In the world of arm-wrestling, Travis Bagent is one of the most renowned names. He was born in Charles Town, USA, on March 10th, 1976, and has been involved in the sport since the young age of 15, his father being a key figure in inspiring him to take up the sport.
His father, Jerry Boyd, was also an arm-wrestling champion and a strongman who owned two clubs where Travis would go and arm-wrestle almost anyone that would walk in those doors.
He also had part-time jobs working at bars during the weekends, enabling him to arm-wrestle the customers whenever he had free time.
Travis Bagent’s Early Life
Travis Bagent’s love for competition comes naturally from his home environment since his father was also an arm-wrestler. As a child, he would watch his father and fellow friends go at it in the bar his father had set up.
The bar was a place for people to have a few drinks and spend their time arm-wrestling on the tables. Travis Bagent was exposed to this sport from a young age as he worked at the bar.
He also started getting in on the act slowly, challenged his elder brothers for a match, and won against them. He won because of his technique, not his strength, as they were stronger than him.
After this moment, he knew he wanted to get into the sport of arm wrestling. The confidence he felt since that day can be seen in all the titles and championships he has won – 13 world titles and 25 national titles, to be precise.
Travis Bagent’s Career
Travis Bagent has been arm-wrestling since 1997 and is known throughout the world for his ability to arm-wrestle with both hands and win. Although naturally a left-handed person, he can also wrestle with his right hand and has won many events.
He is the only male athlete in the super heavyweight division that has won world championships with both his right and left hand. It is a feat he feels will not be broken for a long time. Bagent won his first title in 2002 with both arms.
Over a career span of over 15 years, he has amassed many titles – 35 National Titles and 13 World Championships. He has won 6 titles with his right hand, the weaker side. Bagent is one of the arm-wrestlers that put the image of arm-wrestling to the rest of the world.
He was named “The Beast” when he went for a championship in Poland at the age of 27. When he entered the competition, he learned that having a nickname was necessary. When one of the fight’s promoters said that he resembled a beast, he stuck to that name.
Travis Bagent also starred in some movies and reality shows between his arm-wrestling career and appeared on talk shows across the US – the most famous being the David Letterman Show.
Travis Bagent is known for his cocky attitude during press conferences and other situations. He talks smack like no one else, with some people mistaking it for disrespectful behavior. However, Bagent says that he speaks how he speaks because it motivates him to perform better.
He likes to pressure himself by saying something controversial about his opponents and getting a reaction out of them. He then uses their reactions as motivation to win the contests.
You should not expect an apology from Mr. Bagent if you are ever at the receiving end of his smack talks. It gets him fired up, and there is no stopping him in that department. He does this to put a lot of pressure on himself to perform well.
Travis Bagent’s Training Regime
Travis Bagent trained a lot since he was young, leading him to achieve what he has to date. He started training to build himself to challenge the people at his father’s bar. Although he was unsuccessful in his first attempts, giving up was not an option.
Bagent has always been a different trainer compared to his colleagues. He did not focus much on building strength when he was young as he was more of an intelligent arm-wrestler.
He insists that excess training is also not good for the body. The important thing is to be consistent in everything you do and focus on the goal of arm-wrestling. The worst thing that can happen to you is losing all focus and becoming complacent.
He believes that if you keep a good routine, it will help you mentally and physically. Everything you do in life, you should somehow connect it to arm-wrestling and try to learn more.
As he grew older, he realized that it is better to build first and then focus on other techniques. At the top of the game, techniques and skills can only go so far, and one needs strength to compete.
Travis Bagent’s Tips to Gain Strength
Travis Bagent talks about a few exercises to help you get better at arm-wrestling.
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Pinch Blocks
Using pinch blocks intensifies the power of your grip. The grip on your fingers is a vital part of arm-wrestling. While training with the pinch blocks, Bagent advocates that using chalk is much better as it takes away any moisture, giving you more control over slippery hands during a contest.
Pinch blocks also help build phenomenal grip strength, but using the power of your hand is the best way to approach a contest so that your wrists won’t get strained.
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Arm Wrestling Training using Cannon Balls
One of the critical factors is grip strength, according to Travis Bagent. To improve this aspect, training on cannon balls is an excellent way. They are small and hard, making it easy to wrap one’s hands around them effortlessly.
Use the middle finger and thumb to achieve maximum productivity from the cannon balls. Press the cannonball with your thumb and wrap the middle finger around the other side of your grip. After this is set, you can go up and down, using the power of your hands instead of fingers.
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Pull-up Bars
Pull-ups are essential to increase the power of your arms. Once you have adjusted a perfect height for yourself, leave the leg support and hang on the bar for as long as possible. When you are tired, you can get down and repeat the same routine later.
Don’t force yourself to stay up for too long if your body cannot take the strain. You can slowly increase the amount of time spent working on the pull-ups as days go by.
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Maintaining a Balanced Diet
One of the essential factors to keep yourselves fit and strong is to follow a well-balanced diet. Along with the workouts, body-building, etc., Travis Bagent followed a strict diet that helped him maintain his strength.
He religiously followed the Paleo Diet and claimed it helped him gain fitness and strength. It involves eating naturally available items and avoiding cooked and processed food, and he ate meat, nuts, vegetables, greens, fish, etc.
Staying away from junk food and all kinds of sweets and chocolates is the key to keeping up with the Paleo diet.
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CrossFit
CrossFit is another way to keep fit and focus on building other areas of your body. Travis Bagent is a pure advocate of not giving too much importance to specialized training. When you focus on only one area, you cannot use other aspects of your body.
CrossFit allows the body to loosen up, become more flexible, and improve your heartbeat. Focusing only on arm wrestling will be rough on the tendons and both joints.
Travis Bagent’s Net Worth
Travis Bagent has been in the arm-wrestling sport for decades and he has also been part of various TV shows. In 2017, his net worth was said to be around 150,000 dollars.
He earned that amount through competing in all kinds of arm-wrestling events over almost 2 decades. He has had a successful sporting career, and we see the rewards that have paid off for him.
He is also a CrossFit trainer but mostly gives his free time to young and aspiring arm-wrestlers. He spends his time sharing his input on finance, marketing, and teaching upcoming stars.
Travis is also a football coach, which adds to his net worth. He is happily married to a wife and three children and lives in North Carolina.
In Conclusion
Travis Bagent will be a legend of the sport for years to come. He is the only arm-wrestler in history to have won titles in the super heavyweight division using his left and right arms.
He grew up in an environment where arm-wrestling was a part of his daily life. The influence came from his father, and it eventually grew on him, leading him to take on the sport professionally.
He won 35 National titles and 17 world arm-wrestling championships in his stellar career. Now, he trains aspiring arm-wrestlers, is a football coach and travels around promoting arm-wrestling wherever he can.
Travis Bagent is presently one of the members of Team Erie from Pennsylvania and is considered one of the most recognized arm-wrestler worldwide.
