He made 250 kilograms look easy
An American man has smashed the world bench press record in his weight category by pressing a truly ridiculous 250 kilograms. In a routine training session.
What makes this lift even more impressive is that it beat the current bench press world record (of 232.5 kilograms) by a cool 17.5 kilograms. That record? He holds that as well.
John Haack is one of the strongest pound-for-pound powerlifters on the planet, and he’s showing it even in routine gym workouts.
Haack only weighs 83 kilograms. Bench pressing 250 kilograms is the sort of feat you’d expect from a man almost twice his size.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEFpU4GH1We/
The comments underneath prove just how epic Haack’s lift is.
Jamal Browner, one of the best deadlifters on the planet, said:
“I thought it was a joke when I first read the weight.”
Sebastian Oreb, strength coach to Hafthor Bjornsson, a.k.a The Mountain from Game of Thrones, arguably put it best when he simply said: “Freak.”
Haack’s official world bench press record in the -83kg category (232.5kg) is still 12 kilograms heavier than the next best effort. However, when you read the caption under Haack’s lift, it seems he might have had even more in the tank.
Writing on Instagram, he said:
“Didn’t pack my bench shoes, so leg drive wasn’t the best. Excited for the last 5.5 weeks of training before the showdown.”
Powerlifters normally compete in flat-soled shoes such as Converse. A flat-sole shoe allows a lifter to feel the ground, generate force through the floor and use that as leverage. Shoes with a raised sole (like Haack’s hi-tops) do not offer this.
You can only wonder what Haack would have been capable of, were he wearing the right footwear.
This isn’t the only bench press record that was smashed recently.
Russian weightlifter Vitaly Vivchar broke the ‘underwater bench press’ world record by performing 76 reps of a 50 kilogram bench, while fully submerged in a Siberian lake.
Don’t try that one at home.
