At the 2019 USA Powerlifting (USAPL) Raw Nationals, Jonathan Cayco became the champion of the -93kg weight class with an 868.5kg/1,914.7lb total — an American record, an unofficial world record, and 23.5kg/51.8lb more than the runner-up. At that same event, he bench pressed 231kg/509.2lb on his third attempt to set a new American record — his first two attempts were successful at 215kg/474lb and 225kg/496lb.
As impressive as that was, it pales in comparison to his current best gym total of 914.5kg/2,016lb that he just hit yesterday, which included what would have been a new International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) bench press world record of 249.5kg/550lb. Check out that lift below courtesy of Cayco’s Instagram page:
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[Related: Powerlifter Jonathan Cayco Totals 1,902lb for an Unofficial World Record]
This lift was a full 17.5kg/38.6lb more than the current IPF world record of 232.5kg/512.6lb by Dennis Cieri at -93kg. It was also 2.7 times Cayco’s competition bodyweight.
USAPL competitor Wesley James alluded to this lift being inspired by John Haack’s monstrous bench press recently of the same weight. Cayco responded saying that this lift was part of the plan for several weeks. He also remarked on his process to reach this weight by saying:
520lb moved super fast so I was like ooof, ok why not?
There may be argument that the pause at the bottom of the rep would not be sufficient to pass in competition, as brought up by followers Joseph Giovanni Ferratti and Ewout Hagdorn. Cayco seemed to be aware of this as he mentioned that the speed used in the lift is part of his training to hit a 254kg/560lb bench press soon. The 2019 USAPL Raw Nationals champ even said:
I probably could’ve hit 560lb today if I wanted to explode.
Considering that this is Cayco’s second bench press PR is as many weeks, that 254kg/560lb bench press may come sooner than we think. Here is Cayco below pushing his previous PR of 227.5kg/500lb on August 14th:
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Keep an eye on Cayco’s training the next several months. It’s clear he plans on putting up some huge numbers.
Feature image from Jonathan Cayco’s Instagram page: @league_of_lifting
