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From: septuagenarian
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  • Lol my boyfriend's name is Paul Anderson :P

  • I actually met Paul Anderson back in the early 1970s. He was doing an evangelical "witnessing" at a church in Georgia (USA), using his physical strength as an analogy to "spiritual strength." What I remember most vividly of the encounter was watching Anderson pound a 3 inch nail into a 2-by-4 piece of wood with his bare hands. It was one of the most astonishing things that I'd ever seen.

  • Paul Anderson or Loius Cyr? Theres only one way to find out...

  • Click on septuagenarian hot link,above. He has a 9:50 minute video of Mr. Paul Anderson, called "The Apostle Paul,"much about his personal life. What a kind and great man he was.

  • Actually I heard he did take steroids but they had no effect on him...he was just a freak of nature!

  • If Paul Anderson took steroids, his records wouldn't be broken. He today still holds records!

  • @dontheguy1 im confused as to what ur sayin?

  • @MrJervilla Steroids were not around in his day. He was a man of such natural strength that his leg squat warm up was heavier then the worlds record. What I said was IF he had taken steroids, his records wouldn't be broken for 100 years.

  • @dontheguy1 how old was he when he was setteing recordsy?

  • @MrJervilla I'm not quite sure, but he learned about his great strength when in college his football coach sent him and several others to the weight room for conditioning. The guys put 300lbs on the bar for bench press and no one could do it till Paul tried and did it with ease. He quit football and devoted his life to strength and power lifting. So he probably was in his early - late 20's and beyound.

  • This man ate corn and taters and work out,He was clean of steroids

  • @TheLiverpolitan, Yes! Very much so.

  • @TheLiverpolitan, I never met him but my family assures me his heart was the biggest muscle in his body! He was very outgoing and loved talking to anyone and everyone. He was modest and always flattered by fans.

  • Fail. Artie from "Pete & Pete" was and is the strongest man in the world.

  • No way had to have come up with steroids back then I'n cereal

  • I met Paul twice once in Daytona Beach and another in Akron, Ohio. When I shook hands with him his hands felt like an iron vice and he was not trying to impress anyone. He was the same height as I and at that time he weighed a little over 300. He had the shape of a barrel. He was very well acquainted with my coach Larry and Lou Barnholth of the A.M.C.W.L . What men came out of that den of lions.

  • He is my cousin, he did not use drugs.

  • @janepointer His my cousin too :)

  • You should visit Toccoa Ga sometime and see the statue they have of this man.

    

  • Every now and then a man like Paul Anderson comes along and us mere mortals can only stare in awe of their power. It would have been an experience to have been able to see the man perform or better yet, to have known him....Oh well, at least we can read about him and watch old grainy videos of his exploits.

  • TOOTHPICKS! It looked like he was lifting toothpicks.

  • in soviet russia, weights lift YOU

  • i like that part where he lifted up the weights

  • @nonginger Which part was that again? I think I missed it.

  • @nonginger I shit you not, those are iron train wheels.

  • @rifleman1002 opps, replied to the wrong guy.

  • YES LADIES AND GENTLEMEN';S PAUL ANDERSON IT WAS THE STRONGEST MAN EVER LIVED ON EARTH..CAUSE NOBODY COULD BREAK HE'S RECORD,,AND I MEAN 2888 KG!!!!MOORE THEN 6000 POUNDS!!!! ALL THIS WEIGHT HE LIFTED ON BACK PRESS RIP PAUL ANDERSON 1994 ANS STILL NOBODY WILL BREAK HIS RECORD ON THAT KIND OF COMPETITION

  • 0:40

    those are some big ass plates

  • I take it 4 people are from the former USSR ?

  • ALL Delamarre records were set before lawman like a notary and 5 reliable withnesses and in public (often a crowd of more than 1 000 people). His back lift was registred in the same maner, 6 985 pound. Delamarre bent press 309.5 pound in 1914, there are picture of that on the Net. Many books were writen about him. I beleive they were all liar??? At 13 years old he lift a 29' long rail, 550 pound. was 5'3' tall and at 110 pound? Amazing don't you agree.

