How much you lift, bro? You know what? Don’t answer that. Because these history-making hulks
are about to blow you away! We’re racking up the strongest men of all time on today’s Nutty
History! Thor Bjornsson smashed the deadlift world record recently and it got us thinking,
“where does he rank all-time in history for world’s strongest man?” Now strength isn’t
just about how much weight you can lift. It’s also about inner strength. And having the moral
compass to do the right thing even when it’s hard. But...we’re mostly talking about dudes
that could do cool stuff like lift heavy things and smash hard to smash stuff. Now, take a second
and summon the strength to smash that notification bell, subscribe, and like this video! Strong man
has been a job title for thousands of years. You could be a strong man in ancient Rome,
fighting wild animals and going to battle for amusement. You could be a strong man hundreds
of years ago in a traveling circus or carnival, performing feats of strength and challenging local
drunks to fights. And these days you can enter strong man competitions, power lift, or show off
your amazing strength in a wrestling ring. The options are limitless for strong men! Who is the
strongest is an argument that could last forever. There’s no way of knowing for sure with so many
people spread across history, with different diets and training regimens, and competing disciplines.
All we know for sure is that one kid on the playground that said his dad could beat up my dad
was full of crap. The world of strength athletes is as crazy as ever with hosses like Brian Shaw,
Thor Bjornsson, and Eddie Hall on the scene. And it’s not without its drama. We’ll get into the
wild feud and accusations being thrown around between two of the world’s most powerful men,
Thor Bjornsson and Eddie Hall in a bit, but first let’s go into the history of strong men! If you’ve
seen the movie 300 and “This is Sparta!”, then you know that there have been dudes vying for the
position of world’s strongest man for thousands of years. Milo of Croton was a wrestler from
6th-century BC Ancient Greece, so you know all his records have been verified and are in no way
exaggerated. He was a 6 time wrestling champion in the Ancient Olympics. Do you think they called
them the Ancient Olympics back then? Modern Olympics? Just the Olympics? Who knows? For
training, he ate twenty pounds of meat, and drank eighteen pints of wine each day, and once carried
a four-year old bull around the stadium at Olympia before eating it in the course of one day. Hmm. So
he was keto? He also reportedly saved people in a collapsing building by holding up a pillar until
they could escape. One of his favorite feats of strength was tying a cord around his forehead,
holding his breath, and breaking the cord with his bulging forehead veins. That doesn’t seem
healthy. Not only was Milo the greatest wrestler of his day, he was also a renowned warrior,
hopping into battle to lead his people to victory when his town was attacked. The tradition of
strongman legend that was passed through stories continued for centuries. When carnivals, fairs,
and traveling circuses became the popular means of entertainment, the strongman stock character
jumped from tall tales and the one local guy that could throw your little cousin super far
to being a real superhuman that traveled from town to town performing unbelievable feats of strength.
Louis Cyr was a French Canadian strongman that was active from about 1880 until his death in 1912. He
was billed as The Strongest Man Who Ever Lived'. Louis trained as a kid, by working his family farm
and at a lumber camp. When he entered his first strongman competition, he won it by lifting a
horse off the ground! Wow. Strong man competitions seemed cooler back then. Louis entered and won
various strongman competitions and toured in a show as a strongman act but didn’t make much
cash. He finally became a police officer and then with the money he made from that, bought a tavern
with a gym in the back. There he held exhibitions and answered anyone foolish enough to come into
town and lay down a challenge to him. His recorded feats include lifting 500 pounds with one finger
and back lifting 4,337 pounds or 2.1 tons. And he had some nice suits. As the world grew smaller
through international travel, people were exposed to more and more strongmen. And when you got a
lot of strong dudes together, you want to see who’s the strongest. So different organizations
formed where the strongest of the strong could measure themselves against each other.
