Bend Steel In Your Bare Hands!
by Mike Gillette
I had been back home just about 24 hours and realized that I was still sore. No, not really sore, this was different. I was actually in pain. Yeah, definitely pain. I figured that Hock was going to have a have a hard time wrapping his head around what I had been doing for the past three days, so I started to email him a couple examples of photographic evidence to him. And that's when it really hit me… My fingers were not working very well on the computer keyboard. Pain! Exhaustion! So I paused to take a quick inventory of the weird pains I was experiencing, aches in places which don't typically hurt.
 From my elbows on down to my fingers, I am completely...dead. Barely functional. Everything else hurts but it still worked, not like my currently useless hands. Now I haven't even mentioned my entire abdominal region which is pretty beat up too from people jumping on it, but more on that in a minute.
So just how did we get here? What cosmic confluence of circumstances had been at work to compel me to spend three days in Texas at a unique, bizzaire physical training seminar which had left me feeling as though I had been run over by about a dozen, dualy pick-up trucks? Stick with me…
My name is Mike Gillette. If you have been training with Hock for any length of time, you may even know me. I am the Director of Operations for Progressive F.O.R.C.E. Concepts or ‘PFC' for short. We operate as two halves of a larger whole; PFC Training and PFC Safeguards, our operational division. PFC fills a variety of training and security needs and whether we are conducting tactical training or providing executive protection , PFC instructors and agents are expected to maintain a high level of fitness.
So, being able to physically perform and stay strong, (especially at 46) is literally what puts bread on the Gillette family table. And over the years, in search of the 'best result', (meaning the best result for my particular goals) I have done it all… long-distance running, heavy weights, light weights, calisthenics, a home-made rock climbing gym I put together in a barn back in the 70s, swimming, Nautilus training, (does anybody else remember those tricked-out Nautilus gyms?) ropes, rings, chains, kettlebells, etc. And nowadays, when I'm training myself, I favor a mix of these various tools and approaches. I still stay relentlessly on the prowl for new information, new ideas and new tools. But my chief area of study is on those athletes or trainers who are able to obtain results that simply defy description. You know the ones I mean… the freaky strong, the ridiculously tough, and the ones who can continue to dominate despite their advancing years. If there is somebody who can do the impossible… then that is somebody I want to learn from.
So I felt pretty fortunate last May when I came across a man who excels in all three of those categories. His name is Dennis Rogers . Now, if you don't know who Dennis Rogers is, he makes his living as a professional performing strongman. Now I don't mean 'strongman' like you might see in those Met-RX-sponsored competitions on ESPN 2, where huge guys lift Atlas Stones, do the Farmer's Walk, Yoke Carry and such. While I am a fan of that kind of thing, there is a difference. Whereas competitive strongmen do things that are impressive, guys like Dennis Rogers, (and there are not too many of them) do things that are scary. Scary, as in bending horseshoes and steel bars, smashing objects with various body parts, driving nails through wood bare-handed, breaking chains and padlocks, rolling up frying pans, ripping decks of cards in half or even fourths, and lots of other 'impossible things'.
I had been aware of Dennis for a couple of years primarily because of several DVDs on the market which contain highlights of some of his crazier feats of strength . And while I have always been amazed by what he can do, I always considered that those sorts of feats as being impossibly out of reach for mere mortals. But impossible or not, when I learned that Dennis was going to conduct his first-ever training seminar where he would actually instruct how to perform some of these ‘impossible' feats, I knew I had to be there. Now while I didn't think for a minute that I could ever be able to ever perform such feats, I was still very interested in learning how the human body could be trained to withstand the stress and impact of these feats.
 So on the 8th of August, I found myself at the 1st annual 'Olde Time Strongman University' Seminar in Houston, Texas. I was one of 11 participants at this singularly unique training event. Grandmaster Strongman Dennis Rogers was in charge with critical assistance provided by his 'co-pilot' Pat 'The Human Vise' Povilaitis. The experience and skill level of everyone present was unbelievable. A few of the participants are also full-time performing strongmen themselves and all of these guys were well-versed in the art of ripping, bending and breaking.
