If you had to bet on 1 all time body builder/ weight lifter in their prime

[ChimpGrip]

Phil Pfister

The first time I ever watched worlds strongest man, it was the atlas stones event between Pudzianowski and Pfister. Pfister managed to beat Pudzianowski to the punch on the final (and 380 lb) stone and won WSM 2006. My interest in strongman was born. Phil Pfister was incredibly strong. His gym numbers weren’t elite compared to other strongman, but when it came to lifting and carrying heavy objects he was incredible. I believe he’s 6’6” 375 (at said bw when he competed). 

[ChimpGrip]

Magnus Samuelsson 

First discovered who he was in 2009 and immediately became my new favorite strongman, even though he was wrapping up his strongman career at that point. One of the strongest men who’s ever lived. 308 barbell curl, 661 bench, closed CoC #4 gripper and was fairly well-rounded in the strongman events.

[ChimpGrip]

Brian Shaw 

Possibly my favorite strength athlete of all time because I’ve met him twice and he was extremely kind and took time to answer my questions with a line of 50 people behind me. He is easily the largest man I’ve ever met. 6’8” 461 when I met him in 2017. He’s easily one of the strongest men who’s ever lived. 

[ChimpGrip]

Kirill Sarychev 

Probably the genetically freakiest powerlifter of all time. Had a world record raw bench of 738 at 27 years old, 292x8 barbell curl, 143x8 dumbbell curl, 900 squat, 900 deadlift, did 10 good form pull-ups at 396 bodyweight, also had world class grip strength. People don’t know what a “monster” is until they’ve seen this guy.

[golfaddict1]

5 hours ago, ChimpGrip said:

Phil Pfister

The first time I ever watched worlds strongest man, it was the atlas stones event between Pudzianowski and Pfister. Pfister managed to beat Pudzianowski to the punch on the final (and 380 lb) stone and won WSM 2006. My interest in strongman was born. Phil Pfister was incredibly strong. His gym numbers weren’t elite compared to other strongman, but when it came to lifting and carrying heavy objects he was incredible. I believe he’s 6’6” 375 (at said bw when he competed). 

Like Jerry Rice speed on paper vs on the field in game play.   
Pfister was an animal the year he beat Pudzianowski.  

[golfaddict1]

3 hours ago, ChimpGrip said:

Brian Shaw 

Possibly my favorite strength athlete of all time because I’ve met him twice and he was extremely kind and took time to answer my questions with a line of 50 people behind me. He is easily the largest man I’ve ever met. 6’8” 461 when I met him in 2017. He’s easily one of the strongest men who’s ever lived. 

Not your 1975 Arnold 😂.  
He looks tiny next to Shaw (most do). 

[golfaddict1]

https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/canadian-mitchell-the-moose-hooper-is-the-worlds-strongest-man
 

Shaw’s last WSM competition was last month and he did well, making the finals.

Mitchell Hooper is the 1st Canadian to win a WSM event.  

 

[ChimpGrip]

4 hours ago, golfaddict1 said:

Not your 1975 Arnold 😂.  
He looks tiny next to Shaw (most do). 

Shaw is a behemoth! 

[ChimpGrip]

Levan Saginashvili 

Probably the strongest arm-wrestler who’s ever lived. From 2018-2023 (he was recently injured so he’s probably out until 2024), he was never pinned once. He’s got massive hands, wrists and has wrist curled 225, preacher curled 300+, 575 bench, and even had a strong log press for a guy who doesn’t train strongman. A true titan. 

[golfaddict1]

1 minute ago, ChimpGrip said:

Shaw is a behemoth! 

Very cool of him to take time to answer some questions from you.  He sensed your passion and size I’m sure.  

[ChimpGrip]

1 minute ago, golfaddict1 said:

Very cool of him to take time to answer some questions from you.  He sensed your passion and size I’m sure.  

Yes, no doubt. He’s one of my heroes. How he’s so passionate and pays so much attention to detail to his diet, training, and the sport (essentially, his craft) is inspirational. And yes he’s super nice and humble. 

[ChimpGrip]

Devon Larratt

 

Also one of my heroes. Devon is one of the greatest arm wrestlers of all time and is a true master technician on the table. The way he arm wrestlers and fights for position against some of the monsters he’s pulled is so fun and exhilarating to watch. I hope he can clean house in the super-heavies.

[ChimpGrip]

John Brzenk

Considered to be the greatest arm wrestler of all time, he went 20+ years without losing a single tournament. He became dominant at an early age. I’ve seen many big, powerful guys who don’t arm wrestle get smoked by Brzenk (in a fun pick-up match). They think they’ll beat him because they can lift all this weight but have no strength in the hand/wrist nor the tendon strength. John Brzenk at 58 has that 1980s dad strength, he’s still competitive in his weight class today (he nearly beat a 25 year old Georgian star who’s can curl 140 pound dumbbells). 

