The Mighty Pat Casey - Powerlifting Super Star

Pat Casey was the first true powerlifting superstar: the first man to bench press 600 pounds, a raw strength pioneer, and a lifter whose upper-body power still reads like science fiction. Marty Gallagher’s look back at Casey’s training shows a simple truth: brutal basics, heavy partials, giant dumbbell presses, weighted dips, power rack work, food, rest, and relentless progression built one of the most powerful men of the early powerlifting era.

The Mighty Pat Casey - Powerlifting Super Star

Pat Casey in his prime (above): the 24-year-old pushes a pair of 200-pound dumbbells for three sets of 5 reps. The first man to bench press 600 pounds in 1965, his strategies were traumatic and effective.

I recently came across a series of old articles on the great Pat Casey, the first man to bench press 600-pounds. I thought they were extremely inciteful, the sort of barebones hardcore training articles I inhaled back in the 60s. Pat Casey was the first powerlifting superstar. The sport was officially launched in 1964 and Pat captured the imagination of alpha males worldwide by pushing the world record in the bench press upward from 523 to 622 in a two-year record-breaking spree.

Pat Casey was an all-time great insofar as upper body strength.

To this day, his flat benching, incline dumbbell pressing, overhead barbell pressing, tricep pressing and dipping feats are unmatchable on an across-the-board basis. Modern strongmen might exceed some of his feats on an individual basis, even in our modern era of 6’5”, 400-plus-pound giants, but find me one man that can raw bench 620, seated press 400, dip with 300 for reps and incline press a pair of 220-pound dumbbells for 5 reps.

Pat Casey was no one-trick pony. He squatted 800-pounds, using horrible technique. He basically would bend forward at the waist. The squat was high by modern standards. Still, his 800-squat was done raw and was legal for those primitive times. He added to the squat a 730-pound deadlift. Not bad for a lift he never practiced. Pat’s 2,100-pound three-lift national and world record total stood for five years before Jim Williams, John Kuc and Jon Cole blew past 2100 and eventually through the 2,300-pound barrier.

Brutal Simplicity at Bill Pearl’s Gym

What struck me as I reread his training routine was the brutal simplicity.

At the time, Pat Casey was training at Bill Pearl’s old gym on Manchester Street in Los Angeles. Bill had the super heavy-duty strength equipment and the massive dumbbells Pat required. He would come in on Monday and start off by performing a now extinct exercise: rack work, doing partial rep bench presses. Pat liked partial movements.

He would set the power rack pins four inches from lockout. He would work up to his heaviest poundage and perform three single reps with a static weight. Pat would then drop the pins down four more inches and again push three limit singles. He would follow with two light, for him, sets of regular bench presses, usually 405 for two sets of three reps.

Pat Casey dumbbell press.

Warmed up, Pat Casey now tied into the heaviest work of the day: heavy dumbbell incline presses. He was unrivaled as an incline dumbbell presser and would work up to three sets of five with a pair of 200s. His best-ever set of incline dumbbell presses was a pair of 220s, 440 total, for six reps. Most remarkably, Pat weighed a relatively light 290-pounds at the time. He eventually topped out at 320-pounds bodyweight.

Not yet finished, Pat Casey would then perform 2-3 sets of light bodyweight dips for 8-10 reps, quite a feat for a man a few biscuits shy of 300-pounds bodyweight. He would finish Monday’s workout with some arm work, usually 5-6 sets of his unique pullover/triceps extension exercise super-setted with some light curls. He would take his time and it might take two hours or more for him to plow through Monday’s session.

Tuesday Squats and Rack Deadlifts

On Tuesday Pat would squat. At the time this workout was taken, Pat weighed 285 and his best squat was 720. In this particular session, Pat worked through 135 for 5 reps, 225 x 3, 315 x 2, 405 x 2, 585 x 2 before his top sets: 650 for 5 single reps.

This was followed with a pump set of squats: 515 for 10 reps. Pat would super-set leg extensions using high reps: 3 x 20 reps were super-setted with lying leg curls, 3 x 12 reps. Pat would finish Tuesday’s session with “sticking point” deadlifts.

These are deadlifts done in the power rack starting just below the knees: 315 x 5, 405 x 2, 515 x 1, then 565-pounds for six single reps.

Friday Bench Press, Seated Press, and Dips

Wednesday and Thursday were off days. Friday was bench press day. At the time of the workout, he had just broken the 600-pound barrier. He would warm-up with a set of 20 reps with 135. Then 225 x 10, 315 x 5, 405 x 5, 515 x 1. Done with the warm-ups, Pat would rip into the meat of the meal: five strict single reps with 570. He had no set rest times between the singles and might take up to five minutes before tying into the final singles.

