Tying the knot

My buddy Christian Schmidt Clarup got married this summer and I had a very special and handmade present to the happy couple.

Congratualtions to Christian and Malene.

Oven put

Our microwave stopped working so we had to throw it out. And so I did! I shot putted it right into the dumpster outside of our apartment.

Big congratulations to the athletes

This summer has been a great season for my athletes and I am very proud of what they have achieved so far. The summer season is coming to an end and I want to share all the great results from my athletes with you - remember to give them a big hi five if you see them around.

Throwing:
Søren Børsting
(Discus, male, age group: junior)
Søren Børsting just broke the danish record for 18 year olds. The record was held by Joachim B. Olsen, who I used to coach in the shot put, but now Søren has broke this record by 4 centimeters and now stands at 53.52 meters. The season is not over yet! Video from the record by Carsten Bomme.

Trine Mulbjerg 

(Shot put, female, age group: senior)

Trine broke one record after the other this year. Her most recent pr is 15.48 came at an optimal time getting her into the final at the European Under 23 Championship and a 11th place finish (video by Carsten Bomme).

Christoffer Mikkelsen 

(Shot put, male, age group: youth)

This young man has sky rocketed in one year from 14 meters to 18 meters! His competition highlights were: 15th place at The World Youth Championship (his first ever big championship) and 12th place at the European Youth Olympics. His current pr (set on the World Youth Championships) stands at 18.13.

Archery:

Louise Laursen

Maja Jäger

Carina Christiansen

Congratulations to all three ladies who qualified a danish team spot at the 2012 Olympics in London! When you are strong, everything is easier.

Tree ripped out

I had a request a while ago where a reader asked me to rip a tree out of the ground. Well, sir - here you have it.

Please no comments from tree-huggers - this tree needed to be sacrificed!

Tabletop curl

A new pr after a year of working on the tabletop curl. What inspired me to practise this lift was an article in MILO, December 2001, about Virgil Arciero who did 14 rep of 175 lbs. He is not the official world record holder (as far as I know it is Al Turner who has done 217 lbs one time) but the article got me into tabletop curling.

What is difficult about this lift is keeping your wrists straight and not letting it buckle. Focus on keeping a 90 degree bend in your elbow and tip back with all your body weight. Voila - the dumbbell should lift up.

The human hammer

To get started driving a nail trough a board you need a small nail and a thin pine board (pine is soft wood so choose that over hard wood). You also need  a piece of cloth to ball up on the head of the nail.

The feat is not to be afraid.

The technique is speed of your hand and accurately lining up the nail with the board.

Get practicing - that the only way to learn to master this feat of strength!

Bending a steel bar

On Monday night the basketball team Bakken Bears celebrated a great season with a sponsor banquet. As the teams strength coach I motivate the team by doing a feat of strength every time I introduce a new strength program. Monday night I did a strongman show on stage in front of 200 Bakken Bears sponsors. After the show I donated a 20 minutes show for the auction and the end bid was 10.000 kroner (aprox 2,000 $).All the money will go to supporting the team next season.

I put this video from the show on Youtube - I'll upload more high lights from the show later, so keep an eye on my Youtube channel: youtube.com/SimonStrongman

This Sunday I will be performing at the Classic Race in Aarhus.

The Nutcracker

Long time since christmas when I was in my best walnut cracking shape but I found 3 left over nuts to show you how I do it.

If you want to crack a walnut with your bare hands like I show it in the video: with two fingers, you need a simple finger-workout-tool: a spring clamp.

This is the spring clamp I use - other designs will work as well.

To crack the walnut all you need to do is place it between the tongs and the walnut will crack... Well of course this is not the way to do it for a real man... Use every spare second you have to pinch the clamp. I do it when I watch TV, travel or I'm sitting through one of my girlfriends long speeches about feelings and what not. When your finger muscles get strong enough you can start practicing on the walnuts.

Start by squeezing two walnuts together, so the pressure of the one walnut will crush the other. Then I worked my way up to crush the walnut between my thumb and first finger.

So what are you waiting for? Get cracking!

I am a very proud Danish Open Champion - Left Arm

It was an awesome day arm wrestling! I went in with a plan, goal and a strong arm.

What made this championship so special was the quality of my opponents.

Weight in
I headed down stairs for the weight in. In jeans and t shirt I weighted 109.1 kg which put me right where I planned to be: competing in the 100-110 kg class.

Mental warm up
All the adrenaline in my body made me strong but I felt weak. I said to myself: "remember the plan: stick to the warm up plan, it will make you ready. You have done these warm ups 100 times and it always gets you ready".

