Doug Hepburn - Olympic Press, 1954

[GChussir2]

He fucking LOWERED the bar. Amazing.

[dustyrustee]

amazing strict technique.....no cheat.....unreal power....

[N0Numberz]

the other doug video isn't in slow motion

[zignationer]

insane raw no-legs pressing power. doug was wide as a door!

[skirts365]

What every lumberjack wishes he could do.

[finrod55]

No bench shirts until the 1980s. Hepburn was raw all the way. And his first 500 B.P. was PRIMITIVE: lying on a cheap flat bench, three guys had to lift the weight off the floor to Doug's chest. Then he pressed from a dead stop, no arch in his back, no leg drive--nothing but arm, shoulder and pec power. And he did benches to assist his overhead press, not as a competitive lift in itself. He also enjoyed a beer or two during a workout!

[sirjerold]

I use watch Pat Casey do singles with 600 lbs. at his gym in norwalk without a bench shirt.

[0219brixton]

The 1st edition of Sports Illustrated had an article on Doug Hepburn. Apparently he would drink bourbon and black coffee while warming up!

[wolfgangle]

now that`s a press, done in that style most would fail even nowadays

[doubleg35]

I like how he just brings it back down like nothing and releases it at arm extended level. What a freakin monster. my idol.

[doubleg35]

Iam going to start his routine next week can't wait. Its a bad ass routine. I will be posting a video(if I buy the camera) of month to month progression.(I am all naturall btw..no supplements and definitely no steroids.) I only eat and drink water, and milk. It is said it could give you a progression of 120lbs on compound movements and 60lbs on isolation movements....and no sticking points..

[Pentagonshark666]

Doug Hepburn was fat yes,but without a doubt he was one of the top 10 strongest men who ever lived.his press was 200kg.he could do hand balancer.and made a lot push ups.his weight was 170kg.thats crazy.

[Skyoneer2007]

From what I saw on the powerlifting records Doug Hepburn dident bench press 500 LBS raw, but yes he is the first to bench press 500 LBS, with a bench press shirt, I think they had bench press shirts back in the 50's. I went to the powerlifting records website and it said that Pat Casey was the First man to bench press 500 pounds without a bench press shirt.

[ontariostrongman]

@Skyoneer2007

Hate to break it to you, but they didn't have bench shirts in the '50s. Pat Casey was the first guy to bench 600 lbs. -- in 1967.

"The first Official 500-Pound Bench Press was performed in Vancouver, British Columbia on December 10th, 1953 by the great Canadian strength athlete Doug Hepburn."

[herc410]

@Skyoneer2007 bench shirt invented by john inzer in 1983

[Skyoneer2007]

@herc410 thanks

[hercmet]

now this is a true press! slow and under control . not a push press as it became later . he even had to lower the bar under control . amazing !

[1mouseman]

awesome. Total control up AND down to the mat!

[skirts365]

Danny Noonan once of the Dallas Cowboys was a big, strong, thick fellow. He did a push press off racks with 375. That was maybe back in the 90's. Was Noonan "enhanced?" Could be. But the load would not have gone vertical without the leg drive. So The Canadian Bulldozer was way stronger than the top of the pro footballers and years before their time, and WITHOUT "enhancement." Of course, Marvin Eder romped Hepburn on percent in 1953 but lighter men can do that (315 x 3 strict @ 197).

[ismailzeki]

WOW the Lift looks so easy.

Great Lifter.

[finrod55]

One more point about the above video. It is in slow motion, making the lift look harder for Doug than it really was. When Hepburn made that press in real time, the bar shot up like a rocket!

[finrod55]

A great, great strongman. Before Paul Anderson hit the scene, Hepburn was considered the strongest man on earth. His pressing was so super-strict it took peoples' breath away. Had he loosened his style just a tiny bit, he'd have been the first man (instead of Paul) to clean-and-press 400, probably as early as 1953. Also, he curled 270 strictly, and squatted at least 780 with a withered right calf! A true Hercules.

[mfilmpro]

A true strong man of the sport

[thatch]

Thanks for this video, that's fucking amazing

[mistermayy]

SQUATZ, OATZ, and OHP

[npacebg]

I googled "history of steroids" and the first result led to an article claiming that steroids were first used in 1954 by olympic weightlifters.

[DawgHepburn]

The introduction to the western world lifters occurred though years later and according to most credible sources not until the early 60's.

