Hello Robert, tell us a few words about yourself.

It’s not easy for me to talk about myself. My name is Robert Nemś and I’m 45, so the best is still ahead of me, being a young guy (laughs).

Great attitude! Tell us, what is your speciality

I took part in many competitions, strongman, maswrestling, powerlifting, armlifting, monster grip, traditional Highlander contests, medieval fairs, and others.

That’s a lot of disciplines. Any successes?

My most important achievement is not being a multiple champion in Highlander, Polish maswrestling champion or many other titles, but the Strongman Poland competition in England. The day before the comp we had many meetings at schools, pubs, clubs and homes of Poles living in England, and everyone asked “are you going to win?”. I haven’t been that stressed out on any competition. The next day we had a very important match, and we won! When we heard “thank you!” in Polish that day – that’s one of my best memories ever.

So one could say that grip strength was with you always. As you know, armwrestlers focus a lot on grip and wrist strength. What are your finger workout experiences?

In any discipline that I trained, grip was important. In strongman we use it to carry frames, cases, pull trucks, etc. One of the most popular competitions is the “Hercules grip”. It’s about holding up a car on a special frame, for the longest possible time.

How best to train? We usually use fat grips, bars or ropes. What do you do?

I’ve prepared a photo album of the equipment that I use for strongman, maswrestling, armlifting, and monster grip.

The 35 mm thick frame is built to increase scores. It’s logical that we can lift a lot of weight on it, than on the double rolling 60 mm thunder frame, with ball bearings to make it even more difficult. We lift very heavy weights on stable grips, because what point is there to use mobile grips, if we’re not strong enough. The axle, bear bar, rolling thunder, bull balls and the fat grip workouts are similar in methodology. We use a weight pyramid combined with 30 second weight holds, with weight added every set, and try to hold it for 30 seconds. Intensiveness might mean extending time or shorter breaks between sets.

Do you have a favorite kind of grip?

I recommend the Big Dog Bone, for strengthening fingers, wrists, biceps, triceps. It’s very hard to hold, but very useful in training. Many armwrestlers use pulleys to lift weights. A great exercise. I especially recommend pylley work without a break, to failure. An amazing burn for the forearm. Rolling thunder is a professional tool, we use it to prepare for tournaments. We test ourselves on it, it’s our litmus test. A kilogram of progress is often a month’s worth of work. You need a lot of patience and dedication. It’s not the same as doing mass. The effects are prolonged.

And how is armlifting doing in Poland? Do you have an organization? Championships?

Sadly, I must admit that in Poland most of the non-Olympic sports do not have federations that would gather all the practitioners. Right now, I’m the only one to organize competitions of this kind, lifting comps with various grips. I base my contests on the similar events in Canada, Russia, Germany and Scandinavia. The same rules apply. My comps are open, anyone can come and face the “fat grip”.

It’s nice to know that we may yet organize a joint armwrestling and armlifting tournament. Thanks for the interview and good luck! Stay strong!

Cheers to all lifting and wrestling people!

Błażej Kuźniar