Old Story From My Grandpa About Gripping

[Sybersnott]

...and there was a guy that would carry literally 400 pounds of flour down the stairs in the mill and the owner used to have a fit every time he saw that, fearing the staircase would give in. It never did though, but the surprising part about it was that the man himself was rather skinny looking. Nothing at all like a strongman.

Most guys back then don't look like the guys today, but they were very strong. Skinny and very strong sounds to me a lot like the American strongman John Y. Smith of Boston, MA.

There's a story about him in the book, Dinosaur Training (page 32) that's very funny.

[jomcgui]

My family owns a dairy plant. We had a foreman that i worked with who would occasionally lift 5 gallon cream containers overhead to dump into 8 ft high mix vats one handed. The cream containers weigh around 43#s and are an awkward shape. I had to work with him on Friday mornings and usually he came in half drunk. the guy never really worked out but was crazy strong.

[Tim71]

My grandpa was a typical fighting irishman who was very stout. He told me on numerous occasions that the reason his teeth were less than perfect was because when he was younger, he would lift and carry a 100 pound sack of potatos under each arm and one in his teeth. I guess he was paid by the piece.... OUCH.

As a kid I personally witnessed my Dad get the back of our 65 mustang unstuck by lifting enough weight off it to slide it over. He worked as a milkman back then and was indeed very strong. He could also do one-handed chin-ups which amazes me but kinda bothers me now because he's so out of shape and overweight that it really bothers me.

I like Beatty's point about how times have changed. My dad once broke his right hand by punching a guy on the job and knocking him off a loading dock. No lawsuits, no fines, no sentences. That's okay, I guess we've all got BIG BROTHER to take care of us now .

Tim

[AnimalCage]

BEAR OFF A BRIDGE!!!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!!

My grandaddy was a tough old geezer, lots of manual labor like everyone else. One day, my cousins got into it out in the woods, and decided to finish the fight in grandmother's kitchen. (One of them had brought a 6 foot branch inside with him.) When 70 yo granddaddy walked into that mess, he started yelling and cussing about how he was going to take that stick and beat the crap out of the whole lot of us (didn't matter if we weren't involved in the fight. Just watching it was crime enough). The whole lot of us spent the afternoon cleaning grandmother's kitchen spotless. Why? Because even at 70, we all believed he actually could take a stick and beat the crap out of all of us! I only hope that one day I can show my grandkids that same manliness my granddaddy had. Strong love with a healthy dose of terror.

[Grippster]

Our grand parents were always stronger than us. Good food and hard work ftw.

[RPGoodfellow]

I've got a few great stories of family, past and present. My Grampa on my mom's side was a big wirey Polander (6'2" ~ 200lbs) who worked as a coal miner after his family landed in the states. According to my mom and dad he had HUGE hands and the sickest grip and was known for regularly crushing raw potatoes. I wish I could have seen this – but, he passed when I was 2.

My dad is a genetic freak - back when I was a kid he did the craziest stuff. He was about 5'9" ~250-260lbs in his younger days. He was district champ in the 440 (it was measured in yards back then!), he pole vaulted, and he did gymnastics. As an adult he did manual labor his whole lift: carpentry, masonry, roofing, logging, etc...truly a jack of all trades. I grew up alongside the old man on side jobs - the most memorable stuff were the antics he'd do so casually. 1-arm pull-ups on the scaffolding, he'd literally run up a ladder with a 90lb. chimney cap around his neck! I've personally witnessed him toss 3, 110lb. bundles of shingles over his shoulder and boogie up a 3 story ladder faster than I could have with nothing. I also remember him levering a 16lb. sledgehammer after a brutal day of busting out an old concrete basketball court. I was only 13, so he let me have the lighter sledge (12lbs.)...he worked circles around me. He would regularly do flips in the backyard - back and front hand springs and he could walk on his hands as long as he pleased. I watched him climb one of those high double gym rope deals at a state park. He grabbed one rope in each hand and held his legs out in front of him perfectly straight. Straight up...like it was nothing. The old man had skills.

[Volko Krull]

My dad once told me a story about a guy he went to school with. The man was about 6 feet tall and a

stout 400lbs. He could THROW guys from the wagon up to the hayloff. He also once drove a giant spike to

rope sheep into a stone wall using a sledge hammer. He was about 15 years old when he did that.

[gothrik]

He also once drove a giant spike to rope sheep into a stone wall using a sledge hammer. He was about 15 years old when he did that.

I had a friend that did missionary work in tonga for a year. He said overthere when they build a building they don't have the power nail guns and what not we have here. So when they put the walls up they have to drive every nail into the concrete foundation by hand. He said the guys over there have some of the craziest forarms he has ever seen. (Though the way he describes the tongan's they must be a very very genetically blessed people.)

[Grippster]

Sometimes I wonder if these stories get a little exaggerated over time, even my own stories seem far fetched sometimes. But then again, our life style these days is totally different.

[Volko Krull]

I agree Grippster, there certainly ARE things that seem exaggerated but must of it is the real deal.

I once met a woman around 65 or 70 years of ago who could take hold of a beer crate, put 4 filled bottles at the

very end of it and then hold it with straight forearm fixed in the curl position, gripping on the other end.