  • Interesting tribute to one of the strongest of all time. Louis Cyr, Paul Anderson and Victor Delamarre were probably the 3 strongest man of all time. Delamarre did a back lift of almost 7000 pounds, a little bit more than Anderson. Delamarre weight 160 pounds and was 5'4'' tall. Paul Anderson was also an intelligent and charismatic person.

  • @candevhec

    Delamarre's back lift is pure hyperbole. Do some research, he never accomplished the majority of the lifts he claimed.

  • @candevhec most of delamarre's feats sound an awful lot like a brian bosworth-style stunt. Where are the pictures of him "carrying a horse up a pole"?

  • His pressing is effortless

  • 6,270 pounds? SIX THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY POUNDS? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

  • His short range of motion gave him advantages since he was built like a true tank. As a competing strong man he would have been disadvantaged due to a much poorer mobility. Considering his medical disadvantage he is a true legend as a strong man.

  • He came to my church in Indianapolis in the early 70s and did some lifting, along with his talk. I remember the back lift. I was maybe 13, guessing it was around '73. Seemed like a right nice feller.

  • he wasnt on fuckn steroids you dum fuk

  • I saw Derek Poundstone attempt a 3,000lb back press unsuccessfully and he is absolutely BEAST. I could not even imagine what kind of a human it would take to back press over 6,000lbs. Where are these genetically gifted monsters today? Is steroid usage among the most talented athletes somehow damaging their genes???

  • For some reason, the backlift fell out of style and is very rarely even attempted by modern weightlifters. If Paul Anderson could press 6270 pounds back in 1957, I would think that somebody else by now should have been able to manage at least half that amount of weight using modern nutrition and drugs. Maybe not enough men have tried it since. I say we should bring back the backlift.

  • @Soob4ME lol, but Derek's press was not exactly a back lift, it was much harder because he had to lift the weight a lot more.

  • Mr, Anderson, A fine American !

  • Truly, this was the strongest mortal man of ALL time! he back lifted over 3 TONS at one time! WTF!?@%$ it is true that men of GOD have incredible strength i once had a picture of his back lift in the old guiness book of world records. i dont think they had rampant steroid use back in the 50's this was raw energy at it's best R.I.P. Paul u r the all time powermaster.TSJWHS.

  • amazing amazing amazing God truly planted some of his power in this man

  • can u imagine with todays supplements and training advances what he would be like?!?! its almost unthinkable he would set the bar so high that it would be not even fair for him to compete against anyone else.

  • The gift of Samson!

  • In the olympics did it used to be clean and press not jerk? He overhead presses the weights...insane loL!!!!

  • Great vid, definitely correct about him being the TRUE strongest man.

  • You say he would be superman if he used steroids!

    I think you got it all wrong,that is superman,unless you know somebody who could do more?

  • people now days clean and jerk he clean and pressed!

  • @evashiker12

    I was thinkin the same thing man. Its amazing once he got that weight up it was all upper body! just amazing. great video

  • @evashiker12

    back then, clean and press was one of the lifts along side the C&J and snatch

  • Hurray for pure strenght

  • what a fucking ape.......lol

  • imagine that guy juiced up...

  • @idl4587

    Then his records would have be phoney.

  • Jesus Christ

  • I would bet you this guy was born with that rare genitic mutation that prevents his body from making myostatin. This out-of-whack gene let's the guys muscles grow larger than usual. He may not be the best built, but his thickness and ease or lifting the amount of weight he is says alot.

  • paul anderson was a beast!!!!!!!!!!

  • there were no Anabolic Steroids befor 1959 only testosterone and at that time it would cost about about $1000 a month to get it.and he had very litte money to bye real weights or food let alone drugs,he used to drink bulls blood and milk because it was cheap.

