Best Supporting Grip of All Time?

[Eric Roussin]

From a while ago, and I don’t know which axle it was, but this guy was big and strong:

 

[Alawadhi]

26 minutes ago, Eric Roussin said:

From a while ago, and I don’t know which axle it was, but this guy was big and strong:

 

Damn man. Who is he? And he has the weights locked in too which makes a huge difference than just adding weights and not locking it.

[temmmeeee]

27 minutes ago, Eric Roussin said:

From a while ago, and I don’t know which axle it was, but this guy was big and strong:

 

Pretty sure I remember reading this dude's hands are big enough to hook grip an axle. He wasn't trying to be misleading with the title, just figured DOH was DOH. I could be wrong but I know I came across him a couple years ago

[Alawadhi]

I saw that Jedd contacted him long ago. Maybe @Jedd Johnson can know if he went to him or not?

[Paul Savage]

10 hours ago, Alawadhi said:

Nice to see the British list Paul, as usual. But Mark don't have the biggest RT, Tank has it officially. Terry Hollands 360KG DO non hook? Any video? And the Axle record is American. Chris James is strong man, very. But 300+ on a farmers walk assuming 150KG each hand that's not a big deal. I have friends who does more. Marc Von Dan Haer. Search him on Instagram. He walks with 165 KG each hand on a 49MM handles. And got few steps with 180KG each hand.

Did not even think about these guys being British (though Felix wasn't born in Britain), had nothing to do with it, I dont favour any nation, just who I feel is strongest. The list is purely down to strength with the feats I mentioned. Also note that we dont really think of Britain, I am an English, if someone is welsh, Scottish or irish to me thats basically like being French or Japanese etc its a different country.

Terry did a clear 240kg axle with solid lockout, and more in training, both on video. Burke didn't properly lockout anything over 507lb if I remember correctly. No video of 360kg do, thibj he posted it on a thread on this board, may have been 340kg. Theres no way terry would lie, hes one of the strongest guys to ever live and not at all his style.

Tank is very strong, maybe best all round grip in the world, but we obviously know that rt lift wasn't legit and he's done nowhere close otherwise. Marks done more than him every time he's done it other than that lift, a lot more.

As for 300kg farmer, of course I didn't mean both hands, he did 300kg one hand farmer lift. 165kg isn't that heavy at all for farmers for the really strong guys like chris, ive walked with 160's for nearly a minute and held that weight per hand on a farmer 2" handles for a minute / ive done basically nothing in strongman etc That is easy speed weight for a lot of guys. Theres a video of him doing the 300kg somewhere but if you dont believe that Steve did 330kg one hand lift video is on YouTube, its the same thing essentially.

Edited October 26, 2018 by Paul Savage

[Mike Rinderle]

Khan Baba definitely number one.  400kg + DO and then presses it.  Beat that!

https://youtu.be/OpU7zDoh0L4

[Mikael Siversson]

7 hours ago, Kashtan said:

 

Please don't compare axle lifts where people use quality spin-lock collars vs using no collar at all. The former way of lifting is much harder.

[Mikael Siversson]

53 minutes ago, Paul Savage said:

Did not even think about these guys being British (though Felix wasn't born in Britain), had nothing to do with it, I dont favour any nation, just who I feel is strongest. The list is purely down to strength with the feats I mentioned. Also note that we dont really think of Britain, I am an English, if someone is welsh, Scottish or irish to me thats basically like being French or Japanese etc its a different country.

Terry did a clear 240kg axle with solid lockout, and more in training, both on video. Burke didn't properly lockout anything over 507lb if I remember correctly. No video of 360kg do, thibj he posted it on a thread on this board, may have been 340kg. Theres no way terry would lie, hes one of the strongest guys to ever live and not at all his style.

Tank is very strong, maybe best all round grip in the world, but we obviously know that rt lift wasn't legit and he's done nowhere close otherwise. Marks done more than him every time he's done it other than that lift, a lot more.

As for 300kg farmer, of course I didn't mean both hands, he did 300kg one hand farmer lift. 165kg isn't that heavy at all for farmers for the really strong guys like chris, ive walked with 160's for nearly a minute and held that weight per hand on a farmer 2" handles for a minute / ive done basically nothing in strongman etc That is easy speed weight for a lot of guys. Theres a video of him doing the 300kg somewhere but if you dont believe that Steve did 330kg one hand lift video is on YouTube, its the same thing essentially.

