Louis Cyr - Strength Claims

[Ex Coelis]

Before Canada had Hugo Girard, it was home to another great strongman - Louis Cyr. I bought some old Bob Hoffman and Weider mags from the 50's off ebay and he's all over the pages. Weider especially seemed really keen on the man as a young child so I decided to do some research.

His best lifts were recorded as follows:

- 1 finger lift: 551 lbs
- back lift: 4,000 lbs+
- 1 hand press: 273 lbs
- dead weight lift: 1,897 lbs



The numbers are obviously hard to prove and even harder to believe. As a proud Canadian though, I want them to be true. Hopefully some 5 star can shed some light. His lifts would have been tough in a time without "gear" - you know, CellTech ...

[benchthis]

its 1049983449 times better than the cell tech of those days

[sarcasm]

he looks like he could be "Rhino's" grandfather.

[JOHN MATRIX]

yeah some of his numbers are too unbelieveable to be true...theres just no way of verifying anything as he lived in the late 1800's.

[LuciusFox]

 Could he lift up a picnic table at age 15 

[jacshelb]

I can't verify or refute any of those numbers personally.  But, I will say that these lifts were usually done in strange ways, i.e. the illustration accompanying the original post.  My guess is that is a type of dead lift.  The back lift, I would guess is along the lines of what Sandow was famous for.  In the original Pumping Iron book there is a picture of Sandow with his back to a flat apparatus, almost like a small floor attatched to a lever or something.  Then there are all kinds of people on top.  So, he's just kind of holding the weight.  This is, of course, about the only way a man is going to "lift" 4000+ lbs.  I don't mean any of this to be negative.  On the contrary, It is very possible that every one of those lifts might be accurate, but just different in their execution than we might imagine.  Very impressive, and a legend of a strongman.

J.

[benchthis]

COULD HE BENCH PRESS 315 THE FIRST TIME HE STEPPED FOOT INTO A GYM AND YEARS LATER  AND ABOUT 90 POUNDS MORE STILL ONLY REP 315

[jacshelb]

Oh, and also, if I remember correctly (from pictures, not actual experience) the 1 hand press was a kind of full body movement to manuever the weight into position with 1 arm above the head and the body kind of tilted at an angle to support the very "off balanced" weight.  More of a 1 armed clean and jerk type of thing than a modern shoulder press.  For whatever it's worth.

J.

[Oliver Klaushof]

Before Canada had Hugo Girard, it was home to another great strongman - Louis Cyr. I bought some old Bob Hoffman and Weider mags from the 50's off ebay and he's all over the pages. Weider especially seemed really keen on the man as a young child so I decided to do some research.

His best lifts were recorded as follows:

- 1 finger lift: 551 lbs
- back lift: 4,000 lbs+
- 1 hand press: 273 lbs
- dead weight lift: 1,897 lbs



The numbers are obviously hard to prove and even harder to believe. As a proud Canadian though, I want them to be true. Hopefully some 5 star can shed some light. His lifts would have been tough in a time without "gear" - you know, CellTech ...

Yeah, that's real.

[kimo]

LOUIS CYR LIFTED 120 YEARSAGO  . he did backlift 4337 pounds . and his numbers are real . he was barely 5 foot 10 and was 32o pounds .

[Joe Roark]

Cyr never claimed 4300 lbs or more in the backlift- that was claimed for him by others.

Willoughby, strength historian, wrote about this in Ironman mag:

Backlift of 4,300 lbs consisted of each of 18 men stating his own  weight, plus an assumed 500 lb platform "a generous estimate- it
would mean that the average weight of the 18 men was 211 lbs. This, while possible, is not likely."

Willoughby offered that Cyr was 5'8.5" tall in 1895 at age 32 and weighed 291. These were based on actual measurements taken by Dr. Sargeant.

[polychronopolous]

Would love to have seen him take a fired cannon ball to the gut.

[Jadeveon Clowney]

Would love to have seen him take a fired cannon ball to the gut.

That's really mean.

[kimo]

cyr one arm lifted 987 pounds . its written in mst books about him and 1897 pounds both hands . hand and thigh lift i guess .

[Joe Roark]

cyr one arm lifted 987 pounds . its written in mst books about him and 1897 pounds both hands . hand and thigh lift i guess .

No, he did not. The Truth About Weightlifting page 57 mentions his 'hands alone' (old term for deadlift) with two hands of 987.

Most books? How many books do you think have been written about him?

Anyway, for Cyr's known feats I suggest Willoughby's The Strength Athletes, or anything by Willoughby, inlcuding Cyr's inclusion in The Kings of Strength series in Ironman. Cyr's feats are often 'enhanced'.

[Joe Roark]

yeah a 1 tonne deadlift, sure

yeah right, 4000lbs on his back, my balls

thats 2 tonnes, ok, to the idiots who believe this claim, stand under a car lift and let the lift operator release a 2000lbs car on your back and see how it goes

if you come out of this warmup exercise alive, do the same with a 4000lbs car

1finger lift

There are some men who can backlift 3,000 lbs these days. Matters get cloggy when the weight goes closer to 4,000 lbs. The backlift involves only about a one or two inch range of motion. There are some backlift 'machines' which remove the balance factor and therefore make the lift easier (weight guided up on rods).

I suspect Cyr was capable of around 3,400 lbs. Paul Anderson was probably capable of that or perhaps slightly more, but not the 6,270 lbs claimed and certainly not the 6,470 lbs he claimed in a letter to me.

Keep in mind that the one finger lift involved a ring-like attachment with connecting rope or chain while a fist was made. The bar was not grasped by the finger itself.

[kimo]

paul e ohl book is were those stats come from . if you disagree just get in touch with him . a shame this book was not translated .

[Joe Roark]

paul e ohl book is were those stats come from . if you disagree just get in touch with him . a shame this book was not translated .

If the book is translated from French into English I would enjoy seeing it. Just curious: is the [ridiculous] measurement claim of a 28" calf for Cyr presented?

[kimo]

no cyr calves  were 21 inches . . died from bright  disease . in his day no drugs . .

[kimo]

the 1897 off the floor was a buch of steel balls in a bag . . he stand over it then pulls with both hands .. 1897 pounds..