How Strong Was Mark Henry Really? 

Thanks for Watching! I hope you enjoy the video. Please let me know what you think of the voiceover

You have to admire the fact that he would only compete in drug tested events. What an absolute beast!

I graduated with his brother and went to school with Mark. One of the nicest guys you would ever meet. A true gentle giant

Mark Henry and Kurt Angle competed at the same Olympic Games. That’s pretty cool too

he's got my vote, the fact he came back from the WWE to win a strong man event with the wear and tear that WWE guys suffer is just mind blowing

Met him at a comic convention here in Minnesota a while ago. Mike Colter was there promoting his "Luke Cage" show, but when I saw Mark, I joked and said he was the original Power Man. He laughed and told me to sit at his table. We talked for at least 20 minutes, and then for another 10 or so as I was leaving. Super nice and down to earth guy.

Seeing him dunk a basketball is so damn impressive

Mark Henry is one of the best strength athlete's in history. It is funny that he may also be the most famous. Yet.... the millions upon millions of people that know him from wrestling have no idea he was World Class legit.

I can't believe how strong this dude was as a teenager

Mark is definitely a once in a lifetime athlete.

I had the extreme fortune to lift on the University of Texas Longhorn Powerlifting team where he trained with Dr's Jan and Terry Todd. True story: In 1995 a couple of us younger lifters (myself included) had failed to make the qualifier of collegiate nationals. Dejected, he said to me, "Don't worry about it, it'll happen." Because they decided to hold a meet at UT where he was lifting, there were national judges, and hence it was an official qualifying meet. And I finally got my act together and made it to Nationals! I was so excited that I didn't even see him come up behind me and pick my ass up in the air (I was a 148 pounder, Mark ate steaks bigger than I was). He just said to me, "See, I told ya you'd make it little man." So 2 national collegiate championships and 4 American collegiate records later, I have Mark to thank. He truly is the NICEST guy you'll ever meet.

5"5" and 100kg at 10, wtf 😅

I never knew all his history. Very impressive. Way to go Mark Henry! And kudos to his mother for getting him a weight set.

The undertaker told a story of how one time a parked car blocked in their bus and was running late. Mark came out and lifted the car and moved it over for the bus to get out of the parking spot. He’s truly something else.

I trained at the same gym as Mark for about 2 years (in Phily). He was a great guy. Helpful and encouraging to everyone young and old. He spotted me a few times on big lifts. My claim to face is that Mark asked me to videotape him for a strongman lift once 😂

Dude literally built different. Had no idea about his early life, Mark was born to lift. I think that the fact he _has_ a legit five lift total speaks volumes. That's a very rare thing indeed.

Mark is an animal of strength and he was very well rounded as well. One last note the original voice over was much better

Bro seeing him dunk is insane

I'm from Pine Forest, Texas and my high school powerlifting team competed against his in Silsbee. I got to see him my freshman year, his senior year and believe me he was twice the strength of anyone else. Like a man amongst boys. His name echoed through those halls for a long time.

Mark Henry is the definition of strength

What a unit. Many of his records still hold to this day.

