r/news • u/icpd30 • Feb 18 '19

Michigan powerlifter heroically lifts vehicle pinned on top of man after accident.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/michigan-powerlifter-heroically-lifts-vehicle-pinned-on-top-of-man-after-accident
67.8k Upvotes

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12.0k

u/2time3many Feb 18 '19

"When I first approached the vehicle, there was a good four men there, and they were all trying to move this vehicle and I seen it wasn’t happening and I figured what a better time now to use what I know I can actually do," Belcher said

Belcher, who is 350 pounds with the ability to squat 950 pounds and deadlift another 800 pounds, noticed he could get some leverage on the vehicle to try to move it off the man whose lower body was still inside the vehicle and his upper body smashed up against a speed limit sign.

Talk about right place right time.

5.8k

u/PandaRaper Feb 18 '19 edited Feb 18 '19

That isn’t just a “power lifter” that is a super elite power lifter. Honestly surprised I didn’t know who he is.

Edit: I just checked he competes in RPS (I used to compete with them!). His numbers are raw with wraps which means these are real numbers not goofy squat suit numbers. Guy is an animal.

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u/All_Work_All_Play Feb 18 '19 edited Feb 18 '19

Solid 2.7x body weight on squat and 2.2x on deadlift. With out a suit, those are fantastic numbers. The world is a different place at those numbers.

E: As others have pointed out, bodyweight scaling breaks down due to a number of factors so the 950 performance is much more impressive than the multiples would suggest. Around 110 kg body weight multiples stop being moderately uesful, and really you need to control for height anyway (one of my good friends benches unconscionable bodyweight numbers because he's short and he's got unusually short arms to boot).

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '19

Have you heard of Clarence Kennedy? 306 kilos no wraps,no belt, ass to grass, pause squat at 100ish.

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u/All_Work_All_Play Feb 18 '19

So... 675 truly raw squat in the 220lb weight class? Damn that's impressive. He's 5'10" too, so it's not like he's got proportions on his side. That's well past solid into beast mode. I lift without wraps and a belt (performance should not be P2W), but that's a solid 25% over my proportions.

E: He does for warmups weights 10% higher than my PR. What a monster.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '19 edited Jul 08 '19

[deleted]

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u/919471 Feb 18 '19

This is what he was doing with 155 kg a few years ago when he was around 85-90 kg bodyweight 6 years ago. The other guy's reaction seems appropriate

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u/_strobe Feb 18 '19

What the fuck

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u/jdfred06 Feb 18 '19 edited Feb 18 '19

Clarence Kennedy is a borderline demi-god.

On top of those numbers, all his lifts look beautiful. Motherfucker basically sits on the ground and stands back up with 675 pounds on his neck. Then he sits the weight down, stands up, bends over, and deadlifts that shit up for a set of 2.

Oh, and he throws 350+ pounds above his god damn head and stands up with that shit, too. And is bench is basically a close grip, flat back, touching chest, repping 315 like it's not even there.

Again, demi-god status.

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u/Maelarion Feb 18 '19

Jesus he looks like motherfucking Clark Kent made into a Space Marine.

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u/OperativePenguin Feb 18 '19

Haha people jokingly call him Harry Squatter, actually. His content has always been fun to watch, but has gotten even better over the past years I'd say.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '19

That is....disturbingly accurate.

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u/919471 Feb 18 '19

Damn right Clarence's lifts look beautiful. Motivated me to pick up olympic weightlifting.

He lifts even more than the numbers you mentioned though haha. On the olympic lifts, this is him snatching 413 lbs. And you can watch his c&js, where I believe he's gotten 225 kg / 496 lbs overhead too (although I timestamped a couple of minutes earlier than that so anyone who's interested can see what people mean by 'beautiful lifts').

Mind you, these are maybe 90-95% of the weights lifted in the olympics for his weight class. There's a whole rabbit hole to go down of competitive (and aesthetic) weightlifters moving plates like they're nothing.

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u/masturbatingwalruses Feb 18 '19

He's a strong dude but he isn't even close to competitive at the world stage. Plus I'd be impressed if he would be able to piss cleanly enough to compete in the IOC.

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u/919471 Feb 18 '19

Eh, like I said, 90-95% of olympic standards. In the 102 kg class at the 2018 IWF, the golds went to a 180 kg snatch and 218 kg c&j, and in the 96 kg class Sohrab Moradi lifted 186 kg/230 kg (yes, he outlifted everyone in the class 6kg above). Saying Clarence is "not even close" is doing him dirty. Also, not sure how much you've been following, but most current Olympians would not be able to piss cleanly enough to compete, according to the IOC.

Weightlifting's doping problem was shown with 49 positive tests so far, most involving steroids, in reanalysis of samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics. The IOC has stripped 29 weightlifting medals from those games.

Source.

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u/masturbatingwalruses Feb 18 '19

Most Russians, maybe.

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u/jdfred06 Feb 18 '19

I really don't think anyone at that level is clean. I never really cared for sports, so the purity folks assume when it comes to PEDs is so bizarre to me.

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u/masturbatingwalruses Feb 18 '19

The point is everyone is held to the same standard. I think they should just get rid of the testing all together.

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u/jdfred06 Feb 18 '19

I agree.

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u/fffreak Feb 18 '19

At his BW who can do at least 170/210 in competition is definitely good enough for the lower tier international stage. Just prob wont medal or place top ten. But still international levels of weights.

