Greatest Strength Feat

[Sybersnott]

Arthur Saxon is my favorite "oldetime" strongman. Some of the lifts he did were amazing. Cyr too.

Chris, I think Guiness added more features of strength in the book because there were so many that it was unfair to just list one or two. Isn't this the same book that once touted Anthony Clark as "the world's strongest man"?? Maybe Roark can back me up on this, since I remember reading it and laughing out loud in the bookstore.

[bencrush]

Taranenko's 586lb C&J. I know this is the GripBoard, but damn, how many of us can do even HALF of 586? That's 293lbs, cleaned from the floor, and then jerked overhead. I know it would be easy to argue about the half on some of the other lifts, such as the backlift, or the one hand deadlift, but the others all seem to be within reach (or close) when compared to the C&J. And as a couple have said, it may be the only feat to be properly documented, with the exception of Mark Henry's domination of the Inch DB.

[OldGuy]

How many on this board can do a full deadlift with 586 lbs? I would guess that most cannot.

[Tom Black]

Chris,

Sorry I didn’t see your post for a few days. I think many people can’t appreciate the difficulty of Saxon’s bent press simply because they have never attempted bent presses. My own pitiful attempts at bent pressing proved it too me, but that might not prove it too you so I use as Steve Justa as an example. In a Milo article a few years ago he decided to train not for the bent press but for the barbell pull to the shoulder (I think that’s the name). Basically, the first half (and the easier half) of the bent press. Well, I didn’t go back and check the article, but I think this is approximately what happened when he first tried the lift. Being a strong guy he decided to start with 315, well, nothing happened. He lowered the weight to 275, 225, 185 and I believe that even the 185-pounds defied his efforts, although he no doubt wore himself out trying to hoist the heavier weights first. He finally succeeded with 135-pounds, went out and got drunk because it was such a pitiful effort. My point is that Steve Justa underestimated the difficulty of the lift, and I think most people do (although admittedly Steve was able to do the 315 just to the shoulder with training) When you add to this the torso strength needed to then go below the weight and stand up you have a great feat of strength, especially for someone of Saxon’s size.

[bencrush]

Nice point OldGuy, an obvious one, but one I hadn't even thought of. I'm definitely NOT capable of a 586lb deadlift. With or without straps.

Ben Edwards

[ChrisJames]

Tom,

You don't have to sell Arthur Saxon to me i agrree with you, he was awesome !

I've been trying to do the bent press for years but alwys grind to a halt at around the 220 mark.It 's strange as i can put up 260 with a pushpress.

But my point about Marvin Eder is that the only lift that Arthur Saxon would hhave beaten him on is the bent press , EVERTHING ELSE Marvin would of dominated.He clean and strict pressed (not olympic style)

355 lbs at 198 lb bodyweight.

Given that they're both drugfree and were around the same weight and Marvin didn't get anywhere near his prime through political reasons , i still go for Marvin.

It is great that we can express our opinions and points of view on the subjects we love with people half way across the world.

Thanks Tom .