♪♪♪
- Paul Anderson was an amazing man.
He ran a youth home here in Vidalia,
and he dedicated his life to look after other people
and give back to the community.
He really was a phenomenal guy.
[ doorbell rings ]
- Hi. - How you doing? I'm Robert.
- Hi, Robert. I'm Glenda.
I met Paul when I was still a senior in high school,
and what he determined that day
was that he liked my legs.
[ laughter ]
I'd like to show you Paul's memorabilia room.
Many of these he got
when he was serving as Goodwill Ambassador.
- That is so cool. - That's something else.
- And this is, I'm assuming, the Olympic gold medal?
- That's the Olympic gold medal, yes.
- Wow. 1956.
- He is the very last American
to win in the super heavyweight division for America,
the gold medals.
I found these in a drawer--
- Right. - ...after I married him,
and it wasn't that he didn't treasure those,
but that was not his glory.
- He was humble. - Yes.
- It's like the opposite of Brian.
He's got only half the medals, and they're twice as prominent.
[ laughter ] - Oh, my gosh.
- One time, to publicize the home,
Paul made a 500-mile ride.
Rode all the way to Omaha, Nebraska.
- It's hard for me to grasp that
because his legs were, like, this big.
Well, let me make it more interesting.
He had on flip-flops. [ laughter ]
- That's commendable. - That is.
- That might be his greatest feat right there.
- It might be.
- Y'all want to see where my dad used to work out?
- Yes. - Yeah, I'd love that.
- Okay. - [ laughs ] Oh,
it's a little dungeon, huh? - Yes, it is.
You have to come in backward, so keep your head down.
- [ laughs ] - Wow.
- Being big is a challenge
that's hard to identify with for most people.
- This is gonna be interesting.
- Always tight, cramped, hot,
you know, ducking your head through doors
or just being stared at by everyone all the time.
I always feel like I'm in a fishing bowl
and people are trying to tap on the glass
to see what I'll do, you know?
- So Paul Anderson truly must have been 5'9"--
- Yeah. - ...to be able to train
down here, because I'm 6'8",
and I'm having to duck down
just to move around in here. - Yeah.
- Today, everybody goes to the gym.
Back when Paul Anderson was doing all this,
there were no gyms.
- These are the ones he used, right?
- Yep. - Oh, my God.
Do you know what those are?
- I have to see those plates.
Wow. That is insane.
- Why? Is it just because they were Paul's
or because they're... - These are original
York deep-dish plates,
probably from around the 1950s.
- Oh, so Nick used to train with them, then?
- Yeah. Mm-hmm. - Yes?
- I actually did used to lift
with those kind of York plates.
I'm that old.
- The fact that these were Paul Anderson's,
and there are very, very few of them out there,
essentially, it's priceless.
- This is Brian excited.
- I collect old-time strength equipment.
That's like finding
a Mickey Mantle rookie card in your basement
and not really knowing what you actually have.
- Ladies first, Brian. [ chuckles ]
- Squeeze back down here. This is--
This is the real feat before the feat, right?
♪♪♪
- The other day, we saw those original
York barbell deep-dish plates.
So today I want to attempt the gold standard
of pinch-grip strength.
So these are 45 pounds apiece,
so total 90 pounds.
And the grip-strength feat with these
is to match them up face-to-face,
so smooth side out.
Match them up like that. - Yeah.
- And then squeeze them hard enough
to lift them with one hand.
There have only been five men in history
that have accomplished this feat with one hand.
More people have been on the moon
than lifted these plates.
- Literally, that's the difficulty level.
- [ bleep ]
I thought I'd try it first,
just to gauge it and, you know,
give him some idea how tough it is.
- Give it a good squeeze.
- [ grunting, whistling ]
Ah! - All right.
[ plates clank ] [laughs]
- Does that count? Does that count?
- Not a full lift, but you broke it up, yeah.
- Oh, my God. - That's awesome.
- I'm not trying that again. You could--You--
This is your record, man. I don't want it.
I didn't quite do it, so now I was interested
to see if Brian can do this.
Okay, Brian, you ready?
We're in Paul Anderson's basement.
You've got two 1950s
45-pound York plates. - Yeah.
- Only five people on the planet have done this.
In your own time, buddy.
♪♪♪
- [ grunts ]
- [ sputters ]
[ laughs ] Bloody hell, Brian.
That was so easy.
- I thought that would actually be harder.
- To see Brian do that feat of strength,
it wasn't a shock to me at all.
Left, for good measure.
You know, just another day in the life for Brian.
I'll have another go at it for you.
- Yeah, yeah. - But then, when Brian did it,
it put the fire in me to go back and try again.
[ exhaling ]
[ grunts ] - Nice!
- [ bleep ] Aah! - [ laughs ]
- I honestly can't believe I did that.
- That lift counts. - Thanks, buddy.
Brian became the sixth man to pick up these plates,
and then I became the seventh.
- So that's history, man. That's neat.
You know, me and Brian have become a part
of a small little family in the grip world,
which I was super pumped about.
- Dude, that was-- - I'm happy with that.
- That was sick. Seriously.
- I'm happy with that.