Mark Henry - Powerlifting Career

Powerlifting Career

Mark has always been exceptionally big and strong. By the time he was in the fourth grade, he was 5'5" and weighed 225 pounds. So his mother bought a set of weights when Mark was 10. During Mark's freshman year at Silsbee Highschool, he was already able to squat 600 lb (270 kg) for repetitions, which was well over school record. As an 18-year-old high school senior, Mark was called "the world's strongest teen-ager" by the Los Angeles Times, as he made it into the sidelines in eary 1990 for winning the National High School Powerlifting Championships and setting teen-age lifting world records in the squat 832 lb (377 kg) and total 2,033 lb (922 kg). By the time Mark finished high school he was a three-time Texas state champion with state and national records in all four powerlifting categories - the squat at 832 lb (377 kg), bench press at 525 lb (238 kg) and deadlift at 815 lb (370 kg) as well as the total at 2,033 lb (922 kg).

At the Texas high school powerlifting championships in April 1990, Terry Todd, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin and former weightlifter, spotted Henry and persuaded him to go to Austin after he graduated to train in the Olympic style of weightlifting. In July 1990 at the USPF Senior National Powerlifting Championships, the 19 years young Mark came second only to the legendary 6 time World Powerlifting Champion Kirk Karwoski. While powerlifting relies primarily on brute strength and power, which Mark obviously possessed, Olympic weightlifting is considered more sophisticated, involving more agility, timing, flexibility and technique. There have been few lifters in history, who have been able to be succssful in both lifting disciplines. Mastering the technique of weightlifting usually takes many years of practicing. But Henry broke four national junior records in weightlifting after only eight months of training. He attempted to compete in powerlifting and weightlifting at the same time, and quite successful at that: In April 1991, he won the United States National Junior Championships; 20 days later he placed fourth at the U.S. Senior National Championships, and finished sixth at the Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Germany two months later. Only few weeks afterwards, he became 1991's International Junior Champion in Powerlifiting as well. In Henry's first year of competing in weightlifting, he broke all three junior (20 and under) American records 12 times, and became the United States' top superheavyweight, surpassing Mario Martinez.

At the age of 19, Henry had already managed to qualify for the weightlifting competition at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where he finished tenth in the super heavyweight class. Ten months before the 1992 Olympics, Henry had begun training with Dragomir Cioroslan, a bronze medalist at the 1984 Summer Olympics, who said that he had "never seen anyone with Mark's raw talent". After the Olympics Mark became more determined than ever to focuse on weightlifting and began competing in earnest all over the world. In late 1992 he took the win at the USA Weightlifting American Open and further proved his dominance on the American soil by winning not only the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships, but also the U.S. Olympic Festival Championships in 1993 and 1994. At the 1995 Pan American Games Henry won a gold, silver and bronze medal.

Having reached the pinnacle of weightlifting on a National and continental level, he competed again in powerlifting and shocked the world by winning the ADFPA U.S. National Powerlifting Championships in 1995 with an earthshattering 2314.8 lb raw Powerlifting Total, outclassing the lifter in second place by incredible 286 lbs. In the process he set all-time world records in the raw deadlift at 903.9 lbs (410 kg) and the squat without a squat suit at 948.0 lbs (430 kg) as well as the all-time drug tested raw total at 2314.8 lb (1050 kg). Later that same year in October, he competed in the drug-free Powerlifting World Championships and won again, even though he trained on the powerlifts only sparingly - due his main focus still being on the 2 Olympic lifts. Astoundingly, he did not only become World Champion by winning the competition but he also bettered his previous all-time raw squat world record to 953.5 lbs (432.5 kg) and his all-time drug tested raw world record total to 2336.9 lbs (1060 kg), proving without a doubt to be the best powerlifter in the world in 1995 without even focusing on it. Both of these records still stand today as the best unequipped drug-free lifts of all time, regardless of weight class.

One year later, with the '96 Olympics already in sight, he became the North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) champion. He earned the right to compete at the Olympics by winning the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships in the Spring of 1996 for a third time. During his victory Henry became Senior US American record holder (1993–1997) in the Snatch at 180.0 kg (396.8 lbs), Clean and jerk at 220.0 kg (485.0 lbs), and Total at 400.0 kg (881.8 lbs), improving all of his three previous personal bests. This 400 kg total, in the opinion of many experts in track field of international lifting - including Dragomir Cioroslan, the '96s coach of the U.S. team – was the highest ever made by an athlete who had never used anabolic steroids - who was lifetime drugfree. By that time, at the young age of 24, Mark Henry was generally considered as the strongest man in the world by most lifting experts - even by many of the Eastern Block athletes who outrank him in weightlifting. No one in the history of the sports had ever lifted as much as him in the five competitive lifts - the snatch and the clean and jerk in weightlifting - the squat, bench press and deadlift in powerlifting. To this day, his five lift total is still the greatest in history by a fair amount - making him arguably one of the strongest men that ever lived.

In the months prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Mark received more attention and publicity than any lifter in recent US history. He guested at Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and Oprah Winfrey Show and was featured on HBO Inside Sports and The Today Show. He was also featured in dozens of magazines including U.S. News & World Report, People Vanity Fair, ESPN The Magazine and Life where he was photographed nude by famed artist Annie Lebowitz. During this period he connected with WWE owner Vince McMahon for the first time, which led to him signing a 10-year deal as professional wrestler.

Although Henry even managed to improve his lifts to 407 kg in the snatch and 507 kg in the clean and jerk during his final eight weeks of preparation, luck wouldn't be on his side at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Henry, the generally acknowledged "strongest man in the world" at 6-foot-4-inches tall and 414 lbs bodyweight, became the largest athlete in Olympic history and was voted captain of the Olympic weightlifting team. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury during the competition and was unable to approach his normal performance level. Due to the injury he had to drop out after his first clean and jerk attempt and finished with a disappointing 14th place. His appearance at the Olympics proved to be his last official competition in Olympic weightlifting, as he retired from weightlifting, vowing never to return unless the sport is "cleaned up" of anabolic steroid use.

Since his career start as a professional wrestler shortly after the Olympics, he broke his leg in the Fall of 1996. But by the summer of the following year he had rehabbed it enough to be able to compete at the USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997, where he won the competition to become the U.S National Powerlifting Champion in the super heavyweight class again. He had planed to continue heavy training in powerlifting, although his travel schedule as a professional wrestler with the WWF (now WWE) has made sustained training difficult. Mark’s WWF contract was unique in many ways, allowing him at least three months off each year from wrestling, so he can train for the national and world championships in weightlifting or powerlifting. Barring injury, Mark had originally hoped to return to the platform in late 1998, to lift for many more years, and to eventually squat at least 1100 lbs without a “squat suit” and to deadlift 1000 lbs.

Although in early 1998, he was still able to do five reps in the bench press with 495 lbs, three reps in the squat with 855 lbs (with no suit and no knee wraps), and three reps in the standing press with 405 lbs in training, while traveling with the World Wrestling Federation, he never returned to compete again in official championships in favor of his wrestling career. He weighted 380 lbs at that time, and his right upper arm was measured at 24” by Terry Todd. By basically ending his lifting career at the age of 26, it is safe to say that he never reached his full physical potential as a professional lifter. Despite this fact, most of his records remain unequaled to this day.