ODD LIFTS OF ALL KINDS AND FROM ANY YEAR.

[Robert Zuver]

I'm hoping this thread will get some of you a little more active so the rest of us get to know you a bit better.
This is a subject that we all have all seen somewhere in our lives and can tell of our experience seeing it or doing it. With pic's if possible.
Ill start with The Big Water Barrel Lift.  I got to see quite a few guys do this lift over the years as Zuver's started it back in 1960.  Many strong guys tried and failed to lift the original Zuver's 150lbs Water Barrel of shifting water. The photos below show some of the best of the best taking there shot at it. I know over the years all over the world there have been many different Barrel lifts with different types of barrels. That's what I would like to see if any of you have some to tell about or show.
1.   Dr Ken Leistner
2.   Jimmy Cotton  He was a regular at Zuvers.
3.   Dr Terry Todd
4.   Bert Elliot
5.   Lou (The Hulk) Ferrigno
6.   Bruce Wilhelm
7.   Jon Cole
8.   Franco Columbu
9.   Mike Dayton
10.  Russ Knipp
11.  Bob Young
12.  Ken Patera

[Robert Zuver]

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[Robert Zuver]

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[funk51]

a feat i witnessed when i was a kid, i went with my father to work a few times when i was like 11-`12 years old. he worked for coca-cola and in the old days they delivered the coke syrup in 660 lb drums his job at the time was to roll them into a room and stand them on end for tapping into the bottling line. he would roll over one hundred barrels and flip them by hand like it was nothing. years later i worked there and used to be able to flip the same type drums a lot of guys from college couldn;t do it, quite a few were 300 lb plus football players. my old man would laugh at them and some how flip one or two with one hand, that i couldn't do. he also used to be able to front raise 4 -55 lb premix cans and hold it for a count of a few seconds.while he never actually lifted weights he would on occasion front raise a 120 lb barbell for a few reps.he was fairly strong until his last few years 1927-2012.

[jpm101]

Props to your dad Fink51. That is pure raw strength, which he probably took for granted because that's part of the job and that's just what he did. You have good DNA, it looks like.

Which reminds me: Worked at a rock, sand & gravel plant during the summer  (Victorville,Ca). They would line up the 55 gallon diesel steel drums (was told about 500lbs each) from the loading dock to the other side when they screwed the pumps in. The drums were standing up after unloading. This little Mexican guy (140-145lbs) show me how he would just tilt a barrel on it's edge (push from the top), balance it and "walk" it over hand over hand. Once we learned to balance it, not bad at all.

Thing about the diesel drums is that they were wide in length, with just a small 1/2" rim to grab on to, on each end. We would try a few cleans & jerk presses with some of the lighter ones (maybe filled to just the lower ridge) and might have been a bit above 100lbs, or so. Not an easy thing to do, at first. It's the whole balance thing with the water shifting from side to side. So I'm showing much respect for the guy's in the pictures. And also for your father.

Funk51, have any old picture of some of the old time German (and other country's) strongmen doing  barrel lifting. Believe those barrels were filled with beer. Which can be a good thing.

[polychronopolous]

Robert, how full were those barrels with water? I imagine about half full would bring the most amount of "surge" causing the barrel to shift more.

[Robert Zuver]

Robert, how full were those barrels with water? I imagine about half full would bring the most amount of "surge" causing the barrel to shift more.

The 150lbs kegs we used were a little over 3/4 full till the weight was achieved.the heavier barrels were filled with a combo of water and lead shot to get the desired weight. Even then they sloshed around a lot. That's the hardest part of lifting a barrel not the weight.

[funk51]

  i was always fascinated with the oldtime strength feats. here's a few pics of some oldtimers.

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