We were already envious of the folks who got to watch all the insanity that took place in the Animal Cage at the Arnold Sports Festival this weekend. The cage — sponsored by the supplement company Animal — was home to some of the most mind-bending feats of strength on display at the Arnold.
It saw a 925-pound squat double from Rob “Quads Like Robb” Philippus. It saw a 705-pound bench press from Julius Maddox, the heaviest bench press ever made in the cage. It housed the phenomenal 4.43x bodyweight deadlift from Stefi Cohen. It even saw what might be the greatest test of deadlift endurance we’ve seen: the 600-pound deadlift AMRAP between Robb Hall and Steve Johnson. (Watch it unfold and read our recap here.)
Right after the deadlift AMRAP, the spectators were treated to another AMRAP, and this time it was one man versus himself: the -110kg powerlifter Andrew Herbert.
Seven hundred pounds for as many squats as possible. One of his online profiles lists his best raw squat at 350 kilograms/771 pounds. What do you think a 12-rep max would be? There are two videos in his Instagram post below, have a watch.
[Why do some lifters bleed on ma effort lifts? We break down the science here.]
Twelve reps. Twelve reps at 700 pounds. Now, look, this is an exhibition and not a competition, so it’s not a huge deal that some of those squats were a little high, but it seems to really be weighing on Herbert. He posted on his Instagram,
I am fully aware that my squats were high and I have no excuses for that. If you watch my training and competition videos, you know I don’t normally squat high. Anyways, this was 700lbs for as many reps as possible. It was inspired by last years Worlds Strongest Man, where it was one of the events, and the champion Eddie Hall won with 15. I got 12 and failed on 13.
Hey, that was still a pretty darn impressive set.
Featured image via @herbietheluvbug on Instagram.