On Day one, Dennis told me that by the end of the seminar I would be doing a few of these feats myself. I assumed he was merely being polite and was just hoping not to embarrass myself too badly. Dennis started out by demonstrating some of his unusual strength development exercises. The first of which was something he called a table curl. There on a metal table approximately waist high was an unusual-looking dumbbell resting on the top. The dumbbell handle was very thick and looked to be three feet long with two 25 pound weight plates at either end. According to Dennis, all together this dumbbell weighed approximately 85 pounds. To perform the exercise, all you had to do was stand in front of the table, grasp the dumbbell handle in the middle and simply curl it upwards until the forearm was perpendicular to the floor. The reason for the very long handle is to force the wrist muscles to stabilize the weight which, due the distance between the plates is very difficult to control.
Now, curling an 85 dumbbell, of a normal size with the weight plates just 6 to 8 inches apart, using only one arm is pretty difficult for most people. And I knew, just from looking at Dennis's ungainly dumbbell variation that I was about to embarrass myself. Lifting that thing straight up off of the table, with only one arm and having no opportunity to cheat by leaning or swinging, I knew that there was no way this thing was going to move. But there was Dennis, at a bodyweight of maybe 165 pounds popping that thing up and down like it was a toy. I was kind of in a trance just watching him before I heard him say, “Mike, why don't you come up and try this out.” So up I went. And with Dennis standing right next to me, and a room full of the strongest guys in world looking on, I grabbed a hold of that mutant dumbbell.
Of course nobody was more surprised than me, myself and I-Mike Gillette when that dumbbell actually went up. And while looking triumphantly over the top of my freshly perpendicular forearm, trying like crazy to keep that ungainly thing from twisting my wrist apart, I was feeling pretty good. Pretty good until I heard Dennis say, “That's pretty good Mike, why don't you do a few more reps to get the feel of the exercise.” Well, Dennis must have thought I had a few more in me so I did a few more. While it was the first time I amazed myself, it would not be the last.
So what did we do that weekend? We bent spikes, steel bars, horseshoes, ripped phonebooks in half and a few of the fellows even demonstrated some of their more unique skills. The Human Vise actually stuck his hand into a spring-loaded mountain lion trap, Greg Matonick bent a quarter into an 'S' shape using his teeth, Chris Rider broke a length of chain with his hair and Mike ' The Machine ' Bruce had a steel bar bent across his throat.
The weekend would culminate with a demonstrated by the entire group to be given at Dennis's home church; the aptly-named Powerhouse Christian Center. News of this performance had come as quite a surprise to me, who, by this time had barely 10 hours of total experience in the feats-of-strength field. So at the next break I asked Dennis just what sort of feat he thought I should even attempt publicly. Well Dennis is of course an expert in this field and he had already figured this out. Dennis wanted me to do something which would demonstrate the toughness of my mid-section. So my feat-of-strength was having Tyler Bramlett, (who is himself a monster at phonebook tearing) jump from the top of a ladder onto my stomach while I am lying on my back on the floor. Then Dennis of course showed me just how to perform this particular feat.
I survived a few practice jumps that evening and was feeling ready for Sunday morning. But the next day, during the first performance, while Tyler was climbing the ladder, I distinctly remember hearing a young girl ask out loud "Is he going to die?" (It was not a confidence-building moment.)
And the outcome? I managed to live through both performances. Now I know what you are thinking. You too want to learn the secret to performing this feat. How could a full-grown man jump off of a folding ladder onto my stomach and not kill me? Well, this one is kind of like Pat's mountain lion trap feat… you just do it and hopefully you don't get injured.
...to the right, Mike “The Machine” Bruce toys with Michael Gillette, by swinging him back and forth during one of two Oldetime Strongman University student performances held last Sunday. “The Machine” served as speaker and leader of the group, while each man performed an amazing feat to a junior high age audience. The shows were a tremendous success!
And then it was all over and I was back home in Las Vegas, waiting for the feeling to return to my fingers. That's when I had an opportunity to reflect on the previous weekend. I thought back to the month of May when I first considered attending the seminar. I never really thought then that I was either capable of or could be taught to do the things that I ultimately did. But it is not often that you get the chance to learn a skill from the best, most talented, (and craziest) practitioners on the planet. But that's exactly what I got to do. And you should do the same.
An interest in the martial way may lead you to train with Hock, or a desire for firearm tactical training could lead you to PFC. But regardless of what your personal goals may be, you need to find the best to become your best.
Mike Gillette The Strength Show - (Jump!)
Power House Christian Center Click here
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