Every time Morgan Nicholls posts a lift in the gym on his social media, the potential for his followers’ jaws to drop lingers heavily. On Nov. 27, 2022, Nicholls took to his Instagram page to share a video wherein he locked out a raw 233.6-kilogram (515-pound) bench press.
That’s a substantial lift for an athlete who only made his competitive powerlifting debut in May 2020 at the 2020 Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF) GP Summer Smash in the 90-kilogram weight class, according to Open Powerlifting. At that meet, Nicholls’ best bench press was 147.4 kilograms (325 pounds).
In two and one-half years, Nicholls tacked on 190 pounds to his bench press (although he did not disclose his body weight at the time of his latest training PR). Check out Nicholl’s 233.6-kilogram (515-pound) bench press below:
[Related: Rudy Kadlub Squats 3 Pounds Over His All-Time IPL World Record in Training With Wraps]
Back when I was in high school, I benched 500 [pounds] as a sophomore.
Per Nicholls’ Instagram bio, his PRs for the big three lifts are as follows:
Morgan Nicholls’ Training PRs
- Squat — 247.2 kilograms (545 pounds)
- Bench Press — 233.6 kilograms (515 pounds)
- Deadlift — 274.4 kilograms (605 pounds)
Nicholls’ new bench press PR is 2.6 times his competition bodyweight and more than 30 kilograms heavier than the current world record raw bench press in the 90-kilogram Teen 16-17 division. That record is 202.5 kilograms (446.4 pounds), scored by Noah Hammontree at the 2015 USPA Wyoming High School Open.
Back on Aug. 7, 2022, Nicholls posted his previous bench press PR of 224.5 kilograms (495 pounds). He tacked 20 pounds onto his bench press in just over three months — just under seven-pound monthly increases since the summer. Check out his previous bench press PR in the video below:
[Related: Phillip Herndon (110KG) Sets All-Time Raw Squat World Record of 395 Kilograms (870.8 Pounds)]
Nicholls does not plan to further his bench press PR in the near future. Per his Instagram caption, that top single capped off his last heavy push day “for a while” as he shifts his focus to improving his deadlift. For reference, Nicholls’ deadlift PR is more than 45 kilograms shy of Tyler Keller’s 320-kilogram (705.5-pound) raw world record from the 2022 IPL World Championship.
If Nicholls can progress his deadlift at a rate similar to the progression of his bench press, then a new PR video could hit his Instagram page sooner rather than later.
Featured image: @raising_mayhem on Instagram
