I grew up watching WWF wrestling (now called WWE) in the 80s. Hulk Hogan was one of the iconic “good guys” I remember most clearly. Jake the Snake Roberts (a bad guy) was recently on the Joe Rogan podcast where he recounted the defining moment in Hogan’s career. During Wrestlemania III in a showdown between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan lifted up Andre up in the air and body slammed him to win the match.
Most of the discussion centred around a discussion of how many back surgeries Hogan has had and how lifting up Andre the Giant likely caused or was a strong contributor to his back injury.
We know that if you regularly lift more that 50 lbs you are at risk of damaging the tissues in the spine that can lead to a back injury. The latest science shows that this limit drops as we get older. Andre the Giant weighed 550 lbs.
I think part of the reason so many people suffer from back pain and back injuries is our poor understanding of our body’s limits.
In one interview Hogan says, “there’s not a day’s gone by when I haven’t been in some kind of pain. [1]”
Normal is Boring 