MUSCLE MAGAZINE
EXTREME PERFORMANCE
In the winter of 1978, legendary
bodybuilding promoter Dan Lurie asked me to perform a feat of strength at his
upcoming W.B.B.G. Eastern American Bodybuilding Championships to be held in New
York City in May of that year. Having
never really performed a feat of strength for a large audience I took the
request to heart with a serious determination to entertain and capture the
crowd’s imagination. But what would
satisfy the muscle savvy New York spectators?
After debating several ideas such as tearing phone books, bending
spikes, and breaking lose from hand cuffs, I recalled seeing Franco Columbu
blow up a hot water bottle in the cult bodybuilding movie ‘‘Pumping
Iron’’. I remembered going to the movie’s
premier in New York City and witnessing the awe and amazement of the audience as
they watched Franco Colombu perform this death defying feat of strength. Having marveled at pictures of Bill Pearl
and Chuck Sipes blowing up hot water bottles earlier in my bodybuilding career,
I realized that this was the feat of strength that I was seeking. That was it! I would blow up a hot water bottle at Dan Lurie’s show and
captivate the audience just like Franco Columbu did in the movie ‘‘Pumping
Iron’’.
Little did I know what kind of super human effort it would
take to accomplish this chosen task. I
soon purchased several hot water bottles and brought them to my Staten Island
Bodybuilding Gym to practice on.
‘Before I go any further with this story let me warn you – DO NOT ATTEMPT
TO BLOW UP A HOT WATER BOTTLE – if you do, you run the risk of serious physical
injury or even immediate death’. Having
stated that, let me say that my first attempt at blowing up one not only
resulted in failure but caused tremendous pain throughout my lungs and facial
muscles with traces of blood on my mouth and lips. The exhaled wind pressure necessary to blow one of these babies
up his tremendous, and after trying this for the first couple of times you’ll
discover muscles in your face that you never knew existed before. It’s not only extremely difficult to blow up
a hot water bottle by getting the thick rubber to expand, but once you get it
to start inflating it’s even more difficult to keep it pressed against your
lips so the forced air doesn’t escape.
Similar to weight lifting, building up the wind stamina and facial
muscles to be able to perform this feat of strength takes effort. Already being in great shape at the time
(and I still am) I was able to conquer this dangerous quest in about a weeks
time, which led to another surprise. At
the moment the rubbery bottle explodes it gives off a loud bang as it whips
pieces of rubber with extreme force against the face and elsewhere. After my first successful attempt I was left
with two giant welt marks on my face (that lasted several days) from the force
of the whipping rubber, which wasn’t to popular with family and friends when
they found out what I was up to. To be
able to keep on practicing blowing up the items without harming myself I came
up with the idea of wearing a ski mask and goggles to protect my face and eyes
from the stinging rubber. This worked
well and afforded me the ability to practice daily, blowing up the bottles
without running the risk of scarring or going blind in the process.
A couple of weeks before Dan Lurie’s
W.B.B.G. Eastern America Show, I wanted to get a reaction to this feat of
strength and gave a demonstration to some members of my Staten Island
Bodybuilding Gym who just happened to be present one morning (see pictures). As the members gathered around I began to
blow up the hot water bottle with tremendous force and will, continually
pressing it against my lips so no earned air would escape. About eleven breaths into the object some
members began to back away for fear that they might be injured by the exploding
rubber. As the hot water bottle
continued expanding in size more members cleared the area until I was left
standing alone forcing air into this hellish vacuum of space. 17-18-19 BOOM! It suddenly exploded with a loud bang that brought a passing NYPD
patrol officer into the club to see what was happening. 
The
members where stunned by what had just transpired, for this was the kind of
thing you only saw in muscle magazines or on the big screen and now it happened
right there on their home turf of Staten Island. The reaction was one of awe and amazement which motivated me
further for my performance at Dan Lurie’s big show.
The night of the Eastern American
competition was filled with the kind of great excitement that all of Dan
Lurie’s show’s produced. Bodybuilders
from all across the land gathered to battle for top honors in front of
thousands of screaming muscle fans. I
was scheduled to start the second half of the show with a bang, and I didn’t
fail to deliver. I also participated as
a judge that day and was needless to say very busy with little time to
contemplate the task before me. As the
second half of the show began, I stood there on stage behind the curtains
waiting for the stage hands to open them.
Within a minute or two the show’s MC said a few words about Dan Lurie
and the W.B.B.G. and then began the second half by saying ‘‘ladies and
gentlemen, to start the second half of the show with a bang is last years Mr.
Staten Island winner and MTI author Mario Strong to perform a death defying
feat of strength’’. With that the
curtains slowly opened exposing me to a hoard of blinding flashing lights from
the enthusiastic crowd’s cameras. There
I was, standing on stage in the thrones of Muscledom, and felt an immediate
serge of energy electrify my mind and body, as I heard the trumpets from Rocky Balboa’s inspirational theme song ‘‘Gonna
Fly Now’’ echo loudly throughout the auditorium. I raised the hot water bottle up and sealed it tightly to my lips
by pressing it hard as I began to force air into its seemingly endless
void. As I approached the tenth
expelled breath the MC chimed in with the audience by counting loudly with each
further breath I took. It felt like an
eternity and I soaked it all in as I fulfilled my goals to entertain and
capture the imagination of my bodybuilding peers. When the hot water bottle exploded the crowd went into a roar as
I threw it into the audience and went into a few ‘Hulk Hogan’ type poses as I
strode off the stage with a feeling of accomplishment.
I would go on to perform this feat of
strength several more times throughout the years. On occasion I would perform at bodybuilding shows, YMCA’s, gyms,
family gatherings, and just for fun, with the last time being at the Mr. Staten
Island Show in 1995. I discontinued
performing this stunt that year at the request of several concerned family
members, although every now and then I get the urge to step back onto the stage
and…
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UPDATE:
MARIO STRONG EXPLODES IN CALIFORNIA
While attending the 2007 NGA California Bodybuilding Championships Mario Strong once again gave an extreme performance by exploding a hot water bottle for a sold out crowd. |
