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Saturday, May 23, 2015

Franco Columbu: Strongest Bodybuilder of the Golden Era

Franco Columbu was the Strongest Bodybuilder of the Golden Era of the bodybuilding and was pound for pound strongest of them all. We all know him as the side kick of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the days of pumping iron or much before. However he had more to him than just being a side kick, he was weightlifting, powerlifting and then a bodybuilding champion.


He was not just a bodybuilder who had muscles, he could put them to use to put people to sleep since he was also a European boxing champion. He has won numerous weightlifting and bodybuilding competitions, winning Mr. Europe, Mr. World, Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia twice (1976 and 1981).He trained Sylvester Stallone for the Rambo movies.


He had set great PR’s on bench squat and deadlift and also on heavy shoulder presses. The most interesting thing was when he competed in world’s strongest man 1977, he was dabbling a refrigerator and had a fall and injured his leg. Doctors declared that the leg was broken, but Franco said it wasn't broken, it was dislocated. If you are already not impressed by his feet’s of strength, one must be impressed by his will and dedication which was put into display when he when through rehabbing his leg and competing again to win the Mr. Olympia title in 1981. Post his accident at the world’s strongest man, he had lot of work at his hand and his efforts are commendable irrespective of where the Olympia of 1981 was fixed or not!


Like Arnold he came from a small village, he was from Sardinia Italy. He conquered the world of bodybuilding and did do small parts in movies made lot of money and became successful.
His best lifts are as follows:
Bench press: 525 lbs.
Squats: 655 lbs.

Deadlifts: 750 lbs.

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