Kurt Angle's Pre-Olympic Workout

[Miiiiiiighty]

Here is the extract , from his book :

"In the weight room I used to do crazy stuff too, stuff no-one else did, as a way to combine strength and endurance and intensity. I would squat 225 pounds as many times as I could. Once I did it 77 times. To an athlete who lifts weights, 225 pounds isn't a lot of weight to squat, but I guaran-damn-tee you that the stongest man in the world - someone who can squat 800 or 900 pounds - can't squat 225 pounds 77 times without stopping. You can't believe how heavy 225 pounds gets after 30 or 40 reps. My brother Eric can squat 720 pounds but he can't squat 225 pounds more than 40 times. I couldn't walk when I was done, but that's the idea. I'd burn my legs out, then I'd do my power-clean and dead lifts with very heavy weights.

It was all about fatigue training. I was always changing my routine, pushing myself to the max. I'd change the weight on those squats each week. The week after I did 225, I'd do 315 pounds - 41 times was the most repetitions I ever did without stopping. The following week I'd do 405 pounds - did 28 reps with that weight. Then one week I'd drop down to 135 pounds. I remember doing 136 reps once with that. And this was at the beginning of my workout. My legs would be completely gassed, and I still had a whole workout to do."


Sounds like fucking BS to me, looks like Kurt got carried away by his pro wrestling gimmick and now believes he did all this.
Or maybe did he get slammed on the head a little too hard as I read in another interview that he says he remembers NOTHING from his Olympic 1996 campaign, not even the podium ...

 

[AlbionOakley]

I heard one time Kurt angle punched an elephant and the elephant fell over dead.

 

[spiderguardman]

Here is the extract , from his book :

"In the weight room I used to do crazy stuff too, stuff no-one else did, as a way to combine strength and endurance and intensity. I would squat 225 pounds as many times as I could. Once I did it 77 times. To an athlete who lifts weights, 225 pounds isn't a lot of weight to squat, but I guaran-damn-tee you that the stongest man in the world - someone who can squat 800 or 900 pounds - can't squat 225 pounds 77 times without stopping. You can't believe how heavy 225 pounds gets after 30 or 40 reps. My brother Eric can squat 720 pounds but he can't squat 225 pounds more than 40 times. I couldn't walk when I was done, but that's the idea. I'd burn my legs out, then I'd do my power-clean and dead lifts with very heavy weights.

It was all about fatigue training. I was always changing my routine, pushing myself to the max. I'd change the weight on those squats each week. The week after I did 225, I'd do 315 pounds - 41 times was the most repetitions I ever did without stopping. The following week I'd do 405 pounds - did 28 reps with that weight. Then one week I'd drop down to 135 pounds. I remember doing 136 reps once with that. And this was at the beginning of my workout. My legs would be completely gassed, and I still had a whole workout to do."


Sounds like fucking BS to me, looks like Kurt got carried away by his pro wrestling gimmick and now believes he did all this.
Or maybe did he get slammed on the head a little too hard as I read in another interview that he says he remembers NOTHING from his Olympic 1996 campaign, not even the podium ...

I agree that some of this stuff sounds like bullshit, but comparing the high rep squats of a 1rm specialist too someone who trains for endurance isnt always the best.


For example i read somewhere that they once compared the squating between a world class powerlifter and a body builder.

Of course the powelifter smoked the bb on the 1rm test by over 200pounds or more, but then they did a max rep test with 220pounds or something and the body builder just outclassed the powerlifter by more than 15reps.



Also another example is a guy at my bjj club, he just has these unfair genes where he is almost 40 and has a 6pack year around even when not training and eating shit.


Well his 1rm squat was like 300 or less even, but he could bang out over 30reps with his bw the first time he tried to rep it, and he weighs like 170 or so.

 

[luckyshot]

I agree, there is no equating high rep numbers with 1 rm.

