Ronnie Coleman
At 5’11” and around three bills in contest shape, Big Ron couldn’t possibly have used all that cartoonish muscle, right? But unlike some others on our list, eight-time Mr. Olympia (1998–2005) Coleman wasn’t especially strong in one thing: pushing or pulling or squatting; he was ridiculously strong in everything.
There are videos of him squatting 765 for four reps and 800 for two and deadlifting 800 for an easy double. But low-rep lifts were something he did mainly for the cameras.
Coleman generally stuck to moderate reps but never moderate weights. He bench-pressed 200-pound dumbbells for 12 and leg-pressed a ton (literally) for 10. In August 2004, I saw him T-bar-row 645 before snapping the handle.
And then there are tales of his doing parking lot lunges with 365. No one racked up more absurd-but-true numbers than the eight-time Mr. O.