German arm wrestler Matthias Schlitte has a gigantic right arm

Superpunch has several photos and videos of champion arm wrestler Matthias Schlitte. If you look closely, his right arm appears to be larger than his left arm.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Digilante

All those years of obsessive wanking finally paid off.
Hawley

now there’s a wanker if i ever saw one
Anonymous

If you look closely, his right arm appears to be larger than his left thigh.

FIXED
Jonathan

Looks like Ralph Lauren photoshopped his other arm.
dculberson

And… a goiter?
caleb

Asymmetry: A chiropractor’s best friend.
Anonymous

A real life Charger
Antinous / Moderator

He’s still a twig compared to Denis Cyplenkov.
devophill

If you watch the video, his right thumb, index, and middle fingers are a lot bigger than the other two. His right bicep isn’t much bigger than his left! Creepy.
voiceofreason

Okay, after looking at the video he does have a bizarro arm.
apoxia

It looks like something is wrong with his arm. It seems very solid, doesn’t have ropey muscles. It is very strange indeed.
Anonymous

Bahh, came here for Far Side reference, leaving disappointed.
voiceofreason

Not even slightly surprising. If you ever saw Bjorn Borg back in the day, his tennis arm was 2 – 3 times as big as his other.

I used to play Ultimate Frisbee competitively and my right arm was noticeably bigger then my left. Also, checkout the arms on most quarterbacks, or baseball pitchers…
demidan

Insane dedication to masturbation,,er,,,,arm wrestling. Brings back Popeye on Family Guy.
angusm

Human fiddler crab?
Anonymous

Since there are weight classes in arm wrestling, it would make sense to not waste weight on being symmetric. Symmetry is for the beach. :-)
Little John

From the German commentary in the YouTube/Eurosport video at the Superpunch page:

1. His right forearm is much larger than his left forearm due to genetic causes (“genetisch bedingt“).
2. During the competition shown in that video, Schlitte was still suffering from what I take to be a carpal tunnel injury (Sehnenscheide-Verletzung), maybe Tenosynovitis (IANAD).

Also (my observation): That’s one hell of a middle finger on that right hand of his.
jjasper

But doe she turn his trucker cap backwards before beating the other guy?
IronEdithKidd

Water nearly sprayed from mouth onto keyboard. Well met, Mark!

After nearly five years of reading BB, I should know better than consume beverages while viewing.
candycritic

I also noticed the lack of hair on his big arm. Aerodynamics?
bobhughes

i wonder if he would hit me for calling him “fiddler crab”
Anonymous

I’m sure his right arm is larger, but it isn’t grossly large as the photo implies. It’s just perspective. His left hand appears to still be the same size as his right hand. His left elbow is much further away from the camera lens then his right elbow.
Anonymous

Well, looking at the photos and the video, and the way his right arm, right hand and right middle finger are bigger, I’d say they look swollen due to injury rather than muscled. Looks kind of nasty and unhealthy–but I’m just basing that of my impression.
palindrome

This is weird. I guess that as an arm wrestler, having one ENORMOUS arm and the rest of one’s body be tiny would be advantageous with respect to getting into a lower weight class. I mean the guy with an arm that is as big as a heavy weight wrestling in a much lighter weight class would seem to favor him. On the other hand, the video makes it pretty clear that it’s not just about having a huge arm, looks like a pretty full-body sport.

I wonder how he got it that way in the first place. He’s got to have tons of shoulder and back problems from having such an unbalanced physique.
Anonymous

The articles on him usually leave out the cause — it’s not (just) because he has focused his workout on his one arm, it’s because he has a bloodflow disorder that has stunted half of his body. This is one of the few sports where a “disability” actually results in an advantage.
O_M

…I think it’s safe to say he’ll knock the Schlitte out of you.
Agies

The best part is that his nickname is Hellboy.
eustace

I think it shameful that BoingBoing would stoop to this sort of pandering – think of the unrealistic body image issues that images like these inflict on men. Boo. (looks in disgust at own arm)
Anonymous

Sorry Anonymous, a bit slow:

“Well, something’s up. There goes my arm!”
Anonymous

Maybe he was born that way and naturally gravitated to arm wrestling as a natural career path.
Anonymous

[all-inclusive masturbation joke]
stegodon

Indeed, after enlarging the picture several times and subjecting it to intense scrutiny, I did notice that the right arm does appear to be somewhat larger.
Anonymous

Matthias was actually born with a rare gene disorder that made one arm much bigger. That’s not perspective or trick photography. His father encouraged him to work it out and arm wrestle, and now he’s a serious competitor.
Santa’s Knee

“Holy schlitte!!!”