A powerlifter deadlifting three and a half times their bodyweight is by no means an easy task. Many athletes personal bests hover near that with some rare cases of athletes able to pull four times their bodyweight. Heather Connor is one of those rare athletes.
Since 2015, Heather Connor has been competing in the -47kg weight class and and her track record shows that she has grown accustomed to winning gold. In that time, she has competed in fourteen sanctioned events, earned a first place finish ten times, and only missed the podium twice. In October of 2019 at the USA Powerlifting (USAPL) Raw Nationals, Connor pulled four times her competition body weight — a world record 183kg/403.4lb — on the way to victory.
Her training since then has not slowed down. Here is a video of Connor deadlifting 162.5kg/358lb, about three and a half times her competition body weight, for a triple:
Note: the video includes a transition from the 162.5kg/358lb triple to a working set of 132.5kg/292lb for six.
Connor has a clear setup before each lift: hair flip, set the legs, drive. It has proved to be an effective formula because according to her post’s caption, that triple was “easy”.
[Related: Check out the BarBend podcast interview with Heather Connor.]
A week ago, Connor posted a colossally heavy 170kg/374lb deadlift — 3.6 times her competition bodyweight — that she also touted as “easy peasy”. You can see her put her hair flip setup to work in that lift in the video below from her Instagram page:
Connor will forever be the first female IPF powerlifter to deadlift four times her bodyweight in history since she pulled 182.5kg/402.3lb at a USAPL event at the 2018 Arnold Classic at just 44.1kg/97.2lb body weight. If you somehow have not yet seen that lift, check it out below:
If deadlifts that are three and a half to four times heavier than Connor herself continue to prove “easy” for her, then we look forward to seeing what weight she calls for at her next competition.
Feature image from Heather Connor’s Instagram page: @heather.e.connor
