We need to discuss the apparent trend of specifically 19-year-old powerlifters who are capable of deadlifting obscenely heavy weight. “Obscenely” in this case means at least 317.5kg/700lb.
Recently, we covered 19-year-old Dylan Crawford (-93kg) who decided he would casually pull 329kg/725lb because “[he] could and [he] felt like it.” 19-year-old Shane Nutt (-83kg) has shown time and time again that he too can deadlift over 317.5kg/700lb. Enahoro Asein, also 19 years old, pulled nearly four times his bodyweight when he deadlifted 325kg/716lb. Ashton Rouska, a powerlifter who at, you guessed it, 19 years old, picked 347kg/765lb off the floor.
Now meet Hayden Willis. He competes in the -93kg weight class and is also a member of the 317.5+kg/700+lb deadlift club at only 19 years old. He posted a staggering 350kg/771lb deadlift on his Instagram page that you can see below:
Willis’s deadlift is obviously huge, but it wasn’t exactly a surprise given how his lifts have been moving over the past few months. More recently he shared another post where he hits a 324kg/715lb deadlift for three singles. Check it out:
The only area of weakness Willis seemingly has, if it can even be viewed as such, is maintaining his grip at lockout. Here he is performing a 345kg/760lb deadlift that goes up buttery smooth. So buttery that it slips from his hands after he reaches the top:
Mind you, at 19 (did we mention his age yet?), Willis has a lot of time to strengthen up this part of his game, and he almost made a 365kg/805lb deadlift earlier this month, so it seems likely we’ll see him cross the 800-pound threshold soon enough.
Willis has only competed four times in his powerlifting career, according to Open Powerlifting — two of those times were at just 14 years of age. He took a break and came back at 18 years old and took home gold in his last two competitive appearances. His most recent win was at USA Powerlifting (USAPL) 2019 Raw Nationals, where he made:
- Squat: 275kg/606lb
- Bench Press: 160kg/353lb
- Deadlift: 310kg/683lb
- Total: 745kg/1,642lb
Without a doubt, Willis is sure to be a big player in powerlifting. We are excited to see when he inevitably pulls 800+lb and are curious as to how high the total at his next meet will be.
Feature image from Hayden Willis’ Instagram page: @willisstrength