[biophysman]

Hey dude - Doug lived in Inglewood, Calgary - I have a pic with me in his arms

[fatsmut]

impressive considering he did'nt specialize in olympic weight lifting.his 260 lb strict curl [butt n back against the wall]isstill unbeaten i think

[skirts365]

What a lumberjack he would have made. David Rockefeller's bodyguard would have bounced off him.

[Pook365]

He lifts it with what looks like a completely controlled ease....makes you wonder what he could have lifted if there had been any competition.

[aks73]

These old school guys were crazy strong. Love to know how they trained and the routines they used.

[emydoll014]

Hepburns training program in is one the sandow website.

[jogaserbia]

wow, that is crazy. super strict press.

[unlockthepower]

This is incredible

[lookitsme64]

One of the greatest lifters without doubt, amazing how long he held the bar overhead.

[thegrapplingguy]

amazing how strong these guy were before the steriod craze

[AustinRules1994]

@thegrapplingguy

i know right, its amazing if ya think about it

guys like hepburn, redding, they really pushed the limits of what the human body could do...they made and many lifters make today olympic lifting a much purer form of competitive lifting than powerlifting is, i can only hope that my generation and the generation that will someday come after mine take hints from them and return to this form of lifting

[warduke]

To bad he's no longer with us. Would of loved to meet him. I just got his Bio book Strongman and he seem to be a really cool guy. A real class act To bad he never seem to get the respect he was due with other strength legends of his time. Look like there was a interview right at the end of the video, anyone know where to see it?

[dasyatis65]

Hepburn stood at 5'8" weighing in between 280-300lbs. "He had a withered right leg caused by a clubfoot",he mitigated this challenge by cleaning with a split-style; He could always press much more than he could clean. With the help of Marvin Eder he transformed the benchpress "from an obscure rehab exercise into the favorite exercise of all weight trainers that it is today...he made the exercise his own by specializing on it" (Archibald 2007).

[dasyatis65]

"The press barely passed a 1968 abolition vote. We were told in S&H [Strength & Health] that the press had better shape up or ship out...Soon a new attitude took route, one that seemed to say if the press is going, let it go. Well lift as much as we can until that happens. I remember well when Price Morris finally beat Hepburns record. Hepburn was very bitter about this when considering the far looser style used in 1972. The 1972 vote passed and the rest is history"(Archibald 2007).

[dasyatis65]

In the postwar era, judging of the press was very strict. As the '4-stage press' became popular, it became difficult to judge which eventually led to its removal from competition after the Munich Games in 72'.

[Sambalifter]

Hepburn has become my favorite lifter of all time. Just watch when he turns away after the lift, he was a mountain of a man. Awesome power, simply awesome.

[zarkoid]

When I was I kid, a met him outside the ring when he was a wrestler to congratulate him on winning, along with dozens of other fans, but even though I suspected that pro wrestling was a soap opera with muscles, in which he played the role of being a "face" rather than a "heel" very well, he was very gracious with the fans, and a true gentleman. I was a fan of Whipper Billy Watson too, as a child, who deservedly has a park named after him. Hepburn may not have a park, but he was a champ too.

[tomreader87]

after reading his biography this short clip really gives the book more power. Shame there isn't more clips of him

[masterdanart]

Awesome strength athlete he was the best ever and totally lifetime drug free. also no belts wraps or suits.

[emire25]

His best weights were done at around 280lbs. He said that he felt great at 280-300lb bodyweight. He actually was very athletic in spite of a withered right calf and club foot. He demonstrated this by doing handstand pushups at a bodyweight of 305lbs! The first man to bench 500, eventually brought the lift to 580. His best squat was 760lbs done with a pause in the full squat position. Not a partial with powerlifting suits and wraps that add up to 400lbs to the lift today! Respect.

[irishenforcer]

holy crap.not a hint of a push press at all.pure standing press strength.i would venture a guess that not many drug free atheletes of today could match that.

[walterkurda]

doug hepburn is really a hero of strength

[Ivanhoe2]

No argument, Sir, about when steroids were developed. I said steroid "use",, obviously meaning within this context, by bodybuilders and strongmen.

[lazur1]

Yes, there's admitted use by US bodybuilders & weightlifters in the 50s, but also strong evidence that the Germans who leaked the info to US were giving steroids to weightlifters in the 40s at the latest, w/nothing to preclude use in the 30s.

