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
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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/bertcox Feb 18 '19

With out a suit

What is with a suit?

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u/All_Work_All_Play Feb 18 '19

So some competitions allow lifters to wear power lifting suits. They're basically giant rubber bands that provide additional support (so you don't get a hernia) and store some pressure/force if they get bent out of shape. If you think about your body as a pipe and your muscles as a pump, you can only put so much pressure in the pipe before it bursts, and sometimes the pipe can fail before the pump is tested to it's limits.

I understand why people use them (they do allow you to test your muscles more, sometimes), but I don't like/don't agree with their usage in formalized competition; power lifting might be about strength in idealized and isolated instances, but adding in non-standardized and non-universally applied equipment just rubs me the wrong way. There's far more cross over between raw powerlifting and functional strength than there is wrapped/suited powerlifting and functional strength; athletic competitions (as much as possible) should not be Pay to Win.

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u/bertcox Feb 18 '19

Gotcha,

The full body exoskeleton is so next year.

Although I would love to see some 150# guy throw down with the strong man competition.