Julius Maddox, the current world record holder for heaviest bench press — a 350kg/770lb lift on his second attempt at the Xtreme Powerlifting Coalition (XPC) Slingshot Showdown at the Arnold Sports Festival — decided to jazz things up in his first heavy training session in three weeks by swapping his shirt for a wig.
Check out Maddox wearing a long blonde hair wig while pumping out 272kg/600lbs for 9 reps, matching his personal best, on the bench from his Instagram page below:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-pdMSyA4Yd/
“Yeah, I got a wig on. Simply because I just want to bring joy and happiness in any way, shape, or form I can during this season. I’m going to continue to encourage you guys to keep fighting, keep grinding, and I hope you’re home and lifts are going well.”
Although Maddox does not say the specific type of wig he was wearing, which might be due to him thinking it was generic, it is actually a wig referencing pro wrestler “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) fame.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4KdT0LpwT4/
This high volume training session is par for the course for Maddox as of late. He has been adding in volume workouts to his training as he continues to build towards being the first person to ever bench press 363kg/800lb raw.
Maddox recently performed four hundred reps of the bench press in a single workout. He shared it in the post below from his Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-h2odugNBd/
On February 11th, Maddox stated in a phone interview that:
“The new all-time world record raw bench will be 800 pounds by the beginning of June.”
He refers to this as the “Road to 800lb Bench Press”. It is not yet clear what changes Maddox will make to the “Road to 800lb Bench Press” timeline as it is unlikely any sanctioned powerlifting events will take place in June.
Feature image from Julius Maddox’s Instagram page: @irregular_strength