Ian Wilson’s 285kg Squat PR Spells Big Things

Ian Wilson is a phenomenal weightlifter, and after taking some time off to recover from shoulder and knee surgeries, he has returned to PR city.

Today we wanted to highlight his latest personal record, a very tough looking back squat of 285 kilograms (628.3 pounds).

He’s not the most frequent poster on Instagram, but this lift brought to mind another PR squat from this spring, this time a 3-rep max of 255kg (562 pounds).

Wilson still holds the Junior American records for the -105kg class in the snatch (173kg), clean & jerk (205kg), and total (375kg).

While we haven’t seen him snatch that heavy in some time, the now 22-year-old has been consistently beating his junior clean & jerk record.

Take a look at his lifts from the 2017 American Open Series 3 from this past weekend, when he made a 167kg snatch and a 209kg clean & jerk.

Two days later, he posted himself cleaning 200 kilograms and jerking it twice. His shoulder stability certainly seems to be on point.

As anyone knows, a great clean & jerk needs a great front squat, and we’ve been seeing some fantastic examples of the lift from Wilson. This 235kg front squat from April is the last 1RM he’s posted, and it’s a beauty.

The -110kg weight class is pretty crowded for a senior American lifter, as he is now in the same league as American snatch record holder Wes Kitts (175kg) and PWA clean & jerk record holder D’Angelo Osorio (215kg).

We caught up with Wilson for a quick interview.

BarBend: You’ve dealt with a few injuries and surgeries over the past few years. Have they changed your technique?

Yeah, I had surgery on my right knee and right shoulder and I’ve been favoring them for a long time, as in taking weight off them. I’d like to even it up.

BarBend: What about your approach to training as far as volume and intensity? Has that changed?

Pretty similar, but I added a few push presses on off days to strengthen my shoulders.
But same training for the most part: 90%+ lifts multiple days per week.

BarBend: Do you still prefer Bulgarian style training?

Not as much as Abadjiev gave people, but closer to that than most programs I see where people are taking multiple weeks at 70 percent.

BarBend: What’s the next meet you’re training for?

Caffeine & Kilos in a few weeks and then Worlds.

BarBend: Great! Looking forward to seeing you compete. 

Featured image via @iwilson1984 on Instagram.