The World's Best Hand & Grip Strength Training Instruction
Barbells, Bent Horseshoes and Sledge Hammers
A Report from the 22rd annual Association of Old Time Barbell and Strongman Annual Dinner and Reunion
Dear Friend,
The Association of Old Time Barbell and Strongmen (AOBS) Society held
its annual dinner and reunion this past weekend and like always, it was a
night to remember. The AOBS was founded by Vic Boff in 1983 to
celebrate Iron Game Legend Sig Klein’s birthday. That original event was so
well attended and received that it became an annual event, celebrating the
heroes and history of the Iron Game.
As a performer, author and publisher, Vic Boff spent a lifetime in the Iron Game.
It was Vic's vision to honor those, both well known and not so well known, who made
lasting contributions to all aspects of strength training and physical culture.
While Vic passed away two years ago his spirit lives on. Here is the
passage that he wrote in the AOBS program each year and made it a point for everyone
to read:
Vic Boff as a teenager
"Over the years, our Fraternity has grown slowly but solid. We have set an example
to keep our ideals and philosophy alive. The tenets of Physical Culture and Strongmanism
will never die as long as we keep our fire of ideals and enthusiasm alive-circulating with
constructive information. To all athletes, young and old, who use drugs or are contemplating
their use. Don’t let vanity get the best of you. Study the lives and works of the great men of
yesterday. Step into their footsteps and by doing so, bring out the best that is in you, physically
mentally and spiritually.”
To date, over 50 Physique stars , weightlifting champions, old-time strongmen and other
contributors have been honored. These include such men as John Grimek, Steeve Reeves,
Reg Park, Bill Pearl, Tommy Kono, Norbert Schemansky and Paul Anderson.
- Stylin' and Profilin'-
The MC for the past several years has been
Steve "The Mighty Stefan" Sadicario.
For as long as I have been going to the AOBS dinners, the Mighty Stefan has always done a great job.
The Mighty Stefan is a heck of a performing Strongman in his own right and has traveled the world
bending bars and tearing cards.
Now he is getting into gangster rap, no lie! He even
raps in Yiddish, which has to be heard to be believed.
Anyhow, Vic's favorite part of the dinner was always the strongman performances, which he referred to as "Showtime!" As ususal, most of the
feats during the performance showcase awesome levels of hand and forearm strength. This is not by design but by necessity as
you have to have a brutally strong grip in order to perform many of the classical feats.
In
the afternoon before this year’s dinner, there was to be a card tearing and spike
bending contest. The finals of this contest were supposed to be the first portion of “Showtime!” Due
to lack of interest, the contest ended up not taking place, however, this opened up a spot for Pat Povilaitis
to jump in and perform his unique feats of strength. As faithful functionalhandstrength.com fans know, Pat Povilaitis
is well known for his steel bending exploits and he sure did not disappoint this time.
Pat also possesses world class neck strength to go along with his steel bending skills. As if steel
bending and card tearing weren't hard enough already, Pat likes to hang unusual and heavy objects from his neck
as he performs these feats. Pat debuted his newest toy at this performance, a 200+ pound engine block.
Barely controlled insanity: Pat Povilaitis performs at the AOBS Dinner
As viewers of the 336 Pounds of Fury Strength Feats DVD know, Pat
has also developed the unique skill of
bending and card tearing with a huge granite ball in his lap. Unreal! Pat bends horseshoes, nails and
closed a #3 gripper with each hand all with this huge granite ball in his lap. It was a scary sight, as usual
when watching Pat perform.
Next up was Bud Jeffries, a man of Paul Anderson proportions. Bud is well know for his phenomenal leg
power and has deadlifted 700 pounds off the floor as well as squatted 1000 pounds from a dead stop in the bottom position of a power rack.
For his act, Bud broke a wooden baseball bat over his knee (I took a look at the bat beforehand, it was legit.),
lifted a woman overhead with one finger and some one-finger kettlebell lifting feats. Bud also did the splits and held a full gymnastic bridge.
(Not bad for a guy who weighs 350+.)
After that, Bud and Pat teamed in an totally unscripted and mind boggling feat. While Bud held held Pat
overhead with one arm, Pat bent a 7" X .316" piece of drill rod. Amazing!
Bud rounded out his performance with a nod to Paul Anderson as he performed a backlift of over a ton.
Yours truly was actually one of the people on the platform and let me tell you, it is a pretty weird
feeling being lifted up like that. The weight was underestimated a bit on the first attempt but after some rearranging,
Bud was able to get the platform off the ground.
Bud Jeffires gives Pat Povilaitis a hand.
The final act was
Slim the Hammerman and he was as good as ever. As I have always said, powerlifting records
will be broken, Olympic Lifting records will be broken but ain’t nobody ever going to break Slim’s records.
For those of you who are not familiar with Slim the Hammerman, he is the protégé of The Mighty Atom and is
most famous for his leverage feats involving heavy sledge hammers.
Slim worked in a rock quarry for over 50 years bustin’ up rocks with a sledge hammer. All that back breaking work,
combined with an iron will and the tutelage of the Mighty Atom produced a man whose wrist strength has been unsurpassed
(and in my opinion will never be equaled) by anyone.
Leverage feats can be deceptive. After all, 20 or 25 pounds doesn't sound like much but when you have to lift
it at the end of a 31 inch handle, the weights add up pretty quickly. A 20 pound sledge hammer will stop most strong men cold but Slim can
move it from his nose and back as if it is an empty stick. In front of 21,000 fans at Madison Square Garden
in the mid 1970’s, Slim leveraged a world-record lift with a pair of hammers- 56 pounds each on 31 inch shafts, for
a total amount of 1,736 inch pounds on his wrists. Simply unbelievable.
Watching Slim perform is always a treat and is all the more amazing considering he is now over 70 years old.
Slim levered his hammers over his face, to the rear and also levered a weighted ax blade to his face and back.
He also bent a huge rectangular stock steel bar.
I don’t know how heavy the hammers/axes were that Slim used but needless to say, they were probably at least
twice what any very strong man would be able to use.
If you missed this year’s AOBS dinner, you missed one of the all time great gatherings. My suggestion is to
make your plans now for next years event. Be there or be square!
Train hard.
John Wood
P.S. With this DVD, you may just find yourself performing
at next year's AOBS dinner. Better start practicing...
P.P.S
Slim the Hammerman finally has his own Old-Time Strength DVD. Catch it!
