Does anyone know how strong Andre the giant was in his prime? I have heard he flipped a car and such things. But what was his deadlift and squat? Does anyone have these numbers? For that matter, is is true he flipped a car over? Or is that an embellishment?
Thanks.
No lifting records I know. He was fit enough to lift a 200-pound man, or brace himself against a wall with 4 women sitting on his shoulders, but that’s all.
I’d never heard that he flipped a car over, only that he’d once changed a tire without using a jack. And even that was on a Beetle, a very lightweight car.
That’s good enough for me!
There was a Soviet weightlifter in the 70s or 80s who was famous for lifting a car, IIRC (I think I read it in Reader’s Digest). Could the OP be conflating Andre the Giant with another famous strongman?
It’s definitely attributed to Andre. Here is one version of the story that I found online:
The story is repeated in various forms all over the net. Details vary depending on which version you read, so it smells a lot like a UL to me.
Depends on how you read it. If you can get the car rocking on its suspension, a good heave will get it up and on its side, but it takes a minute to get the springs helping. It typically takes a couple of guys in decent shape, but you could make allowances for someone his size depending on the car; I’d expect it to be old, small, and light like a CVCC or original Mini.
Him just walking out and shoving a car over - not so much.
There was an extensive story on Andre in “Sports Illustrated” in 1981. Although it’s mainly a profile of his personality, it does mention how he liked to pick up and move small cars that his friends owned as a practical joke. Four time U. S. powerlifting champion Ken Patera talks about how the Giant would lift a 250 pound man an easily as you would pick up an overcoat. Patera felt that Andre would take a couple years off to train and “visit his friendly neighborhood pharmacist” for some steroids, the records
for squat and dead lifting would be his. Patera, who was 6’1" and weighed 320 pounds, felt Andre could easily add 200 pounds to his 7’4" 500 pound frame and not look fat.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125102/3/index.htm
There is no way to know. Much of Andre’s life is shrouded in secrecy and the veil of professional wrestling hype. He was a huge man. He suffered from acromegaly, a condition where his pituitary gland produced unusual amounts of growth hormone throughout his life. Due to curvature of the spine he never actually stood more than about 7 feet tall, but it is estimated that if he could straighten his spine he would have been at least 7 feet 4 inches tall. Whether or not he actually picked up a car is open to debate. He clearly had the strength to lift very large men up in the air with ease, and could easily have turned over a small car. But he was also somewhat fragile as a result of his physical condition. In one instance he broke his leg near the ankle. This was hyped as a wrestling injury, but it actually happened while getting out of bed. Surgeons reinforced the broken bone with the largest surgical pins made, designed for broken femurs. Throughout the last years of his life he was in constant pain as a result of a body growing too large for it’s own constraints. And he used alcohol throughout his life to dull both the physical pain, and the psychological pain of being viewed as a freak of nature.
There’s no way to determine how strong he was however. He didn’t regularly engage in weightlifting or other feats of strength to make such a determination, and outside of the companionship of his fellow wrestlers he didn’t like such displays. He enjoyed his popularity as a wrestler and actor and outside of that didn’t care to be treated as an oddity.
So it would have been easier if Andre the Giant had a posse.
My favorite, possibly apocryphal, story is the one about how he used to get a ride to school from Samuel Beckett. That’s just such an odd pairing that it’s amusing to think it could be true.
It depends – have you made it clear that his JOB is on the line?
He couldn’t have been that strong cuz I’ve seen one midget work him over…while the other midget distracted the ref :smack:
Per NPR’s “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” the source of that tale is Cary Elwes, supposedly retelling what Andre told him:
I remember it being a big deal the first time Hulk Hogan body slammed him.
I once saw a video of him pulling a Montreal city bus on level ground by a chain.
I’m sure he could do it if he had a holocaust cloak.
I once saw him walking into Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor as I was walking out. I was sooo tempted to go back in just to see what he ordered, but figured he always had people staring at him, so I let the giant be.
It’s no more an indication of strength than any other story, but I’ve heard that he once carried Arnold Schwartzenegger through a restaurant, tucked under his arm.
Supposedly if he went to dinner with anyone, he refused to let them pay because his portion of the check was so enormous. Arnie tried to sneak off and pay in advance, and Andre found him, carried him back to the table, sat him down and said, “I pay.”
UL/HL? Possibly. But a great story.
I saw Richard Kiel a few years ago, signing autographs at the California State Fair. He looked to be in terrible condition - bent, using a cane, with people assisting him, and (I assume) old age and his glandular condition having ravaged his face. Can’t help but feel sorry for these people who have spent their lives being stared at, and have to keep putting themselves on display to make a living.
I heard Arnold tell that story on Bill Simmon’s podcast,so I believe it to be true. Andre had a pituitary disorder and that can lead to not just great height be thick bones and great strength. All of the other wrestlers were in awe of his great strength. His practice of moving people’s cars around as jokes is one indication. There are stories of him literally picking up and throwing Black Jack Mulligan who was about 6"6’ and 350lbs.
Just pointing out username/OP combination awesomeness