Caine Wilkes may be America’s best weightlifting troll, and we mean that in the best possible way. The reigning 105+ National Champion and World Team Member moves more weight than any other American weightlifter in roughly a decade, but that doesn’t mean his approach in training is to always go heavy. In fact, Caine (jokingly) claims a lot of his success comes from the innovative and often overlooked #snatch50everydayprogram, wherein a very strong man lifts relatively light weight for a few reps.
It’s funny the first time, but Caine really commits to the joke, and he’s been posting videos of himself snatching 50 kilograms for the better part of a year. (Interested in watching Caine lift REALLY heavy things? We’ve got you covered at the bottom of this article.)
Here he is snatching 50 kg:
More of Caine making 50 kilograms look like no more than 110 pounds:
Again 50 kg, this tie in the training hall before the 2015 Houston World Weightlifting Championships:
But wait! Caine Wilkes is not messing around. Here he can be seen snatching a mind-blowing 60 kg, up a full 20% from his normal training weight:
If there is a minimally effective dose for 105+ kilo lifters, we think Caine’s found it.
And while Caine doesn’t seem to always take himself too seriously, he’s certainly a competitor, even when that means going cross-sport. He lifted the heaviest weights by anyone in the 2015 CrossFit Liftoff ( snatching 177 kilos and clean & jerking 218 kilos). But in order to qualify his lifts, Caine also had to complete the conditioning portion;he did not sandbag this portion.
If you’ve ever wanted to see a 300+ pound man complete chest to bar pull-ups and double unders (with some proficiency!), check out the below:
Okay, fine. You want to see Caine lift really, really heavy things instead of 50 kilos over and over?
Here he is snatching 186 kilos/409 pounds:
And here’s his 230 clean & jerk PR from USAW Nationals in 2015, video courtesy of MuscleDriver USA’s Instagram account:
A video posted by MuscleDriver USA (@muscledriverusa) on
For some context, Caine looks to be within shooting distance of the American superheavyweight snatch, clean & jerk, and total records, all held by Shane Hamman. Shane snatched 197.5 kilos in November 2002 and clean & jerked 237.5 kilos at the 2004 Athens Olympics (where he totalled 430 kilograms, also the American record).
Hamman’s lifts remain the heaviest competition lifts ever made by an American, though we’re betting Caine is hoping to change that in the next couple years.