Topic: Paul Anderson

[Andy Dick]

I was reading in the USAW magazine the article about Paul Anderson.  I as I was reading it I couldnt help but seem to marvel and how rapidly he was able to see the gains he did in lifting.  My question regarding this is was he just that talented and lifting that his body had a capacity to adapt to heavy loads quickly?  Or did he train in a certain way that helped him adapt so quickly and that many people are unable to train like this today as due to overtraining or what?

[Paul LaDuke]

Andy,

I was just given a biography about Paul Anderson as a gift from my fabulous mother-in-law.  It is a great story about the World's Strongest Man.  Paul didn't really start lifting weights seriously until his freshman year of college.  Within a few weeks of starting he could squat 500lbs. which was very close to the current world record.  He was a born natural strongman but also had a very good understanding behind how to get stronger.  The book reports that the first year or so of lifting weights, he only performed the squat.  His training was also very different.  Conventianal wisdom of the day was to lift weights 3 days per week.  He lifted all day every day performing a set of squats, taking an hour break, doing it again, the whole time drinking milk.  In short, he was training like the Bulgarians and like West Side Barbell, understood the importance of protein, but he was doing this in the 50s!

What is amazing was that during the years that most lifters are at their best (early to mid 30s) he was travelling performing strongman shows to support his Youth Home for deliquent boys.  During this time he would perform a reported 500 shows per year!  He endured many nights of little sleep, poor nutrition and still was a world class powerlifter and weightlifter.  It would be amazing to see what he could have accomplished without the travel and with the ability to train properly.  

There is a picture in the book with him performing the no-no squat with 900lbs.  That is a squat with no shoes, no belt and no knee wraps!  He was gifted.

Here is a link to the book on Amazon