Power lifting is a sport where you need to move as much weight as possible in three movements: squat, bench, deadlift. There are many different categories of power lifting like:
- Raw
- Wraps
- Raw+Wraps
- Single ply
- Multi-Ply, and
- Unlimited.
These categories are very different, some using suits and wraps and others using nothing. Some of the people who lift the heaviest weight are also very heavy themselves, and that’s why there are weight classes to even out the playing field.
The crazy thing is being the heaviest doesn’t mean you’re the strongest. Colton Engelbrecht, a 24 year old from South African, is the strongest power lifting throughout all the federations in the world. He bench presses 573 lbs. raw, squats 1036 lbs., and deadlift 1036 lbs. He totals with all lifts 2645 lbs., heavier than a ton!
And he does this all at 275lbs. His total lifts almost weighs 10x more than his body weight. He also holds the 242 lbs. weight class total record. Colton was able to switch weight classes and still perform on the podium; this shows just how talented and determined he is about the sport of power lifting.
Even though Colton is talented there are some people who are just monstrous, like Julius Maddox, a man who struggled with drug addiction and other problems when younger. Julius entered a recovery program and started lifting weights. This helped him so much he started to compete in power lifting in an event called full power. Full power is an event where you only bench. Julius was bench pressing 644 lbs. his first meet; this is an insane amount of weight but he was just getting started. His in meet personal record for bench is 782 lbs., but he has put up 795 lbs. in training and plans to hit his life long goal of 800 lbs. on bench press.
Then there are people like Danny Grigsby, a Marine that also powerlifts on the side. Danny has the powerlifting raw deadlift record of 1074 lbs. at only 275 lbs. body weight. This shows that even though you have a big responsibility you can still do things that you enjoy.
He started out his power lifting career by deadlifting only 600 lbs. in 2013, and improving almost 500 lbs. in less than ten years which is an insane feat of strength. Some of these guys are in the 308 lbs.+ category and others like Colton are hovering in the 275-305 lbs. range.
For power lifting being the heaviest can help but it also means you have to go against bigger dudes, so if you have good form and strength, you can succeed without getting super heavy.
