Is it possible that Wilt Chamberlain was benching (as he says in multiple 80’s interviews) over six hundred (600) pounds in his late 50’s? He claimed he could score 60 points at age 30 (which we know to be true) and 30 points at age 60 which might be hype- but I wouldn’t bet a nickel against him). He also claimed he could throw a football better than Joe Namath (in his prime), cook better than the galloping gourmet, and various other feats (including some sexual stats that have become famous). But a senior citizen bucking up six bills sounds…… well, inconceivable.
Current world best benchpress at Wilt’s playing weight (275) is(drug tested) 585/617.
Non drug tested is 650/675
Possible, seems he stopped plating professionally at 37. It would have taken quite some time to safely rep that weight though. But, if he managed his finances properly anything is possible.
Reading up on him on Wiki and other like sites… there might be some embellishment.
Arnold Schwarzenegger puts Wilt’s bench press closer to 500 lbs in the early 1980s - still quite a feat in an era when the world record was under 700 lbs. The rest of these are subjective.
I’m having a devil of a time finding Wilt’s Track and Field personal bests. Wikipedia says he won the Big 8 High Jump three years running, but I’d like more concrete numbers than that.
Why would a guy with his dexterity skills waste time doing pushups?
Because some women like being on top?
Any of those guys over seven feet tall? Any of them in their late 50s?
Wilt the Stilt was a big, strong, world class athlete who did amazing things. There’s very little I would definitively say he couldn’t do. Benching 600+ in his 50s is one of those things, though. I’m much more likely to believe the 20,000 number.
World age group(50-59) 560
And being tall actually makes for poorer leverage. That’s why the little guys can lift so much proportionate to their height.
Yeah, that’s what I meant. 275lbs sounds absolutely huge, until you remember that Wilt was so tall he made it look almost skinny. Not only is there the leverage issue, but most of that body weight was in his legs where it wouldn’t do much good on the bench. An 800 or 900lb squat is more believable.
If he weighed 375 or 475 I’d be more likely to believe his 600lb bench press. But if that were the case, I’d have expected to hear more about his post-NBA powerlifting career. A 600+ bench is not a casual amateur level achievement at any age, height or body weight. It may not be a world record anymore but it’s still a huge deal.
Okay, I watched some mini documentaries on him, read highlights of his Wiki page (most certainly has the record for longest Wikipedia page I have ever encountered), and even did a little math. In 1987 when some of these videos were taped, he was only 51. In the series of interviews I link to below he says “…almost six-hundred pounds”. In one of the unofficial sources I looked at, it said he can either dead lift, or clean and jerk over six-hundred pounds.
I suspect:
- He wasn’t as old as I thought he was at the time of the claim.
- He says “around six-hundred pounds” fairly often and suggests he is capable of more.
- Hi Opal (trying to bring back this classic!)
- He was in phenomenal shape right up until his heart caused weight loss and death.
- He wasn’t even a little coy about his accomplishments which were legendary- but sometimes exaggerated. He was a guy who always gave his all, and then claimed all 112%!
I suspect he did bench over or around six hundred pounds at some time in his life, and that just became his number for himself. I think the other lift he is documented to have made may have conflated into his bench number. Even if six-hundred pounds is only a brag it is very likely only a minor exaggeration. If he was benching five-sixty, and he had benched the six bills ever, I am willing to call that a rounding error. Link:
- YouTube
Thank you all for the replies, I found them all interesting and informative.
Which is better for picking up women, “Well, I haven’t managed it in the past few decades, but at my peak, I used to be able to bench almost 600 pounds”, or “I can bench 600 pounds!”?
Better for Wilt Chamberlain?
“Hi, I’m Wilt Chamberlain.”
Trick question, the answer is neither.
That’s what Ric Flair, said, too. When pro wrestling began to be dominated by bodybuilder-type guys, Ric cut a promo claiming that, of all the thousands of woman who had ridden Space Mountain, not one ever asked “Ric, how much can you bench press?”
Moved to the Game Room.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
“Hi, I’m Wilt Chamberlain. Want to make it twenty thousand and one?”
I think he mostly used that line to land prime time interviews on sports shows. Most of the interviewers seemed as shocked as I was when he made the claim. The man gave a good interview- hall of fame at being interviewed too (which makes three- he was already in the hall of fame for two sports).
Since we have abandoned the notion of answering a factual question….
Knowing what I learned* about Wilt today, I would guess Shaft went and hid out whenever Wilt meandered into the hood. (He really was a bad…) Wilt could take Chuck Norris AND Jack Bauer with one hand and his eyes closed.
*Learned = take what is said about him then multiply by point 88 and call that fact.
He might not have been bragging about his bench press directly to his partners, but giving a bunch of interviews on TV and such doubtless increased his opportunities, so anything that got him interviews would indirectly help him pick up women.
Oh yeah, and being really good at basketball. That helped, too.
In honor if the Big Dipper, it’s time to fire up SNL’s “Remembrances of Love,” starring MC Hammer as Wilt Chamberlain telling love stories, so that I can laugh until tears are streaming down my face.
“Tonight, I remember Cheryl, number 13,906. But in my heart, she was number… 2,078.”
“I was on the rebound from a previous relationship with the girl who was still in the bathroom.”