Five hundred kilograms. One thousand, one hundred and two pounds.
It’s a rare thing to find a human being who can get under that kind of weight without crumpling like a tin can, but Ukrainian powerlifter Vlad Alhazov got under the bar, bent his tightly-wrapped knees, and officially squatted 500 kilograms at an IPA meet this weekend. With a 395kg (870lb) deadlift and a 230kg (507lb) bench press, he totaled 1125kg (2480.2lb).
No, he didn’t walk it out like he’d have to in the IPF, but darn it, a 500kg raw squat deserves some serious respect. This absolutely shattered the previous world record from Andrey Malanichev — he hit a 485kg (1069lb) squat in October last year.
This is a goal Alhazov has been quietly working toward for a while now, and while his online footprint isn’t huge (and his Instagram is private), we did find a clip of him hitting a squat of 485 kilograms a few weeks ago in Israel. It looks like he’s wearing wraps here, too.
Note that this 485kg squat was a personal record for Alhazov, and he only just hit it on July 4. It took him less than three weeks to move his PR from 485kg to 500kg.
Like we said, there’s not a ton of information out there about Vlad Alhazov, which is all the more unusual because once upon a time, he held the IPA world record for the equipped squat too: 567kg (1,250 pounds).
This was almost ten years ago, shortly before Alhazov suffered a serious knee injury trying to squat (equipped) 590kg (1,300 pounds) at Westside Barbell. His knee caved inward on the descent, which ultimately necessitated a full knee replacement.
Yup, Vlad Alhazov has squatted 500kg with a replaced knee. (Whether or not it was replaced with a hydraulic press, we can’t be sure.) This one was truly a squat for the history books.
Featured image via Power Mafia on YouTube.