 

[Tosa]

For example i read somewhere that they once compared the squating between a world class powerlifter and a body builder.

Of course the powelifter smoked the bb on the 1rm test by over 200pounds or more, but then they did a max rep test with 220pounds or something and the body builder just outclassed the powerlifter by more than 15reps.

I believe you're talking about the squat contest between Tom Platz and Fred Hatfield. Here's the description from Fred Hatfields website:

Fibo in Germany, around 1993. Over 10,000 people watching. Platz squatted with 7 plates...765. Kaz (linfting him from behind) helped him out of the hole, but the crowd didn't care. After all, Platz is of German heritage (so am I, but they didn't know that). I went rummaging around for a couple of 10 pound plates to add...got a bit nervous when I discovered that someone had forgotten to bring any small plates along. On went another 90 pounds. UGH! 855. Dug deeper than I ever had dug before! I made it! THAT was an unofficial WR!

Then the bar was unloaded to 539 or thereabouts (someone brought over a couple of 10 kilo plates). Platz went first. 23 reps. I managed 12 or 13...

You can see video of Platz's 23 reps on youtube, but I don't believe the rest is there.

 

[KILL KILL]

I agree that some of this stuff sounds like bullshit, but comparing the high rep squats of a 1rm specialist too someone who trains for endurance isnt always the best.


For example i read somewhere that they once compared the squating between a world class powerlifter and a body builder.

Of course the powelifter smoked the bb on the 1rm test by over 200pounds or more, but then they did a max rep test with 220pounds or something and the body builder just outclassed the powerlifter by more than 15reps.



Also another example is a guy at my bjj club, he just has these unfair genes where he is almost 40 and has a 6pack year around even when not training and eating shit.


Well his 1rm squat was like 300 or less even, but he could bang out over 30reps with his bw the first time he tried to rep it, and he weighs like 170 or so.

anecdotal evidence is anecdotal. If you're referring to Platz, he wasn't just some bodybuilder, he was one of the best squatters of all time.

 

[KILL KILL]

There have been like seven multi-time Olympic freestyle champions ever... hardly a "countless number"

Also, he did not say how many sets he split the reps into, so there is no way to extrapolate a 1 rm from something like that.

I agree that the workload seems unreal, but who am I to say? Maybe ordinary people like you and I just don't comprehend how incredible the gap is between us and truly elite, world caliber athletes.

well for instance, John Smith won 2 olympic gold medals and 6 world titles, Jordan Burroughs has won 2 world titles and an olympic gold, his last world title was only weeks after he had a rod surgicially implanted into his ankle. Bruce Baumgartner had 2 olympic gold, 3 world titles, and one silver. Buvaisar Saitiev had 3 olympic gold and 6 world titles. Gable only had 1 gold and 1 world title, but i believe allowing 0 points to be scored against him in olympic competition is far superior to Angle. There are plenty of wrestlers that have higher credentials than Angle did, 4 of which I named are from the US alone.

Angle was good, but there have been many better wrestlers over the year. None of them, including Aleksander Karelin (who I intentionally left off this list) trained like Angle claims.

 

[LegioTitan]

Who needs high rep squats when you've got waist high snow to trudge through, and frozen lakes to row across??

 

[Torrid]

Dolce vs Angle in a RAW squat volume competition - 500lbs. The earth might crack underneath their might (or ego).

I can at least find the humor in Angle's boasting though. The guy is a gold medal Olympian, whatever, that's enough for me. You automatically get crazy old man immunity with an accomplishment like that. If he wants to tell people that back in his day he would squat ATG with a loaded bar on his back, then deadlift up another bar at the same time, I'll just nod and smile.

The lateral jump demonstration is hilarious though. 40lbs in each hand, clearing a bench for a minute straight for some reason is funnier to me than the squat numbers. Both are certainly exaggerated, but the lateral jump just stands out more to me.

