Ronnie Coleman uses a wheelchair because of a series of catastrophic spinal surgeries. He’s had six operations on his back, the last of which left him unable to walk without assistance.
But here’s the kicker: he’s still huge. He could probably arm-wrestle a gorilla from that chair and win. The wheelchair isn’t a defeat—it’s a parked trophy.
The Real Culprit: Squats That Would Kill a Dinosaur
Remember the videos of Ronnie squatting 800 pounds for reps? Then doing it again? And again? He once said, “Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift no heavy-ass weights.” Well, he lifted them. All of them.
His training style was basically: find the heaviest thing in the gym, put it on your back, and scream “LIGHTWEIGHT, BABY!” until your vertebrae beg for mercy. Spoiler: his vertebrae eventually gave up.
Doctors later told him that his spine was literally crushed from years of that abuse. He had herniated discs, bone spurs, and nerve damage that would make a chiropractor faint.