Traditional weightlifting; powerlifting, which features different lifts; and strong man style
competitions that included more spectacular power stunts that you would have seen in a circus or old
school power game. Paul Anderson was an American weightlifter, strongman, and powerlifter. The
Georgia native was an olympic gold medalist, world champion, a two-time national champion in Olympic
weightlifting, and was one of the most influential people in the development of modern competitive
powerlifting. But, many of his feats of strength were not done under the most rigorously judged
conditions, so the veracity of true numbers on his lifts is often up for debate. What’s not, however,
is his place in powerlifting history. As a kid, he couldn’t even get his hands on big enough weights
for his training, so his dad created their own out of concrete poured into a wooden form. In 1955,
Paul Anderson travelled to the Soviet Union for an international weightlifting competition. It was a
very popular sport over in the soviet states. To the shock of the Russians, Anderson calmly walked
to the bar and hoisted 402.41 pounds in the two hand press. Before that lift, the Soviet champion
had matched the Olympic record of the time, 330.3 pounds. The Guinness Book of World Records once
listed his feat of lifting 6,270 pounds in a back lift as "the greatest weight ever raised
by a human being". Anderson also claims to have squatted 1,200 pounds in training and in a casino
exhibition with the weight in silver dollars. If that’s true, it would be the most weight squatted
ever by a human being, by several hundred pounds, several years before steroids were invented. His
best official squat was 930 pounds. Strong men of the world began to break off and specialize
in their niches. Olympic weightlifters focused on one set of needs that were slightly different
than powerlifters and that differed greatly from wrestlers and strong man competitors. The World’s
Strongest Man competition was established in 1977 and quickly became a favorite proving ground of
strength athletes the world over. American Bill Kazmaier is your classic all-around strongman.
College football, world champion powerlifter, world champion strongman and professional
wrestler. What more do you want out of a strength athlete? Oh and he also proclaimed he was "the
strongest man who ever lived" every chance he got. He helped popularize the early World’s
Strongest Man tournaments, winning three in a row until he was banned for being too dominant! Bill
would regularly perform strength stunts like the girl squat lift, squatting a platform with several
women on top. Kazmaier was the first human to officially bench press 300 kilograms or 661.4
pounds, in competition. In 1981, Kazmaier became one of the few lifters in history to hold world
records in three of the four powerlifting events at the same time by setting a new deadlift world
record at 402 kilograms or 886.7 pounds. Magnús Ver Magnússon is an Icelandic former powerlifter
and strongman competitor that’s won the title of World's Strongest Man four times. If you stayed up
late with the TV tuned to ESPN in the late 90’s, you were sure to hear the World’s Strongest Man
announcers screaming his name, marveling at his latest show of strength. Magnus squatted 964.5
lbs! The retired Icelandic powerhouse also won 1st place at the European Powerlifting Championships
in 1991. A lot of folks identify Magnus as the World’s Strongest Man because of a Coors Light
commercial that he starred in. Some of those World’s Strongest Man competitors do look like
they’ve had a few too many silver bullets. You see the bellies on a few of these guys? They
don’t judge those kinds of six packs I guess. In addition to being one of the strongest men ever,
Magnús Ver Magnússon is also in contention for history’s best name. But there were still those
strength athletes that wanted another path. Fighting, whether staged or legit combat
has always been a draw to the most powerful people on the planet. Mark Henry, otherwise
known as “Sexual Chocolate”, otherwise known as “The World’s Strongest Man”. That’s right,
Mark Henry was known as “The World’s Strongest Man” for over 20 years in the WWE, and we all
know that no one would ever exaggerate something like that in professional wrestling. But even with
the larger than life theatrics, you could see his raw strength shine through. Henry regularly picked
up and threw giant men around with ease, and performed outrageous stunts such as picking up
cars and lifting them 6 inches off of the ground! But there’s a reason that the then WWF was so
eager to sign him in the first place even though he had no wrestling training. Henry is a two time
Olympian and a gold, silver, and bronze medalist at the Pan American Games. As a powerlifter,
he was WDFPF World Champion and a two-time U.S. National Champion as well as an all-time raw world
record holder in the squat and deadlift. The Texas native’s 430 kilogram, or 948.0 pounds raw squat
and 410 kilogram, or 903.9 pound, deadlift, done on July 16, 1995, is the highest raw
squat-pull-2-lift total lifted in a competition at 1851.9 pounds! Also, Henry holds the greatest
all-time drug tested raw Powerlifting Total in history at 1060 kilograms, or 2336.9 pounds,
and the 2nd place record as well! And the WWE Hall Of Famer has thrown around the Big Show! All these
dudes are ridiculously strong, but now we’re officially in the frightening category. Mariusz
Pudzianowski has won five World's Strongest Man titles, more than any other competitor! And since
he’s mastered that, he’s moved into the world of mixed martial arts! This Polish powerhouse’s
nickname is the “Dominator”. And with all the records he holds, it’s easy to see why. The
Dominator didn’t just destroy his competitors in the strongman competitions then go to MMA fantasy
camp. He got a green belt in the stand up fight style known as Kyokushin kaikan, won a purple belt
in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has a 13-7-1 record in MMA, having won 8 fights by knockout. And
he once spent 19 months in a Polish prison for assaulting a local mafia boss and stealing his
golden chain. Mariusz can also straight up lift, posting 290 kilograms or 640 pound in bench press,
380 kilograms or 840 pounds in Squat and 415 kilograms, or 915 pounds in deadlift.