Pat would then reduce the poundage and flush the pecs and shoulders with 405 x 10 and 315 x 20.

Done with benching, Pat Casey would commence doing seated front presses using a barbell. Pat’s seated front presses were so strict and so upright that he had to turn his head to the side so the bar could clear his face. I cannot imagine. The rest of the world inclines the back brace ever so slightly so that they can push overhead without colliding with the chin. Pat wanted to perform the strictest possible overhead press. A strict, back-braced 90-degree push is the absolute hardest overhead press.

Pat Casey would turn his head sideways to maintain the push angle. I have never seen this done by any other lifter. Pat would seated press 135 x 10, 225 x 5, 315 x 3 and finally 400 x 1. Keep in mind this is after bench pressing 570 for five singles, 405 x 10 and 315 x 20. Talk about pre-fatigue. Not finished, Pat continued front pressing with 315 x 5 and 225 x 8.

Onto dips: Pat would do three sets of five reps with bodyweight as a warm-up. Then the real work: ten sets of 5 reps with a 200-pound dumbbell hung around his waist. Again, his triceps were already toast from benching and overhead pressing. That was it for Friday’s session.

Saturday Rack Squats and More Assistance Work

Saturday’s workout would start with rack work. Pat would set the pins at his squatting sticking point, about six inches above parallel. He would squat down to the pins, pause, do a dead-stop before pushing upward to lockout. No bouncing off the pins.

135 x 10, 225 x 5, 315 x 3, 405 x 2, 515 x 1, 585 x 1, 650 x 1. Now the real work: 750 x 1 for five single reps. He would finish with a high-rep set of regular depth pause squats with 405. Legs were completed with 2-3 sets of leg curls and leg extensions.

Pat Casey barbell squat.

Pat Casey normally finished Saturday’s workout with some light, for him, arm work and neck work. Back in those days, neck work was included in the training regimen. Bill Pearl was Pat’s mentor and gym owner and Pearl was a huge proponent of neck work.

For some reason, Pat Casey had an affinity for weighted dips. Pat was a huge fan of powerhouse Marvin Eder. Marvin loved weighted dips, and this influenced Pat. His dip feats have never been duplicated. Some of his dip feats border on science fiction stuff.

Pat Casey on Dips and Triceps Power

Here is an excerpt from an ancient article where the Great Bruce Wilhelm interviews the Great Pat Casey. Casey related:

Marvin Eder was the reason I did dips. The dip works every part of the upper body with special emphasis on the triceps and front deltoids. As I’m sure you are aware, triceps make up 2/3’s of the arm’s overall size. That explosion off the bottom in the bench press or the overhead press — and the continuous follow-through, especially the lockout at the end of the bench/overhead press, comes from triceps strength.

Another important tricep exercise for me was the lying triceps extension. I would hook my feet around the bench then lay back on the bench. I would reach back to the barbell on the floor and do a pullover. This was followed by a triceps extension. Every rep was a pullover followed by a triceps extension. I would do 5-6 sets of 3-5 reps. My best was 365 x 3 in this pullover and extension movement. This exercise really strengthened my entire upper body.

Pat Casey tricep press.

Marathon Dips and the Cost of Extreme Training

Now here is where it gets crazy.

The last workout Pat Casey did on dips was one of his marathon workouts. At a bodyweight of 300-pounds, he tied a 250-pound dumbbell to his waist and over a seven-hour period performed 200 dips with the 250-pound dumbbell. He might do 1-5 reps per set. He kept going until he had accumulated 200 reps with the 250. The last 100 reps were basically single-rep sets. Afterwards he was totally thrashed, exhausted past exhausted; he was shot for the next two weeks. It took him seven hours.

For some reason at that time he felt that this type of training would be productive — and it was — but at a cost. On several other occasions he did workouts where his goal was to lift 100,000 cumulative pounds spread over an eight-hour period. His motivation was to see if this extreme amount of work could bust him through to the next level, which it did. He would also go on these marathon binges with the press behind neck. In looking back, it was total insanity.

Pat Casey weighted dips.

“It caused numerous injuries. I stopped this type of training in 1965. I can probably trace many of my shoulder injuries to these all-day marathon workouts. Looking at the situation today, if I were training heavy nowadays, I would cut the sets back to probably 5 or 6 sets. I would still do dips, but I would avoid the marathon sessions.”

