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Tonight
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Bob Bishop works out in the garage of his Manhattan home. When he’s not busy with his daytime job at Little Apple Toyota, Bishop is a professional arm wrestler.
Bob Bishop works out in the garage of his Manhattan home. When he’s not busy with his daytime job at Little Apple Toyota, Bishop is a professional arm wrestler.
Bob Bishop, 59, was born in Oberlin and moved to Manhattan in 1988 for work. In 1985, just a few years prior to his move, Bishop was introduced to the world of professional arm wrestling by his brother.
“My brother joined the military, and he happened to be stationed at Fort Bless in El Paso, Texas,” Bishop said. “He contacted me and said, ‘Hey, there’s an arm-wrestling tournament coming up here in three weeks. Would you like to go?’ I thought, well sure I’d love to. I’d never competed before in arm wrestling. I was always in sports; I wrestled as a kid. I played football, baseball and all that.”
Bishop wasn’t sure what to expect in his first competition, but he has always possessed a competitive nature, so he knew he would enjoy the experience.
“So, I go down there, and it’s just like wrestling or boxing,” Bishop said. “There are weight divisions. In my weight division, I took first place, which was kind of surprising for me, but I was hooked on it just like that. Wrestling, it’s a very high-adrenalin-pumping type of combat sport. It is one on one. If you get beat, it’s your fault, you know? It was always very exciting to me, that one-on-one competition; I just always love that.”
In 1994, Bishop met Wayne Burns, a world-champion arm wrestler who snagged first place in the 1991 world championship in Israel. Burns is an inspiring figure in Bishop’s life.
“When I met him, it was such an honor,” Bishop said. “As I’m shaking his hand and being told he is a world champion, I was thinking about how it would be cool to be at his elite status at a world championship. He is just very humble... He is a world champion, but he doesn’t allow his ego to get the best of him.”
Throughout the years, Burns and Bishop have become close friends, so it was exciting for Bishop when they both qualified for the world championship last year.
“It was an honor to run into Wayne at the national championship in Kansas City,” Bishop said. He wins first place, and I qualify for Team USA. So does his son. What was so cool is that I got to compete with him on the same level on the same day at the world championships, 30 years later. No way you could imagine that ever happening the day I shook his hand in 1994.”
The world championship took place in Turkey last year.
“There were seven podium finalists,” Bishop said. “There were 13 competitors on Team USA and seven of them were podium finalists. So, there was a top three. I took third place in my division. It really was as a dream come true for me.”
For Bishop, arm wrestling isn’t just about competition, though.
“It was such an experience to travel there and to meet so many wonderful people throughout the world,” Bishop said. “If you’ve ever known anybody that has ever wrestled before, the one-on-one competition, it is business when you’re competing against them, but then when it’s done, you are friends. You have an absolute total respect for that individual, and the camaraderie is just, it’s brotherly; it’s just beautiful.”
For the first 20 years of his professional arm-wrestling career, Bishop relied on his natural strength. Now, arm wrestling is something Bishop trains for year-round, and it inspires him to be healthy in all aspects of his life.
“I do my heavy arm-wrestling workout on Sunday,” Bishop said.
“Then I’ll do cardio and stuff throughout the week a couple times. Rest makes a huge difference as well. So, it’s like anything else — taking care of your nutrition, your eating habits and getting good rest and relaxation. You could stay as healthy as you want and as strong as you want to. It’s up to you.”
Bishop said he is stronger now at age 59 than he has ever been.
“A lot of people don’t really understand until they do some research about strength conditioning,” he said. “Most sports, you know, you hit your peak in your 30s or possibly lower 40s, and then you are kind of done. But, when it comes to strength conditioning, some of the strongest people are in their 40s, 50s and 60s.”
Along with his work at Little Apple Toyota in Manhattan, Bishop plans to continue training, pursuing his passion for arm wrestling.
“Wayne told me everything you need to have is right here in your heart, and if you don’t have the grit, if you don’t have the determination, you don’t have the discipline — you’re not going to go very far,” Bishop said. “Not just with arm wrestling, but in life. Those people that separate themselves from others, they have a lot of determination in their heart, a lot of grit.”