[Brynner737]

Completely unsubstantiated speculation without any supporting evidence. ALL of the major players involved in the U.S. Olympic Weightlifting team say 1959 was when the American team began experimenting with Dianabol. Doc Ziegler, Hoffman, Grimek, March, Starr, etc, etc, etc all confirmed this. Several major statistical analyses of Weightlifting totals have concluded that the Soviets were the first team to begin experimenting with testosterone around 1952-1953.

[paul418cj]

what is your evidence for 1959 date? the general consensus is that march and riecke in 1963 were the first americans to use dianabol...i would like to see the written evidence from the sources you cite...as is obvious the 1959 date would of necessity indict kono,berger,schemansky and vinci among others

[Brynner709]

I've never heard of the 1963 date or seen anything credible that points that late. The works of John Fair, Randy Roach, interviews with March himself, etc, all say 1959 to 1960.

I don't think that necessarily indicts Kono, Berger, etc. (although Schemansky almost certainly in the later 1960s). The initial Guinea Pigs - March, Garcy, Riecke and possibly Grimek - weren't world class lifters at the time and were safer test beds than top Olympic contenders (also in the above mentioned sources).

[thomastvivlarenDOTse]

Hmm...the general consensus is not 1963 but late 1960. That is when March, Riecke and Garcy were guinea-pigs for Ziegler. Here is info from Tommy Kono: "Dr. Ziegler started it all in the fall of 1960 with Bill March and Louis Riecke on Dianabol. Prior to that no one in the U.S. knew anything about steroids and its use. March and Riecke were actually being experimented by Ziegler."

[thomastvivlarenDOTse]

More info from Joe Roark: "Many people close to the game know that 1960 was the year in which Dr. John Ziegler convinced Tony Garcy and Bill March of the York Barbell Club and Lou Riecke of the New Orleans Athletic Club to begin using a form of training called isometric contraction and to begin taking a pill called Dianabol, and that the dramatic success of these three athletes ushered in the steroid era."

[toolate987]

Hepburn was Canadian and didn't have access to any of that. He was the real deal: hard work and massive eating and a very intelligent training program.

[MMaNutz8451]

i did the same amount of weight after only a week of lifting!...and i'm lean!

[MARKN69]

bullshit

[ontariostrongman]

Doug's best press in this style was 420 lb (191 kg), although he pressed 440 lb (200 kg) off a rack. He was the first to officially bench over 500 lb, going as high as 580 lb (264 kg) before tearing a pec. He had a 705 lb (321 kg) deadlift (740 lb with straps), and his best squat was 760 lb (345 kg), but he also squatted 600 lb (272 kg) for 8 reps -- at the age of 54! That's lasting strength.

[ForAll23]

How much is it on the bar, does anyone know?

[ontariostrongman]

380 pounds.

[ForAll23]

Thank you very much for your answer.

(For European viewers...

380 pounds=172,37 kilogram)

[Ivanhoe2]

Thanks for posting this. This great Canadian was the icon of strength at the beginning of the 1950's,slightly before the emergence of the unbelievable Paul Anderson. Despite a deformed leg he squatted over 600lbs,,well before the steroid and other hormone use Prodigious weights in those days.

[MARKN69]

actually steroids were invented in tha 30's

[kabfik]

actually it was invented during the time of Socrates and Plato, and Paris Hilton was born before Jesus Christ, what you see is just a computer programmed version of her, she was the actual prophet of Christianity.

[carlitors]

The OPis actually right. Synthetic forms of Testosterone were first developed by the Nazis and pressumably were used in helping themwin the 1936 Munich Olympics.

But even in the 1950s their use was not commonly spread, it was mostly experimental.

[mycheesesteak]

That press was pure strength. No leaning back. Beautiful! That's how it's supposed to be done!

[themetalgod21]

absolutley true

[lazur1]

Virtually no lean back , less than other pressers used when the C&P was still a sanctioned lift, (severe leaning back was the official reason for the C&P's elimination).

When there is literally no lean back the arms extend above the back of the head.

[kcstoneguy]

dude, i could not believe how he brought that down...wow!, and he really did military it..

[wolfgangle]

Unlike 99,99 % of the feats of nowadays that`s a true military press: he pressed stricter than Paul Anderson, a freak of strength. No telling what he could do with the supplements of the new eon.