At 56kg/57kg bodyweight, powerlifter Melissa Barber has been crushing some heavy deadlifts in her latest training videos. Her last Instagram video highlights a 201kg (445 lb) PR single at a bodyweight of 57kg (127 lbs).
This strong pull equates to just above 3.5 times her bodyweight. Check out the PR single video below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg7NLz7jVRw/
This deadlift single isn’t the only big weight Barber has moved in the last few days. In fact, two days ago, she deadlift 435 lbs for a very strong double PR.
In her Instagram video’s description she writes, “435 for 2! Most I’ve ever doubled. My warm ups prior to this weren’t that great so I had to give myself a lil pep talk & remind myself who tf I am. BW 58kg.” Check it out below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg2Cs2sj9lF/
This probably won’t surprise you, but Barber has held multiple powerlifting records. In the USPA American Open division (as per USPA’s site), Barber currently holds two records in the USPA American tested 56kg (123.5 lb) women’s weight class. These two records stand at a 190kg (418 lb) deadlift and 400kg (881 lb) total, which Barber set back in July 2016.
Then more recently, Barber pulled an even bigger weight in competition and set a new USPA national deadlift record last year in July. At this time, she pushed the USPA American 56kg deadlift record to a monstrous 200kg (440 lb) pull.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXJ0bakjTe7/
In one Barber’s Instagram posts recapping her record and July 2017 USPA meet she writes, “Ya girl did a meet today. Went 8/9, squatted 325, benched 176, & deadlifted 441. Weighed in at 121.4 & totaled 942 with a 508 Wilks. Set the USPA American open raw record for deadlift. I won my weight class & best lifter. & the best lifter award was a sword!”
This meet earned her a ranking of 9th in the Open Powerlifting ranks across all federations in the raw division. Judging from her latest videos, we’re excited for what Barber is going to do in 2018.
Related: Romanian Deadlift Overview
Feature image from @thats.so.swolissa Instagram page.