The World Strongest Man competition is undoubtedly one of my favourite events of the year. It features the strongest athletes in the world, competing against one another in a variety of presses, pulls and runs. […]
Tag: Power Records
Dave Waddington and the Thousand Pound Squat
It was a timely moment for powerlifters. Anabolic steroids were by then de rigour. Weightlifting shoes, straps and suits had all evolved and greater attention was being paid to training and nutrition. Official powerlifting meets had been running for over two decades and the poundages were increasing with every competition it seemed.
Just as the Americans had rushed to the moon the previous decade, the 1970s and 80s in the powerlifting community were concerned with the race to the thousand pound squat. In today’s article we examine the first recorded effort at the thousand pound squat, undertaken by the American lifter, Dave Waddington.
Deadlifting Cheese at the World’s Strongest Man (1983)
I have, I believe, been fairly open about my love of the World’s Strongest Man, specifically the opening decade of the competition. Whereas today’s competition is professional, modern and scientific, the contests of yesteryear were […]
Lee Moran And the Thousand Pound Squat
Who was the first man to legitimately squat 1,000 lbs.? Its a simple question, with a disputed answer. As covered previously on this site, Dave Waddington was credited with a 1,013 lbs. squat in 1981. There was just one problem. No officials had seen Dave’s efforts, meaning that his squat although impressive, was relegated to hearsay.
It took until 1984 for an official 1,000 lbs. squat to hit the record books and despite what you may have guessed, it wasn’t Waddington who did it.
Frederick C. Hatfield, Dr. Deadlift (Powerlifting USA, Vol 10 No 4. Novemeber/1986)
It’s a little known fact that the eruption of Mr. St. Helens, and the continuing subterranean growls in the area, are purely mythic. What really happened up there in the land of perpetual rain and majestic mountains was that Doyle Kenady took a heavier than normal deadlift workout. It’s not a coincidence that those after-rumblings ceased on a certain day in April of this year.
The (Somewhat Complete) History of the Deadlift!
Having previously looked at the history of the squat, bench press and even the smith machine, it seemed about time that we did a history of the deadlift. We’ve been putting this one off for quite a while, even looking at the Romanian Deadlift en lieu of the actual thing.
The stumbling block in approaching the history of the deadlift is the amount of smoke and mirrors surrounding one of the most popular exercises in the Iron Game. Someone writes something in a training book or blog and suddenly it becomes part of the popular lore. Actual research is a lot harder to come by. Nevertheless, it’s clear that deadlifts and variations on the deadlift have been around since time began. Man and woman kind has seemingly always displayed an insatiable desire to pick heavy things up from the ground.
For the sake of my sanity and timekeeping however, we’ll begin in with the eighteenth-century when a variation of the deadlift, of heavy lifting, briefly took England by storm.
Dave Waddington and the Thousand Pound Squat
It was a timely moment for powerlifters. Anabolic steroids were by then de rigour. Weightlifting shoes, straps and suits had all evolved and greater attention was being paid to training and nutrition. Official powerlifting meets had been running for over two decades and the poundages were increasing with every competition it seemed.
Just as the Americans had rushed to the moon the previous decade, the 1970s and 80s in the powerlifting community were concerned with the race to the thousand pound squat. In today’s article we examine the first recorded effort at the thousand pound squat, undertaken by the American lifter, Dave Waddington.