  • @cypionate011 lol wtf? thats more like the huns

  • i saw paul at my high school back in the 60s. he was amazing for his strength, humility and decency. he had a short speech about his Christian faith and then gave an incredible exhibition of his inhuman strength. I will never forget it. I will remember him as much for his selfless work with troubled youth that goes on today, 16 years after his death. hats off to a real man.

  • im sorry but id rather be lean and cut.

  • my hero

  • juggernaut, no shit look how thick this son of a bitch is, a true genetic freak

  • What a nice honest athlete, a true Champion, in or out of the gym. A shame we don't have more people like Paul Anderson in professional sports today.

  • @myakkaa True that, back then, he couldnt of had all the steriods lifters have today ( i know there was a type back then, but not as bad, hell not even as half, i would dare someone to say its 1/4 as bad haha, its like a booster to expand muscle growth, not add or just quick buff ).

  • I wouldn't care if I got fat....I would give anything to have his strength or more...Iam following his routine and it is one of the hardest. I have sweat my ass off and groaned my ass off too. Then I did a typical bodybuilding routine like I used to do and It felt like shit...like my body needed more, like if it was nothing..then I realized that the heavy full, half, 1 fourth squats, presses, push presses, powercleans, deadlifts, back rows, benching done in one workout is the best

  • @doubleg35 well said!

  • Thanks for the post, Septuagenarian.  What an amazing guy! Amazing strength, and yet seemingly the humilty to refrain from adorning himself with an image of glitz and glitter. I admire him quite a bit.

  • Certainly a fine athletic figure of a man - and you tell me he died early - well there's a surprise.

  • The one thing from America that the Russians respect. Strength, unadulterated strength. Mayhaps a certain President should pay attention to that.

    Paul Anderson the true Strongest Man to walk this planet. May he rest in peace.

    God Bless America!

  • he doesn't even jerk the weight. he just did a clean and PRESS. such a strong fella

  • @jonblood that is because the clips are of the clean and press, a lift that was thrown out of competition in like 1983

  • @PM531 The last Olympics with clean&press was 1972.

  • the americans did use steroids to win. they actually produced better steroids for the weightlifters to beat the russians. it wasnt as controversial back then. steroids have been used since the 1930's

  • and this Bright's Disease is from long term steroids use!

    I beg to differ with you. Bright's disease really has nothing to do with steroid use.  If memory serves me correctly he battled kidney problems from the time he was about 4 years old. One of my favorite Preachers of all time (Charles Spurgeon) had Bright's disease, among other ailments. I'm not going to say that at some point and time in his life that he DIDN'T take steroids, But Bright's disease is not "Proof Positive" that he did.

  • Guess we will never know for sure about possible steroid usage, but his Bright's disease (glomerulonephritis) resulted from a childhood bout with a streptoccal throat infection, easily treated now with antibiotics to prevent either Bright's or rheumatoid arthritis from occurring.

  • @septuagenarian and a better diet less saturated fat and less red meat..and more vitimens like C and A and coral calcuim

  • Anabolic steroids hadn't really come out of the lab until after Anderson had retired. It's disgraceful that every athlete in history is smeared by the corruption of the present day. Next, we'll be hearing that Eugene Sandow, Mills Darden, and Milo of Crotona were juiced.

  • @Scyllax Herculese was booted off Mount Olympus because of steroid distribution :)

  • @Scyllax sorry for your bad information, anabolic steroids came out since 50's

  • @multiplecocco yes but steroids have been arounds sicne pre ww1

  • @G0dF0ther indeed german soldiers were freak out!

  • @G0dF0ther

    It's obvious that much of Paul's strength came from his leverage. He had a huge torso and unusually short limbs. You can't get that with steroids or HGH, that's something he was born with.

  • @logik316 lol ya. i was making apoint. and i dont think paul could have been on streroids hes to fat for them. well i think so.

  • @Scyllax What's even more disgraceful is that drugs like steroids (and marijuana- though that's beside the point) have such a bad name.

  • @Scyllax

    BULLSHIT - steroids were invented in 1935 by Dr. Ruzicka and were in use by our American weightlifting team when Anderson competed in the 1956 Olympics. Research this if you don't believe me - steroids were legal back then.

