A Bodybuilder Did a Strength Challenge With 3-Time World's Strongest Woman Donna Moore

Photo credit: MattDoesFitness - YouTube
Photo credit: MattDoesFitness - YouTube

Fresh off his recent efforts to train like the reigning World's Strongest Man title holder Tom Stoltman, YouTuber and bodybuilder Matt Morsia (better known as MattDoesFitness) hit the gym with three-time World's Strongest Woman winner Donna Moore to see who could perform best in a series of exercises, starting off with the push press.

As he is still recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon, Matt's technique suffers a little in this exercise, and he is reluctant to push himself too hard in case he ends up injuring himself again—so he opts to "gracefully bow out" and let Donna take this win with a 105-kg press (231 pounds). "At this point, unless Donna falls over, I know she's going to beat me," he says.

For the second event, they both attempt to perform as many consecutive pullups as possible without dropping from the bar. And this might give Matt a chance to redeem himself. "I can do pullups, it's just not really my big jam," says Donna, who goes first. She manages 15 reps in a row, which by her own admission is more than she expected to be able to do. Then it's Matt's turn, and he churns out 17 reps on the bar, bringing them head and head.

The third exercise is a sled pull; each of them must pull a 110-pound sled with the other person on top of it. To make it fair, as Matt is going first and weighs more than Donna, they add an extra 30 pounds to the sled, and he completes the pull in 12 seconds. But when it comes to Donna's turn, she wins by less than a second.

For the fourth round, they each must lift their own bodyweight via a leg extension. Matt wins, bringing them back to an even 2:2. The fifth and final event, which will decide the ultimate winner, is a strict bicep curl single rep max contest using an EZ bar. "Some lifts, like a deadlift, you're meant to go heavy," says Matt. "Doing an arm curl, it doesn't feel like you should be doing a one-rep max." He emerges victorious, however, with a 120-pound curl which Donna struggles to match.

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