Powerlifter Julius Maddox is having an absolutely incredible year.
Maddox, often regarded as a raw bench press specialist, just hit potentially the heaviest raw bench triple we’ve seen to date. Last night, he shared a video on his Instagram page that has left many in the strength sports community with their jaws on the ground.
In his latest Instagram video, Maddox benches a remarkable 318kg/700 lbs for three reps, and what’s potentially even more impressive is that he made it look relatively easy. He writes in the video’s description, “THEY SAY ITS IMPOSSIBLE UNTIL ITS DONE…. Tag someone who wants the smoke”
Check out the absolutely mind blowing set below.
We don’t know about you, but this may be one of the most impressive raw bench press sets we’ve seen in the last few years, and mind you, this is coming only two months after Maddox took down the all-time bench press world record.
Handfuls of big named athletes left comments on the video,
- Jeremy Hoornstra, bench press specialist and full power athlete wrote, “Time to shine”
- Thomas Davis, elite powerlifter added, “You been eating cornbread!”
- Andy Huang, elite powerlifter said, “Holy smokes”
And this list goes on…
Back in September, Maddox competed at the Boss of Bosses 6 powerlifting meet in Mountain View, California, and broke powerlifting legend Kirill Sarychev’s 335kg/738.5 lb all-time bench press world record with a very strong 335.5kg/739.5 lbs.
In an interview with us post-meet, Maddox told our contributor and reporter Roger Lockridge that the next barrier he would like to break is the 349kg/770 lb raw bench mark. This would add over 30 lbs to his current all-time world record, which is a feat we’re not sure many athletes could even contest at this current time. After all, Sarychev’s all-time world record stood for nearly three years before it was broken by Maddox.
Now you might be wondering, “Will Maddox do a full powerlifting meet soon?”
In the interview mentioned above, he talked about not competing in full power due to risk of injury not being worth it for his current goals. He notes he has squatted and deadlifted 700 lbs, but doesn’t plan to do a full power meet within the foreseeable future.
After this mind blowing triple, we have to wonder — what will Maddox accomplish in 2020 when he competes in January and April?
Feature image from @irregular_strength.