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Interview with World Class Arm Wrestler: Mark MacPhail

Brief Bio:

Name: Mark MacPhail

Future Goals: Bench 250 kgs equipped: 210 kgs raw

Biggest Accomplishment: I just recently attained one of my life time goals. To medal at the World Arm wrestling Championship. I took home the bronze medal in the 100 kg class December 6th, 2008 in Kelowna BC.

TSC: The Strength Center caters to unique strength sports to not only educate our viewers but to hopefully play a bit part into helping expose the intricacies and beauty of the sport such as arm wrestling. With that being said I am not all that familiar with it. Could you explain how it started, where it started, where are the arm wrestling hot beds through out the world, the rules, techniques, how many weight classes, are they drug tested meets, how many federations/countries, registered members in Canada, the world, any prize money and most of all if someone was interested where would they start or go to? Is there perhaps a website with all of this information?

Mark: I don’t know how long people have been arm wrestling but I’m pretty sure arm wrestling has to be one of the oldest sports in the world. Organizationally, I know the World Wrist Wrestling championship out of Petaluma, California was started in 1952. This year the WAF or World Arm Wrestling Federation celebrated its 30th year.

Many of your questions regarding the logistics of the sport can be answered by visiting cawf.ca

Regarding hotspots, I d say it’s growing in popularity in North America but it seems to be a bigger sport in Europe, particularly Russia and the former Soviet states that seem to be on top of the podium quite often at worlds.

Yes, the WAF has implemented drug tests with the medalists being randomly chosen for a doping screen. At this year’s world there was over 30 countries registered. Canada usually has 200-300 entries at an average National championship.

There is not a lot of money in the sport of arm wrestling with the rare event like the Arnold Classic or Mike Gould Classic offering money. It is in the truest sense an amateur sport. Sport Nova Scotia has been a great support offering sponsorship for many of the traveling arm wrestling athletes.

TSC: You wrote a very in-depth analysis of your background and won’t ask you how you got started but you never really went into what was your motivation for becoming more and more elite in the world of arm wrestling? It was to make extra money in the bar wasn’t it?

Mark: I’d be pretty thirsty if that was the case. Mind you I won my fair share of draft pitchers back in University. I think it really came down to having had success at the beginning of my career and realizing I could go somewhere in this sport if I dedicated more of myself into it. Plus I just love the competition aspect of the sport itself.

TSC: Your sport is called arm wrestling but do people refer to it as wrist wrestling or is that a different sport?

Mark: Arm Sports, arm wrestling and wrist wrestling are all the same sport using the same type table with pegs.

TSC: Congrats on the bronze placing at the World Championships that must have been pretty grueling? How many opponents did you have to compete against?

Mark: There were 22 competitors in the class all having placed first or second in their respective countries National Championship. I “pulled” around seven matches.

TSC: How are the championships set up? Is it in a tournament format?

Mark: It’s double elimination. A draw sheet is used and a randomized method for selecting the draw. So there is no seeding or placement on the draw sheet that is based on previous events

TSC: Is it one opponent 1 match or a series of matches and it is the best out of five?

Mark: It is one vs one with the winner staying on the A side and the loser dropping to the B side. The A side continues against the other A’s and the B’s against the B’s. It being double elimination once you lose on the B side you’re out.

There are also “super-matches” which will feature two arm wrestlers against one another in a best of series. Right now a 6 match format is quite popular and if a tie occurs a seventh and deciding match would happen.

TSC: Is there a minimum amount of time in between opponents?

Mark: No, but you’re allowed 60 seconds to get to the table.

TSC: In the video the interviewer asks what size your arms were and you said 19”. What I would like to know is how big are your forearms?

Mark: My forearms measure 16”.

TSC: When does the typical arm wrestling season begin and end?

Mark: Funny thing there is no real armwrestling season. But the World Championships usually occur in December. I guess that could be called the end of the season with the end of the calendar year. But they have tournaments every month all year long.

TSC: Can you explain some type of gym exercises/training regimes that you perform to help make you a better arm wrestler?

