Arnold Sports Festival 2019 - Armlifting - Rolling Thunder Event

Written by Dani and Andrew Livelsberger

Photography by Andrew Livelsberger

Julia Williams

Background:
A new event for this year, armlifting is a sport where grip strength is paramount.  Athletes need to lift increasingly heavier weights, but the difficulty is ramped up from a traditional weight or power lifting event due to the larger sizes of the grippable areas.

The images in this thread are from the event names Rolling Thunder.  The athlete must lift the weight straight up from the handle and be standing straight up to the judges satisfaction.

The event was hosted by TheGripGuys.

Autumn Cote
40 kilos (88 lbs)

Impression:
Armlifting is very new to me.    Much like years ago, outside of the Arnold Sports Festival, I knew nothing of MAS Wrestling.  It being listed on the roster as a new event for this year, I had to do my research.  I checked it out on YouTube and I knew that it was something we should experience first hand.

I knew nothing at all of it, had no idea that it even existed.  So, we made out way to the Consourse stage to cover it.

We know that lifting heavy weights is a task in and of itself.  With armlifting, the difficulty is increased by having the gripping handle much larger in diameter than you would usually find.  This requires the participants to develop their grip strength in order to even be able to lift the weight from the ground.

These are not trivial weights either.  In the first few lifts, the athletes were putting up 40-60 kilos (88-132 lbs) in weight.

Having discovered this great sport, we will definitely have to cover it more in the future.  If you've never heard of armlifting before, give it a try and check it out for yourself.

Another Year At The Arnold Classic! 2014 Edition

Another Year At The Arnold!!

 

We were able to cover the Arnold Classic at the Columbus Convention Center again this year.

The vendors were there in full force as always, but the arm wrestling competition did not disappoint.  Both men and women divisions competed.  Awards were then given out by Hollywood stars and athletes, Jason Statham and Randy Couture.  Jason Statham was also there to receive an award for International Athlete of the Year 2014 for martial arts and diving.

Sponsors even needed a break to catch up on some work.  As packed as the venue was, you have to find the space where ever you can, even if it is next to a posing Arnold.

You can see here the hustle and bustle of the crowd outside the Expo entrance.  If you think this is busy, check out all the people on the inside watching bodybuilding, lifting, strongman, gymnastics and martial arts competitions!

There were even living artist shows at the Convention Center.

The squat competition was fierce and these lifters gave their all in the main hallway area.

These martial artists were entertaining themselves while they had some downtime between competitions.

The strongman competitors left their all out on the stage.  Some left more than others as we were approaching weights of over 1000lbs on some lifts.  The image above helped some of these super strong athletes rid their hands of skin!  These are some serious weights.

If you missed the Arnold Classic this year, don't fret as you will have another chance to see all this and much more at next years action packed event.