  • @Scyllax 1936 olympics, nazi created them for soldiers, thats why they were kicking arse, funded by the usa shareholder of course

  • @septuagenarian sorry, but they were using them since the 40's.

  • @septuagenarian He never used steroids. They were barely out of the lab then, and, anyway, he didn't have to. He was genetically gifted, and his whole family was like him. His cousin was a friend of my father's and he once lifted our (compact) car onto the sidewalk from curbside.

  • @Scyllax

    He was also way, way too poor to get his hands on them.

  • @septuagenarian He was setting records before steroids were available (1958).

    

  • @septuagenarian I HIGHLY doubt steriods were used. Steroid use wasn't really in effect until the days of Arnold. He was one of the first few to really use it for recreational purposes. I believe it was a mix of unnatural genetics, and being a hard worker.

  • @septuagenarian From what i heard he never did any steriods. Even back then there were some testing done at the Olympics.

    His clean and jerk is one of the most cleanest lifts I've ever seen. Absolutely no momentum when he press it up. Unlike today.

  • He was 390pounds, he was 1 of the strongest men at that time- but dont belive that he did not use steroids-he did! and for those of you that thinks they did not have steroids...they did. and this Bright's Disease is from longterm steroids use! sorry to dissapoit some of you. Still he was the worlds strongest man, R.I.P P.A

  • how much did this guy weigh. he looks huge!!

  • can you hear yourself ?

    I can only see 1 jerk

    He pressed weight like a man not bouncing it up like a nancy boy

    and still lifted more than the fairies do today

  • I won't go off on what i feel are nothing more than "rabbit trails" concerning what Paul Anderson believed in terms of Theology. The thing that i like about Paul Anderson is the fact that he seems like such a decent human being. I mean, some of the people that I've seen who were of any kind of what you would call "celebrity status" were totally unapproachable. Paul Anderson doesn't strike me as that way at all. He strikes me as being "The real deal". No PR people, No special effects, REAL!

  • sumo clean

  • Paul was my cousin. He was a great man in both strength and spirit!

  • 2:38, such excellent sportsmanship between them. Brings tears to my eyes :*(

  • these so called modern powerlifters,doing so much growth and gear they look 45 at 25 and shirts that hold them in lookout position must feel humbled by P A

  • Wow, that man with todays supplements/anabolics would be ... super-man? :O

  • @Solfaur he was superman without all todays suppliments or anabolics, wich leads me to question if these products really do all they claim to do.

  • @remotehog1 True, he would be a super-superman :D. As for the products, strength wise they do help but not as much as they do in bodybuilding and actual muscle growth. There are many strongman still who take little to no juice like Magnus Samuelson and are still extremely strong.

  • @Solfaur they had juice back then i was a personal trainer and i train this 75 year old guy who is a retired princible and said they had them at there local pharmacy when he was in high school tablets so it was probably D Bol just watch, bigger stronger faster, on youtube and you will hear this guys coach saying they had them

  • @Solfaur he would have been unstoppable! I can only imagine the kind of numbers he would put down if he had modern training techniques and such.

  • he was sick with an auto immune disease. Thats comparable to getting struck by lightning and you still conclude that weight lifting doesnt add to your life span.

  • @Crusherxt also, add to that the fact that Paul Anderson still managed to become a legend sick and all!! and what a legend!

  • @Crusherxt auto...immune...disease. you mean AIDS?

  • @gallya No, he had a condition known as Bright's disease, developed from a sickness he had when he was a child.

  • read the beginning idiot

  • He had Bright's Disease, a hereditary auto-immune disorder. He lived a long time with it. Most people who have it cash out before 50.

  • I bet he was stronger than me the day before he died!!

  • I saw Paul at a church revival in Flint, Michigan back in the mid '70s. He selected 12 of the largest men from the audience and had them sit on a large work-bench type table made of 2x6s. He got beneath it, lifted it with all four legs off the ground and balanced it there for several moments. He had no problem pressing 300 lbs one handed. Also drove a nail through a 2x4 and into the table just by place the nail-head in the palm of his hand and slamming it down onto the 2x4. Incredible!

