And what about deadlift and squat?
That's a good question...I can answer with a story that someone posted, but I forget who...once at Gold's Gym Venice, there was a normal-sized guy who loaded 800-lb on the squat rack...allegedly to squat it. Obviously that had to have been a super strong normal-sized guy, so it drew a crowd, including Lou Ferrigno.
I think the guy ended up having the weight slip/fall off his back right away and smash all over the ground. Something like that. But the fact that Lou Ferrigno allegedly took a moment out of his workout to watch that fiasco is evidence to me that he considers an 800-lb squat to be very impressive. If he was squatting 700 or 800 in his prime, I highly doubt he would care if anyone else did it, regardless of size, or regardless of anything, really.
Because of that - and because Lou is very tall which makes him a powerful guy, but not necessarily on the conventional strength lifts [basic compound movements = bench press, squat, deadlift]. I suspect he could have probably pulled a lot of weight from the knees [rack pull], or performed heavy dumbbell chest flies, but that his range of motion would limit him from moving big numbers.
I's sort of like Brock Lesnar having a 475-lb bench press. That's very impressive for anyone, but it's particularly impressive for Brock, because he has an 84" wingspan/reach. If you wanted to make an apples-to-apples comparison for upper body strength between Brock Lesnar and I, you would have to see much he could lift for a 70" reach. I have a shorter range of motion, which helps my bench but hurts my deadlifts.
Being Lou's height, and being a bodybuilder whose goal was mass and not strength [as well as potential for injury], my guess is that he wouldn't have had super high numbers on the three main lifts, but would have still been a very strong guy.
That bench press claim is believable simply because Lou was massive - massive in all three [1] chest, [2] shoulders, and [3] triceps, which are the main muscles being used for bench press. So despite his reach, yeah, I could believe Lou hitting a 560-lb bench. But what I believe and what I can prove are two separate things. Even if he did bench that much, I would assume it would have been in the gym with a bounce [rather than strict contest form], and I'd still need some actual proof.
I think it might have been Tom Prince who recounted the Gold's Venice story where the normal guy put 800-lb on the squat rack to squat it. From what I recall, the guy was described as someone you wouldn't expect to be squatting 800. So he could have been described as 5'9" and 210-lb, or 6'1" and 180-lb for all I know - but just a normal/fit guy, from what I recall from the post...or an older than what you would expect...so just not the kind of guy you'd expect to see squatting heavy.
And a crowd sort of covertly watched...not necessarily gathered around him, but just sort of paused what they were doing to look over his way, or peek. And Lou Ferrigno was said to be one of the people at Gold's Venice that day, watching this happen, only for the guy to un-rack the weight and for it to all come smashing down to the ground. Then again, if it was Tom Prince who posted this story online...Tom also claimed to have a Master's Degree in English Literature and teach students at the university where he lived. That story turned out to be complete hooey. Not remotely true. I noticed Tom spelled "hundreds" as "100's" in one post, and I was like "There's no way that this guy has any degree in English."
And I was right.
I could see him lie to include Lou Ferrigno in a story like the one above, but I didn't doubt the story when I heard it...so I assumed if Lou would take notice of a guy squatting 800, that he probably didn't over 675-lb himself. I mean...that's seven plates per side. I'm just really not seeing that.
More likely, I suspect Lou was probably squatting with 405-lbg to 495-lb for reps in his heyday. But again, what I believe and what I can prove are not the same thing.
I wouldn't be surprised if Lou's bench, squat, and deadlift were all in the mid-500's.
I feel like my blabbering on is not getting you an answer to your question. So maybe this will help...Lou Ferrigno's documentary "Stand Tall" came out in 1997, when Lou was 45-46. He's still in amazing shape in the documentary, and massive. Since he goes through some of his training sessions in the documentary, that might give you an idea of some of his strength. And don't assume he can do anything not shown. Often people make claims but don't back them up when they have the opportunity too. If Lou was extremely strong, he would have wanted to share those strength achievements in this documentary.
Watch it now, before Lou sues the Greek [I think] guy for $20 who uploaded it to YouTube:
