Feats

Fourteen of the lifts that became legend

Some of these are well documented and well witnessed. Some are partially attested, with the figure varying between sources. A few are folklore. This page makes the distinction explicit, lift by lift.

The standard problem of the Iron Game is that lifting was performed for paying audiences before it was performed for federations. The crowd wanted a number; the promoter supplied one; the press repeated it. By the time the lift had been re-described in a strongman's autobiography or a competing magazine, the figure had often drifted upward. The patient way to read these claims is to see what was reported at the time, by whom, and under what conditions.

The Bent PressA lift, not a date — central to 1885–1925

The bent press is the signature lift of the music-hall era. The lifter takes a heavy dumbbell or barbell to one shoulder, then bends sideways and down under it, keeping the forearm vertical, until the arm is locked straight; then he stands up. Because the body is lowered away from the bell rather than the bell being pushed up, a skilled bent presser can raise far more with one arm than he could press conventionally. Professor Attila (Louis Durlacher) is usually credited with popularising it and with teaching it to Sandow. It was never an Olympic lift; it lived on in British and all-round amateur lifting, but faded after the 1930s as the Olympic two-hands lifts took over. See the bent press in Lifts.

Saxon's Bent Press Record168 kg (370 lb) · c. 1905

Arthur Saxon's bent press of 168 kg (about 370–371 lb) is the generally accepted record for the lift, and it has never been officially bettered. Saxon recorded his best lifts in his own books, The Development of Physical Power (1905) and The Text Book of Weight-Lifting (1910). He is also credited with an informal 175 kg (about 386 lb) bent press in training, which is why figures in the 380s appear in later sources; that lift is unofficial rather than invented.

Cyr's Back LiftBoston, 27 May 1895

Louis Cyr's best-known figure is a back lift of about 4,300 lb (1,950 kg) — usually quoted as 4,337 lb — made on 27 May 1895 at Austin and Stone's Museum in Boston, with eighteen men standing on a platform. The New York Clipper reported it as a new record for the style. In a back lift the lifter stands beneath a platform resting on trestles and raises it a short distance clear by straightening his legs and back. It is a very short-range lift, not a deadlift, and the total depends on an estimate of the men's weight plus the platform: one later analysis notes that 4,300 lb would need the eighteen men to average more than 200 lb each even allowing a heavy platform. Cyr's earlier back lifts included 3,536 lb of pig iron at Berthierville in 1888 (as reported) and an estimated 3,635 lb in London in 1892.

Hackenschmidt in ViennaVienna, 1898

In the summer of 1898 the young George Hackenschmidt, trained in St Petersburg by Vladislav Krajewski, went to Vienna for the combined weightlifting and wrestling championships. He won the European Greco-Roman wrestling title and placed third in the weightlifting "decathlon" — ten one- and two-hand lifts with dumbbells and barbells. Popular accounts credit him with various lifting world records from these years; the specific figures differ between sources and are best treated with caution. What is secure is that he went on to become the most famous wrestler in the world.

Sandwina's Overhead Lift of Her HusbandBarnum & Bailey · 1911–1912

Katie Sandwina's standard circus feat was to lift her husband, Max Heymann, reported at about 165 lb (75 kg), above her head with one arm and twirl him there. It was a nightly feature of her Barnum & Bailey seasons of 1911 and 1912 and was described by eyewitnesses, among them the reporter Marguerite Martyn in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1911. A best overhead lift of 296 lb (134 kg) is often attributed to her, but is not well documented. The story that she took her stage name after out-lifting Sandow in 1902 is part of her publicity and is not independently documented.

Goerner's One-Hand DeadliftLeipzig, 8 October 1920

Hermann Goerner is credited with a one-hand deadlift of 330 kg (727 lb) in Leipzig on 8 October 1920, and with 333 kg in a one-hand lift from blocks in Dresden that July. A one-hand deadlift of 301 kg (663 lb) on 29 October 1920 was later recognised by Guinness World Records. The 330 kg figure rests largely on Edgar Mueller's biography Goerner the Mighty (1951), written by a friend and admirer three decades later, and is accepted by some historians and doubted by others.