Paul, you do actually do this rather consistently which is why we notice it. 

[Chez]

54 minutes ago, Mikael Siversson said:

Paul, you do actually do this rather consistently which is why we notice it. 

Are you talking about him mentioning Brits a lot because ya, I have noticed it as well

Edited October 26, 2018 by Chez

[Eric Roussin]

22 minutes ago, Tommy J. said:

Not to spoil any top secret info, but Adam has some big things in the works.

i nominated him along side Tanner because of this. Right now Adam is under 200lbs and doing monster lifts. And hes only been back about 3 weeks.

This is great to hear! I just hope he can attend a contest some time soon. It's been too long.

[Kluv#0]

15 minutes ago, Tommy J. said:

Not to spoil any top secret info, but Adam has some big things in the works.

i nominated him along side Tanner because of this. Right now Adam is under 200lbs and doing monster lifts. And hes only been back about 3 weeks.

I never knew Adam Glass was under 200lb. He no doubt has some of the strongest hands and wrists ever. That will be awesome to see him get back into contests. I was actually thinking He would have been a great choice to invite to the Arnold grip contest even though He has not been active doing contests. When I first started grip I saw a video of him doing V-bar and I tried to emulate the rotation  and hurt my bicep- told a local guy about it and he said "That's Adam Glass" dummy- figured out quickly after watching his videos that anything in grip He is at WC level. He has the swag walk and the World Class grip game-no question

[Eric Roussin]

^As far as I know Adam has been hovering around 200 lbs for a while. He even dipped down to the 180-something at one point a couple of years ago. But most of his contest lifts were done when he was heavier -- closer to 230 or 240. I agree it would be great to see him at the Arnolds!

[Eric Roussin]

^I don't think Adam competed in grip when weighing under 200. I just remember he got pretty light a few years ago when he was working on the human flag.

[Hubgeezer]

For me, the reasons for "Mike Burke" are threefold:

1. In January 2013, I was up close to the happenings at the third Vise Grip Viking contest in LA. Mark Felix had won the first two, and Burke's first appearance at that contest was in Year 2, where he finished 2nd to Felix. In Year 3, his performance was one of the most impressive showings in the history of grip competitions. If I recall correctly (and I had an article on it in the June 2013 MILO), Burke broke the Axle World Record TWICE. Immediately after the contest was over, he asked, Strossen accommodated him, and he easily Certified on the 3.5. It was such a dominating performance I was babbling to strangers about it four hours later in a Las Vegas elevator.

2. He had (past tense) a "go for it" attitude that was off the charts. Rich, Laine, Chris James...their best lifts are usually in awfully private settings. They choose to do their thing in very controlled environments. Burke? He was almost reckless. That video of him attempting the Double Inch Clean (and missing) that has been posted on this board in the last week? There were a handful of people present when it was being filmed. That was June 30, 2013. Less than a half hour earlier, he had multiple attempts at it. There was Odd, me, and one other person present. His near cleans were much closer than the video you have seen. Each time, he would let out a frustrated "shit!", and then pick them up again. Doing this before a contest? No wonder I beat him on the Hub that day! I was walking into the center at the same time as him, and he expressed his displeasure that Rich had backed out of the contest the day before, then posted video on the Internet pulling more than the World Record. Burke, to me, a stranger: "What the F is that all about?" Burke wanted to go against the best, and the best were not necessarily there that day. Perhaps that was why he did all those Clean attempts with two Inch bells. Burke was flat out ballsy. He never played it safe.

3. March, 2014, at the Arnold. The Medley is on Youtube. He was the ONLY one who lifted all the implements that day. He probably had LESS exposure to the implements than any other competitor. He showed up, did his thing, and moved on. 

The elapsed time between those three performances was less than 14 months. I don't think he ever participated in a grip contest after the Arnold's MIght Mitts (2014). I don't think he had anything else to prove. Easily breaking the Axle World Record twice in five minutes (Number 1 above), to me, is the most impressive supporting grip feat to date. But the way he just "went for it" was what made it seem so cool. 