A great video as usual of yours. Thank u. What many people overlook is the fact that Mark Henry was regarded, acknowledged and considered as the world's strongest man in not one point but 2 different points of phase in his career. The first one was when he won both national and world powerlifting championships in 1995 and in that process set the all time world records in raw squat with knee wraps of 953.5 lbs and raw deadlift with 903.9 lbs. These two were world records in both tested as well as untested federations of powerlifting. The squat world record lasted for 15 years from 95-10 in untested division in superheavyweight class broken by Robert wilkerson, but was originally broken 3 years prior in 2007 by Sergey Kurnaukhov in a 308 lbs weight class so for 12 years regardless of weight class from 95-07 and for 22 years in tested division from 95-17 broken by Jezza Uepa whereas deadlift world record lasted for 10 years from 95-05 in untested division broken by Benedict Magnusson, for 17 years from 95-12 in tested division broken by Mikhail Koklaev in superheavyweight class and regardless of weight class by Konstantin konstantinovs at the lighter weight class in 2009 so, 13 years from 95-09. In addition to that he also set the all time world record in drug tested raw powerlifting total with 2337 lbs and that total was also the 4th best among non drug tested totals as well at that time behind only Reinhoudt, Cole and Kuc. . This total lasted for 22 years from 95-17 in drug tested meet broken by Jezza Uepa . What's worth noting is that he set those records and won the national and world Championship while primarly being a weightlifter and hadn't competed in powerlifting for 5 years prior to 1995 as his whole focus was on weightlifting as a result he trained on the powerlifts only sparingly in 95 when he won and set the world records in powerlifting. In the same calendar year,in weightlifting he won the bronze,silver and gold medal at Pan American games. In the next year in 96 , he won the national weightlifting championship for the 3rd time and by doing so set the american national record in snatch of 396 lbs and clean and jerk of 485 lbs which gave him the total of 881 lbs. The all 3 national records set by him in snatch, clean and jerk and total lasted until 1997 When Shane Hammon broke them , but this 881 lbs total , in the opinion of many experts in track field of international lifting including Dragomir Cioroslan ,the 96s coach of us team - was the highest made by an athlete who had never used anabolic steroids. who has never used peds. Due to his 5 lift total by that time, Henry at the age of 24 , was generally acknowledged as the strongest man in the world, even by many of the eastern Bloc European weightlifters who outrank him in weightlifting. No one in the history of sport has lifted as much as him in the five competitive lifts - 2 lifts of weightlifting and 3 lifts of powerlifting. To this day his 5 lift total is still the greatest in history making him arguably one of the strongest man that ever lived , and stamp him according to lifting statistician, Herb Glossbrenner as history's greatest overall lifter . Having achieved these all time records in the lifting sports and achieving these at a very young age of 24 while being lifetime drug free makes it even more impressive. He also held the world record in combined lifting supertotal which consists of official weightlifting total + official powerlifting total, in addition to 5 lift combined total from 1996-2012 when Mikhail Koklaev superceded this record. Mark is no. 2 even at this point of time. The second time when Henry was again seen as the legit strongest man in the world by many lifting experts since 1996 when he won the inaugural Arnold strongman classic in 2002 by training specifically for 6 weeks for the contest and defeating the best worldwide strongman of that time including, the then reigning world's strongest man of 2001 Svend Carlsen , who all were practicing for years. His win was a shock for strongman experts worldwide. Many experts in the field , including Bill Kazmaier, Dr. Terry and Jan Todd, Dr. Robert M. Goldman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Muscle and fitness magazine and Flex magazine , consider him to be one of the strongest man that ever lived or even the most naturally gifted strongman in history. What's more frightening was that Mark with all of these accomplishments was never even in his physical prime as he quit his lifting career by the age of just 26 in 97 and came back for just one strongman competition in 02 . Normally strength athletes in powerlifting and strongman reach their prime between 28-35 and Mark was far away from reaching his strength peak. We can just imagine what he might've done had he kept lifting.

Now that Mark Henry mentioned him, we need a feature on Soviet era strongman Vasili Alexeev.

I briefly met Mark Henry at the Arnold Classic in 2011. I think he'd already retired from Strength sports at that point and was acting as one of the judges but still looked like he could have been competing! It would have been interesting if he had been at his peak and competing against guys like Hafthor, Brian Shaw, etc.

When you have a God gifted gift of strength like Mark Henry you don't need to take any steroids or drugs.

Not many with his mass that could move like him. Even more impressive than his numbers if you ask me. A true all around talent.

They never gave enough credit to Mark in WWF. He could wipe the ring with anybody. Massive and strong. Very underrated.

Something to add to that 2002 challenge, not only was he out of practice for years and came back to it, but that compeition also had future strongest men such as Svend 'Viking' Karlsen and compeititors that broke history being the first to achieve certain feats of strength. It wasn't a easy compeition.

God if this man is natural, which I want to believe, he is a marvel of humanity. Dude is awesome 👌

I knew him from WWE fame but I didn't realise he was this impressive outside the WWE too.

