After Julius Maddox benched the new all-time world record of 739 pounds, other elite lifters in strength sports have made it a goal to bench at least 700 themselves. Maddox himself did it for a triple recently and former World’s Strongest Man Eddie Hall had also been pursuing the feat. Another lifter who had his sights set on that number was Larry Williams, a.k.a. Larry Wheels.
Williams posted a new video on YouTube which showed him training with Leonidas Arkona. The video featured Williams attempting a 700 pound bench press max. In the post he only had one spotter assist on the lift off before making the attempt. As he goes to press, he fails at the midpoint and the bar comes back down. The spotter attempts to help him rack the weight but they end up pinning it on the rack until two other men are able to hold the bar while Williams slides out.
Williams spoke in the video after the attempt and references getting something “checked out” but doesn’t specify what exactly. He acknowledged that it was a mistake to attempt the lift.
“Definitely wasn’t the right thing to do because now I don’t know what’s wrong with it. I’ll get it checked out. I think it’s my body telling me I’m pushing too hard too soon and also I’m already peaked so it’s a discipline issue. The discipline being that I should have stopped at 270 (kilograms/595 pounds) and waited until the competition.”
Williams was supposed to take part in a powerlifting competition soon but said that he will have to miss it so he can recover from whatever injury he suffered. Before this, he had also suffered an ankle injury but felt that was minor.
“My meet was supposed to be in two weeks but, I mean, the ankle was very minor but this feels like it could be serious. Injuries are part of the game. As we get older we get more disciplined, wiser, smarter, and we mature at different rates.”
However, on November 10, he shared an Instagram post of himself benching 600 pounds — though it looks to be from the earlier training session where he missed the lift — and said that he will compete after all since the injury was not as serious as he feared it was.
Williams might want to break the all-time bench record, but there is a chance that Maddox could potentially add on to that record. He did tell BarBend that he was going to attempt 770 pounds at his next meet.
Featured image: @larrywheels on Instagram