I was looking at story of Devean George's weight lifting regimen on NBA.com. In it they stated that Devean can Bench Press "200-500" pounds (quite a spread). The same article stated, parenthetically, that Shaq presses 800 pounds. According to the US Powerlifting Association the American record for the bench press is 650.2 pounds held by a guy named M. Hayes in '93. Hayes set it as an unlimited weight competitor which means he weighs over 319 pounds. This means that Shaq routinely, probably even during his warm-up sets and on his worst day, shatters the American mark set for this particular lift. I think someone, perhaps the trainer quoted in the article should let the USPA know this because they are obviously unaware of this superhuman feat. Assuming this guy M. Hayes is still unsigned I say find him and ink him to a long-term deal. Its our only hope to contain the "Big Aristotle" from this point on although Shaq has probably a foot and a half height difference and is obviously substantially stronger. He might even out-weigh "M". Let's just hope "M" is wirey and quick!!! ------------------ DJ
One question -- By 'special', do you mean the types that ride the the "little bus" to school? ------------------ "We're sitting there, shooting alcohol into our veins... We could just drink it!" -Tommy Lee
No way in hell Shaq benches 800lbs!! Go back and read it again. It says "George will generally squat between 250-300 pounds and press 200-500 pounds. Shaquille O'Neal can press 800 pounds." They are referring to the leg press. ------------------ We need some meat in the post! [This message has been edited by RocketsPimp (edited May 20, 2000).]
My sources inform me that Bryce (Backstreet Boy) Drew warms up with 700lb bench presses. ------------------ You just want to be on the side thats winning.
If Shaq presses 800 pounds, it's in a set of 2 or 3 reps... lol. No way, he does that. As a matter of fact, when he first came into the league, he was rather weak on the bench for his size. He used to press about 250 lbs. He's strengthened a lot since then, but 800 lbs on one press? Yeah right. ------------------ ?
Hmm... well, that answered that. I wonder what kind of incline, if any, is on that leg press. I know several people that can press 600 lbs on a hip-sled/incline leg press. I've done over 500 (I've got weird legs), but again, it all depends on the machine and the incline. ------------------ ?
On a similar subject... I read one time that Barry Sanders has the Oklahoma State weightroom record for leg presses. He use to do a set of 12 with 650 pounds and the all time record he set was 23 at 650. Hows that for strong? Hes not even 6 feet tall. I am sure Shaq can probably presss around that much. Bench pressing is something else. He looks like a 450 - 500 range in my opinion. ------------------ Live Rocketball. Breathe Rocketball. Die with Rocketball.
I doubt Shaq can bench press 450. I don't think he does that sort of weight training. I'm not saying he can't, but I'd be suprised to know that he could. The taller you are the further the weight has to travel, and the less leverage you have with the weight because of the angles in the elbows and shoulders, etc. I've leg pressed around 700 - 750. It's not that tough. What is tough is squatting 500 lbs, which I've done, but not in a long time. ------------------ I have a dream.........his name's Hakeem.
Okay, I did some more checking. The international record for a squat is 1007.51 pounds in the over 275.6 pound weigh-class by a guy by the name of Shane Hamman from Philadelphia in 1996. Not bad. But if they were really talking about leg presses instead of bench press (not necessarily clear from the article) then realize that Shaq is still only outdone by a handful of men in the world. One of them is a powerlifting God named Fred Hatfield who, at 198 pounds squatted 826 pounds in 1980 which is a world record at that weight class, barely besting Shaq's routinely achieved 800 pounds. Of course, we are possibly talking about leg presses instead of squats which certainly make it a bit easier but still a pretty darned good accomplishment. The Laker propoganda machine is in full force. Maybe Shaq has missed his true calling. Shaq is obviously a lot closer to a powerlifting champ than Hatfield is to a basketball player. I mean, let's see Hatfield throw down a dunk, if he can even stand up straight after all those years of squatting! ------------------ DJ
Actually, by leg pressing I thought you guys were talking squats. Hence, the Barry Sanders record is a squatting issue(sounds familiar now that I think about it). If Shaq can't bench press 450, then Oakley and Kevin Willis would push Shaq around more. I saw somekind of competition on NBC once and KW and C.Oakley were in somekind of basketball superstar competition. If I remember, Oakley beat out Willis by doing 30 somthing bench press reps of 250. Thats pretty good and Oak don't even look like that big. I think Willis did something like 20 or so. Still, I believe that Bryce Drew can take them all, in my opinion. But thats just me. ------------------ Live Rocketball. Breathe Rocketball. Die with Rocketball.
Whooooa there... there's a HUGE difference between leg pressing and squatting. I can do an inclined leg press of between 500 and 600 pounds on a hip-sled(depending on the incline). There's no way in HELL I can do a squat anywhere near that much. Let's not give the Big Artichoke too much credit before we find out exactly how he was doing that 800 lbs. ------------------ ?
Almu, I did hear once during some game that Willis could bench 400 lbs. ------------------ I have a dream.........his name's Hakeem.
