The brookfield enigma

[supersqueeze]

There have been a number of anecdotal stories describing the seemingly impossible feats performed over the years by John Brookfield. Does anyone know the full extent of this mans capabilities? Please use this post to tell us what you know about this very interesting and inspirational man. I am equally interested in things he may have been unable to do as well as any training and biographical info that may exist.

- Mike M.

[Tou]

As far as steel bending goes, you won't find anymone better that him. He closed the #4 while steadying it with a finger of his left hand. He's the best at pinching very wide objects.

However, we don't know much about his support grip.

[Tom Black]

The one unique thing that I have to add to the “enigma” is something I heard directly from Dr. Strossen.  He mentioned that John could bend the Ironmind Red with 1” cut off barehanded .  I’m estimating here, but that steel would be at least 500 pounds to bend.  That is, if you set up a ring and weights and lifted it with the center of the bar it would bend only ¼” with 500 pounds.  Even performing the “test” of lifting the weight this way would be a significant feat of strength.  Think about it, doing a 500 pound partial deadlift with a 6”x5/16” handle!

Richard Sorin mentioned a wrench that he keeps in his office that John Brookfield bent for him.  We discussed it on the old GripBoard.  He also mentioned that John could do a back flip and bend a 60-penny nail at the same time!  When he landed the nail was bent!  He probably could whistle "Dixie" during the flip, but that was not reported

[Roark]

Brookfield told me that 'for variety' he would sometimes

shovel asphalt (I assume with what is called a 'grading'

shovel) by placing both at the top of the shovel instead

of sliding one hand down near the load for leverage. If

you are not impressed with this, you have never shoveled

asphalt!

[BarBender]

I understand that John Brookfield is very good at combination feats. When doing a combination feat, he usually balances a sledge hammer on his chin while bending steel or doing a front chest pull with the Fabled Cables. He has also repped the #3 while talking on the telephone. According to a post on the Old School board, John Brookfield did a true one-arm chin up at a body weight of 260 pounds.

[Tou]

A wrench !!! Go grab your wrench and try to bend it.

How can a man be that strong ?

For those of you who own Mastery of hand strength, read the last page before the bed of nails picture. It describes seven feats that John did in only 25,6 seconds. Those feats goes from bending a 7 x 5/16'' carriage bolt  of 500 lbs. to tearing a full deck of plastic coated poker cards with four layers of duck tape around it.

[RiotGrip]

I've read that brookfield's endurance is also phenomenal, in that he has bent 278 60 penny nails in one hour!  That is phenomenal, imagine how easy that must feel to him?!

[Guest Tobster]

I´ve read that he could do reps (don´t know how many) with 300 pounds in the wrist curl, and with 80 pounds in the thick bar reverse curl. The bar he used for the reverse curl was 4 inches in diameter!

[Roark]

At a time that John was not including wrist curls

in his routine, a friend urged him to test himself.

With 300 lbs on the bar he got 18 reps, and when I

asked if he failed to get the 19th rep, he said, no,

his form was getting sloppy, therefore dangerous,

and he ceased.