Bar bending or iron bending is a display of physical strength derived from early circus strongman performers, which was used in a sporting context in strength competitions such as the World's Strongest Man.
[2] From eighteenth century through the age of vaudeville strongmen of nineteenth century[3] until around mid twentieth century, traditional strongmen like Thomas Topham, Louis 'Apollon' Uni, Warren Lincoln Travis, Hermann Görner,[4] Joe 'Mighty Atom' Greenstein,[5] Zishe Breitbart, Arthur Saxon, John B. Gagnon and Joe Rollino[6] experimented with different techniques and variations on how to bend the iron in the most impressive ways.
[8] One of the most notorious moments of strongman occurred during 1981 World's Strongest Man competition when Bill Kazmaier and Geoff Capes injured themselves[9] while attempting to bend the final iron bar of the event to declare the event winner.
[10] Grip strength specialists like Richard Sorin, John Brookfield, David Horne and Greg Matonick continued to experiment with more variations and along with strength advocates like Randall J. Strossen diversified the gamut of bar bending.
[11][3] In 2013, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson established a new Guinness World Record by bending 4 × iron rods (each with a 5⁄8 inch (1.6 cm) diameter) in only 30 seconds.