Milk, Calories, Sleep, and the Pursuit of Bodyweight

Pat Casey sought to continually push his bodyweight upward. Every day he drank six quarts of whole milk mixed with protein powder. He stayed anabolic all day long by stuffing his body full of quality calories and obtaining quality rest, deep restorative sleep in ample amounts.

This magical combination enabled Pat, a tall man at 6’1”, to push his bodyweight upward, continually upward, from 260, where he first bench pressed 500-pounds, to 320, where he benched 622 and squatted 800 raw.

Power Rack Work and Psychological Confidence

Pat Casey was a visionary. He was a believer in a lost Iron Art: power rack work, breaking a lift down into segments and strengthening specific parts of the range of motion. Pat felt heavy rack work helped him psychologically. Casey was going where no human had gone before. Pat was a long way in front of the rest of humanity insofar as his upper body strength. He had a justifiable fear his body might blow apart. Rack work helped him physiologically and psychologically.

Bruce Wilhelm asked Pat about his rack work strategy, why and how? What was the purpose?

“Once I posted 500 in the bench press, I needed something to jolt my body. I thought about doing the lockouts from two positions: 4” off the chest and 7” off the chest. The thought being that I would strengthen my tendons and ligaments. Then I could do more volume work in the other exercises without breaking down or getting injured.

Rack work helped me psychologically. I was lifting tremendous weights in these short, partial movements. That gave me confidence and made regular bench pressing seem ‘lighter.’ I wanted my partial rep training to create motor-pathway carryover. To reinforce motor-pathway transference, I always finished my bench press rack work, my heavy partials, with a set of regular full ROM bench presses. Do they ever feel light in your hands! When doing this bench press rack training, I would warm up very thoroughly.

I liked doing five singles in two positions. I felt that singles were best for building strength, but they also force fast twitch muscles to fire. My theories worked well for me.”

Pat Casey heavy barbell bench press.

Equipment Notes for Pat Casey-Style Powerlifting Training

Pat Casey’s methods were not built around comfort. They were built around barbells, massive dumbbells, heavy benches, power racks, partials, singles, deep fatigue, and relentless experimentation. Modern lifters do not need to copy the insanity of seven-hour dip marathons, but they can still learn from the structure: use serious equipment, train the core lifts hard, and attack weak points with purpose.

For lifters building a Pat Casey-inspired strength space, the essentials are obvious: heavy dumbbells, strong barbells, a dependable power rack, and stable benches. Urethane dumbbells can support heavy incline pressing and upper-body assistance work, while power racks make partial pressing, rack squats, lockouts, and safer heavy training possible.

The tool does not create the strength. The lifter does. But the right tools give the lifter a place to go where no human has gone before — or at least beyond where he has gone before.

Safety Note for Pat Casey-Style Training

Pat Casey’s training was extreme even by old-school standards. Heavy partials, marathon workouts, weighted dips, rack lockouts, high-volume pressing, and aggressive bodyweight gain should not be copied casually. Use sound technique, progressive loading, proper setup, recovery, and qualified coaching when appropriate. This article is historical and educational, not personalized medical, rehabilitation, nutrition, or programming advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Pat Casey?

Pat Casey was one of the first great powerlifting superstars and the first man to bench press 600 pounds. Marty Gallagher presents him as an all-time upper-body strength legend whose bench press, incline dumbbell press, overhead press, and weighted dip feats remain staggering.

What made Pat Casey’s training so effective?

Casey’s training combined brutal simplicity, heavy singles, power rack partials, giant dumbbell incline presses, weighted dips, high food intake, rest, and relentless progression. His workouts were traumatic, focused, and built around strengthening the exact areas needed to move bigger weights.

Why did Pat Casey use power rack work?

Casey used rack work to strengthen specific portions of a lift, overload partial ranges, build confidence with tremendous weights, and create motor-pathway carryover to his regular bench press and squat work.

How strong was Pat Casey in the bench press?

Pat Casey was the first man to bench press 600 pounds and eventually pushed the bench press record to 622 pounds. Gallagher notes that Casey’s upper-body strength feats were far ahead of the rest of the powerlifting world at the time.

What were Pat Casey’s best assistance exercises?

His major assistance exercises included heavy incline dumbbell presses, seated front presses, weighted dips, pullover/triceps extensions, rack bench presses, rack squats, and sticking-point deadlifts. These were all chosen to build pressing power and overall strength.

Should modern lifters copy Pat Casey’s marathon workouts?

No. Even Casey later admitted his marathon workouts caused injuries and that he would reduce the workload if he were training heavy later in life. Modern lifters can learn from his intensity and exercise selection without copying the most extreme parts of his training.