Larry Wheels keeps on collecting world records. Wheels, whose last name is Williams, posted a video on Oct. 1, 2020, to his YouTube channel of him performing the heaviest incline dumbbell bench press of all time. Watching Williams perform insanely heavy stunts isn’t out of the ordinary, but even by his standards, pressing two 275-pound dumbbells (550 pounds total) for one rep is impressive. You can check out the video below.
Of course, Wheel’s is known for his pressing acumen. The 25-year-old powerlifter turned bodybuilder turned strongman has hit a one-rep max bench press of 650 pounds, pressed 225 for 70 reps, and hit five pause reps on the bench with 550 pounds. While he completed those lifts out of competition, Wheels has seen plenty of success on the platform.
In 2016, he totaled 2,171 pounds at the Reebok Record Breakers event in the 242-pound weight class. Then, just a year later, Wheels entered Revolution Powerlifting Syndicate’s (RPS) Insurrextion VI competition and posted a 2,275 pound total in the 275-pound weight class. At that meet, he set a world record for the weight class, beating powerlifting legend Stan Efferding’s total by 49 pounds. This record was also set raw.
His most impressive showing to date was at the 2020 XPC Arnold at the Arnold Classic in Columbus, OH. Competing in the 308-pound weight class (weighing 283 pounds), Wheels squatted 870 pounds, benched 645, and deadlifted 855 for a raw total of 2,370 pounds.
Fast forward seven months and Williams just topped Eddie Hall’s 242-pound incline dumbbell press world record — twice. After warming up, Wheels pressed two 250-pound dumbbells for a comfortable double. Then, he tried to push the 275-pound dumbbells on a flat bench, which was a no go. After taking a quick rest, he tried the weight on the incline and managed one easy(ish) rep.
This record was set amid Wheel’s training for — you guessed it — another world record. Recently, Williams and two-time Superbowl champ James Harrison have been alluding to a possible strict curl contest. The current strict curl record stands at 249, and Williams has already curled over 200 pounds. Based on his lifting resume, we’d say don’t count Wheel’s out.
Feature image from Larry Wheel’s YouTube channel
