Eight hundred pounds. (Talk about a nice, round number.)
But “nice, round number” is a criminally understated way to describe the weight that Anthony “Hollywood” Hobaica had sitting on his back when he squatted down and stood back up this week.
At 181 pounds (82kg) bodyweight, not only is this over 4.4 times his bodyweight, (which is elite elite) not only was it made raw with knee wraps (no equipped lifting here), but if it had been done on stage, this would break the all time world record in the 181lb class.
In fact, it would have broken it quite decisively: the current record is 793.6 pounds (360kg), set by Mohammad Raeisi in December.
Watch Hobaica’s squat below:
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That was seriously smooth — Hollywood had great control of that lift. He wrote,
My squad stayed all night just to see me thru this squat. Can’t thank them enough- now we wait to do it when it counts!
He’s been hitting PRs left and right lately. Just a week ago, he made his heaviest squat double ever, exceeding his previous PR by 40 pounds with this 755-pound double:
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His coach Don Holcomb also posted the 800-pounder, and gave it a little context as to why he’s so darn strong lately:
This is our planned 2nd attempt for the XPC Finals at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Sports festival @arnoldsports in Ohio on March 7th.. This will break the all time world record.. Since we started working together, we have been targeting an 850lb / 386kg squat for the US Open @kernusopen in April.. Its on the way. Couldnt be more proud of him, this coming after a 12 hour work day. It’s been a hell of a prep.
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So Hobaica’s planning to make this lift at the Arnold in just over a week from now, but only for his second attempt! Given how darn smooth this gym lift was, it sounds like there’s a decent chance he’ll break the world record by a significant margin.
But even if he doesn’t (and anything can happen on meet day), if we were betting folk, it seems like a lock that he’ll hit that record breaking second attempt. Good luck to the man.
Featured image via @antstillhungry on Instagram