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Bill Morrison- Heavy Sports J.P. Brice- Iron Company
Bill and J.P. finally meet at the Cemco Fitness Booth.

I barely know where to begin with this edition--- There's a lot to tell !!

I guess I'll go back a couple of months when our Heavy Grips™  manufacturer sent me a prototype of a new handgripper that I had asked for. Most hand grippers, including our regular Heavy Grips,  have 1cm or 3/4 inch handles. I asked for 1" thick handles and a kick ass spring. When I first received the gripper, I was in awe. It was totally chromed and I couldn't move it more than 1/2"!! To make a long story short, I named the gripper the HeavyGrip 500 and started the HG$500  challenge. The first person to close the HG 500 will get a check from Heavy Sports Inc. for $500.00 (there are a few rules).

I was on the phone  with my good buddy, J.P. Brice, President of www.ironcompany.com telling him about the challenge one day, when he told me that the IHRSA trade show  taking place in Las Vegas March 23rd to 25th would be a great place to stage the HG$500 challenge. J.P. then made arrangements with the great guys from CEMCO FITNESS so that I could have a spot at their booth to conduct the HG$500 challenge.

I'm not much for traveling mostly because of a few health problems, but if someone was going to close the HG500 in Vegas, I wanted to be there!!   I grabbed two good buddies, left the wives at home and away we went! I hadn't flown in over five years and was a nervous wreck most of the flight, although it was actually pretty smooth (the flight back was a totally different story, when due to fog we missed a landing in Hibbing, Minnesota and had to skip the airport and had a terrifying landing at home).

J.P. Brice of Iron Company and I have been doing some business together for about 3 years, and talk on almost a daily basis, but he was like this mysterious guy as the only public picture anyone has ever seen of him, is of him (left), wearing the Iron Company "Built Like a Brick Shithouse" shirts and only his backside is showing. He's seen hundreds of pictures of  me, my dogs, cat, kids, snowplow, family, house, snowmen or whatever, but I hadn't a clue who this guy really was until I met up with him at the Excalibur hotel while he was checking in. As the trade show went on, I found out I wasn't the only one who was wondering who the mastermind behind IronCompany was.  My friend Ken was wearing J.P.'s badge so that he could get into the show and he had people come up to him saying that it was nice to finally meet him, only to further confuse people by telling them that he wasn't actually J.P.  At least 10 people remarked that they thought J.P. was at least 58 years old. Must be the bald head!

Being that this was my first trade-show, when we arrived (after J.P. got lost for an hour doing hot laps in his truck around the Convention Center which had no parking) I couldn't believe the amount of people and companies that were in attendance. Everything was fitness orientated and there was something for everyone.
J.P. first brought me to the CEMCO FITNESS booth and introduced me to Brendan Cosso and Troy DeSimone whom graciously allowed me to set up my HG$500 challenge at their booth next to XFC superstar and champion, Fabiano Iha.

THE CEMCO BOOTH

From Left:

Fabiano Iha- XFC fighter
(Sponsored by Cemco)

Me- Bill Morrison- HeavySports

J.P. Brice--Cemco Distributor

Troy De Simone- Cemco Sales

Ken Faragher- HeavySports Rep.

Brendan Cosso- VP Cemco

This was an awesome crew and I can't say enough but how great these guys were. I sat next to Fabiano and he shared many of his fighting and training experiences with me while I told him about my short stint in Tae Kwon Doe and competitive Armwrestling background. He didn't seem to envy me that it was only 20 above when I left home.

I expected a full-contact fighter to be much more aggressive, but he was very mild mannered, professional and family-orientated with a beautiful wife and two children. He took the time to answer any fan questions as well as sign autographs and pose for pictures.  Fabiano spends time training with the likes of the Gracie family  in Brazil and the Huntington Beach "Badboy", Tito Ortiz. If you have a chance, check out Fabiano's awesome website and training academy at www.fabianoiha.com  as well as information on the new Extreme Fighting Championship(XFC) at www.xfc.tv

As I was sitting at the Cemco booth, a slightly older, but spry gentleman approached me and asked me some questions about the Heavy Grips™ handgrippers. After a few minutes of talking hand strength and Arm Wrestling,  I realized just how small of a world we live in  as we both are friends with Mr. Dave Devoto of www.armwrestling.com and www.armwrestling.tv . This gentleman's name was Jimmy Payne and not only was he a chamionship Arm-Wrestler, but he was Mr. World in 1950. At 78 years-old he said he was still pushing the 100lb dumbbells and I never doubted it for an instant. Does anyone recognize Jimmy's younger armwrestling opponent in the picture at right? Picture courtesy of my friend Dave Devoto of www.armwresling.com .

The picture at left is of myself, Mark Koetzner and J.P. Brice holding up the awesome Cemco grip-plates. I have never seen Cemco products prior to the show other than pictures, and I can honestly tell you that all their products are all cutting-edge from the bars, plates, solid dumbbells to the new ICS-1 commercial quality spinner bikes.

Click on the picture at left or here for more info on Cemco products.

After the pic was shot with the Cemco plates, Mark Koetzner, President of International Fitness Services (center guy holding the big plate), says to me "Hey Bill, let's see if  Gunter can close that big gripper!".

"Gunter Schlierkamp?" That was ironic because I wasn't feeling well the night before the show and was in bed by 10PM(in Vegas!) and my friends Larry and Ken who are bodybuilding fanatics came into the hotel room later that night yelling: "Willy, we just met Gunter!!"

"Whatever," I said as I rolled over and went back to bed not realizing that I'd be actually meeting him myself the next day and coming within a frightening 1/8" of stroking Gunter the check for $500.00!!