I used to coach weightlifting in college, and I have been to a number of power lifting competitions. I have never seen anyone even close to his strength. The fact that everyone who has left a comment that knows him says that he is down to earth and genuinely nice and polite. I was personal friends with a man who was at one time listed as the strongest man in the Marines when I was in California near Camp Pendleton, California. He was also genuinely nice and polite and respectful. I have been in shape and extremely healthy in my past and I am on a self improvement course of my own to strengthen my heart ❤️ and I have begun a routine of getting back into great physical shape at the age of 74. I am excited about staying healthy and with God's help off of medication 💊 until He calls me Home.!! Amen 🙏

It's a worthy argument. His all around strength and athleticism is beyond impressive. If he decided to do a strength sport he became a top level athlete in that sport powerlifting, weightlifting, and strongman. Kaz, Shaw a few others enter the conversation but it's no twenty others.

The new voiceover is not bad but that being said the old voiceover is part of strength universe’s signature style

Please keep your original commentary. You speak well and have a distinct accent that differentiates you from other channels.

Army 97th General Hospital 1984ish Sgt. Henry hurt his knee. I believe it was his Left. I made a Lenox Hill knee brace for him. Largest knee brace I ever made. A real gentleman.

My dad was from Silsbee, where i lived many years as well. He was friends with Mark Henry, and has so many crazy stories about the guy. Mark was in the rap game when it was the in thing for people to do. He had a necklace with a "CD" on the end of an industrial gold chain. When he got closer, he realized that it was actually a vinyl record and mark henry was so massive it looked like a CD.

hence why modern popular strongmen refuse to do his feats and refuse to use the exact replica dumbbells that louis used.

go back to the old narrator plz

It's tripping me out, because a popular body builder broke his neck squatting around 400lbs last week, and here Mark Henry is squatting more than double 40 years ago. Any one of us would literally die trying to lift these weights. It's kind of blowing my mind 🤯

There just seemed to be no limit to this guy's strength.

I'm convinced. As always, great job with the research and presentation!

He has the perfect build for strength related sports. Would've loved to see him compete in the WSM competitions. Wasn't aware of these amazing accomplishments and only knew him as a wrestler. I think he would've been amazing to watch!

Great video. Mark Henry is awesome. Like others, I really like the original narrator.

Wow I had no idea he had such an impressive resume! 💪 Amazing accomplishments

5:00 is the deepest squat with 900+ I've ever seen!

Oh wow I thought it was just BS this whole time.. Much respect to Mark, a true strong man!

That dunk was very surprising

Mark is an absolute monster in the most positive meaning of the word

Thanks for making this video!

Very difficult to say who's the strongest man ever. There are so many disciplines is strength sports. But Mark is definitely one of the all time greatest. And I 100% believe he was natty. Just a extremely gifted athlete.❤

One of the most amazing naturals ever. He was a legend in his own time

Mark is and was an absolute unit!

Normally I'm pretty damn sceptical about athletes being natural at the top of the world level. Mark Henry might have actually been that much of a phenom that I could believe him having been natural.

Fantastic. A true strength legend 💪

The old narrator pleaaaaaase❤

Great video!

being able to dunk a basketball at 6'3 450 pounds is insane.

I never understood why he wasn't presented as a multiple Gold, Silver, and Bronze winner from the Olympics during his matches in Pro wressling like they did for Kirk, and he only won one medal. But that is water under the bridge. Mark was possibly one of the most humble and nicest people in the world.

We need the original strength universe voice please!!! Other than that, a good video. Strongest ever would be peak Thor, but Mark Henry is definitely in the discussion, maybe within the top 10 if not the top 5.

What a gamble mom. Trying to keep your boys out of trouble so you fed the worlds strongest beast iron plates. Thank god you were such an amazing mother. You created debatably one of the most special humans to ever exist.

I currently live in Silsbee,Tx. Glad to see this small town get some love

Mark had many records in drug tested lift federations. He also was major advocate for no anabolic drugs in sports. Anyone with basic knowledge of the 1980’s Soviet Olympic team knows they were all dirty from hockey , basketball, track, lifting etc.

Mark Was definetly the strongest man on earth at one time, probably the only one to that point to pass Bill Kazmaier, a defintive animal in all strenght related media. He was passed eventually by the likes of Big Z, shaw, Thor, Hall and maybe now Hooper... I call bs on his naty claims though

Mark Henry is the drug free GOAT. Imagine if he had crossed that line and got on the sauzul!

