Sometimes, a big lift in the gym doesn’t make sense even when you know it happened for real. The weight on the barbell seems too unfathomably heavy for a human person to move. Then you see former powerlifting world record holder Jamal Browner sling over 1,000 pounds around in a casualness that makes it seem like physics is a hoax.
On Nov. 17, 2023, Browner published a video on his Instagram page wherein he sumo deadlifted 455 kilograms (1,003.1 pounds) for four reps while wearing lifting straps and a weight belt. He didn’t wear a lifting suit. He didn’t wear knee sleeves. He didn’t stiff some ammonia concoction beforehand. He didn’t perform any kind of ritualistic psyche-up routine before stepping up to the barbell. Browner screwed in his feet, tied the straps around the barbell, and launched it to lockout. See it for yourself below:
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Is this one of the craziest feats of strength ever done? I don’t think anything tops this IMO
Browner’s caption on the post expressing that he even recognizes how significant this quadruple lift is in his own deadlift progression is notable. He is routinely measured in his acknowledgment of his massive pulls despite unquestionably being one of the strongest deadlifters on the planet.
Browner held the former all-time world record deadlift in the 110-kilogram category for the final quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 when he locked out 455 kilograms (1,003.1 pounds) at the 2022 USPA Pro Raw Championships. Hopefully, that helps put into context how crazy it is that he lifted that weight four times in the same set in training. Browner’s former world record deadlift remains the second-heaviest ever in that weight category, according to Open Powerlifting. Only Danny Grigsby Jr.‘s 467.5-kilogram (1,030.7-pound) pull at the 2023 2023 WRPF Battle of the Yard has ever eclipsed Browner.
The powerlifting world isn’t the only strength space in which Browner has shown off his deadlifting prowess. He made his pro strongman debut at the 2023 Strongman World Open on Sept. 2, 2023, at the Cardiff International Arena in Cardiff, Wales, which featured the 2023 World Deadlift Championships.
Given that nearly a year before Browner’s 455-kilogram quadruple, he locked out a raw 455-kilogram double deadlift in training, cited as his then PR, the sky is the limit for what Browner might call for on the barbell in competition in 2024. The record books await.
Featured image: @jamal_b15 on Instagram