  • i'm from the same town as Paul and my dad knew him well. When i was a little boy my dad asked him to come to our church and he did. He gave a great testimony and then lifted a table with all the heaviest men in the church on it. He also drove a nail into some wood with his bare hand. Dad tells neat stories about growing up with Paul.

  • Brute Strength!

  • He's PRESSING 435lbs. not jerking it up. Amazing!

  • I just noticed that too... how freaking nutz is that? I wonder how much he could jerk...

  • I wish he was still around, I would see his show in a heartbeat. A true champion.

  • a legend, an immortal, and the closest thing the sport of competitive weight lifting has to a saint. thanks for this vid.

  • He doesnt use steroids and he kills any weightlifter today easily!!!!!!! This man is a true lifter

  • At around 1:55 if you watch when he breaks the bar from the ground, he basically does a reverse curl with the bar, Unbelievable power!

  • strong man

  • the man isnt even buff like all other of today he is natural strong :D respect for him :D

  • Anyone else notice how he totally made out with the woman who gave him flowers? Her hat even falls off LOL. This man was truly a hero. I mean, beating the Russians on their land during the cold war and getting a standing ovation!

  • the olympic lift consisted of the clean and press, the snatch, and the clean and jerk.

    the press which was done in a straight back military posture slowly over the years became the bent-back style. The judges had a hard time judging this lift so it was dropped from the 3 lift platform to the two lift platform we see today of the snatch and clean and jerk. As for steriods the russians were the first to use them in sports the late 50's. America didn't pick up on this util around 1960 or so.

  • Magnificent.

  • One of the strongest men whoever lived. Notice his lifts--he doesnt jump them up or drop down and straighten his arms up. He PRESSES all his lifts up. Unbelievable strength this guy has. If he had technique training and the nutritional supplements of today I believe he would set records that would stand for a long long time.

  • anderson certainly would have been the fist to c&j 500 lbs. if his coach (bob hoffman)would have wanted.hoffman directed paul to break his own records over and over by small incrementsthis does not pay the bills though and big paul had to make a living by going pro.he devoloped a fine stage act and toured the circuit.great lecture and an unreal strength show!i saw it in 1970 and still shake my head in disbelief

  • my great grandmother was celia anderson. she was actually paul's 1st cousin and grew up not far from where paul did. just outside of toccoa ga. and believe it or not as well as many others back then experimented with early types of steroids. which obviously contributed to his kidney disease. not to take away from his achievements he was and always will be a legend but just think what he could have done now days!! no one could have touched him.

  • Paul Anderson was only 5' 8" tall and he weight 375 Pounds..I know this to be true because I saw him in person when I was 14 years old.He came to a church and spoke to young people and he also did some feats of power.He drove a 10 penny nail thru a 2X4 with his bare hands,He had his hands wrapped with a rag of some sort.He also had 10 men to try to pulled his hands apart while they were clenched toghter.A rope was tied to a Leather type harness on each arm.5 men on each side could not do it!

  • The monument at 2:53 is located at the Paul Anderson youth home in Vidalia; confidence level is high, but not 100%.

  • @septuagenarian Im from Vidalia GA and it is indeed. You need to see the clip of him lifting a whole church pew with 8 people on it sitting. When i was a small boy he cam to our church and did it in regular clothes

  • @thorxmjolnir73 He once lifted the Toccoa Highschool football team on his shoulders the same way.

  • he is a legend.a true sport

    monster.

  • where in georgia is that monument @ 2:53? i live in GA and would like to see it

  • @dbarnett87 Vidalia

  • wow he doesnt even jerk it he just straight up presses it

  • thats what i was thinking! i dropped my jaw when i saw how pure his strength is with that much weight on the bar!

  • he was seriously that strong.

