Yesterday, powerlifter Julius Maddox hit a huge gym PR and broke a major barrier for the bench press. For the last few months (and years), Maddox has been on a driven mission to break the 700 lb bench barrier, a feat very few strength athletes ever accomplish — raw or equipped — and as of yesterday, Maddox can finally say he’s joined the 700 lb bench club.
Check out the video below where Maddox benches 700 lbs with a pause for a new training PR. In his video’s description he writes, “700lb bench press! Huge GYM PR. 4 years of blood sweat and tears with @fosjosh3 and @jailhousestrong! We are still going strong! THE ALL-Time WORLD RECORD for bench AIN’T SAFE! All Glory to God!”
And to top off the crazy impressive milestone, Maddox plays it cool after the press with a relatively small celebration for the size of this personal goal. A sign that his mission isn’t over, and there’s still work to do. To provide a little more context into how much Maddox has improved his bench in the last few months alone, we’re going to highlight a few major PRs below.
In September, we wrote our first article on Maddox covering one of his bench presses, and it was a 680 lb training PR. Similar to his 700 lb press above, the video highlights a decent pause with solid speed behind the bar. At this time, we poked at the question, “Will Maddox be the next lifter to reach the 700 lb club?”
Then, fast forward to a few weeks later in October and Maddox pressed 688 lbs in competition. This was a competition PR for Maddox, as his previous competition bench PR was 660 lbs, so he blew that out of the water.
In his video’s description below Maddox wrote, “688 PR!!! 705 next stay tuned”.
After seeing his latest 700 lb bench press we have to wonder, is 705 lbs his next competition feat, or will he bump it up slightly higher?
Keep in mind, the current super heavyweight all-time world record (ATWR) for a full meet is held at 710 lbs by James Henderson, while the ATWR for bench only meets is 738 lbs held by Kirill Sarychev. Maddox isn’t too far off either of these feats.
Feature image screenshot from @maddox_irregularstrength.
