In a video that’s making the rounds on social media, powerlifter and strongman athlete Larry Wheels appears to have injured his ankle to some degree under a 920 lb squat. This squat would have been a lifetime PR for Wheels in sleeves, and it’s a lift that came just a few days after he shared an impressive 860 lb sleeved squat on his Instagram page.
As of right now, there’s been no official word on the seriousness of his ankle injury or what actually happened, but this could be troublesome news for Wheels since he is slated to compete at his next meet on November 23rd.
Two days ago, Wheels shared the video below on his Instagram page (that has since taken it down), writing in the caption,
“Pop goes the ankle”
On top of the Instagram video above, he also shared a YouTube video that shines more context on his recent injury. In Wheels’ YouTube video below highlighting the injury, he notes on multiple occasions that it’s not that big of a deal and he can still walk and squat on it.
He also points out that this 920 lb attempt was his last programmed heavy squat before the meet and he only has one more heavy deadlift session to complete before entering the final stretch of competition prep — so he has plenty of time to recover.
At about 19:00 minutes in his YouTube video below, Wheels states that he believes the pop was likely just bone popping, similar to how knuckles crack. If you’r interested in checking out all of the dialogue following the injury, then skip to about 17:30 in the video.
Wheels has some big goals heading into this meet, stating that he’s after Eric Lilliebrige’s all-time total world record in the 308 lb weight class. He also states that he would love to take down Ray Williams’ current Superheavy total world record at some point, but would have to sink at least a 920 lb squat in order to do so.
This year, Wheels has had to battle through a couple big injuries like this biceps tear he suffered back in July. Hopefully, his ankle isn’t seriously injured and he has the opportunity to compete at his full capacity for his next meet.
Feature image from Larry Wheels YouTube channel.
