Luke Richardson of Great Britain has earned the nickname “The Future” and for good reason. At only 21 years, he became the youngest powerlifter to ever total 1000kg/2,204lb in the 120+kg weight class at the European Powerlifting Federation (EPF) 2018 Junior Men’s Classic British Championships. Since his powerlifting debut in 2016, Richardson has competed eight meets and has won gold in seven of them.
In 2019, he moved away from powerlifting competitions to train for for strongman instead; a shift that makes sense for a man of his age who can already deadlift 400kg/882lb. Or pull 365kg/805lb triples. Or deadlift 320kg/705lb for ten straight reps beltless. Check out the video he posted on his Instagram below of this insane set:
Pulling this kind of weight at this volume without a belt on a stiff bar is a different level of strength altogether. Some fatigue starts to set in around rep seven, but his lockout stays consistent all the way through rep ten. Richardson seemed satisfied but believes he could have done better. In this post he writes:
“Very sloppy but happy to just get through it after some hard weeks of training.”
This was a 20kg/44lb personal record for Richardson. It is notable that the personal record he broke was the one he had just set a week prior. Check out Richardson pull 300kg/661lb beltless on a stiff bar below:
After watching how easy that looked for him, it is no wonder Richardson upped the weight so significantly so fast while preparing to put on a huge performance at Europe’s Strongest Man on April 4th at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, England.
Richardson will be in the company of some big names at the 2020 Europe’s Strongest Man including the Stoltman brothers, 2019 World’s Strongest Man runner-up Mateusz Kieliszkowski, and reigning back-to-back Europe’s Strongest Man champion, Hafthor Bjornsson. We are excited to see if “The Future” can navigate his way to the podium.
Feature image from Luke Richardson’s Instagram page: @lukeerichardson
