John Brzenk

John Brzenk's father, John Brzenk Sr., was an arm wrestler[3] and Brzenk says he gained some of his forearm size through genetics. He arm wrestled across tables in school for about five years. When he was in eighth grade, he broke his arm while armwrestling a friend of his father.[4] When he was 16 years old he participated in his first tournament. He gained the name "Giant Crusher" for his ability to pin opponents twice his size.[5]

Brzenk started his career in 1982, and he won his first world title on ABC's 1983 Wide World of Sports when he was 18 years old.[1] His right forearm is 16 inches in circumference, and his left is 13.5 inches.[6] The heaviest opponent he faced weighed 660 lbs (299 kg), whom he defeated. In his entire career John has only lost a single supermatch once, and only a handful of people have ever beaten him, which only happened later in his career when he was of advanced age.[7] The most noted of them are Devon Larratt and Alexey Voyevoda. Aside from arm wrestling, he works as a mechanic at Delta Air Lines.[8] He says the job is non-physical so his arms get plenty of rest. During his career he has competed for upwards of USD$80 000 at times.[9][10]

Brzenk won four world championships in the heavyweight division through 1994, and gained the nickname of "Superman" for defeating much larger opponents. In 1995, he won the middleweight world championship.[11] He had an uncredited cameo in the 1987 Sylvester Stallone film Over the Top. The feature documentary "Pulling John", directed by Vassiliki Khonsari and Sevan Matossian, produced by Navid Khonsari, chronicles Brzenk's legendary armwrestling career and follows him intimately for 4 years during which he competes all over the world, while considering retiring.[12][13]

• Height: 6'1"[11]
• Weight: Varies between 195 and 225lbs, depending on competition classes.
• Style: Varies
• Biceps: 18.25in[14]
• Forearm:
  • Right: 16.5in[14][15]
  • Left: 13.5in[14]

• In 2005 he said that he could bench press 315 lbs for 5 reps with a flat bench.
• A friend of his says that in his prime he was very close to closing the Captains of Crush Grippers #3 gripper. John says that now he is "nowhere near closing it." He trains with grippers and says that "I have a gripper in my car and when I am driving I try to make between 200 and 240 reps as fast as possible".
• He advises that the best form of training is arm wrestling.

• Armwrestlers ONLY
• Ifitandhealthy.com