking horseshoes in half, bending iron bars & …
Charles Atlas
Charles Atlas was born in Italy in 1892 as Angelo Siciliano. He moved to the USA with his parents when he was 13 years old in search for a better life, which turned out to be the right decision later on. Angelo started training after visiting the Brooklyn Art Gallery …
Doug Hepburn
Doug Hepburn was a famous strongman and weightlifter from Canada, best known for winning numerous weightlifting medals in the 50’s and various feats of strength he used to perform during the same period. The public became aware of Doug’s presence in 1953 when he won a gold medal at World …
George Hackenschmidt
George Hackenschmidt was an accomplished strongman, a professional wrestler and a physique star, born in 1872. He started training weight lifting and gymnastics very early and successfully and by the time he turned 18, he was able to lift more than 200 pounds overhead single handed. Hack is thought to be the …
Monte Saldo
Monte Saldo was a bodybuilder, stage performer and an author born in 1879 in London. Saldo showed interests in bodybuilding and strength training as a teenager. With a help of his uncle, who was a well-known and respected police inspector, Saldo became an apprentice to Eugene Sandow in 1897, at …
Eugen Sandow
Eugen Sandow, the man who started it all and the father of modern bodybuilding. His real name was Friedrich Wilhelm Müller, but he took his stage name for two reasons – 1) it was a custom to do so as a stage performer and 2) he left Prussia to avoid …
Pierre Gasnier
Pierre Gasnier was a famous french strongman and a member of Barnum and Bailey Circus in 1890’s, who use to perform various feats of strength, some of which were quite unusual. Aside from regular feats of strength like tearing a deck of cards in half, Pierre used to break chains …
George Jowett
George Jowett is probably best known for anvil lifting feats, but he was also a famous strongman, bodybuilder, an innovator and an author of numerous books on physical training. His childhood story is somewhat similar to Sandow’s, since he too suffered a serious injury when he fell from his mother’s …
Thomas Inch
Thomas Inch had a promising future even in his teenage years, since he won the “Britain’s Strongest Youth” title at 16, followed by “Britain’s Strongest Man” in 1910. Perhaps he was most famous for lifting a dumbbell that weights 172 pounds with one hand, with particularly thick handle ( 2 3/8 inches). …
Joe Rollino
Joseph Joe Rollino was a son of Italilan immigrants and during the best days of his career he managed to move more than 3200 pounds using his back, as a part of the “World’s strongest man” movie back in the 1920’s, where he actually dubbed himself! Aside from being a …