So I thought I'd check in on the world of Powerlifting today.

I'd kind of lost touch with it during my college years, reading Muscle Builder and then Muscle and Fitness and Flex. The Weider mags tended to direct you into bodybuilding. But both variations of weight training tended to get me too fired up and then I'd go and injure myself.

Anyway, I found a page with the latest Squat, Bench and Deadlift records and I thought I was reading a typo! One page said that a guy named Gene Rychlak had Bench Pressed 1005 lbs.

Looking for verification, I found this Wikipedia entry and another one, from the Weider mag Health & Fitness.

This blurb is from Rychlak's own website:

On Sunday November 21,2004 at the IPA Nationals
in Shamokin Dam, Pa
Big Gene Bench Pressed 1,005lbs
to become the first and only man to ever Bench over 1,000lbs

Slate has an interesting article on the subject as well.

Interview of Rychlak here, with a picture. Oh, hell! Here:

See if you can figure out which one benches 1000 lbs.

BTW, he's also squatted over a thousand pounds as well.

This is a picture (also from Critical Bench) of Mike "Mule" Miller, world squat record-holder (1200 lbs even)--6'4" 400 lbs. Is this the physique you expect to see when you hear "400 lbs"?

By the way, that record ties Paul Anderson's lift for the Guiness Book folks from 1964. It was reading his book that turned me on to weightlifting originally.

I started out writing this, thinking I'd make fun of bench shirts and squatting suits, but frankly, I'm too chicken to pick a fight with these guys.