The Two Hands Anyhow is a traditional

strongman In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength. More recently, strength athletics, also known as strongman competitions, have grown in popularity. Thes ...

weightlifting exercise. The goal was to lift as much weight overhead with two hands (two separate weights) in any method. The exercise was popular with lifters such as

Arthur Saxon Arthur Saxon (April 28, 1878 – August 6, 1921), born Arthur Hennig and nicknamed "The Iron-Master", was a German strongman and circus performer from the late 19th century into the early 20th century. Saxon is best known for the bent press, a lif ...

and

Thomas Inch Thomas Inch (27 December 1881 – 12 December 1963) was a British strongman, who held the titles of Britain's Strongest Youth and Britain's Strong Man. Early life Thomas Inch was born on 27 December 1881 in Scarborough, a seaside town o ...

. The most common version of the Two Hands Anyhow had lifters

bent press A bent press is a type of weight training exercise wherein a weight is brought from shoulder-level to overhead one-handed using the muscles of the back, legs, and arm. A very large amount of weight can be lifted this way, compared to other types of ...

a barbell with the strong arm and then lift a smaller weight with the other arm, usually a

kettlebell In weight training, a kettlebell is a cast-iron or cast-steel ball with a handle attached to the top (resembling a cannonball with a handle). It is used to perform many types of exercises, including ballistic exercises that combine cardi ...

. The world record for the two hands anyhow in this style is 448 lbs by

who used a 336 lb barbell and a 112 lb kettlebell. In Great Britain the lift was called the Two Hands Anyhow with Barbell and Ring-Weight, and a ring-weight or dumb-bell would be used rather than a kettlebell. Under the strict

British Amateur Weight Lifters' Association British Weight Lifting (BWL) is a trading name of the British Weight Lifters' Association Ltd (BWLA),''Report of the Directors and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 March 2020 for British Weight Lifters Associatio' "British Weight Lifters� ...

rules, Ron Walker set the British Heavyweight Record in 1937 with 310½ lbs. For the longest time, this lift was the one where the record for most weight lifted overhead was achieved until

Olympic Weightlifting Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lift ...

improved its techniques enough to allow for 500+ pound clean and jerk lifts, eclipsing the Two Hands Anyhow record, mostly because it's fallen out of favor (while the bent press has seen a minor comeback).

References

Weightlifting {{Weightlifting-stub