I saw him at the St Louis airport maybe twenty years ago while I was waiting to pick up my wife. I asked him if he was Mark Henry the powerlifter and he said yes, but he did not look like he wanted to be bothered. I am a big man, but not big enough to go around annoying Mark Henry, so I left him alone. That said, he is one heck of an athlete!

powerlifting and weightlifting is total different - to be good in both is wow amazing !

One thing I respected Mark for was that when he first started in the WWE he wasn't what is called a great ring worker. However he used that same determination and willpower he had as an Olympic weightlifter to work hard learning the wrestling business and vastly improved his performance in the ring.

As amazing as he clearly was, we'll never know.

Question: "How strong was Mark Henry really?" Answer: "Yes" 😆

Frick'n Amazing! Tha k you! J

"Strongest of all time" is one of those titles that depends on how different people define things. I'm not in that community, so I don't have an opinion. His accomplishments are impressive. Thanks for the video.

I think he was definitly the strongest Guy in the World in the early 2000s

I have been saying this for YEARS, that Mark Henry is the strongest human being to ever walk the earth, especially when you take into consideration he only competed in drug tested events and he focused on wrestling as his career and not strongman or powerlifting.

This is what dedication, determination and an unwillingness to compromise can do for a person.

Would love to see the power lifting, oly lifting and main strongman lifts total of mark and mikhail koklyaev to see who is the strongest

With his explosiveness, he probably would have made one hell of an offensive guard in the NFL. Also, if he was this strong while being so devoutly anti-roid, imagine if he had gotten on the juice. I am genuinely concerned that human joints couldn't have handled the power.

Honestly my biggest reason for skepticism against Mark’s natty status is when he not only condemned Hafthor for admitting PED usage as if everyone didn’t already know, but he claimed that he thought the guys competing at the Arnold were natural and was shocked and appalled. Like how do you believe the pro-strongmen were natural, especially being in the strength world, that is either some serious naïveté, or you’re really overcompensating to make people think you’re natty

love that he was like natty too the max. seems like an awesome guy/athlete/role model great video

Great Vid. Your forgot git his insane coin bending spoon twisting and apple crushing power.........insane!

You should do a video on the boxer James J. Jeffries, as he's known for his insane feats of strength. Several journalists saw him lift a 500 pound steer on a wagon, and he also used to train with a 300 pound sandbag. He also used to hunt large deer and carry them during his run. He would still outrun most of the people running with him!

I DEFINITELY want to see this guy’s high school basketball highlight reel.

I met Mark and he is so humble

He's incredible.

Would have been awesome to see what he would have accomplished if he stuck to powerlifting or strongman instead of wrestling. Of course WWE was more money than the other sports. But it would have been great to see the full potential in PL or SM. He was still young when signing with WWE, so I guess he would have developed even more later on And I agreee on narator that I see many has written here. We are used to the original one, and want it back😄

I didn't know all this. Apparently that man is incredible

Mark Henry did it the right way, no drugs! Thank you for being a role model.

Mark was beast, he could've achieved so much more

I think it’s safe to say he was one of the strongest of all time, and I do believe honestly that he remained drug free throughout his entire career. I’ve read that if he had used steroids, there would be no question whatsoever that he would be the strongest man to have ever lived. Either way there’s no denying what he achieved and it tells us everything we need to know that not only did he set records, but that these records took over a decade to break and some remain unbroken to this day. He is a real life legend and that’s an indisputable fact.

He lifted the weight nobody else could lift. I think he was only the second to do it. It’s on RU-vid. Henry seems like a really cool dude outside the ring.

In his own words “that’s what I do”…Legend

You’re the man, Mark!

