By Brian Hamill
‘Odd lifts’ may seem a pejorative term but it sums up the variety of dumbbell and barbell feats that have waxed and waned in popularity amongst devotees of the Iron Game for more than a century. Rooted in the activities of music hall strongmen, some of whom were prepared to falsify the weights they purported to lift, many feats became codified and a part of weightlifting in Britain and worldwide.
Much of the historical legitimacy of weightlifting and feats of strength has been lost, now relegated to the circus or TV formats favouring giant men with dubious attitudes to pharmacological assistance. But with the growth of functional fitness, especially via organizations such as Crossfit which have embraced the olympic lifts, the time is ripe for odd lifting to be rediscovered.
Today’s repertoire develops grip strength, trunk rotational force, core stability, speed-strength and strength-speed. In this way such lifts are superior in a wide definition of functionality to the two traditional Weightlifting feats and the three Powerlifts.
So what exactly are the odd lifts?