 

[TheeFaulted]

Not to mention those numbers are , like it's been said, improving each and everytime Angle is interviewed.
Don't forget this is coming from someone saying he saw Brock lift like a 700bench, 800 squat and 900 dead so big lol. ( his number are probably rather 500/650/700 or something in those lines )

No doubt Angle was an extremely strong guy, but nowhere near this nonsense.

There's an old SI article that stated while in college Lesnar performed the following lifts:
*Squat 695 lbs
*Bench-press 475 lbs
*Deadlift-720 lbs
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1018452/index.htm

 

[KILL KILL]

There's an old SI article that stated while in college Lesnar performed the following lifts:
*Squat 695 lbs
*Bench-press 475 lbs
*Deadlift-720 lbs
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1018452/index.htm

That's pretty awesome, though we have no idea if it is factually accurate. It would be much more likely that a guy like Brock had legit numbers, while wrestling in the 285 pound weight class and looking like this.....

Kurt Angle on the other hand, supposedly could squat 405 for 28 reps, wrestling in the 220 pound weight class, while looking like this....

 

[Liquid Smoke]

Meh, I've seen countless interviews with Angle talking about his olympic training and each one, the training becomes seemingly more inhuman. I remember him speaking about squatting 225 for like 100 and then doing hill sprints for 8 hours or some bullshit. I don't believe a word of it.

Doing all those squats sounds stupid but feasible. 8 hours of hill sprints is bullocks.

But I could see him doing wrestling drills for that long which is just as taxing.

 

[luckyshot]

Kurt Angle on the other hand, supposedly could squat 405 for 28 reps, wrestling in the 220 pound weight class, while looking like this....

I agree 28 reps is a huge number, but who knows?

 

[riddleofsteel]

I don't think Jay Robinson would bullshit about Lesnar.

Angle's weightlifting numbers seem to increase as time passes but the guy did do squats like that: squatting until he couldn't do anymore. I heard stories of him getting in the 50s & 60s with 225lbs.
Anyway, the guy is strong, in college his weight hovered between 200-210 and he didn't have trouble handling the strength of guys at the heavier range of heavys. Guy was built like a running back, 5'10-11" and thick legs.

 

[KILL KILL]

I agree 28 reps is a huge number, but who knows?

Pete Rubish is juiced to the gills, one of the best up and coming powerlifters on earth, and would likely get winded jogging around the block.

Angle competed in an endurance sport. His focus was not on getting strong, it was to improve as a wrestler. he also underwent rigid testing (not saying there aren't ways to circumvent this). I just think using Pete as an example does not work.

 

[KILL KILL]

I don't think Jay Robinson would bullshit about Lesnar.

Angle's weightlifting numbers seem to increase as time passes but the guy did do squats like that: squatting until he couldn't do anymore. I heard stories of him getting in the 50s & 60s with 225lbs.
Anyway, the guy is strong, in college his weight hovered between 200-210 and he didn't have trouble handling the strength of guys at the heavier range of heavys. Guy was built like a running back, 5'10-11" and thick legs.

yeah, like i said, I think Lesnar's lifts were legit. Angle on the other hand embellishes to feed his ego.

 

[oyaji poi]

What, specifically, did he do differently than other people?

http://www.stevenpressfield.com/2014/01/hes-a-winner/

It's a mentality, somewhat explained in the article.

What is a better credential than an Olympic gold medal and world championship?

Credentials and accomplishment should never be taken as a basis for integrity. Just because someone won a medal does not mean they will be honest when talking about how they got there. See the Lloyd Irvin Rape Scandal for a good example of high achievers exhibiting extremely poor morals...in the name of high achieving. Or any athlete that says it only takes hard work and *sponsor's name* product to be the best.

 

[redaxe]

So apparently wrestling is an endurance sport now...

 

[KILL KILL]

So apparently wrestling is an endurance sport now...

much more so than powerlifting.

 

[luckyshot]

So apparently wrestling is an endurance sport now...

Basically the same guy: