At this point, Nathan Damron is a bona fide phenomenon.
The 94kg American weightlifter — just off his record-breaking performance at the 2016 American Open — posted an Instagram video of a beautiful set of five back squats at 270kg (595lb) — and the way the weights are bouncing and bending the bar, you know this is some serious weight.
Damron is twenty years old, and while that might make him sound like a somewhat inexperienced lifter, he’s been cleaning and jerking since he was just thirteen years old – check him out pushing 75kg (165lb) overhead in this old video.
Nine years later, he’s one of America’s most accomplished young weightlifters. Beastly feats of strength grace his Instagram every day (a 150kg (330lb) hang snatch came soon after those squats) and he breaks records like they’re plywood. In November, he clean & jerked 205kg (451lb) in training, which was 10kg above the old Junior American record.
After this lift, he went on to win silver as a junior in the 94kg class at the 2016 USA Weightlifting (USAW) American Open in Orlando, during which he snatched 160kg (352lb), setting a new Junior American snatch record.
If that weren’t impressive enough, Damron also dabbles in tricking and can pull off a back flip… on one leg.
Talk about explosive power. Damron lives in Clemmons, North Carolina and trains under Travis Mash of Mash Elite Performance. We’re excited to see what the future holds for him, but for now, we’re just hoping the hashtag of #5slabs5reps starts to take off.
Featured image via @nathandamron94 on Instagram.