I have been working on an article for much too long on what I call "The Strength Pilgrimage."  The article keeps getting shelved because I am hoping for one more journey to add to the list of places that I have gone in search of strength.  One day after logging on to the Internet I began to receive a very large e-mail on my very slow connection.  I waited a long time and finally was surprised by the pictures accompanying this article.  There was little explanation of the pictures attached, but it was obvious that they were of the monument to the great Strongman John Grun, also known as "The Luxembourg Hercules."   The pictures were taken by Jochen Herling and sent to me by fellow Grip enthusiast Arne Persson.  While the message was long, it certainly was quicker than traveling to Luxembourg myself.

      Many things raced through my mind the day I received these images, one of which was that I realized that Arne had also gone on a "Strength Pilgrimage" of his own to Luxembourg and that if not for the Internet I would not be able to share his experience.  Arne reported to me later that he traveled 1000 km to Luxembourg from Sweden.   In some ways his journey was my journey, and my circle of thoughts regarding my own strength pilgrimages was complete. 

I apologize to everyone who went to this article thinking it would be entirely on John Grun, but I can't help but be excited by the prospect of all my future virtual journeys.  Having all of these pictures motivated me to find more information regarding John Grun, which I've discussed below.  The first picture carved in stone above appears to be from the very same photograph of Grun bending a horseshoe that I have in my Gallery of Ironmen.  The picture to the right shows what is probably jack chain being exploded around his bicep,  a feat that I was unaware that he performed.  John Grun, like myself, specialized in steel, but he was also famous for his harness lift.  This is shown in the wide shot below followed by a close up which depicts the apparatus used for the lift.

This picture  reminds me of what my Father says regarding pictures that you or your friends take as opposed to professional pictures.  They can mean more to you because your friends were there.   I have never met Arne or his stepson Björn, shown in the picture at left, but I have a sense of what my Father says here because of the community we have formed of strength athletes on the Internet.  Björn is 2-3 mm away from closing the #2 gripper at only 14 years of age!  He will no doubt close the #2 by the time he is 15.  Look closely and you will see the confidence of someone who will someday close the #3 gripper.

This is a depiction of John Grun's famous Harness Lift, Willoughby reported that Grun could lift 4410 pounds on this lift and that he was the greatest lifter of his day on this feat.  He typically used people as live weight, and the engraving shows horses with riders atop.      At an exhibition in Paris in 1905 Grun broke three horseshoes with his bare hands in 2 minutes and 15 seconds.  Marx weighed at his peak around 235 pounds at 5' 11", and had large hands which were undoubtedly very useful in thick handled barbell and dumbbell lifts.

       In my article " Challenging the Immortals" I set forth some challenges for modern strength athletes, in part using John Grun's lifts as a goal.  Like many strongmen of his era John had two "unliftable" dumbbells of 143 pounds and 132 pounds.  Each of the handles were 2.75 inches in diameter, .25 inches bigger than the Inch dumbbell.  Grun performed clean and jerks with these dumbbells.  

Forearm and Grip Strength Equipment at MegaFitness    The best of tai chi, yoga, meditation and chi kung. 4 Minute Fitness. Try it!     Kiss My Face Olive Oil Bar Soaps      BiGFiTNESS.net            Weight Benches              Bars & Attachments            Treadmills    Looking for shoes? Try Cross-trainers and  Running Shoes at Shoe Collections.com.

Houdini on Grun from The Miracle Mongers:

"John Grun Marx, a Luxemberger, must have been among the strongest men in the world at the time I knew him. We worked on the same bill several times; but it was at the Olympia, in Paris, that he shone supreme as a strongman--and at the same time as a weak one. For, in spite of his sovereign strength, Mars was no match for a pair of bright eyes; all a pretty woman had to do was to smile and John would wilt. And--Paris was Paris.

Marx's strength was prodigious, and he juggled hundreds, and toyed with thousands, of pounds as a child plays with a rattle. He must have weighed in the neighborhood of three hundred pounds, and he walked like a veritable colossus. In fact, he reminded me of a two-footed baby elephant.

Always good-natured, he made a host of friends both in the profession and out of it. After years of professional work he settled down as landlord of a public house in England, where, finally, he was prostrated by a mortal illness. Wishing to die in his native city, he returned to Luxemberg. He did not realize that he was bereft of his enormous strength, and those about him humored him: the doctor and the nurses would pretend that he hurt them when he grasped their hands. He died almost forgotten except by his brother artists, but they (myself among them) built a monument (Author's Note: apparently the one seen in these pictures) to this good-natured Hercules, whose only care was to entertain."

   Oh yes, one final thought, if this article took too long to download because of all the pictures, just remember that it's quicker than traveling to Luxembourg.  

Copyright September 2001, Tom Black