Whatever you do, do not make him angry. While Mariusz is out trying his hand at combat sports,
a new generation of strength athletes is taking over. Brian Shaw is an American strongman and
winner of the 2011,2013, 2015, and 2016 World's Strongest Man competitions. He’s also the first
man to have won the Arnold Strongman Classic and the World’s Strongest Man contest in the
same calendar year, and he did that twice! Once in 2011 and again in 2015! In one of the craziest
strength stunts ever recorded, on the History Channel series, The Strongest Man in History,
Shaw pulled a 12,000 pounds viking ship on a 60 feet incline course in 44.05 seconds. Brian
Shaw is truly a force of nature. And then there’s dude’s like Thor Bjornsson. Thor is a straight up
entertainer. He’s a new breed of strongman. He’s a mountain. The Mountain! Hey, remember Game Of
Thrones? Whatever happened to that show? Oh yeah, they botched the ending and completely undid all
the goodwill they had built up over 8 seasons and now it’s cultural significance has been greatly
diminished. Good times. Thor Bjornsson played Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane on Game of Thrones,
but his legacy will last longer than the show as he owns the world deadlift record!
The Iceland native broke the record by hoisting 1,104.52 pounds, 501 kilograms. Not only that,
but this freaking giant was the first person to ever win the Arnold Strongman Classic, Europe's
Strongest Man and World's Strongest Man in the same calendar year. The 6 foot 9 inch, 452 pound
strongman and actor is a former basketball player, giving him surprising athleticism for a man of his
size and strength. And the dude is in his early 30’s. There’s a lot more records that are going
to be smashed. One person that could stand in the way of that record smashing is English strongman
Eddie Hall. Hall was the owner of the deadlift record, lifting 500 kilograms before Thor beat
it by 1 kilogram! According to Eddie, that record shattering lift nearly killed him. He passed out,
had blood coming from his ears and eyes, and temporarily lost his vision. But that doesn’t
mean he won’t be back to reclaim the record. There’s bad blood between Eddie and Thor. Eddie
won the 2017 World’s Strongest Man competition and had a run in there with The Mountain. Thor
was disqualified for an improper lift, a disqualification he disagreed with and that
Eddie later claimed to expose in a leaked video. Adding to the feud, that record breaking lift that
Thor Bjornsson did, pulling 501 Kilograms to beat Eddie’s 500, it was done in Thor’s local gym in
front of friends and family. Thor had intended to break it at competition, but due to coronavirus he
could not. So he broke it at his local gym. Eddie Hall as well as other strong men like
Brian Shaw maintain that for a strong man lift record to be official it should be recorded at
an official competition. Now Thor and Eddie have agreed to settle their differences and face off in
a boxing match at a later date! So who is actually the strongest man in the world? With all the
different disciplines and eras, it’s hard to tell. That’s why we’ve invited all of these guys to a
Nutty History sponsored cage fight to the death, winner is the strongest man ever! Unfortunately,
no one responded, so I guess we’ll never know for sure. Show your strength by leaving a comment,
liking this video, clicking the notification bell and subscribing. Now it’s time to go stack
some plates and bang some weights. Let’s get lifting, bro. Thanks for watching!