Mark: When I first started it was a lot of forearm and biceps work. Which consisted of lot’s of wrist curls and bicep curls from many different angles. This built a good base to work from. Over time I progressed into using pulleys. I set an arm wrestling table in the centre of a cross cable machine and would use it to mimic arm wrestling an opponent.

I still do a lot of these exercises but the best way to get better at arm wrestling is to arm wrestle. Find a club or someone else interested in your area and try to get table time once or twice a week. I’d say the second best way of training, and I’ve recently fell in love with, is chin ups and pull ups. I use large diameter handles and bars along with straps and do my reps close and wide gripped with palms facing out, facing in and facing each other. This strengthens your hand, biceps, back and core. I do different variations of the chin/pull up a couple of times a week.

TSC: What level of Captions of Crush power gripper can you close? How often do you train with them and how many reps do you do?

Mark:: I have closed the 2.5 before but I’m still over a full centimeter from closing the number 3. I seem to go in spurts training with grippers. I make a few gains then stall out and give them a break. It certainly can’t hurt to have strong crushing strength but I really don’t think crushing strength directly translates into arm wrestling strength. I have had my COC’s for years and they are fun to train with and try and set new goals for yourself but again I don’t think it’s as essential as the above mentioned exercises.

TSC: Does arm wrestling training and bench press training interfere with each other or do they compliment one another?

Mark:: I‘ve been asked this question many times in the past and I think they do indeed compliment each other. If you’re a stronger person and compete in strength events like arm wrestling and bench it’s a win-win situation. Be it in the shoulders, pecs, triceps from benching or biceps, hand and forearm from arm wrestling. Overall you’re making gains and getting stronger. Do I think a big bencher will automatically be a good arm wrester or visa versus? Not at all but it seems to be working for me.

TSC: It must be a bit tough if you hurt your rotator cuff it can be very difficult to maintain your bench training?

Mark: I’ve experienced my share of injuries over the years particularly, disk problems and tendinitis around my elbows and I have hurt my right shoulder before. But to date my rotators have held up for the most part. I make a point to train and stretch them a couple of times a week usually during a bench session.

TSC: I noticed you compete with both arms is that the norm in arm wrestling or are you ambidextrous?

Mark: No, I’d say 75% of arm wrestlers compete in both arms.

TSC: Is there such a thing as individual arm wrestling style? Different techniques to use and when pending on the type of opponent you are facing?

Mark: Yes, there are many different styles in arm wrestling. There is basically two main styles and a lot of the other techniques are off-shoots from them which are slightly changed from these “meat and potatoes” techniques.

They are the “hook” and “top roll”. The hook is probably the movement that most of the general population would do if they were to arm wrestle. This consists of having a hooked wrist and dragging your opponent sideways to the pin line. The top roll is a movement whereas you grab high on your opponent’s hand and pull towards yourself rolling your wrist downward toward your other shoulder than to the pin line.

TSC: Everybody knows the catch phrase “Over the Top” from Stallone’s arm wrestling movie which surprisingly is not your favourite movie… what gives? Did it not play a true and accurate representation of your sport? Does everyone besides you drive truck?

Mark: I loved the tournament portion of the movie which actually starred a lot of actual pullers but the filler part of the movie was pretty corny. I have yet to see any one drink motor oil before a match but I have seen lots of slaps in the face before a match.

I can’t speak for the others.

TSC: Have you seen the YouTube videos of Magnus Samuelson breaking the arm of Nathan “Mega Man” Jones (the beast that Brad Pitt squared off in Troy)? Have you seen an injury like that while competing?

Mark:: Over 12 years competing I have seen a few people break their arm but always in the humerus region usually a spiral facture not in the radius or ulna like Nathan broke. Also I have seen a couple of distally torn biceps.

TSC: Who are the legends in arm wrestling? Who do you look up to and why?

