For many, we’re beginning that transition into one of the best times of the year, which entails colder weather weekends filled with college football. In honor of college football kicking off this weekend, we felt it was only fitting to write an article highlighting a big football driven lift.
Penn State’s running back Saquon Barkley is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to progressing the ball down the field AND moving heavy weight. Check out his 5-rep 525 lb back squat from late June 2017.
As if Saquon’s clean wasn’t impressive, here he is squatting 525 for 5 reps this morning pic.twitter.com/fa3nYA6joi
— Chance Sorrell #58 (@Chanman158811) June 30, 2017
This year, Penn State has listed their 5′ 11″ running back at a weight of 230 lbs, which makes this squat even more impressive. Not to mention, he was hitting great depth, and moving the bar with a ton of speed throughout every rep.
Around the same time when the video above was originally posted in June, Barkley was also filmed cleaning 405 lbs. This video created quite a buzz in the football community, along with stirring up the strength community. Check out Barkley’s 405 lb clean below.
Why did it receive so much attention in the strength community? For starters, it’s an extremely impressive lift, which was done with no supportive equipment (belt, straps, sleeves, etc). Another hot topic surrounding the lift was Barkley’s form. It’s not perfect by Olympic lifting standards, and that created the conversation of the risk:reward ratio.
Regardless how you feel about Barkley’s clean, there’s no denying he’s on the stronger end of running backs in college football. Last year, Barkley rushed for over 1,400 yards as a sophomore, and was a Heisman hopeful.
Now in his junior year, Barkley already put up 172 yards in Penn State’s first game against Akron. Is this directly correlated to his impressive lifts (obviously on top of his insane in-game skill)? We like to think yes.
Feature image from Chance Sorrell Twitter page.