When we first approached Gunter, I wasn't sure what to expect. I find that a lot of bodybuilders all the way from the amateurs to the professionals sometimes have this "You're lucky to breathe the same air as me," attitude for some reason I could never figure out. My good friend Alan  of APT's Pro Wrist Straps (still the toughest straps, bar none...) deals with Gunter on his own set of straps and has told me that he was a fantastic person, and he was right. Gunter was very approachable and was up for the HG$500 challenge without hesitation. The first time he squeezed it with his right hand, he got to within a 1/2" which was pretty impressive. He then grabbed it with his left hand (pictured at right) and closed it to almost 1/4" and held it there for a mind boggling 10 seconds!!! A few weeks before the show, I was worried that the HG500 was overkill and would never be closed, but Gunter was within millimeters of closing the grip. I was actually pretty shaken by how easily he was handling the gripper.

We went back to the Cemco Booth where word starting going around that Gunter Schlierkamp almost closed the HG500. This brought a few other tough guys to the booth who tried the grippers including "The Real Deal" Chris Cormier who was nice enough to pose for a picture with me with the HG500. I  offered legendary strongman Bill Kazmaier a chance to win the $500, but he barely gave me a half a glance and said  "I don't think so."

At the end of a long tiring day, nobody had closed the HG500 yet, but Gunter  was the closest, so  I decided to give Gunter some Heavy Grips to add to his training regimen and maybe give him another shot at closing the HG500 as he was so close earlier in the day. My new buddy Mark suggested that Gunter try flipping the gripper upside down, and Gunter came within 1/8" of closing the gripper with both hands!! I just about felt like choking Mark with that comment, cause hey, it's $500 bucks and i still had two days left in Vegas and didn't want to go home broke!!!

The HG500 is almost closed by Gunter Schlierkamp with an upside-down grip.
 That's me looking worried in the upper left. I thought I was going to be forking out $500 any second.

Gunter and Bill-- Click on the pic to visit Gunter's website.

Gunter  not only had the toughest grip at the IHRSA show, but he truly was a class act which I've heard for quite some time. I'm pretty sure that if he had a couple days to work with the HG500 he would have closed it and probably would hold it for a minute, just  for good measure. If it isn't closed after the California Pro/Am Strongman Competiton in May, I"ll probably send it back to Gunter for another try if he's interested. I spent some time at Gunter's website while doing this article and I recommend that you check it out at: www.gunters.net . He's proof that if you work at anything hard enough and never give up, your dreams will come true. Click here to see how Gunter came to America with nothing but a dream and made the best of it.

All in all, I had a great time at the show, even though I wasn't feeling well enough to really enjoy Vegas. I did get to meet some great people like Rick Gardea from R.B. Rubber who taught me everything I needed to know to never eat Sushi again(it actually wasn't too bad), and expertly steered me away from the "caterpillar" and "spider" on the sushi menu.  Rick was a fantastic guy and had some great rubber flooring products that are used for many industries. RB Rubber turns used tires into gym flooring to appease the tree-hugger in all of us! That's Rick and I(pic on right)squeezing into J.P.'s little 'king-cab' truck on our way to eat the raw fish(you guys gotta try cooked walleye!). It was only a few moments later when J.P. and Rick were talking about their French buddy Ray Navarre when, lo-and-behold, there was Ray crossing the street right in front of us in rush hour Vegas traffic!! I mean...what's the odds? Only in Vegas!! Too bad the odds didn't hold out for me on any of the slot machines.
From left: J.P. Brice, Bill Morrison, Ray Navarre from Troy Barbell.

I'd again like to thank Brendan and Troy from Cemco Fitness for letting me set up at their booth. Also thanks to my lifelong buddies Larry George and Ken Faragher for coming along on the trip. Sorry I wasn't feeling up to 'living it up' the way I should have, but hey, they got to meet Gunter!!. Thanks to Ray Mitrano from Hampton Fitness for getting us badges. Thanks to Ray Navarre for allowing me to set up Heavy Grip samples at their booth as well. Thanks to Gunter, Chris and the many, many others that tried the HG500 and the other Heavy Grips. Thanks to Rick Gardea for the Sushi experience (it wasn't that bad!) Special thanks to my good friend J.P. Brice of IRONCOMPANY.com  for everything he has done to help Heavy Sports Inc. prosper over the past few years and introducing me to everyone at the show. Thanks J.P!!

The only disappointment of the entire show for me was my former hero, Bill Kazmaier. It was no absolutely no big deal that he didn't want to try the HG$500, but being a huge fan of his for many years and have him basically snub me so he could get an extra tub of free protein powder from the MET-RX booth really rubbed me the wrong way; and a few of my friends that saw, felt the same way. I had just finished bragging up Kaz's many accomplishments to my buddies when he just happened to walk up to the Met-Rx booth which was across from Cemco.  I was just telling my friends about the records of Louis Cyr's that Kaz broke, so figured I'd introduce myself since the opportunity presented itself. After all, how often do you get to meet a legend?  Maybe I shouldn't have called him "Mr. Kazmaier" or maybe he felt like I interrupted him when he was asking MET-RX for another free tub of supplements, because he totally snubbed me.

 In strength sports where there is little money, most athletes gain respect and recognition from the few fans. (If you ever watch a World's Strongest Man on TV, you'll notice that there isn't an arena full of fans watching.)  Athletes like Gunter truly appreciate their fans and Gunter gained a few more fans when we met him.  Bill Kazmaier may have broke a multitude of strength records, but he lost one of his biggest fans that day.  

'till next time....Lift Heavy!!!

Bill Morrison at the Venetian in Vegas.

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