Mark: Some of the legends in our sport are: John Bzrenk (widely recognized as the best ever), Dave Hicks, Ron Bath, John Miazdzyk, Cleve Dean, Tony Senger and Barb Zalepa. I don’t have a particular role model but I personally look up to anybody that has been able to have success in this sport over many years even decades and all those names above fill that requirement. It’s more of a “respect for the best” type thing.

TSC: Thanks a lot Mark and we wish you the best with your career as both a bench presser and an arm wrestler? See you at the Canadian Powerlifting Nationals right?

Mark: Thanks, Alex. You bet.

TSC: Next time I see you we have to have an arm wrestle but please take it easy on me I need both my arms and wrists in tact so I can bench that elusive 300 kgs.

Mark: Good luck….You’re going to get that soon.

More Background Info:

I owe my success to: I’d say good genetics for strength. A pretty good work ethic and a wife that will let me train 12-15 hours a week after being at work all day.

A short biography of yourself, history, any relevant information that you want your future fans to know about you!

Well, I guess my arm wrestling career started way back in elementary school where every year arm wrestling was one of the events in the school’s winter carnival. At a young age I did well beating all my follow classmates and even older kids.

In junior high I continued even setting up a pulley and a handle on a tree behind my father’s shed to train with. I was 14 when I got my first plastic and cement set of York weights adding up to 75lbs. I remember benching the 75lbs while lying on my bedroom floor. Of course coming several inches from touching my chest as my elbows touched the floor I laid on. It was a year later I think I got a bench.

In grade 10 at 15 years old there was nobody in the school that could beat me arm wrestling and that summer I entered my first official event at one of the large exhibitions that occur each summer in Nova Scotia. I walked away with first place in the 75 kg men’s middleweight class.

It wasn’t until 4 years later I entered my next event as a 19 year old in my second year of university again I walked away with first place in the 90kg class. This was really the beginning point. It was from here that I realized “hey, I’m good at this let’s see where this goes”

I ended up taking second place in the 90kg class at the 1997 provincial championship and traveling to Nationals and placing third in the amateur class that was offered.

It was 1999 that brought me my first provincial title and a third place in the open event at that year National championships held in Grand Digue, NB.

As I completed my University degree and my training intensified I reached a long time goal. To bench 4 plates before I graduated from school and at 22 years old I did it. I think I was doing 3 plates for 12 reps at the time I could get 4 plates for a single. I may have done a bit more 410lbs or 415lbs but all these were very ugly with a big “bounce”. But this was at 200lbs bodyweight so it was over double my body weight which I thought was pretty good.

In 2001, I continued to weight train and arm wrestle competitively winning both the left and right handed 90kg class plus beating the super heavyweight champion to win the overall class at the provincial championship. I traveled to my first World Championship in 2001 held in Gydnia, Poland taking 7th place in the right and left hand 90 kg class.

It was 2002 that I moved up a weight class and went all year without a single loss in the Maritime circuit tournaments and won my first National title in the 100kg right handed class at the 2002 National Championship in North Bay, Ontario and placed 6th in both arms at the 2002 World Arm wrestling championship. Based on my performance throughout the year’s regular season I was named Canadian Male Arm Wrestler of the year. The following year I also attended the 2003 Worlds in Ottawa taking a 6th in the right and 10th in the left.

It was 2005 when I entered my first bench competition. While training at the Sydney, YMCA I saw a poster advertising the event and figured I check it out. So after using a “way too big for me” bench shirt plus using a bench shirt for the first time I was able to bench 185kgs and subsequently took second place. After this I decided I was interested enough to make the investment and buy a proper fitting shirt and start more specific training. My next event, the provincial championship, I pressed 205 kg good enough for first place.

2006 was a big year for me as I won both the left and right handed national championship and competed in 3 bench competitions winning all three and pressing a personal best of 220 kgs at the Newfoundland provincials in St. John’s.

In 2007, I went undefeated all year in the local arm wrestling circuit and won Arm wrestler of the year for the sixth time provincially and for the second time nationally. I also attended my first National Powerlifting Championship and in the 100 kg bench only class took second place with a 217.5 kg bench missing out narrowly on 225kg and the gold.

Sources
Alex Mardell

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