Find out how one of the most powerful athletes in world history developed his strength and left behind many world records that cannot be broken today. Surely weightlifting fans, who are over 50 years old, remember such a legendary person in the past as Paul Anderson. He performed among weightlifting fans for only two years (from 1955 to 1966), but even this period of time was enough for journalists to endow him with the loudest titles. Americans can be proud to have raised this athlete.
Paul's popularity can be indicated by the fact that Y. Kutsenko himself (a long-term coach of the USSR national weightlifting team and a world record holder in clean and jerk) christened him a man with magical powers. Of course, for all the time that has passed since Paul's triumph, all his records in the classic all-around have been broken more than once, but his achievements are remembered to this day. Over the past two decades, almost nothing has been heard about him, and we decided to correct this injustice by telling you the story of the athlete Paul Anderson.
Paul Anderson biography
The athlete was born in 1932 in the city of Toccoa, located in the state of Tennessee. Already by his last name, one can assume that Paul's ancestors were emigrants from Sweden. Paul's parents did not have a large physique, for example, my mother was only 157 centimeters tall, and my father's weight was just over 80 kilos.
Like all children, Anderson Jr. was actively involved in sports at school, in particular American football and running. He clearly did not go to his parents and already at the age of fifteen his weight was 90 kilos, and by the age of 19 he reached 120 kilograms, and in fact his height was only 172 centimeters. The guy began to go in for weightlifting in 1952, when he was presented with a barbell. Paul paid particular attention to squats.
Already two years later, he could lift large weights that no one obeyed. Of course, along with great diligence and diligence, a large share of merit in such a rapid progress belongs to genetics, but the guy's desire to reach sports heights was also great.
In 1955, Paul achieved remarkable success, winning the World Championships and the Olympics. However, already in 1956, Anderson decided to leave the sport. Many are sure that this happened due to the lack of worthy rivals on the platform. But Anderson was able to win the Olympics only in the last approach, although the athlete's illness was to blame. As a result, the athlete simply lost the motivation for further performances.
In 1957, Paul began performing on the professional platform with his strength numbers. Let's note. That he did not experience a lack of fans. So he continued to perform until 1970, when another life drama awaited him. However, let's still talk about the athlete's triumph time. Having won the Olympics, Anderson goes on a tour of the world and demonstrates his strength. Of course, by this time he was already one of the most popular personalities in his homeland. For example, in one of the Las Vegas nightclubs, Paul squats with a barbell weighing 526 kilos three times in a row. He performs this number daily for several weeks. If you decide that this weight is close to his maximum, then you are mistaken - for Paul he is working.
An interesting fact in the history of athlete Paul Anderson is that he never used bandages and a weightlifting belt and did the exercises barefoot. Today it is difficult to talk about the Anderson limit, since in the absence of competitors on the platform, he did not have to give all his best. Witnesses claim that Paul could squat with a barbell weighing 408 kilos ten times, and a half-squat was performed with a weight of 680 kilos. But Anderson did not really like the bench press, possibly due to injuries to his left hand received during training. However, even here he succeeded, squeezing a projectile weighing 136 kilos 11 times in a standing position, and only with his right hand.
In July 1957, numerous spectators in his hometown witnessed how Paul lifted a weight of 2.84 tons from the racks. This is almost 1000 kilos more than other athletes managed to do earlier.
For almost a decade and a half, Anderson traveled around the world on a private jet and amazed people with his physical data. At the same time, Anderson preached the foundations of Christianity, becoming a missionary. He performed and lectured at the same time on Christian morality and did not pay attention to the commercial component of his shows.
Very often, he did not take money at all for attending his shows, or he gave the entire fee to charity, in particular to the creation and maintenance of orphanages. Almost all the money he earned went to charity.
In those years, the Soviet Union always tried to find some kind of negative in the capitalist system. Paul also got it from the Soviet press. Very often in their articles, journalists called him awkward, despite the fact that Anderson could jump three meters from a spot.
Thanks in large part to Paul's performances, people have developed a keen interest in exercises such as the deadlift, squat, and bench press. As a result, a new sports discipline was formed - powerlifting. According to Paul himself, he never regretted his decision to leave the sports platform. He is sure that he was able to do a lot of good for people. In childhood, Anderson was diagnosed with kidney disease, and strength training required an abundant diet. As a result, he developed kidney stones, which led to the need for an organ transplant.
His own sister, who at that time was 59 years old, agreed to become a donor for Paul. Despite close family ties, the organ's compatibility with Anderson's was 60 percent. After the operation and the intensive therapy that followed, Paul's inner ear was seriously damaged. As a result, the athlete lost the ability to walk or stand and ended up in a wheelchair. In this difficult hour for him, his wife Glenda and daughter were always nearby. Paul Anderson passed away in 1994.
How did Paul Anderson train?
You will probably be interested to know about some of the features of Anderson's training, which he willingly shared. Paul is confident that his body was unique and that all the nutrients were absorbed quickly enough. In his training programs, he constantly changed exercises, doing this in response to signals from the body.
The main exercise for Paul was squats. He also often performed partial movements using weights significantly superior to the workers. At the time of his performances, steroids had not yet been created, but Anderson is confident that he could do without them. In fact, he proved what can be achieved with natural training.
Learn more facts about the greatest Paul Andersen in this video:
