“Lol. Just felt like it,” says Cailer Woolam in his latest Instagram post, hauling 884 pounds (401 kilograms) off the floor.
Lol.
Just felt like it.
He just felt like breaking the world record in the deadlift in training, I mean, why not? The bar was loaded, he was feeling pretty good, he had nothing else to do at that moment, why not break the world record in the deadlift?
Check that casual head shake at the end. “How about that,” he seems to be saying. “Whaddaya know.”
Either that or he’s annoyed about the torn callus he posted to his Instagram story right afterward.
Cailer Woolam, of course, is the first human being to ever deadlift 400kg (881.8 pounds) in the -90kg class (he weighed 195 pounds, or 88.4kg at the time). That’s 4.5 times his bodyweight.
The 22-year-old athlete made the lift on his third attempt at the USPA Corpus Christi Classic this February, after hitting a 585lb (265kg) squat and a 430lb (195kg) bench.
To be fair, it was a somewhat controversial lift. The judges approved it (he got three white lights and a down signal) but the lockout was a little iffy from the side, and Woolam himself said in the Instagram comments, “I’m going to have to agree with you guys. I’m not happy at all with how this lift was. Not my call.”
In any case, the dude is strong, and when he was weighing 206 pounds last year he managed a 900-pound (408.2kg) raw deadlift — with hook grip, no less. That’s 4.37 times his bodyweight.
While he tends to pull sumo, Woolam told BarBend that he thinks it’s “incredibly beneficial to be proficient at both sumo and conventional” and he recommends training your non-competition deadlift in your off season.
Here is where we should note that Woolam was seen pulling 800 pounds (363kg) conventional earlier this year at a bodyweight of 207 pounds.
Cailer Woolam appears to be a human who was engineered for deadlifting, but he also PRd his bench this month with a 370-pound 5×5, which he says is the most weight he’s ever moved for a 5×5.
Suffice to say, we’re looking forward to his next meet.
Featured image via @doctor.deadlift on Instagram.
