Chen Wei-Ling is one of Taiwan’s best-known powerlifters, and she’s just reminded us all why she’s at the top of the sport. While she sat out this year’s IPF Open World Championships, she made sure to go ahead and break the IPF deadlift world record anyway — unofficially, during a training session.
Take a look at her pushing her way through a huge raw sumo deadlift of 180 kilograms (396.8 pounds). The distorted sound kind of makes it sound like it’s happening on another planet.
[Ever wondered why the sumo deadlift gets so much hate? Here’s one writer’s theory.]
That’s 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds) heavier than the current world record in the lift, a 175.5kg deadlift made by America’s Heather Connor earlier this year.
The clip was posted by Iron Sisterhood, a women’s powerlifting Instagram account, who wrote of the lift,
Her execution is exceptional- listen for her Bruce Lee-esque “Super-stiffening” (ala Dr. Stuart McGill) which allows her to generate the force to lift this “so easily”. This is how the best in the world deadlifts!!
The man they’re referring to, Dr. Stuart McGill, is a renowned expert in spinal biomechanics and a big fan of synchronously firing the glutes, abdominal wall, and lats to release more neural input to all of the muscles in the body. (Here’s a short paper he wrote on the subject.)
Chen Wei-Ling doesn’t have much of an Instagram presence these days so there’s not a ton of information out there about how she’s training currently. But she did post the clip above her quietly hitting a triple of 143 kilograms (315.3 pounds) at 44 kilograms (97lb) bodyweight.
Chen has also medaled in weightlifting, having represented Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) at the Athens, Beijing, and Rio Olympics. She took home bronze in 2008 with a 196kg total.
But of course, we couldn’t post about Chen Wei-Ling without reliving her Earth-shattering 4.5x bodyweight squat from last year’s IPF Open World Championships: 210 kilograms (463lb) at 46.75 kilograms bodyweight.
We’re looking forward to her return to competition.
Featured image via @ironsisterhood on Instagram.
