Bryan Hartsel first stepped on the competitive powerlifting scene back in 2017 at the relatively late age of 29. He has since competed seven times and placed first in all six of the meets where he competed in the 140+kg weight class. This includes his debut at the United States Powerlifting Association (USPA) Central States Powerlifting Championships and his five most recent sanctioned events.
He recently shared a super smooth 392kg/865lb deadlift that he performed beltless on his Instagram page. Check it out below:
For context on how impressive it is for a deadlift this heavy to go up this smooth, this lift came right after Hartsel pulled 306kg/675lb fifteen times. Raw. Here are the last five reps of that cardio session:
That was a long pause at the top and a very slow decent.
In the caption of the 392kg/865lb deadlift post, Hartsel wrote:
“After seeing Hafthor Bjornsson do his world record deadlift, it gave me motivation to showcase a little deadlift for myself.
Here’s 865 after doing 675×15 for the day. To be fair. This was literally all the more weight we could get on the bar without using ratchet straps or bands. Would love to try breaking that record someday myself.”
A few important things to point out here. First off, Bjornsson’s deadlift world record, the unbelievable 501kg/1,104lb deadlift that the 2018 World’s Strongest Man champion pulled on May 2 — is the heaviest deadlift ever. It is likely that you have seen that lift multiple times, so here it is again below from Bjornsson’s Instagram page:
[Related: Hafthor Bjornsson won’t compete at 2020 World’s Strongest Man.]
Back to Hartsel and his comment:
“Would love to try breaking that record someday myself.
For anyone scoffing at the idea that Hartsel could do it, his competitive best deadlift is 410kg/904lb. This means he is exactly 92kg/202lb shy of the heaviest ever.
Hey, anything’s possible. Best of luck to the man!
Feature image from Bryan Hartsel’s Instagram page: @trapslikemountains
