She was dubbed the “strongest seventh grader” in the world. In the mid-1950s, April Atkins was a regular at California’s muscle beach and routinely blew spectators away with her unbelievable strength and generally kicking strongmen’s butts. If you’re looking for a little motivation to tone up for summer, these photographs I dug up in the LIFE archives of this tough little lady might just do the trick …
Here she is, sustaining a combined weight of over 400lb, but she was known for doing up to 700lb.
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Check out this vintage footage of April in action…
Photographs by Loomis Dean found in the LIFE archives.
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