USAWA

As we await the results of Hermann Goerner Deadlift Dozen Plus One, I wanted to revisit the Hermann Goerner Club. Al Myer’s dubbed the Hermann Goerner Club in 2011 for athletes that met Goerner’s standard of a 308.5-pound middle fingers deadlift.

As of an update in 2019, only (5) athletes had made the list:

Kevin Fulton 400 pounds – 1999 SuperGrip Challenge
Dan Wagman 316 pounds – 2017 Iron Warrior RD
Ben Edwards 315 pounds – 2016 USAWA Grip Championships
Chad Ullom 310 pounds – 2019 Dino Gym Challenge
Bill DiCiccio 309 pounds – 1994 IAWA Gold Cup

Since 2019, no new names have been added to the list. The highest recorded records by year are as follows:

2020 – Female – Amorkor Ollennuking (105 lb); Male – Lance Foster (205 lb)
2021 – Female – NA; Male – Bill Clark (75 lb)
2022 – Female – NA; Male – Chad Ullom (325 lb; moving up the list to #2)
2023 – Female – NA; Male – Jeff Wenzel (225 lb)
2024 – Female – Lisa Gore (75 lb); Male – Dan Wagman (316 lb)
2025 – Female – Lisa Gore (150 lb); Male – Denny Habecker (134 lb)

Personally, I am not a big fan of finger deadlifts. I respect the strength and pain tolerance required to perform these lifts, especially at a world class standard. My personal best middle fingers deadlift is a meagre 85 pounds.

Regarding Female lifters, the USAWA adopted the 1.33 gender adjustment at the 2024 Annual General Meeting. Taking 308.5/1.33 = 232.0-pound female equivalent of Hermann Goerner’s mighty feet. The highest recorded USAWA female middle fingers deadlift is 230 pounds by Mary McConnaughey in 2005. Had she known about the club and had the benefit of gender adjustment, I am certain she would have gone for 232 pounds.

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