John McLoughlin - Hank Galiano

John McLoughlin
by Hank Galiano (1959)


If an obscure lifter of average strength suddenly comes along and unofficially breaks a long-standing world record by a few pounds, it would be commendable. However, if this unknown lifter surpasses the old record by over ONE HUNDRED pounds, there is every reason to call it phenomenal. Such has been the unique case of John McLoughlin, 198-pound lifter from the German-American A.C. in N.Y.C.

John has exceeded the two finger dead lift record of the famous strongman Hermann Goerner by exactly 103 pounds! Goerner established his record in this lift with 308 pounds back in the early 1920’s. No one has ever reported doing more until John McLoughlin performed his shattering 411 pounds before a number of reliable witnesses.

The two finger dead lift does not sound like too difficult a feat until one has tried it with a respectable poundage. It is truly a feat of finger strength and the ability to withstand pain on the fingers. Any one finger of each hand may be employed. John uses the middle fingers. It is executed in the same manner as the regular two hands dead lift, except that only one finger of each hand is used to grip the bar instead of the whole hand.

This amazing display of finger strength on the part of John McLoughlin is even more meritorious when one considers the fact that Goerner is classified as one of the strongest men that ever lived, and that one of his specialties was the dead lift, at which he is credited with 798 pounds. John’s best in this lift is a comparatively modest 530 pounds. This is the most astounding part of it all. John does not train on the two finger dead lift. In fact, he very seldom does it, and then only upon the insistence of the boys at the gym. He is very unassuming and overly modest.

John is 38 years old and has been training for some 20 years now. He isn’t a big fellow with big hands as one may expect. He stands 5’8” and weights around 190 with a 16½” arm and 8 inch wrists. He is proficient at feats of finger and gripping strength and has cleaned and pressed a pair of 103 pound dumbbells with bars 2” in diameter. He can also chin with two fingers, do a handstand on the thumbs and reverse curls 145 pounds correctly.

All in all, John can be classified as a man with abnormal finger strength, perhaps superior in that respect to even the mighty Hermann Goerner. It is for this reason that we salute John McLoughlin, the man with the phenomenal fingers.