[golfaddict1]

12 hours ago, ChimpGrip said:

John Brzenk

Considered to be the greatest arm wrestler of all time, he went 20+ years without losing a single tournament. He became dominant at an early age. I’ve seen many big, powerful guys who don’t arm wrestle get smoked by Brzenk (in a fun pick-up match). They think they’ll beat him because they can lift all this weight but have no strength in the hand/wrist nor the tendon strength. John Brzenk at 58 has that 1980s dad strength, he’s still competitive in his weight class today (he nearly beat a 25 year old Georgian star who’s can curl 140 pound dumbbells). 

I remember him.  ESPN used to have arm wrestling events on years back as I recall and he was the best.  He was all business.  No games of trying to psych out before hands being clenched.

 “I own you” 😂. Quote from Stallone’s flick Over the Top. 

[golfaddict1]

On 5/23/2023 at 8:25 PM, Wooderson said:

All these guys are legendary but none of them had their own made-for-TV movie proclaiming them to be the Toughest Man in the World, complete with a masterful self-performed rap theme song:

 

😂  that duo is electric.  #humor 

[golfaddict1]

On 5/22/2023 at 2:43 PM, golfaddict1 said:

Joe Weider and the movie Pumping Iron got my interest in lifting as a teenager, like many I’m sure.  Started with the plastic coated barbell set   in friend’s basement, like many I’m sure 😂.  

I had a fun summer job in West Orange NJ in college working as a spotter and cleaning up weights etc.  at a nice facility with tennis, pool and a superb gym.  

Got to lift for free and often with a good friend early in the am before I began my shift.  
 

There were a few US Olympian trainees who worked out there.  Some guy who maybe weighed 140 lbs in an old baseball uniform wet was doing sitting military presses with 135 as a warm up as if it was just the 45 pound bar.  Ridiculous strength.  
 

With ads, you can skip thru the movie without bother and enjoy Pumping Iron.  

This flick brought me back as I didn’t view this since probably 1979-1980, when I saw it the first time.  
Some good workout scenes @ChimpGrip@HawgGoneIt @dan in daytona et al 

I enjoyed the T-bar rows (we used a corner of weight room in my day for that) and lat pull downs.  That full stretch of arms to give back workouts full leverage range of motion to max on the lats.  
Also gets the shoulders for the triangle frame look.  I enjoyed using different lat pull-down handles and using a chin up grip and a pull-up grip (to the chest and to the back of the neck).  

Form over weight always for building muscle/tone. 

Oh, I hated incline bench.  The pain on Lou’s face.  Also squats I’ve brought up before.  That’s pure evil in the later reps and sets, but such a natural high when your sets are done.  Major cardio workout with high reps and a wicked quad burn.   The guys I copied in know it well.  

[ChimpGrip]

13 minutes ago, golfaddict1 said:

With ads, you can skip thru the movie without bother and enjoy Pumping Iron.  

This flick brought me back as I didn’t view this since probably 1979-1980, when I saw it the first time.  
Some good workout scenes @ChimpGrip@HawgGoneIt @dan in daytona et al 

I enjoyed the T-bar rows (we used a corner of weight room in my day for that) and lat pull downs.  That full stretch of arms to give back workouts full leverage range of motion to max on the lats.  
Also gets the shoulders for the triangle frame look.  I enjoyed using different lat pull-down handles and using a chin up grip and a pull-up grip (to the chest and to the back of the neck).  

Form over weight always for building muscle/tone. 

Oh, I hated incline bench.  The pain on Lou’s face.  Also squats I’ve brought up before.  That’s pure evil in the later reps and sets, but such a natural high when your sets are done.  Major cardio workout with high reps and a wicked quad burn.   The guys I copied in know it well.  

Looking forward to watching this.

 

Interesting story about incline bench- 

I used to train with a powerlifter who had a raw bench press best 650 and went half-way on a 700 attempt. He could do incline dumbbell tricep extensions with 125lb dumbbells. He said he once knew/met Greg Kovacs, the heaviest bodybuilder of all time. Weighed up to 440 with visible abs in the off-season. Consumed 20,000 calories a day and ate every 45 minutes. Also had the craziest cheat meal days. Anyway…

The guy I trained with said Greg could do 675x6 on incline bench for warm-up.

[HawgGoneIt]

There is a big difference bwtween a physique body builder and a power lifter. 

I don't have anything against power lifters, they just usually don't have great physiques. Clearly they're very strong and do a lot of training with heavy weight. 

We had one guy in our gym that is trying to be "hybrid" power lifter/ body builder. He always argued with me about how to get cut and show his work with his body rather than with max weight lifts. 

I'd been waiting on his results for almost 18 months before he finally stopped coming in. I think he switched to the power lifter gym a few blocks away. 

There is totally a different mindset between the two styles. Different nutrition. Different work out routines. Just different in almost every way except for the amount of training. 

 

[golfaddict1]

😮 dang