After suffering a herniated disc earlier this summer, we weren’t sure how long it would take Blaine Sumner to get back to squatting heavy. It turned out we wouldn’t have to wait long.
Sumner, who holds the world record in the single-ply squat with a 1,113-pound / 505-kilogram lift, recently posted this clip of himself hitting a 1,025-pound / 465 kilogram squat in knee sleeves, which we should emphasize is 92 percent of that world record.
Note that this is a pin squat, meaning the barbell kind of rests on blocks at the bottom of the lift. While this may be a little easier on the low back, it also eliminates the stretch reflex and may even require more brute strength than the standard competition lift.
Watching Sumner get amped up for that lift almost made us want to go break a record ourselves. He added the following caption to his Instagram post,
1,025 LBS SQUAT Loving these paused pin squats. Allows me to make sure I’m in the optimal mechanical position before coming off the boxes so I can continue to keep my back healthy and keep the force generating around the hips instead of low back. Daddy’s Home.
This lift comes just a couple of weeks after the man made a 1,003-pound / 455-kilogram pin squat at the end of October.
Powerlifting fans might be interested to learn that Sumner has been training using Westside Barbell’s Conjugate training method. He gave a little insight into his programming when posting the lift above.
If you’ve followed me for a while you know I use heavy singles all the time in training – so I’ve already been doing max effort work. But one of the changes I’ll be making is more exercise rotations. I’ll be incorporating bands and various height pin squats like this more often.
We’re glad Sumner’s strength is holding and we can’t wait to see his next meet.
Featured image via @thevanillagorilla92 on Instagram.