Videos

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Chain Breaking

World Record October 2017. At the Annual AOBS competition (Association of Oldetime Barbell & Strongman) in New York City. This was a world record I broke. The feat itself was to bend 7 red nails. It’s not actually a nail, it’s a piece of re-enforced steel bar which takes 500lbs or 227kg’s of strength to bend. It’s a certifiable world-class feat of strength to bend 1 of them in a minute. On this particular day, I bent 7 in one minute; breaking the world record.

John McGrath - High Performance Coach

Interview GAA Games Development.

Interview - National Games Development Conference

All of us are born with a special gift, but the gift doesn’t come easily to us in our life. The gift exists, but it’s on the other side of major obstacles. Only if we overcome these significant obstacles do we get to hold that gift in our hand. The day we are able to this, our lives change. This is the big challenge. For those who can overcome these obstacles, a glorious life awaits. If you can do what you were born to do and what you were created to do, you can be world class.

Breaking a World Record in New York

Breaking a chain through chest expansion. It’s important to know that all these feats I do as an example of “this is what I’m born to do”. Everybody’s born to do something unique and something very special. This is just but an example of what you can do through applying your mind correctly and applying your body and believing that something is possible. To believe it first is the most difficult. Once you believe it, you can achieve it!

John performing on the Jou Show with Emo Adams

To tear a plastic-coated deck of cards in two is a difficult feat of strength, but to tear two decks is significantly more than twice as hard because of the lack of grip strength that you get. It is a question of believing that you can do it. You must work through the pain. It is very sore to be able to keep one hand gripping the deck and the other hand twists the cards – something must break. Have you got the courage to put your hand in the oven? You must have the courage of endurance.

John McGrath - Motivational Speaker

The levering of the Axe. I perform this feat to honor my mentor in strength; Slim “The Hammer Man” Farmar from the United States. This is possibly the most dangerous feat because to lose control from any distance ensures instantaneous serious injury. The pressure is normally in the range of 600 – 700kg’s, that’s the normal range at which I perform at in this feat. It’s one of my favorite feats that I like to perform when I do motivational and inspirational talks.

Driving a 6-inch nail through 3 inches of wood

I drove a 6inch nail through 3 inches of wood, and it still makes me ill at the thought of it. These are the challenges we face every day. Do we push ourselves out of our comfort zone? This is way outside anybody’s comfort zone to perform this feat of strength. All growth - mental, physical or spiritual, occurs outside of our comfort zone. So, I perform this feat for myself as much as for anybody else to go outside of that comfort zone and to encourage others and show the way.

The Levering of the Axe

I’ve got a great passion for working with young people. Young people’s minds are often very open and still malleable. They are definitely more open to the suggestion that all things are possible in this life and they still have a lot of expectation of what they can become, and you can fan that creativity and expectation and excitement in young people, they’re more likely to continue living that life and those dreams as they go through life.

Tearing 2 Decks of Cards

This was a great experience with Emo. I suppose the true gift of somebody like Emo is to make you feel comfortable and to have fun with you. When you're in a space of having fun, you can really get an awful lot done while enjoying yourself. Getting any chance to do these feats of strength and showing people what they can do is always a tremendous honour.