[the swiss]

One from Switzerland. My step father is a lumberjack, and he tells of the blacksmith of the village he knew when he was a child and into his twenties. The blacksmith was a very strong man ("hips like a horse") and liked to play jokes. He was unbeatable at finger twisting, and would shake people's hands and in that position push his thumb into the other guys' hand until they screamed in agony.

Another feat he did was lift his 190kg anvil (that is 420 lb) in the crook of his arms (like a zercher) and walk around.

when he was into his seventies, my step father actually witnessed him carry the anvil up the stairs to the local bar, and ask for something to drink, threatening the bartender of dropping the anvil. My stepfather was also a very strong man and could carry the anvil a few steps, but this feat, carrying a 420lb anvil upstairs at 70 years ++ is just awesome.

[Pancake Sprawl]

He also once drove a giant spike to rope sheep into a stone wall using a sledge hammer. He was about 15 years old when he did that.

I had a friend that did missionary work in tonga for a year. He said overthere when they build a building they don't have the power nail guns and what not we have here. So when they put the walls up they have to drive every nail into the concrete foundation by hand. He said the guys over there have some of the craziest forarms he has ever seen. (Though the way he describes the tongan's they must be a very very genetically blessed people.)

i'm a tongan! haha! in hawaii a lot of tongans are rock wall builders, hard labor. i don't know if tongans are genetically blessed, but we tend to be pretty big. the reason why is because what tongans believe to be beautiful is big. if a woman was fat, it was beautiful. so eventually, just by natural selection or whatever we keep getting bigger over the generations, now a days though the western culture of being thin and fit looking is taking over.

but size has/had a lot to do with our culture.

[gothrik]

He also once drove a giant spike to rope sheep into a stone wall using a sledge hammer. He was about 15 years old when he did that.

I had a friend that did missionary work in tonga for a year. He said overthere when they build a building they don't have the power nail guns and what not we have here. So when they put the walls up they have to drive every nail into the concrete foundation by hand. He said the guys over there have some of the craziest forarms he has ever seen. (Though the way he describes the tongan's they must be a very very genetically blessed people.)

i'm a tongan! haha! in hawaii a lot of tongans are rock wall builders, hard labor. i don't know if tongans are genetically blessed, but we tend to be pretty big. the reason why is because what tongans believe to be beautiful is big. if a woman was fat, it was beautiful. so eventually, just by natural selection or whatever we keep getting bigger over the generations, now a days though the western culture of being thin and fit looking is taking over.

but size has/had a lot to do with our culture.

My friend often would talk about a guy in tonga that would swim 5 miles across a bay to work each day, and would cut trees down by hand and do other manual labor then swim home in the evening. He said the guy makes most North American athelets look like whimps. Oh and my friend said he was tiny next to the guy (and my friend is a 6'1 220ish logger from Canada.)

[dubthewonderscot]

i'm a tongan! haha! in hawaii a lot of tongans are rock wall builders, hard labor. i don't know if tongans are genetically blessed, but we tend to be pretty big. the reason why is because what tongans believe to be beautiful is big. if a woman was fat, it was beautiful. so eventually, just by natural selection or whatever we keep getting bigger over the generations, now a days though the western culture of being thin and fit looking is taking over.

but size has/had a lot to do with our culture.

So.....if you're single, (which i'm not) head to Tonga and pick up all the poor small fit girls who aren't getting any attention. lol

[Pancake Sprawl]

i don't mean skinny is poor and fat is rich in now a days, but for a long time obesity was seen as wealth because when you see a person who is fat, it means he has an overabundance of food which equals wealth in Tonga.

but yeah, still today a lot of Tongans like the big women lol, i guess it's an inherited trait. there are a lot of beautiful Tongan women though, fit Tongan women. Germans mixed some of their blood with Tongans during world war 2 i think it was. so you have Tongans that have the last name "Wolfgramm" and they are light skin and exotic looking.

He also once drove a giant spike to rope sheep into a stone wall using a sledge hammer. He was about 15 years old when he did that.

I had a friend that did missionary work in tonga for a year. He said overthere when they build a building they don't have the power nail guns and what not we have here. So when they put the walls up they have to drive every nail into the concrete foundation by hand. He said the guys over there have some of the craziest forarms he has ever seen. (Though the way he describes the tongan's they must be a very very genetically blessed people.)

i'm a tongan! haha! in hawaii a lot of tongans are rock wall builders, hard labor. i don't know if tongans are genetically blessed, but we tend to be pretty big. the reason why is because what tongans believe to be beautiful is big. if a woman was fat, it was beautiful. so eventually, just by natural selection or whatever we keep getting bigger over the generations, now a days though the western culture of being thin and fit looking is taking over.

but size has/had a lot to do with our culture.

My friend often would talk about a guy in tonga that would swim 5 miles across a bay to work each day, and would cut trees down by hand and do other manual labor then swim home in the evening. He said the guy makes most North American athelets look like whimps. Oh and my friend said he was tiny next to the guy (and my friend is a 6'1 220ish logger from Canada.)

yeah, i can believe that. i am 6'5 and 330lbs and i'm just medium for my family. one of my cousins is 6'9 and 480lbs lol