In the winter of 1978, legendary bodybuilding promoter Dan Lurie asked me to perform a feat of strength at his upcoming W.B.B.G. Eastern American Bodybuilding Championships to be held in New York City in May of that year. Having never really performed a feat of strength for a large audience I took the request to heart with a serious determination to entertain and capture the crowd’s imagination. But what would satisfy the muscle savvy New York spectators? After debating several ideas such as tearing phone books, bending spikes, and breaking lose from hand cuffs, I recalled seeing Franco Columbu blow up a hot water bottle in the cult bodybuilding movie ‘‘Pumping Iron’’. I remembered going to the movie’s premier in New York City and witnessing the awe and amazement of the audience as they watched Franco Colombu perform this death defying feat of strength. Having marveled at pictures of Bill Pearl and Chuck Sipes blowing up hot water bottles earlier in my bodybuilding career, I realized that this was the feat of strength that I was seeking. That was it! I would blow up a hot water bottle at Dan Lurie’s show and captivate the audience just like Franco Columbu did in the movie ‘‘Pumping Iron’’.

Little did I know what kind of super human effort it would take to accomplish this chosen task. I soon purchased several hot water bottles and brought them to my Staten Island Bodybuilding Gym to practice on.  ‘Before I go any further with this story let me warn you – DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BLOW UP A HOT WATER BOTTLE – if you do, you run the risk of serious physical injury or even immediate death’. Having stated that, let me say that my first attempt at blowing up one not only resulted in failure but caused tremendous pain throughout my lungs and facial muscles with traces of blood on my mouth and lips. The exhaled wind pressure necessary to blow one of these babies up his tremendous, and after trying this for the first couple of times you’ll discover muscles in your face that you never knew existed before. It’s not only extremely difficult to blow up a hot water bottle by getting the thick rubber to expand, but once you get it to start inflating it’s even more difficult to keep it pressed against your lips so the forced air doesn’t escape. Similar to weight lifting, building up the wind stamina and facial muscles to be able to perform this feat of strength takes effort. Already being in great shape at the time (and I still am) I was able to conquer this dangerous quest in about a weeks time, which led to another surprise. At the moment the rubbery bottle explodes it gives off a loud bang as it whips pieces of rubber with extreme force against the face and elsewhere. After my first successful attempt I was left with two giant welt marks on my face (that lasted several days) from the force of the whipping rubber, which wasn’t to popular with family and friends when they found out what I was up to. To be able to keep on practicing blowing up the items without harming myself I came up with the idea of wearing a ski mask and goggles to protect my face and eyes from the stinging rubber. This worked well and afforded me the ability to practice daily, blowing up the bottles without running the risk of scarring or going blind in the process.

A couple of weeks before Dan Lurie’s W.B.B.G. Eastern America Show, I wanted to get a reaction to this feat of strength and gave a demonstration to some members of my Staten Island Bodybuilding Gym who just happened to be present one morning (see pictures). As the members gathered around I began to blow up the hot water bottle with tremendous force and will, continually pressing it against my lips so no earned air would escape. About eleven breaths into the object some members began to back away for fear that they might be injured by the exploding rubber. As the hot water bottle continued expanding in size more members cleared the area until I was left standing alone forcing air into this hellish vacuum of space. 17-18-19 BOOM! It suddenly exploded with a loud bang that brought a passing NYPD patrol officer into the club to see what was happening.  The members where stunned by what had just transpired, for this was the kind of thing you only saw in muscle magazines or on the big screen and now it happened right there on their home turf of Staten Island. The reaction was one of awe and amazement which motivated me further for my performance at Dan Lurie’s big show.

The night of the Eastern American competition was filled with the kind of great excitement that all of Dan Lurie’s show’s produced. Bodybuilders from all across the land gathered to battle for top honors in front of thousands of screaming muscle fans. I was scheduled to start the second half of the show with a bang, and I didn’t fail to deliver. I also participated as a judge that day and was needless to say very busy with little time to contemplate the task before me. As the second half of the show began, I stood there on stage behind the curtains waiting for the stage hands to open them. Within a minute or two the show’s MC said a few words about Dan Lurie and the W.B.B.G. and then began the second half by saying ‘‘ladies and gentlemen, to start the second half of the show with a bang is last years Mr. Staten Island winner and MTI author Mario Strong to perform a death defying feat of strength’’. With that the curtains slowly opened exposing me to a hoard of blinding flashing lights from the enthusiastic crowd’s cameras. There I was, standing on stage in the thrones of Muscledom, and felt an immediate serge of energy electrify my mind and body, as I heard the trumpets from Rocky Balboa’s inspirational theme song ‘‘Gonna Fly Now’’ echo loudly throughout the auditorium. I raised the hot water bottle up and sealed it tightly to my lips by pressing it hard as I began to force air into its seemingly endless void. As I approached the tenth expelled breath the MC chimed in with the audience by counting loudly with each further breath I took. It felt like an eternity and I soaked it all in as I fulfilled my goals to entertain and capture the imagination of my bodybuilding peers. When the hot water bottle exploded the crowd went into a roar as I threw it into the audience and went into a few ‘Hulk Hogan’ type poses as I strode off the stage with a feeling of accomplishment. 

I would go on to perform this feat of strength several more times throughout the years. On occasion I would perform at bodybuilding shows, YMCA’s, gyms, family gatherings, and just for fun, with the last time being at the Mr. Staten Island Show in 1995. I discontinued performing this stunt that year at the request of several concerned family members, although every now and then I get the urge to step back onto the stage and… www.MarioStrong.com