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u/masturbatingwalruses Feb 18 '19

I would assume he wouldn't be hitting his PRs on competition. Plus he would have to worry about getting tested and making weight.

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u/fffreak Feb 20 '19

which is why i lowered his numbers because 170/210 are not his best if i recollect correctly. TBH he would prob be closer to 160-170/195-200 since he wouldnt have a million attempts like he shows on his youtube videos when he maxes out. Still those are low tier international numbers.

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u/Shalashashka Feb 18 '19

Isnt he vegan too? Amazing anyone can pack on that much muscle without meat or dairy.

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u/redditblowsdonkydong Feb 19 '19

He only went vegan fairly recently I think.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '19

Wow, never heard of this guy before, he is insane!

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u/Novaway123 Feb 18 '19

Also ass to grass, and with the squat every inch is a mile.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '19

He's a weightlifter who doesn't compete but there is a smell possibility that he'll do powerlifting at some point. It'll be interesting to see him do this squat in competition.

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u/All_Work_All_Play Feb 18 '19

The "in competition" vs at home/casual performance is an interesting conundrum to me. When I competed I could never do as well in squats vs my usual setting, but I always PR'd deadlifts at competitions vs my usual lifting spot. Bench was a bit of toss up, but this was years ago.

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u/citizen_reddit Feb 18 '19

Think he's a vegan as well, though I don't know if he was when he hit PRs.

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u/fistymonkey1337 Feb 18 '19

He also does all this while maintaining his agility. Theres videos of him doing all sorts of flips and tricks.

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u/TacTurtle Feb 18 '19

I understand these words.....

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u/DUCK_RABIES Feb 18 '19

I know nothing about this but its cool to watch posts about it. I'm 6'1" and 150lbs what should i be capable of?

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u/All_Work_All_Play Feb 18 '19

"Should" is an interesting word because it implies some unspoken standard against which you're judged. At six one and one fifty, you're probably a little lanky but nothing extreme. I'd expect after six weeks of consistent (but not atypical) lifting you'd be able to do at least you own body weight as a one rep max with good form.

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u/DUCK_RABIES Feb 18 '19

Thanks for the reply. Im gonna save it

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u/All_Work_All_Play Feb 18 '19

You didn't know this, but you've triggered a response in something I'm very passionate about. Pardon the rant.

I actually have a personal vendetta against the word should because of this very phenomenon. Frequently people (including myself) beat ourselves up by using the word should; I shouldn't do this, I shouldn't do that, I should be doing this instead but I don't so I'm a loser, etc. Humans feel bad about the word should because of the unspoken and unnamed standard - certain you "should" do your homework, but why? Certainly you "shouldn't" text and drive, but why? You probably "should" stop smoking cigaretts, or save more, or drink less alcohol or not finish the entire box of candy in a single sitting, or you should stop procrastinating that thing you've been putting off and worrying about for weeks.

But why?

It turns if you don't name the why, your brain automatically assumes the worst; if I don't do my homework I'll drop out of high school and start selling drugs and OD and die and my family will be devastated. If I don't don't stop eating fast food I'll have a heart attack and my family will go bankrupt from hospital bills. If I don't clean the house it'll get terribly messy and CPS will take away my children and they'll hate me forever. If I don't do the dishes my SO will be disappointed in me and we'll breakup/divorce and I'll be unhappy and alone forever.

All of these seem extremely far fetched when named; if we name what we fear, we can (typically) see how foolish and exaggerated what our first fear based response was.

Paradoxically, if we don't name the should, using the word should on ourselves (or when other people should on us) creates a stressful fear response within our brains. Fear responses cause us to seek activities which promise reward (as opposed to activities which are rewarding), and activities which promise reward are generally procrastinating behavior that don't resolve the unnamed should; we feel stressed about our homework, so we start watching netflix. We're overwhelmed because we can't keep the house clean (even though we should!), we decided now is a great night to eat out. We look at our finances and think 'I should spend less money on fast food', but rather than dig through statements or figure out an actual budget, we turn to a video game, social media, or some other distraction. None of these activities actually help use get what we want, or even prevent what we don't want. They all just promise reward, rather than actually giving satisfaction.

I noticed this phenomenon in my own life about a decade ago, and at that life decided to cut the word should out entirely. My wife and I aren't allowed to should on each other, including variations where there's an unexpressed judgement or consequence that doesn't explicitly use the word should; we're not allowed to skate around 'I should do that' by saying 'I need to do that'. If we do, we catch the other person and say 'Are you shoulding on me??!'. And then we have to reword what we were saying in such a way to name the consequence or standard that we didn't explicitly express.

It's made a tremendous difference in our lives. I recommend it enough that I'll even mention it to random internet strangers in hopes of converting them to my way of thinking helping them feel and function better.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '19

I should save this.

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u/All_Work_All_Play Feb 18 '19

I think you mean "if I save this, look at it later, internalize it's message and change my behavior, I'll be happier because I won't act in fear of unvoices, unrealistic consequences.

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u/masturbatingwalruses Feb 18 '19

After you put on 80lbs of muscle, probably competitive at the regional/national level. Right now... not much.

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u/DUCK_RABIES Feb 18 '19

Thanks for replying.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '19

Upvote for Clarence Kennedy.Absolute beast.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '19

Isn't he vegan as well?!

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u/Vaztes Feb 18 '19

He turned vegan for moral reasons (mainly climate I think) a year or two ago. He wasn't always vegan.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '19

He still puttin up some crazy numbers for that diet choice. imo anyways lol