Some of you don’t fully comprehend the genetic variation in the human race. Some of you have even said you have never seen anyone squat four or five wheels (405 and 495 respectively, sir). Being sheltered isn’t your fault, but understand that while hitting a 405 squat for the first time in your life is a big deal to you, it really isn’t that much weight. I’m speaking for myself here as well. I’ve squatted for ten years, will probably never weigh under 200 pounds again (even at dangerously low body fat percentages), and will always be able to squat 400 pounds any day of the week (barring injury, death, etc.). This pales in comparison to someone who is truly genetically gifted.
I was training with my girlfriend in the Tyndall AFB gym and was going back and forth between benching and coaching her on squats when I see this big guy scavenging 45 pound plates. His bar is loaded to 135 for deadlifts and he has five other plates lying on the floor on each side. For those of you who haven’t loaded a bar that high, six plates on each side would be 585. The girlfriend keeps warming up and this guy does a few sets of warm-up with his 135. Finally I walk up to him, he takes his headphones off, and I ask, “Are you gonna pull all this weight?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s fucking badass.”
Lewis is his name, and he told me he was hoping to single over 600. Lewis is about 295 pounds with a thick back and long, muscled arms; he looks like a deadlifter. I would eventually find out that this was his second “heavy day” in almost half a year. His first heavy day he squatted 600 for a double. Previously he would kind of dick around with body building workouts; you know, squat 405×15, a “regular” workout. Oh, and I forgot to mention that two months ago he weighed 245. In two months he gained 50 pounds back up to his comfortable 295 (while it was a big weight gain, he had to eat vegan to get down to 245 for some training, so when he resumed normal eating habits he got back up to his current weight pretty quickly….but still….).
In any case, Lewis was deadlifting and I watched and filmed him. I gave a little instruction, but he did pretty well (had some minor positional issues). The bar doesn’t swing forward and he does a good job of keeping it against his legs. I was also amazed that he didn’t have the common physiological problems that are associated with not lifting heavy; increased vascular pressure due to intra-abdominal and thoracic pressure increases will cause “white outs”, black outs, or extreme pressure in the head; a lack of motor neuron efficiency will usually have a tut-tut-tut lockout as the hamstrings try to intermittently reduce the tension placed on them when extending the hips; and muscular structure can get fatigued very quickly when it isn’t adapted to heavy lifting. Lewis didn’t have any of these issues. He just deadlifted like a fucking man.
The video has horrible quality because we recorded it on the “text messaging setting”. I didn’t realize it until we are done, but I’m sure I’ll get some better quality stuff of Lewis in the future. After deadlifting, Lewis hit up some RDLs and started doing pull-ups after I suggested he do them. What he did next may have been more impressive than pulling a random 615 single; he fucking did 10 pull-ups with more ease than a 160 pound CrossFitter (and you KNOW he didn’t kip, swing, or spaz out). It was literally effortless. Girlfriend was amazed. I then made the comment that he could do a weighted pull-up with 100 pounds (I was using a mere 50 pounds for reps).
“Let me try that out,” he said as he put the dip belt on. Again, he took his grip, and effortlessly did three reps before setting his feet down.
“It’s kinda light.”
“No shit,” I said, “Let’s put on the 100 pound plate.” He agreed, and I brought it over to him.
“I think you can get at least three reps.”
“I’ll get six.”
I laughed at the absurdity of this 295 pound dude banging out pull-ups with 100 pounds hanging from him. Lewis ended up doing four reps, but he probably could have done six. At the risk of embarrassing Lewis any more (he’s a huge fan of the site, as are his other buddies in the Air Force — shout out those guys; keep training hard and get your ass out of the ’90s), he really does possess abnormal genetic potential. Now he wants to harness that potential, breed it, and win in powerlifting. He’ll be at military nationals in San Antonio. Oh, and he won’t let any kind of PT test get in his way; he said that at his current body weight his waist circumference is about 37 inches (this made Mike want to kill himself because he’s lucky to get down to a 38 inch waist after cutting from his walking weight of 250 to 260).
If you have any impressive stories that are accompanied by video, send them to Justin@70sbig.com
This pic was submitted by Dan F.
