One of the most celebrated powerlifters of all time is back to lifting heavy, despite having undergone not one, but two hip replacements.
Ed Coan has broken dozens of powerlifting records throughout his career and is showing that age and surgery can’t stop him from hitting lifts that would be all-time PRs for many men half his age. Take a look at Coan doing three reps of deficit deadlifts of five hundred pounds (226.8 kilograms) on Thursday afternoon. At first, it looks like he’s only going to perform a single, but he seems to have just been finding his groove — the next two reps come incredibly fast and smooth.
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Fifty-three years old, 230 pounds bodyweight. Two hip replacements. And these are deficit deadlifts, which puts the body at a biomechanical disadvantage and requires a greater range of motion and joint flexion than a conventional deadlift. (By doing so, it improves your ability to get the bar moving off the floor when you pull from the ground.)
His squats are also looking great these days — he was seen squatting 585 pounds (265 kilograms) for reps just last week.
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When asked in the comments of this week’s post if the (still unreleased) Westside Barbell powerlifting documentary is what inspired him to start lifting again, Coan answered, “The passion in my heart for Powerlifting makes me train!” He also said, “My mind never left (the sport). Body took a little break though!!”
The lifts brought to mind the 2015 footage we recently saw from of Coan pulling two reps of 625 pounds (283.5 kilograms) with Mark Bell and Silent Mike. Note that these are beltless lifts.
You can’t beat that wry look of his at the top of the pull as he quips, “All day,” to the camera.
Coan is one of the greatest powerlifters of all time (there’s no shortage of people claiming he’s the greatest) and at his prime, he was squatting doubles of 950 pounds (431kg).
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His heaviest lifts include a single-ply squat of 1,019 pounds (462.2kg), single-ply bench of 584 pounds (265kg), and a deadlift of 901.7 pounds (408.7kg), which remains the USPF’s heaviest deadlift all time. However, Coan tested failed multiple doping tests throughout his career, which ultimately resulted in a permanent ban from the International Powerlifting Federation.
He’s still able to compete in the USPF, and while we’re not sure if a return to competition is his ultimate goal, we’re certainly enjoying this new wave of training videos that he’s posting. Here’s to the next one.
Featured image via @eddycoan on Instagram.