Rigoulot and Apollon's WheelsParis, 1930

Apollon's Wheels — 166 kg (366 lb) of railway-carriage wheels on a fixed axle 49.3 mm thick — were made for Louis Uni, "Apollon", though there is no good evidence that Apollon himself cleaned them. Charles Rigoulot, Olympic champion in 1924, made the first conclusive clean and jerk of the wheels in Paris in 1930. John Davis followed in Paris in 1949 and Norbert Schemansky in Lille in 1954.

The Inch Dumbbell ChallengeBritain, from the 1900s

Thomas Inch's challenge dumbbell weighs 172 lb 9 oz (78.25 kg) and has a handle 2⅜ in (6.03 cm) thick. Inch claimed to have cleaned it one-handed and put it overhead many times, and said no one else could lift it from the floor with one hand; the overhead claim is disputed by historians. In 1990 Bill Kazmaier lifted it with one hand from the floor and pressed it overhead after a two-hand clean; in 2002 Mark Henry made the first one-hand clean and press. See the Inch dumbbell.

The Dinnie StonesPotarch, Aberdeenshire, 1860 onwards

The Dinnie Stones are two granite stones with iron rings, weighing 414.5 lb (188 kg) and 318.5 lb (144.5 kg) — 733 lb (332.5 kg) together. Donald Dinnie is reported to have carried them across the width of the Potarch Bridge, 17 ft 1½ in (about 5.2 m), in 1860. The carry was not matched until Jack Shanks did it on 3 June 1973; Shanks had made the first lift of both stones without straps in 1972. David Prowse had lifted them with straps in 1963.

The Steinborn SquatUnited States, 1920s

Before squat racks were common, Henry "Milo" Steinborn would stand a loaded barbell on end, lean into it, tip it onto his back and squat with it — a method still called the Steinborn lift. His best squat is usually given as 553 lb (251 kg). Steinborn did much to popularise heavy squatting in the United States after his arrival from Germany in the early 1920s.

Sandow Defeats SamsonRoyal Aquarium, London, 2 November 1889

Charles Sampson, billed as "Samson", was performing at the Royal Aquarium in London with a standing challenge to anyone who could duplicate his feats. Eugen Sandow, then twenty-two, accepted it on 2 November 1889, with the Marquess of Queensberry and Lord de Clifford as judges, and was declared the winner. The press coverage made Sandow's name in London; David Chapman's research in Iron Game History and in Sandow the Magnificent shows how much of the contest was showmanship on both sides.

The One-Finger Liftc. 1896

Louis Cyr is credited with a one-finger lift of 552 lb one day and 553 lb (251 kg) the next, around 1896. The lifter hooks one finger through a ring or loop attached to the weight and raises it a short distance from the floor; the size and shape of the ring matter a great deal, and the rig has not survived. Warren Lincoln Travis was credited with 667 lb with one finger in 1907. Both are exhibition figures rather than records made under federation rules.

The Two-Hands AnyhowEuropean and British tradition, 1890s–1930s

In the two-hands anyhow the lifter puts two separate weights overhead by any method — usually a barbell bent-pressed with one arm, then a kettlebell or ring-weight lifted with the other. Arthur Saxon's 448 lb (203 kg), made with a 336-lb barbell and a 112-lb kettlebell, is the accepted best. Under the stricter rules of the British Amateur Weight Lifters' Association, Ron Walker set the British heavyweight record of 310½ lb in 1937.

The Harness LiftMusic-hall tradition, 1880s–1920s

In the harness lift the lifter stands on a platform over the weight, wearing a harness connected to it by chains, and raises it a short distance by straightening the legs and back. Like the back lift, it allowed enormous totals over a tiny range of movement. Warren Lincoln Travis was credited with 3,985 lb in the harness lift and 4,140 lb in the back lift. Harness and other "heavy lifts" survive today in all-round weightlifting organisations rather than in Olympic lifting.

For the implements on which several of these feats were performed — the wheels, the bells, the stones — see Implements.