David Ricks has been an elite competitive powerlifter for nearly four decades. At 21 years of age in 1981, he made his sanctioned debut at the United States Powerlifting Federation (USPF) Pennsylvania State Collegiate Championships where he posted a 637.5kg/1,405.4lb total in the -75kg weight class.
78 events and 39 years later, Ricks most recently competed this past March in the North American Powerlifting Federation (NAPF) Arnold Grand Prix in the -93kg weight class, according to Open Powerlifting. He finished as the runner-up with a total of 785kg/1,730.6lb.
For Ricks’ birthday in 2019, he squatted a monstrous 277.5kg/611lb for a set of 5 — just barely shy of 3 times his competition bodyweight. Just a year and a few months later, Ricks took to his Instagram page and hit an unreal 292kg/644lb for a set of 5 — 3.1 times his competition bodyweight — at the age of 61.
Check out the full set below:
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“When you are moving a bit of serious weight for an old guy you need a village to help you.”
David Ricks’ Powerlifting Career
Here are some of the major highlights from Ricks’ extensive powerlifting career:
- 5-time International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) Men’s World Powerlifting champion (1991-’94, ’99)
- 2-time IPF World Masters Powerlifting champion (2011, ’13)
- 2-time IPF World Classic Powerlifting champion (2016, ’19)
- 5-time United States Powerlifting (USAPL) Raw Nationals champion (2013, ’15, ’16, ’18, ’19)
- 4-time USAPL Masters National champion (2007, ’09, ’11’, ’13)
In addition, Ricks has competed at the USAPL Arnold Grand Prix since 2017 and has yet to miss the podium — bronze finishes in 2017 and 2018, silver finishes in 2019 and 2020. Of the 78 times Ricks has appeared in sanctioned competition over the last 39 years, he only missed the podium eleven times. He won 46 of those events, meaning that — unique stat alert — Ricks has a 59% career win rate.
Here are his career competition bests:
- Squat — 325.5kg/717.6lb
- Bench Press — 210kg/462.9lb
- Deadlift — 325kg/716.5lb
- Total — 830kg/1,829.8lb
With Ricks posting huge lifts season after season, year after year, decade after decade, it is safe to assume that we will continue to see him climbing more podiums in the years to come.
Feature image from David Ricks Instagram page: @ricks.david