[Paul Savage]

6 hours ago, Chez said:

Are you talking about him mentioning Brits a lot because ya, I have noticed it as well

Is that illegal on here or something?? Plenty of Americans on here talk about Americans a lot, id say its normal to talk of the people you know the best most, but its hard for me to talk too much on Russians when I can't understand anything in Russian etc there might be some russian out there that can beat all the things i mentioned that the likes of steve and chris have done, but if they have i don't know about them, if i did they would be top of my list.

If people want to accuse me of being bias, maybe they should look at themselves first to be honest. David Horne got mentioned hardly at all in the pinch thread when he's held the world record pinch for virtually all of its history and beat everyone in competition time after time after time. Its nuts he didnt get mentioned more, he's probably done something daft like more 100kg+ pinches than the next best 3 lifters combined over the last god knows how many years. He's not even from my country anyway but that's not bias talk, that's just factual information. If he was from mars it wouldn't change anything.

I've also said in these recent threads that I think the top 3 grip athletes in the world (in terms of absolute strength) are probably Harri, tank and Jesse. Again, not guys from my country, nor is holle who I said I feel has the best crush, he's welsh, I'm English, there's a big difference. If you called Becca a English woman she would correct you instantly as she's very proud of being welsh, that's like Canada vs america.

[Mike Rinderle]

2 hours ago, Paul Savage said:

he's held the world record pinch for virtually all of its history

Really?  I don't believe this is the case for the overall record is it?  Certainly for the first few years, but then again, it was his device and it took awhile to get enough of them out there for the rest of the world to catch up.

Either way, David has an extremely good 2HP.  World class for sure.  I think the reason he wasn't mentioned more is the relative lack of wide pinch feats.  But I would definitely give him a top 5 in history for narrow pinch. 

[Mikael Siversson]

Yes the thread was about allround pinch, which of course will favour people with large hands. From memory David does not have particularly large hands.

I would say David is the best if we also look at longevity at the absolute top.

[Paul Savage]

1 hour ago, Mike Rinderle said:

Really?  I don't believe this is the case for the overall record is it?  Certainly for the first few years, but then again, it was his device and it took awhile to get enough of them out there for the rest of the world to catch up.

Either way, David has an extremely good 2HP.  World class for sure.  I think the reason he wasn't mentioned more is the relative lack of wide pinch feats.  But I would definitely give him a top 5 in history for narrow pinch. 

Definitely not just for a few years, he's still #2 all time in contest on one and two hands euro pinch (122kg) and #1 Saxon pinch (138kg). He's done more on the euro in training (above kodys record) but he was always contest first. He's still had the 30kg blob (blobzilla) off the deck and things like routine 6 10lb pinches as part of circuits so his wide pinch is certainly not bad for normal sized hands (I'd also consider key pinch which he was always high level too) but to him that kind of stuff is more fluff and for fun or as part of all round training, again, contest first. That would be the main reason I'd put him as best all time not just pinch but in the sport, because he consistently beat the top guys more than anybody else in the sport for longer than anybody else. The feats are cool as, and records too, but first and foremost it should be who beat who in contests in my opinion. 

Edited October 26, 2018 by Paul Savage

[Kluv#0]

1 hour ago, Mikael Siversson said:

Yes the thread was about allround pinch, which of course will favour people with large hands. From memory David does not have particularly large hands.

I would say David is the best if we also look at longevity at the absolute top.

For best gripsters of all-time - I have David as the G.O.A.T of Europe and Jedd the G.O.A.T. of North America for many reasons but a big one is LONGEVITY at the top!!

[climber511]

40 minutes ago, Paul Savage said:

Definitely not just for a few years, he's still #2 all time in contest on one and two hands euro pinch (122kg) and #1 Saxon pinch (138kg). He's done more on the euro in training (above kodys record) but he was always contest first. He's still had the 30kg blob (blobzilla) off the deck and things like routine 6 10lb pinches as part of circuits so his wide pinch is certainly not bad for normal sized hands (I'd also consider key pinch which he was always high level too) but to him that kind of stuff is more fluff and for fun or as part of all round training, again, contest first. That would be the main reason I'd put him as best all time not just pinch but in the sport, because he consistently beat the top guys more than anybody else in the sport for longer than anybody else. The feats are cool as, and records too, but first and foremost it should be who beat who in contests in my opinion. 