Some Quotes on Mark Henry's strength : Apart from Us National weightlifting coaching director Lyn Jones, the bronze medalist for Romania at the 84 Olympics and the 96s coach of the Us weightlifting team Dragomir Cioroslan said this about Mark in aug. 1993 - I lifted for 16 years , I've coached for 9 and i have never seen anyone with Mark's raw talent ( strength) . When asked in September 2003 , who the strongest man in the world is today , Bill Kazmaier considered by many to be the greatest strongman of all time , stated : " It would have to be Mark Henry. I think he is one of the strongest man in the history of the world, without a doubt." and " if pushed or challenged, his potential is far beyond what is shown , which puts it in a range of phenomenal ". In another interview in 2018 , Kaz said Mark could've been a great strongman and could've been history's greatest lifter had he kept competing in strength sports rather than joining pro wrestling. Dr. Robert M. Goldman in 2012 about Mark Henry at Mark's induction into the international sports Hall of fame : Mark Henry was a 2 time olympian , winner of the national and world title in powerlifting , world record holder in powerlifting. Really , Mark is probably one of the strongest humans ever born on the planet - literally! I mean in terms of natural , physical capacity! . A truly remarkable human being. Dr. Terry Todd, super heavyweight powerlifting champion and lifelong expert in the field of strength , about Mark Henry : "When I first saw Mark at a high school powerlifting meet , in Dallas he was looking for all the world like a young African king surrounded by his children. Never had i seen such muscle mass and bone structure. I've been involved in competitive lifting for 40 years and was the national champion myself in both weightlifting and powerlifting , so I've known all the top men in both sports for almost a half century. When i met Mark , however, i thought to myself that here was a man with the potential to be the best of them all in either discipline, maybe even both disciplines, at the same time". Also in the same article written for enterprise in 1996 , Dr. Todd further wrote, : " It's also worth noting that by making national and world records in powerlifting , this amazing good natured young athlete became a fraternity of one ; no other superheavyweight has ever held a national record in the open division in powerlifting and weightlifting at the same time. Indeed , Silsbee's Mark Henry has proved on the battleground of actual competition that he has realized and gone beyond his childhood dream ; he is not only the strongest man in the world but also the strongest man of all time . And he did it the old fashioned way - Drug free." When asked, who the most memorable ( male) lifters were, the world's strongest woman of his time Dr. Jan Todd , one of the greatest female powerlifters of all time , replied : "Mark Henry would top my list. Mark's natural talent for strength exceeded anything that i ever saw in my lifetime up close and personal. I first saw Mark lift at the Texas high school meet here in Texas where he squatted over 800 lbs back in 1990. Although his powerlifting career has been brief because of his involvement with Olympic lifting and wwe, I've never been around anyone who possessed his level of natural strength. I'd also have to list Bill Kazmaier , who trained with me in the early 80s." Writing for the journal for Iron game history of Stark centre in 2007 , she said - " The fact that Zydrunas Savickas has now won the asc contest for 5 straight years , it is so remarkable that buzz behind the scenes among contest's top officials was that it was time to give Savickas his due and acknowledge him as not just the world's strongest man over past 5 years but he has a solid claim to even grander title - the strongest man in history. I mean no disrespect to any other strength athletes in the history including Mark Henry , who i suspect may have become even stronger than Zydrunas had he not decided 12 years ago to assure his financial future by becoming a professional wrestler ". Magnus ver Magnusson, a 4 time winner of the tv series world's strongest man competition about Mark : " Mark Henry , unbelievable strong. To be a weightlifter, powerlifter, strongman he's tried it all , and has done really well. "

When Henry told Vince McMahon that he was going to compete in the Arnold strongman classic. Vince McMahon told him that the WWF had no place for the world's second strongest man.

amazing career and loved him when he was a heel as the silverback in wwe....a giant and a legend

One of my favorite powerlifters- Mark Henry. Into bodybuilding and powerlifting, love working out and dieting, and am going to be competing in local bodybuilding competitions within my area in a little more than a year from now. Im gonna be strong like Mark Henry one day 👊🏼

Even if you don't think Mark is the strongest man, you gotta admit,in his prime, he was an absolute Beast 🔥 💯 So naturally gifted and so dedicated! He is truly a one of a kind man!

What happened to the banging guitar riff you used to use ? Missing it so much

gentle giant, you just gotta love this man

He is extremely decorated. His list of accolades is jaw-dropping. If he isn't the world's strongest man, hes definitely the most decorated for weight competition

Definitely the strongest man who ever lived. If he truly realized his potential and did not stop early. Along with had the resources lifters have today Mark Henry would be untouchable. Still has the highest supertotal and there is more money in taking his being the strongest powerlifter at the time to doing wwe when wwe was still popular. I also believe he was truly natural a genetic freak regardless. Not to mention a 400lb man dunking