Valentin Dikul

Valentin Dikul is a circus strongman. He is famous because he broke his back in young age and later he rehabilitated himself and went back to the circus as a circus strongman. Also he made Guinness World Record in powerlifting in 1999(he was 51 years old).



He was born April 3, 1948. When he was 15 years old he was a trapeze artist in the circus. One day he fell from a height of 13 meters in an accident. The diagnosis of the doctors was: "Compression fracture of the spine in the lumbar spine and brain injury. Valentin Dikul will hold the remainder of his life in a wheelchair."

At the hospital, he began training with a rigid energy. Nobody believe that he will succeed. He continued to train five - six hours a day for five years. But his feet did not act. Suddenly he had a fever, terribly hurt joints, Valentin lost consciousness. When he woke up he was unable to move his hands and talking. But after a week he felt the work of muscles of his legs. Two weeks later he could walk with two sticks.

Valentin Dikul decided to return to the arena as circus strongman. He continued to train and seven months later he had gone already without sticks. And four years later he easily goes up in the iron boots of his own invention. In 1970 Dikul returned to the arena as a power juggler. He performed exceptionally difficult tricks with tossing 80 kilo kettlebells.



Also Valentin Dikul developed its own method of rehabilitation after a back injury. Currently he has two clinics in Moscow devoted to helping others overcome their spinal injuries.