Paul mentioned something here that I think is important - at least to me.  Records are set in competition, not in your garage etc.  I appreciate big gym lifts but that's just what they are "gym lifts".  You do "feats of strength" in the gym - you set World Records in competition.

[Kluv#0]

15 minutes ago, climber511 said:

Paul mentioned something here that I think is important - at least to me.  Records are set in competition, not in your garage etc.  I appreciate big gym lifts but that's just what they are "gym lifts".  You do "feats of strength" in the gym - you set World Records in competition.

Very good point Chris. I was wondering why my 1 arm 276 lb. suitcase DL only received 1 like:)

[Mike Rinderle]

1 hour ago, Paul Savage said:

Definitely not just for a few years, he's still #2 all time in contest on one and two hands euro pinch (122kg) and #1 Saxon pinch (138kg). He's done more on the euro in training (above kodys record) but he was always contest first. He's still had the 30kg blob (blobzilla) off the deck and things like routine 6 10lb pinches as part of circuits so his wide pinch is certainly not bad for normal sized hands (I'd also consider key pinch which he was always high level too) but to him that kind of stuff is more fluff and for fun or as part of all round training, again, contest first. That would be the main reason I'd put him as best all time not just pinch but in the sport, because he consistently beat the top guys more than anybody else in the sport for longer than anybody else. The feats are cool as, and records too, but first and foremost it should be who beat who in contests in my opinion. 

You said he held the world record for virtually all of its existence.  That's what I was questioning.  Not a true statement.  He has been top 3 or 4 for virtually all of its existence though.  Incredible longevity.

[Paul Savage]

23 minutes ago, Mike Rinderle said:

You said he held the world record for virtually all of its existence.  That's what I was questioning.  Not a true statement.  He has been top 3 or 4 for virtually all of its existence though.  Incredible longevity.

Just checked the full history of the record on his site and yes definitely not for virtually all of its existence sorry, but still always ended up taking it back, (breaking it twice as much as anybody else). The Saxon lifts is what amaze me the most though, two hands pinch is something i need to work on but 137.9kg and 120kg x 19 second hold is out in space to me.

[Alawadhi]

On 10/26/2018 at 3:53 AM, Paul Savage said:

Did not even think about these guys being British (though Felix wasn't born in Britain), had nothing to do with it, I dont favour any nation, just who I feel is strongest. The list is purely down to strength with the feats I mentioned. Also note that we dont really think of Britain, I am an English, if someone is welsh, Scottish or irish to me thats basically like being French or Japanese etc its a different country.

Terry did a clear 240kg axle with solid lockout, and more in training, both on video. Burke didn't properly lockout anything over 507lb if I remember correctly. No video of 360kg do, thibj he posted it on a thread on this board, may have been 340kg. Theres no way terry would lie, hes one of the strongest guys to ever live and not at all his style.

Tank is very strong, maybe best all round grip in the world, but we obviously know that rt lift wasn't legit and he's done nowhere close otherwise. Marks done more than him every time he's done it other than that lift, a lot more.

As for 300kg farmer, of course I didn't mean both hands, he did 300kg one hand farmer lift. 165kg isn't that heavy at all for farmers for the really strong guys like chris, ive walked with 160's for nearly a minute and held that weight per hand on a farmer 2" handles for a minute / ive done basically nothing in strongman etc That is easy speed weight for a lot of guys. Theres a video of him doing the 300kg somewhere but if you dont believe that Steve did 330kg one hand lift video is on YouTube, its the same thing essentially.

Yes but Mark is British now. Yes Irish isn't English but under the same country boarders now. YesI know Terry is one of the strongest people in earth. But 360Kg ain't happening on the right bar. Maybe a bent bar? And how do you know for sure Tank lied? Did he tell you? As for Chris James, Wow, I really like to see a video of him farming walk a 600Kg, that's awesome!

On 10/26/2018 at 4:08 AM, Mike Rinderle said:

Khan Baba definitely number one.  400kg + DO and then presses it.  Beat that!

https://youtu.be/OpU7zDoh0L4

Hahaha such a shameless fraud.

