Pretty big news for people who like extremely big weights: Konstantin Pozdeev is heading back to the sport of powerlifting.
That’s according to this recent Intagram post that’s gaining traction in the powerlifting community, in which he simply writes, “I’m going back to powerlifting…”
Powerlifters have good reason to be excited about Pozdeev potentially returning to the powerlifting stage. The man is known for his incredible strength and in particular his deadlift — he’s perhaps best known for pulling almost quadruple bodyweight raw at a meet that took place in 2015: 405 kilograms at 103.5 kilograms bodyweight (893 pounds at 228 pounds).
Some of his training lifts are arguably even more impressive. Take a look at this insane squat of 430 kilograms (948 pounds) while he was weighing around 100kg.
We’ve seen a few quadruple bodyweight squats — Chen Wei-Ling has an IPF Open World Record for squatting 4.5 times her bodyweight with a 210kg (463lb) squat at a weight of 46.75kg (103lb).
But to make a quadruple bodyweight squat at about 100kg is in a different league.
For die hard Pozdeev fans who want to learn more about the man, we’ve embedded a pretty cool, thirty-minute long interview with him from 2014, one of the few that has English subtitles. He goes in depth about how often he was training (three times per week), his favorite assistance exercises (hyperextensions), how he trains hip mobility (a lot of butterfly stretches) and how his training changes in the leadup to a meet.
He admits to having torn his posterior menisci, to needing a lot of shoulder rehab, and having a variety of back problems. We’re unsure as to whether these injuries are the reason he’s been absent from competitive powerlifting, but we’re certainly looking forward to the new numbers he’ll be putting up.
Featured image via Russian Lifters on YouTube.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article said that Pozdeev posted a video of himself deadlifting 210kg on his Instagram. In fact, it was one of his students, not Pozdeev himself. Thanks to Juanito Candito for pointing out the error.
