Professional arm wrestler Michael Lonnee's secret to his right arm's hulking girth isn't no stinking gym, it's his daily job as a wood flooring contractor. And don't you forget it. He was asked about his weightlifting regimen by a reporter at a World Armwrestling League tournament in Longmont, Colo., and nearly bit the reporter's head off, he says. Weightlifting regimen? "I swing a mallet installing hardwood floors all day," Lonnee told the writer from Esquire magazine. In fact, Lonnee says he's never been in a gym—he figures the gym is for people who don't work hard enough, and he works plenty hard. As an employee of Hull's Flooring in Denver (he now works in Beverly, Mass.), Lonnee worked six days a week, swinging his mallet 3,000 to 5,000 times per day, he estimates. Considering he's been installing wood floors since he was 14, the 30-year-old has built up impressive endurance in his arm. Just as he can stay on the gun through long and physically demanding installation shifts, it's no trouble for Lonnee to take on an army of opponents without resting. "I've done 55 guys in one night," he says. So did he win his match at Longmont? Yes, and through a registration error, he was forced to wrestle with his left hand—his nailer hand—instead of his right. But installing wood works out both sides of the body. "Depending on the gun, that's seven or eight pounds," he says. "I can hold somebody all day with my left hand."
