What technique do you use?

I’m known for fighting with the hook, but I also use other styles sometimes.

What are your three favorite exercises?

I prefer to do ALL exercises in full range of movement, I NEVER do half- or quarter-moves. I like biceps isolations with hammer grip curls, that hits the muscles that I need the most. I fight with left arm only, so I do wrist curls for it – I stand before a barbell with my palm facing me. I also like rows on a bench of the rowing machine, with bent knees and a cambered grip – palms facing inwards. This angle imitates the fighting position quite well. You asked for 3 exercises, but I do so much more. First I warm up the muscle group I want to exercise, then I do 2-4 sets, 1-3 reps. I use VERY large weights, resting only 10-15 seconds between sets. Small reps are great for tendons, big ones not so much.

And how do you regenerate?

I do NOTHING before and after the fight. I train right up to the fight, and afterwards I sometimes take 1-2 days off training.

What were your injuries and how did you treat them?

1997, AAA Championships, broken left arm. 2004, Harley Pull, torn rotator in left arm, never fixed. In 2005 I had some 25 bone chips surgically removed from my elbow joint. In 2006, during the United Championships I tore off most of my bicep, had to have it surgically reattached. In 2009 I took a break from armwrestling, because of back problems I started having in 2008. In 2011 I’ve gone through 11 hours of surgery during which by back was stuffed full of bolts and screws and my lower spine was reinforced. But they haven’t changed my position once during that surgery, which resulted in crushed nerve tissue in my arms. My right arm is back to normal now, but my left is damaged, my hand is partially paralyzed – pinky finger, ring finger and middle finger. In 2011 I had another surgery to fix that, but it didn’t work. And two months ago I tore a rotator and a sub-scapular tendon in my left arm – it’s healing slowly.

What’s your approach to training?

I think everybody should listen to their bodies – when they tell us to take a break, we should. But when it’s not giving you warnings, you should train every day. People with naturally strong hands, like plumbers, ironworkers and such, use them every day. Maybe that’s why I never had any trouble with typical armwrestling aches and pains.

Iza Małkowska