  • I got to meet the man he came to our high school when i was a teenager he did some amazing stuff like lifting 75 lbs. with his little finger. and a back press of over 1000 lbs. he was a great christian man

  • for a while the lift was a clean and press, not the clean and jerk we know today. from what ive heard, lifters would actually start leaning back and essentially bench press the weight which im sure lead to many back injuries. so sometime in the not too far passed, the lift was changed to a clean and jerk

  • The military press is the strict overhead press; they are synonyms. You can full squat in the power clean or not. My point is that he does not split-jerk or push-press this weight, so he has no leverage factor at all in the press with 435#.

  • Those were power cleans followed by military presses, not clean-and-jerks.

  • Those were full (squat) cleans followed by strict overhead presses, not power cleans followed by military presses.

  • What's the name of the song?

  • It is "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Aaron Copland. It sounds familiar because it is played during the opening ceremonies of the olympic games.

  • Thanks man, great video by the way, thanks for posted it.

  • I saw him at a benefit dinner when I was about 10 or 11. It was the early 70's. I watched in amazement as he lifted so many men on a homemade platform I thought it would break. Then he drove a nail with his bare hand, and lifted so much with one arm and a loaded barbell. The most impressive thing though was his love for God and that he credited God with everything good in his life. He also was raising money for his boys home. He was a real man's man, and as a child, one of my hero's.

  • The world's strongest man. And he lifted weights, too.

  • @flimflam4141 God Bless his memory and his descendents.

  • Great video. Paul Anderson-strength legend. RIP

  • He had a heart of gold as well

  • isn't 6270 pounds like 2850 kilo's?!??!! impossible to make a backlift with that

  • selenanub:

    "isn't 6270 pounds like 2850 kilo's?!??!! impossible to make a backlift with that"

    It's documented. I read about he setup he used and it looks like it was entirely possible for a man of his size and strength.

    Research it and you will see.

  • he did not do a full lift... he lifted 6270 pounds a tiny bit; which is an unbelievable accomplishment!

  • wtf 6270 pounds ? how the hell can you lift that

  • whats backlift? deadlift?

  • @greg12145 U LIAR!!! I KNOW IT'S TOUGH TO COMPREHEND,BUT HE STOOD UP COMPLETELY WITH IT! IT IS IN THE 1972-1976 GUINESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS A PICTURE OF HIM STANDING THERE WITH A DOUBLE BENT DOWN BARBELL WITH A RHINO'S WEIGHT ON IT KINDA LIKE THE GOLDS GYM PICTURE COMPLETLY UP AND FULLY LOCKED! DUDE, DONT DISCREDIT GODS POWER THAT WAS IN THIS GREAT MAN! R.I.P.PAUL! U R THE BEST P4POF ALL TIME 2nd place THE MIGHTY ATOM GOOGLE IT! !!! TSJWHS.

  • @Neil6000 are there any pics?

  • At one time for a brief period he became a professional wrestler. He was totally unbeatable and had to quit I think because he had no possible opposition. I would have loved to have seen him take up sumo wrestling. He could press 402 pounds, which means he could probably fling any sumo wrestler into the air and across the mat. He was one of a kind.. It was a privilage to have watched him wrestle.

  • @OutaSynch I saw Paul wrestle in the late 1950's. He wrestled some big guy and after throwing him to the ground, Paul did one of those moves where he dives on top of the opponnet. He broke the poor fellows ribs. He also tried professional boxing, but his arms were too short.

  • Paul would go into prisons and take a table and have men sit on the table then squat beneath it and lift it. This exercise grabbed their attention so that he could talk to them about the Jesus who died for they and him.

  • Yep! I saw him live when I was a kid. I remember him lifting a table with several men on it. When he drove a nail into a piece of wood, without benefit of a hammer, I remember seeing this huge spark fly! Amazing guy.

  • Hi! Paul Anderson, was, and stay the mos fabulous strongmen, cause, these years, it wasn't question of steroides and nutrition supplies. only natural !

  • Can anyone today press 400 plus overhead like he did without using any leg drive?