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Soviet Strong Man

The content below is from Episode 170 of the Who’d a Thunk It? Podcast

RECOMMENDATION SEGMENT

  • This week I recommend an author: Yuval Noah Harari
    • Yuval’s most popular book is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
    • But I have listened to 3 of his books now via the Libby App, which is 100% free as it allows you to borrow books or audiobooks through your library card.
    • Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli public intellectual, historian and professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of the popular science bestsellers Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. 

NOW FOR THE MAIN EVENT

  • This week’s episode is about Valentin Dikul, born April 3rd 1948 in Soviet Lithuania.
    • His occupations are listed as “Circus artist and rehabilitation specialist.”
    • In 1999 he was awarded the People’s Artist of Russia
      • People’s Artist of the Russian Federation (Russian: Народный артист Российской Федерации, Narodnyy artist Rossiyskoy Federatsii), also sometimes translated as National Artist of the Russian Federation, is an honorary and the highest title awarded to citizens of the Russian Federation, all outstanding in the performing arts, whose merits are exceptional in the sphere of the development of the performing arts (theatre, musi], dance, circus, cinema, etc.).

Dikul was born prematurely, weighing just over one kilogram (about 2.5 pounds). His father Ivan Grigoryevich (1920–1950) was Ukrainian by nationality and worked as a serviceman in , the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but was killed in the line of duty. His mother Anna Korneyevna (1925–1952) was Russian by nationality, and died when Valentin was still in kindergarten.

Dikul was raised by his grandparents until he was seven years old, when he began living in orphanages, first in Vilnius and then in Kaunas.

Aged nine, he became interested in the circus and helped to put up the circus tent, cleaning the arena, looking after the animals, sweeping, and washing the floors. At fourteen he began working as a motorcycle repairman. In his free time he trained in gymnastics, wrestling, weightlifting, balancing acts, acrobatics, juggling, and stunts, and eventually became involved with the circus in Kaunas

In 1962, he starred in his first act of air gymnastics at the Sports Palace. It was in 1962, At age 14, Dikul was seriously injured during a gymnastic performance when a steel support cross beam broke, causing him to fall 43 ft (13 meters) and fracture his spine and suffer a traumatic brain injury.

 He spent a week in intensive care at the City Hospital and was then transferred to the neurosurgery department of the hospital. His final diagnosis was a compression fracture of the lumbar spine and traumatic brain injury, with many local fractures.

As part of his recovery process, Dikul began to train 5 to 6 hours a day stretching rubber bands, lifting heavy objects and doing push-ups.

Suffering from pain in the spine and fatigue, he performed strength exercises and studied the medical literature on the spine, gathering the necessary information. 

However, he was unable to even move his legs. Doctors told him that there was no hope that he would be able to walk again, but Dikul persisted by continuing to workout everyday until he would pass out from exhaustion.

As he began to develop more muscles on his chest, body and arms, Dikul would incrementally increase the weights.

Once he regained his upper body strength, he had the idea that you need to move the inactive parts of the body as if they were healthy a full cycle. He began to tie ropes to his feet and move them using a pulley system.

The system he used to rehabilitate was unorthodox to say the least. He Tied a rope to his feet, passing it under the headboard, which played the role of the pulley and then pulling it and moving the feet. Then he began using counterweight loads. Friends helped him build a system of weights and pulleys around his bed designed by Dikul. Eight months later he was discharged from the hospital with the first group of disability

Once fully recovered, a feat he did mostly by himself, he put to use his immense strength, in which he displayed mostly in the form of juggling, flipping, and snatching massive kettlebells. He is known to have used kettlebells weighing up to 80–90 kg.

There are videos of Valentin Dikul tossing around big golden bowling balls like they were nothing. Then he goes to the audience and asks a full-grown man to hold one of the balls… it dramatically falls to the ground. So heavy, the audience member can’t even hold it.

A series of publications in the press provoked an avalanche of letters to Dikul with requests for help. In response, he would send them a package of instructions designed for medical rehabilitation. In processing a large amount of correspondence he was helped by his wife Lyudmila.

Many people using a wheelchair saw it as their hope. Valentin spent three to four hours a day on advising people with disabilities.

In 1988, Dikul opened up a rehabilitation center to help people with spinal injuries and with consequences of infantile cerebral paralysis. He is still heading it to this day and is alive and well.

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