Feats of strength

Feats of strength are acts strongmen exhibit to showcase their great strength. They often require immense hand and finger strength, as well as core musculature. Modern feats of strength are sometimes performed in circuses or on television.

Some commons ones include:

• Ripping a phone-book in half
• Tearing a deck of playing cards in half
• Bending nails, bolts or bars of steel by hand
• Lifting large weights overhead (From people to huge dumbbells like the Inch Bell 172lbs)
• Holding back pulling horses, motorcycles, even airplanes have been held from takeoff
• Rolling up frying pan
• Ripping License Plates in half
• Breaking chains
• Breaking wooden bats
• Driving a nail through a board by hand
• Closing super heavy-duty hand grippers
• Bending horseshoes
• Bending or breaking hand tools (wrenchs,screwdrivers,steel hammers, crowbars ect...)
• Pulling apart regulation handcuffs
• Picking up massive weights with one finger pull
• Stone lifting(comes from the ancient tradition of lifting manhood stones in some cultures)
• Hand balancing

All feats of strength of course requires a high level of functional strength to perform but some require a degree of technique or they can be nearly impossible.

Criss Angel performs feats of strength as part of his television show Mindfreak, although it is not clear how much of his performance is due to strength and how much due to prestidigitation. Olympic weight lifters perform movements which require great skill as well as incredible strength, and spend many years perfecting their lifts, (particularly the snatch) before heavier weights are attempted. Powerlifters, on the other hand, perform lifts which consist of pure strength with very little body movement or skill compared to Olympic weightlifting. The deadlift, for example, is a powerlifting movement which consists almost entirely of pure strength.

References

[www.strongmanfeats.com ] ( How-To's and many Feats of Strength video clips from strongmen and strongwomen performers from around the world )