Powerlifting legend David Ricks celebrated his 60th birthday as a lot of great powerlifters would: With a big time lift.
Ricks is a -93kg athlete who competes in the Masters division of the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF). He recently finished in first place at the IPF World Classic Powerlifting Championships in Sweden, and has shown zero signs of slowing down.
For his 60th birthday, Ricks squatted 277.5kg (611 pounds) for five reps, and this is just a few days after he casually deadlifted 250kg (551 pounds) for five reps with a 2-inch deficit.
For reference, he squatted 617 pounds for one rep at IPF Worlds, so right here he’s doing just six pounds lighter for five reps! Ricks wrote on his Instagram,
“I turned 60 last week. On Monday I pulled at top set of 250k (551 pounds) x 5 on a 2 in deficit platform. Then on later that week I squatted 277.5k (611 pounds) x 5 to celebrate [my] birthday.”
The post below starts with the deadlifts, then you can swipe right to see the birthday squats.
Happy Birthday, David!
On top of winning his ninth IPF World title in June, he also set 5 new Masters 3 World Records in the 93kg weight class. He set new records for squat, bench press, deadlift, total, and single lift bench press. (Masters 3 is the 60 – 69 age group, in which Ricks was able to compete before his 60th birthday because the IPF allows you to compete any time in the year you turn 60.)
Ricks results from IPF Worlds:
- Squat: 280.0 kg (617.3 lbs)
- Bench press: 197.5 kg (435.4 lbs)
- Deadlift: 272.5 kg (600.7 lbs)
- Total: 750 kg (1653.4 lbs)
Ricks also competed at the Arnold SBD Grand Prix this year, and finished in second place in the men’s Masters Open division. Raw Nationals are coming up later this fall in October, so we’re excited to see if Ricks will hit the platform again and break some more records. At Raw Nationals last year he competed in the Masters Open and Masters 2. He finished in first place in Masters 2, and 12th overall in the Open.
We think it’s fair to say it takes a certain type of legend to cruise through 277.5kg for five reps, but what better way to celebrate the big 6-0 if you’re David Ricks!
Featured image from @ricks.david and @whitelightsmediauk on Instagram.