Warm up
I had no idea how long it would be before my first match so I decided it was better to be ready and wait than to go in cold.

For warm up I used:

• Indian clubs: 5 minutes of swinging. I focused on my breath and movements and put myself in the "Zone".

• Chest expander: 100 pull apart with one green band

• Bar bender: 10 easy bends with an overhand grip close to the body, then 10 with an underhand grip, finally 5 reps with straight arms over hand grip in front.

• Ironmind Captains of Crush #2.5 gripper: 5 reps easy with the right hand and 3 with the left.

I was ready.

My friend and coach for the day Kristian Kofoed was assisting. He reminded me to stay calm and focused. Kristian gave my forearms a massage and told me: You can do it. You are strong. You’re the man...

Strategy
Before the match I focused on getting the right position at the table: hips low and elbow straight in front of me, the “death grip” on the opponents thumb, right hand tight on the peg, big breath of air. On the go I relied on my chin up and wrist power and exploded back and to the right corner.

I knew better than to get into any technical matches because my lack of experience on the table, so I just used my best move and gave it all I had.

The competition
First match I was up against my training partner and friend Jackie Christensen. On the go I pulled but nothing happened. Jackie’s wrist did not budge but I pulled back with my lat (latissimus dorsi) and his arm opened a little bit, just enough. I pulled harder, rolled my shoulder and lowered his arm to the pad. It felt great to start with a win.

My next round opponent was Jesper Nielsen. I knew Jesper had been arm wrestling for 2 years and is very tough. I was nervous because I had built him up in my mind. As we gripped up I felt that my fingers were stronger than his. On the go I ripped back as hard as I could and explosively turned my fingers over the top of his as I pulled and draged his arm down to the pad. Second win. I pulled so quickly and hard I surprised myself. My confidence was growing.

In the end I won my weight class and moved on to the open.

In the open I wrestled against and won over Lasse Kickbusch and Tonni Christensen and took home the gold cup.

Thanks to everyone.


Read article where I am mentioned in Ekstra Bladet.
Watch more videos from the championship on my Youtube channel.

Any requests?

I'm looking for inspiration to new feats of strength. If any readers have some request please post your suggestion in the comment section and I'll try to do it and make a video with the attempt. I can also send you the creation as a souvenir. Go ahead and challenge me!

Hammerslag in Tivoli

Ps: I put a new video on youtube, where I set the "hammerslag" season record in Tivoli. Go to youtube.com/simonstrongman

Bakken Bears: National champions

The 18th of April the Bears won the Danish championship in basketball. As strength coach for the team I am proud of the performance this season. They worked hard to earn the title. At the finals Bakken Bears beat Svendborg Rabbits in 4 games in a row and Monday night the team took the title as national champions.

 

As a strength coach I work with the team in the weight room improving the strength of the movements they use on the court and I also take them through exercises to prevent injuries.

To motivate the team I do a feat of strength every time I introduce a new program (once a month) plus give the guys a motivational speech.

Watch me crush a aluminum can of CULT Energy drink for the team on http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150419811420424 (You will need a Facebook account to see it).

Congratulations to the team - you earned it!

Thank you for the comments

Right now I'm in Turkey on training camp with Danish Archery Federation so I'm not able to put on new video clips on Youtube or update my blog. But I want to thank for the comments here on the blog and on Youtube. I've only been online for a short time, so it means a lot to me.

I really appreciate the encouragement and welcome any questions and feedback by readers and viewers.

Article in Jyllandsposten Aarhus

So this January I was contacted by this sports journalist from Jyllandsposten Aarhus, who wanted to do a portrait of me and write about my coaching. The interview and article ended being about my hobby as well. The tittle is "Strength coach rolls up frying pans". Read the article here (danish).

Or you can check out the feat of strength the article is referring to in this blog post from April 7th: Simon Strongman - Rolls up a thick Ikea frying pan.

Also, remember to check out my Youtube channel for more feats of strength on youtube.com/SimonStrongman.

Simon Strongman - Rolls up a thick Ikea frying pan

I'm the strength coach of a professional basketball team Bakken Bears, and every time I introduce a new program, I do a feat of strength. This video is from last year, where I gave the team a pep talk just before the finals and rolled up a frying pan to motivate the team.

Captains of Crush #3 close

Check out this vid, where I close the mighty no 3 gripper.

Check out my Youtube channel

Check out some of my feats of strength on my Youtube channel SimonStrongman.  On the channel you will see me rip a phone book in half, tear a deck of cards, rolling up a frying pan, closing Captains of crush hand gripper no. 3.

Here's the video where I rip up a deck of plastic coated Casino cards (56 pieces).