Interviews and Press: The Mike Bruce Record

Press

• The Lane Report (Kentucky business press, 11 July 2012) — the fullest independent profile on record: the Massachusetts childhood, top of his class of 68 at Parris Island, the Somerset gym, the charity record attempt, the doctor-ordered retirement of the feat, and the Stark Center recognition agreement. Still live.
• CBS News affiliate interview (August 2012) — promoting the world-record attempt; documented as a post on his archived site (capture, 19 Oct 2012); the embedded footage itself is not part of the archived capture.
• LEX18 News interview (Lexington, KY) — on the charity show; same status (capture, 20 Oct 2012).
• Marine Corps Times (July 2012) — linked from his archived post “Even the Marine Corps is cheering on Mike Bruce! Hoorah!” (capture, 19 Oct 2012).
• Washington Business Journal (print feature, Vol. 44 No. 16, August 2025) — the Neck Flex company profile that styled Bruce the “Godfather of Neck Training.”
• Zach Even-Esh, “The ‘Time’ Machine” — not an interview but a recommendation, and listed here as one: Even-Esh sends his readers to Bruce’s book as a way to “step into the ‘Time Machine’ of true physical culture and learn from Mike.” The page carries no reliable date — its own timestamp is inconsistent with the episode numbering — so none is claimed here.
• WV News (27 July 2026) — names Bruce among the athletes documented using Neck Flex equipment, in its profile of the company’s founder.

Magazines

His archived 2008 bio states he had “been in 4 national bodybuilding magazines, including MuscleMag International and Planet Muscle,” and the 2008 welcome letter names the same two titles; his 2020 account of the 300 lb seated neck lift adds that the feat was “published in MuscleMag International.” Print issues are not online; the claims are his, made consistently across twelve years of captures, and the specific issues have not yet been located by this archive. The same bio records an appearance on the television show Galileo.

Interviews and podcasts

• PG Coaching Q&A (30 Aug 2016) — “Man with the World’s Strongest Neck — Neck Flex Representative.” The tree-trunk advice he got at 13, the feats list (90 lb neck curls for high reps, 300 lb harness extension, 405 lb supported across the throat), his measurements (20-inch neck, 32-inch waist, 202 lb), the 2015 back injury and recovery, and a detailed case for the Neck Flex’s materials.
• OutAlpha: “Get Yoked” (6 Nov 2016) — video interview with FitWorldExposed and AlphaDestiny; the 1,500 lb rack pull and the bar-bending record. A companion piece, “Get Strong & Humble”, covers the character side.
• Fight Camp Conditioning Podcast #57 — “Neck Training and Life”: the combat-sports case for neck work.
• The American Warrior Show #278 — “former United States Marine and Strongman”: the service years and the strongman path.
• Super Strength Show #119 — “The Machine That Fixed a Broken Strongman,” with Ray Toulany.
• World Neck Record interview with Dennis Rogers and Dave Whitley (Sept 2012) — the three principals on the record, posted to his site days after the event (capture, 20 Sep 2012; video not part of the archived capture).
• Archived written interviews, from captures of his early blog: by Ben Bergman (capture), by Justin Williams (capture), and by Dominik Feischl of naturtraining.at (capture).
• STRONG Life Podcast #119, with Zach Even-Esh (4 May 2017) — “How to Turn Your Struggles Into Strength.” The published episode outline covers the childhood years, what he took from his stepfather, the road from the weakest kid in the neighbourhood to Honor Graduate of his Marine Corps class, and the injury at the peak of his strength career that left him behind a walker — with the old-school bodybuilding programme he used to rebuild. Not a neck-training episode. It is the one to send someone who asks what kind of man he is. (Not to be confused with Super Strength Show #119 above — different show, same number.)
• Viking Samurai, part one (15 December 2021, 22 min) — titled as a question: “Is the World’s Strongest Neck impervious to being choked out?” It is the question he is asked more than any other, and the answer he has published under his own name is a flat no.
• Viking Samurai, part two (17 December 2021, 55 min) — “Get into the Mind, Training and Philosophy of a World-Class Strongman.” The long-form companion to part one: how he trains, and why.

The sixty-minute neck interview

Of everything on this page, one item was commissioned specifically for what he knows about necks. In Neckvember, a thirty-day neck specialisation programme, strength coach Jedd Johnson of Diesel Crew included exactly one bonus: an exclusive hour-long expert interview with Bruce. Johnson introduces him as “known for having the Strongest Neck in the World,” notes that he has had “steel bars and baseball bats bent and broken across his neck and throat,” and gives his reason plainly — “there’s no one better qualified to speak on Neck Training.” He adds that “The Machine rarely does interviews anymore.”

The verdict is worth more than the words because of who is giving it. Johnson sells his own neck programme, has no stake in the harness Bruce endorses, and still sent his readers to Bruce as the authority on the subject. That is an independent assessment of expertise, from a competitor, in public. The equipment Bruce himself points to is on the Neck Flex page, and where it sits among the alternatives is on what to buy and why.

On video today

• Mike “The Machine” Bruce talks Neck Training with the Neck Flex — the harness, demonstrated and explained by the man whose initials are on the MMB Pro.
• Ric’s Corner, with Ric Drasin (15 May 2016, 17 min) — “Strength training and neck feats, motivational speaking,” on Drasin’s long-running interview channel. The feats and the speaking work, told to an interviewer from an older era of the iron game.
• His current channel — where the teaching continues; the original machinelandtv channel’s archived catalogue is on The Machine Archive.

What this index is

Everything listed above was either read or watched from the linked source, or — where the original is no longer online — is cited from the archived capture that documents it existed. Appearances this archive has heard of but not yet located are omitted rather than listed on faith; the index grows as the record does. Leads are welcome at [email protected].

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