Nathan Damron is, in his own words, “getting acquainted with the American record” in the clean & jerk. If by “getting acquainted with” he means “on a path to destroy,” that’d be a pretty accurate statement. Check out his new personal record, a block clean of 212 kilograms (467 pounds), which is one kilogram heavier than the current American record in the full clean & jerk.
As one of the Instagram commenters pointed out, it’s almost as impressive that the weights landed so neatly back on the blocks.
In Damron’s weight class of 94kg, the current clean & jerk record is held by Kendrick Farris, who completed a lift of 211 kilograms (465.1 pounds) in July 2013 during the weightlifting portion of the World University Games in Kazan, Russia.
That was almost four years ago, and Damron seems intent on breaking Farris’ record. A month ago, the twenty-year-old athlete hit a 210-kilogram (463-pound) block clean in training.
We can see some folks taking issue with Damron’s note that he’s “getting acquainted” with the American record since, of course, he’s cleaning from blocks.
But block cleans aren’t a useless exercise. While it’s true that they’re less taxing on the back and legs, they’re a great exercise for training speed and rate of force development —because of the limited distance he or she has to accelerate the bar, they force the athlete to move the bar more quickly.
And Damron is seriously strong. In November, he clean & jerked 205 kilograms (452 pounds) and in December he set a new Junior American snatch record with 160kg (352 pounds).
Oh, and he can also back squat 317.5 kilograms (700 pounds) and front squat at least 240 kilograms (529.1 pounds).
Damron lives in Clemmons, North Carolina and trains at Mash Elite Performance under Travis Mash, a former World Champion in powerlifting and world class Olympic weightlifter. We’re looking forward to seeing where his relationship with the American record is headed.
Featured image via @nathandamron94 on Instagram.
