How Did The Kings Of Strength Revolutionise Weightlifting?

The goal of weightlifting and exercise for many people is to create the best version of themselves, and how this overall objective translates into measurable fitness goals will vary dramatically from person to person.

Because of this, and because fitness intersects not only physical strength but technique and overall health, comparisons and competitions often require rather rigidly defined structures and an even playing field.

The reason why competition weight plates are strictly managed to ensure they are the same size and weight within a margin of error is that this can have a huge effect on performance.

Because of this, the World’s Strongest strength athletic contest has a wide range of disciplines, and a rather infamous court case took place in 1985 over the name “World’s Strongest Man”.

It is probably impossible to truly define the world’s strongest person, with candidates ranging from the Pocket Hercules Naim Suleymanoglu (believed to be the greatest pound-for-pound weightlifter of all time) to Halthor Bjornsson, current holder of the deadlift world record.

However, two of the biggest candidates and two of the most influential figures in the early world of weightlifting are Louis Cyr and Louis “Apollon” Uni, two strongmen who revolutionised and shaped strength athletics to this very day and to this day are known as The Kings Of Strength.

Who Were The Kings Of Strength?

Born within a year and a half of each other, Louis Cyr and the man who would become Apollon would forever be connected despite being separated by an ocean and without any evidence that the pair ever interacted with each other.

What bound them was a level of physical strength not seen before, and showed that strength can often look very different and take a very different route to success and accomplishment.

Who Was Apollon?

Apollon, born Louis Uni (28th January 1862 - 18th October 1928) in France, was exceptionally strong, but had little interest in technique and relied throughout his entire life on his natural gifts, his sense of showmanship and his appearance more reminiscent of a contemporary bodybuilder such as Eugen Sandow and Edmond Desbonnet than a modern powerlifter.

In particular, his grip strength would allow him to perform elaborate feats of strength, including lifting a 155kg double barbell in two hands before switching to one hand, lifting his leg out and catching it in bent arms.

He was also known for bending the bars of a cage to escape, infamously performing the trick once against strengthened bars when a local blacksmith misunderstood his instructions.

The Apollon’s Axle, a nearly two-inch thick barbell with two 26-inch wheels from a railway cart which weighed 166kg in total, was his signature trick, and to this day, fewer than two dozen weightlifters have managed to lift it.

Who Was Louis Cyr?

Louis Cyr, born Cyprian-Noe Cyr (10th October 1863 - 10th November 1912) in Canada, could not have been a more different weightlifter, with a completely different look, style and mythological influence.

A relatively short man at five feet eight inches compared to Apollon’s six-foot-three-inch frame, Louis Cyr was extremely stout and strong, with his peak competition weight being 340lbs (154kg).

Inspired by the myth of Milo of Croton, one of the first strongmen ever written about, who was said to have carried a calf on his shoulders that grew into a bull as he did, Louis Cyr was also inspired by the Biblical story of Samson to grow his hair out.

After making the news for lifting a farmer’s wagon out of a ditch, he won his first strongman contest in 1881 by lifting a horse over his head.

His feats of strength were rather legendary, from holding back four draft horses pulling against his body, to allegedly performing a backlift of over 4000lbs, although this weight was strongly disputed until Gregg Ernst beat this record in 1993.

From his start in strength athletics, he constantly challenged the other major strongmen of his era, allegedly remaining undefeated until his retirement in 1906.

Legacy Of The Kings Of Strength

• Apollon’s Axle is perhaps the first modern barbell with circular weights.

• The Cyr Dumbbell has become an infamous challenge for weightlifters due to not only its weight but also its unwieldy dimensions.

• Both linked mythical and semi-mythical feats of strength to the modern world, creating a weightlifting chain that spans potentially thousands of years.

• Louis Cyr’s challenges to Eugen Sandow and other strongmen, symbolised by a championship belt, foreshadowed an era of formalised competitive weightlifting spectacles.

• The winner of the Arnold Strongman Classic is given a trophy bust of Louis Cyr.