On 10/26/2018 at 4:45 AM, Mikael Siversson said:

Please don't compare axle lifts where people use quality spin-lock collars vs using no collar at all. The former way of lifting is much harder.

True

On 10/26/2018 at 4:48 AM, Mikael Siversson said:

Paul, you do actually do this rather consistently which is why we notice it. 

Yes

On 10/26/2018 at 4:50 AM, Chez said:

Are you talking about him mentioning Brits a lot because ya, I have noticed it as well

And yes

On 10/26/2018 at 7:11 AM, Hubgeezer said:

For me, the reasons for "Mike Burke" are threefold:

1. In January 2013, I was up close to the happenings at the third Vise Grip Viking contest in LA. Mark Felix had won the first two, and Burke's first appearance at that contest was in Year 2, where he finished 2nd to Felix. In Year 3, his performance was one of the most impressive showings in the history of grip competitions. If I recall correctly (and I had an article on it in the June 2013 MILO), Burke broke the Axle World Record TWICE. Immediately after the contest was over, he asked, Strossen accommodated him, and he easily Certified on the 3.5. It was such a dominating performance I was babbling to strangers about it four hours later in a Las Vegas elevator.

2. He had (past tense) a "go for it" attitude that was off the charts. Rich, Laine, Chris James...their best lifts are usually in awfully private settings. They choose to do their thing in very controlled environments. Burke? He was almost reckless. That video of him attempting the Double Inch Clean (and missing) that has been posted on this board in the last week? There were a handful of people present when it was being filmed. That was June 30, 2013. Less than a half hour earlier, he had multiple attempts at it. There was Odd, me, and one other person present. His near cleans were much closer than the video you have seen. Each time, he would let out a frustrated "shit!", and then pick them up again. Doing this before a contest? No wonder I beat him on the Hub that day! I was walking into the center at the same time as him, and he expressed his displeasure that Rich had backed out of the contest the day before, then posted video on the Internet pulling more than the World Record. Burke, to me, a stranger: "What the F is that all about?" Burke wanted to go against the best, and the best were not necessarily there that day. Perhaps that was why he did all those Clean attempts with two Inch bells. Burke was flat out ballsy. He never played it safe.

3. March, 2014, at the Arnold. The Medley is on Youtube. He was the ONLY one who lifted all the implements that day. He probably had LESS exposure to the implements than any other competitor. He showed up, did his thing, and moved on. 

The elapsed time between those three performances was less than 14 months. I don't think he ever participated in a grip contest after the Arnold's MIght Mitts (2014). I don't think he had anything else to prove. Easily breaking the Axle World Record twice in five minutes (Number 1 above), to me, is the most impressive supporting grip feat to date. But the way he just "went for it" was what made it seem so cool. 

You might change my mind. Yes he is very strong. Top three for sure. I also have seen Laine. Crazy crazy strong. And yes Rich seems to do that often. This year he did that too in end of April for a back pain then posted a video of breaking the WR in his gym.

[Alawadhi]

On 10/26/2018 at 11:43 AM, Paul Savage said:

Is that illegal on here or something?? Plenty of Americans on here talk about Americans a lot, id say its normal to talk of the people you know the best most, but its hard for me to talk too much on Russians when I can't understand anything in Russian etc there might be some russian out there that can beat all the things i mentioned that the likes of steve and chris have done, but if they have i don't know about them, if i did they would be top of my list.

If people want to accuse me of being bias, maybe they should look at themselves first to be honest. David Horne got mentioned hardly at all in the pinch thread when he's held the world record pinch for virtually all of its history and beat everyone in competition time after time after time. Its nuts he didnt get mentioned more, he's probably done something daft like more 100kg+ pinches than the next best 3 lifters combined over the last god knows how many years. He's not even from my country anyway but that's not bias talk, that's just factual information. If he was from mars it wouldn't change anything.

I've also said in these recent threads that I think the top 3 grip athletes in the world (in terms of absolute strength) are probably Harri, tank and Jesse. Again, not guys from my country, nor is holle who I said I feel has the best crush, he's welsh, I'm English, there's a big difference. If you called Becca a English woman she would correct you instantly as she's very proud of being welsh, that's like Canada vs america.

Never. But we want the best of the best. Not specific people or friends.