The program of competitions in the traditional disciplines of power extreme sports necessarily includes lifting and bench presses of the world-famous kettlebell Dikul. According to various sources, the weight of this weight ranges from 80 to 85 kg. It is considered to be nominal, since its creator is the famous Russian healer, academician Valentin Ivanovich Dikul.
At competitions, a Dikul weight of 82 kg is cast. They paint it in gold color to emphasize the value for athletes and athletes. Few powerlifters can lift it with one hand, not to mention the presses several times.
A bit of history
Born in Kaunas, Lithuanian SSR, a boy Valentin Dikul. It happened on April 3, 1948. He did not know his father, and lost his mother at age 7. The boy was raised by a grandmother, who subsequently gave him up to an orphanage. From a young age, Valentin fell in love with the circus, helped in preparing circus performances, cleaned the arena after the performances. From the age of ten, watching acrobats and gymnasts, he fell in love with strength exercises. Soon, with pleasure, he joined the work and began to lift weights and balls, doing acrobatics and gymnastics.
Fate smiled at him, and when he saw the teenager’s extraordinary desire for a circus, he was taken to the troupe of circus artists as an aerialist. But soon a terrible tragedy occurred. In 1962, Valentin Dikul during a speech in Kaunas becomes a victim of an accident. During a performance at a great height, the steel bar bursts in the Sports Palace. From a 13-meter height, the fall was so rapid that, even being able to group into cases of a fall, the athlete simply did not have time to do this.
Exhausting struggle with the disease
When falling Valentine gets a serious injury to the skull, spine and ten fractures of the remaining bones. A week in intensive care and three months of struggle for life in the hospital did not yield positive results. All doctors predicted the young patient to spend the remaining years of his life in a wheelchair. They just did not take into account the extreme desire to get on their feet and the willpower of the guy.
Back in the hospital, exhausting workouts began. Studying the literature on anatomy and biomechanics, he came up with exercises for developing the muscles of the legs, using first the ropes, and then the block structures with weights assembled by friends.
For six long years, the stubbornness of Valentin Dikul brought no visible results. But then he felt life at his feet. This made him triple his efforts and after 7 months of intense training his legs began to act. Since then, he not only got up and went, but thanks to work and lifting weights became the most powerful athlete.
Since Dikul got to his feet, his career as a healer began. He helped not only himself to stand firmly on his feet, but also gave hope for recovery to thousands of sick, crippled people. Created a set of exercises to restore mobility of muscles and joints.
Sports career
Love for the circus lived in Dikul's soul all the time of a forced stop. After rehabilitation, having risen to his feet, he returns to the arena, but already as a power juggler. The numbers with throwing balls weighing 45 kg, lifting barbells, people and cars were watched by millions of people around the world. But the invented Dikul weight of 80 kg is still considered unique.
His ability to throw a weight with one hand was included in the Guinness Book of Records. Since then, many powerlifting competitions have in their program the lifting and bench press of such an unusual weight. It is considered aerobatics to make jerks with a golden weight. Raising it is included in the traditional disciplines of power extreme.
How much does Dikul's weight weigh?
In Moscow, every season on the birthday of Valentin Ivanovich Dikul, namely on April 3, the "Strongest Man" tournament takes place. The competition program includes the raising of the famous nominal kettlebell, which the healer used for all 48 years of his career in the circus. The weight of the kettlebell is 80 kg.
The Federation of the strongest athletes of Russia included this projectile in the competition of strong men. The task should be performed as follows: you need to lift the weight up with only one hand. Lifting is performed above the head by push, bench or shvung technique. The movement is performed only along a long cycle (from the floor with one hand to the chest, then up).
The winner of the competition is the one who raised it more times. But it’s not always possible for strong men to lift such a burden at least once.
Russian bogatyrs
Kettlebell lifting in Russia has long been popular. Such celebrities as the writer Leo Tolstoy and the wrestler Ivan Poddubny liked to lift weights. But until the 19th century it was not considered a sport. It was an entertainment and endurance test of men at fairs and in circus performances. Such famous wrestlers of the past as Ivan Zaikin, Ivan Poddubny, Georg Gakkenshmidt, constantly performed gymnastics using weights. From such exercises all weightlifting subsequently arose .
Vladislav Kraevsky lifted 32-kilogram weights 10 times, although he was already 60 years old. He is considered the creator of the St. Petersburg circle of athletics lovers. The first book on training in working with weights belongs also to Russian Ivan Lebedev. His book, "How to Develop Your Strength with Heavy Weights," was written in 1916. And his student Alexander Bukharov wrote a textbook for athletes called "Weight Lifting" in 1939.
Weight lifters lift weights of 8, 16, 32 kg. And only now in the competitions of the strongmen began to apply exercises with Dikul weights of 80 kg.