Mark Henry - How strong is he really?

For instance, when you look at someone that's supremely defined or cut like a bodybuilder, people often assume that the guy is strong as an ox and that's not usually the case. That's not to say that they're not strong of course, but Herculean physiques don't go hand in hand with Herculean strength. Bodybuilders and

It depends on what you mean by strength. I know that it seems pretty self explanatory but it's not when you think about it. I've worked out with weights since I was in my early teens and one thing I've learned is that there are different types of strength.

For instance, when you look at someone that's supremely defined or cut like a bodybuilder, people often assume that the guy is strong as an ox and that's not usually the case. That's not to say that they're not strong of course, but Herculean physiques don't go hand in hand with Herculean strength. Bodybuilders and fitness athletes work out to get that definition and symmetry whereas guys like Henry are genuine powerlifters who lift primarily for great strength. Also, when you consider strength, you also have to ask about people who compete in these strongman competitions; you obviously have to have a great deal of strength to be successful in those events, but you can be the, technically, strongest weightlifter in the world but not do at all well in strongman events. Some of those events require not only strength, but also a certain amount of leverage, some events rely on grip strength, a combination of physical force & technique, height & body weight can be a hindrance or a benefit, depending on the event.

When a person thinks of measuring upper body strength, the bench press is considered the quintessential exercise but, comparatively speaking, Mark Henry isn't as strong in that particular lift as one might think. Officially, Henry's best raw bench press is 585.3 lbs. and while that's certainly a huge amount of weight, the current world record for the raw bench press, without any sort of bench shirt for support, is 722 lbs. and is held by a man named Eric Spoto, who weighed just slightly over 300 lbs. when he did it in 2013. Wrestling legend Bruno Sammartino set the record in 1959 at 565 lbs., which stood for 8 years, a he weighed about 270 when he set it. Powerlifter Ted Arcidi signed with the WWF in 1985 and set the raw bench press record in 1984 with 667 lbs. with a body weight of 286 lbs. He didn't accomplish much in the WWF, the guy flat out sucked and guys like Big John Studd would potato the shit outta the guy during matches whenever they could.

Henry's biggest feats of strength, in terms of lifting weights, came in the squat & deadlift with personal bests of 953.5 and 904 lbs. respectively. In terms of snatch and clean & jerk, Henry's best totals were about 400 and 485 lbs. respectively, so when you look at how much he could lift as a whole, he may very well be the strongest in the history of the WWE, at least at one point in time. At 43 years of age, he's probably not what he once was considering the sort of wear & tear a lifetime of lifting such massive weights can put on your joints.

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