Bulging biceps and buddies

Arm-wrestlers are stepping out from behind the pub table and hoping to raise awareness of the sport. Vicki Anderson reports.

The strong men stand across the table from each other and lock eyes, mentally sizing each other up.

Observers nudge each other knowingly. Some flex their biceps awaiting their turn at the table.

A few days earlier, Christchurch medical student Mark Makin had met a stranger on an app and invited him to this ‘‘super match’’, held at a suburban football clubrooms on a warm Saturday morning.

With all eyes on the table, the armwrestling begins. Faces contort from smiles to grimaces as forearms teeter back and forth before a winner is declared.

Referee Makin has enthusiastically been helping to organise events for the 40-odd members of the Christchurch ArmWrestling Club.

The sport is growing in popularity in New Zealand. At this event competitors from Dunedin are present.

For training, arm-wrestlers use custom equipment and exercises range from strength and conditioning to table sparring time and specifically targeted exercises – fingers, forearms, biceps and pronation. These exercises consist of small movements.

‘‘There’s an app, Armbet,’’ explains Makin. ‘‘You can look up people in your area who are serious arm-wrestlers and connect that way.

‘‘This year there was a point where we were getting a new member every week.’’

Having just finished his first year in the sport, Makin is considered a ‘‘newbie’’ and admits there’s a lot to learn on the technical side.

Arm-wrestling is something of a hobby for Makin as he finishes his hospital placements, recently working in both the intensive care unit and emergency departments.

‘‘The club has a varied demographic,’’ he said. ‘‘Our oldest club member is around 50 and our youngest is Felix who just turned 18. He started at 15 or 16.’’

Josh Roussel, a member of the Christchurch club for four years, said the sport had been ‘‘underground for a while’’ in New Zealand but had recently experienced a surge in popularity.

‘‘It’s a sport rather than just something you do with your mates on a Friday night when you’re having a few beers,’’ Roussel said.

On the world arm-wrestling stage, New Zealand is a ‘‘baby’’.

Anton van der Westhuizen, president of the New Zealand Arm-Wrestling Federation, founded in 2013, said there are clubs throughout the country.

‘‘There has been a recent boom due to social media and YouTubers creating content with high-profile matches,’’ van der Westhuizen said.

Pulling – as arm-wrestling is also known – is one sport where age is an advantage.

‘‘You can continue arm-wrestling until you are quite old . . . ,’’ Roussel said. ‘‘You get a build-up of strength in your tendons, so you get a lot stronger as you get older. To really reach your peak with that it takes up to six years of training.’’

New Zealand’s oldest arm-wrestler, Levan Kavtaradze, is in his 70s, and he was the first New Zealander to win a medal at the World Championships ‘‘in 2019, Romania, for the senior grand master, category right arm, bronze.’’

Western countries tend to associate armwrestling as a pub sport, he said, whereas in the Eastern Block you can become a ‘‘household name’’.

New Zealand has only ‘‘a handful’’ of female arm wrestlers - the best come from a Tug Of War background.

Top arm-wrestlers have ‘‘hands, wrists, and arms like steel – once it is set, it will not bend’’, van der Westhuizen said.

But good technique can beat pure strength.

At the Christchurch club meeting on this particular Saturday morning, as the armwrestlers compete on specially designed tables, there are many high-fives of joy and some handshakes of defeat.

‘‘Win or lose, you shake hands, and it’s a lot of fun,’’ Makin said.