The bar is set, and the weight is moving for 57kg powerlifter Melissa Barber. This isn’t the first time we’ve written about one of Barber’s monstrous deadlifts, and we’re guessing that it’s nowhere near our last. Currently, Barber is in prep for USAPL Raw Nationals, which are going down in Spokane, Washington and start October 10th and go through the 15th.
Yesterday, Barber shared a strong deadlift video on her Instagram page and it comes in the form of a 208kg/460 lb deadlift at 122 lbs bodyweight. Now, this lift wasn’t a new 1-RM from Barber (we’ll include that lift below), but it was the fastest she’s moved this weight, and it looks like she has plenty more in the tank. Check it out below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmeeV_iBfnb/?taken-by=thats.so.swolissa
Back in April, we covered one of Barber’s lifts and it was her 206kg/455 lb deadlift, which she wrote about in her Instagram description as being RPE “a hundred thousand trillion” after her squat and bench press sets. The set above is 5 lbs heavier, and if you watch both videos, moving very quick comparatively.
Since that article covering her 206kg/455 lb deadlift, Barber has pulled more and hit 215kg/475 lbs at 121 lbs bodtweight in early July. She notes in that Instagram video’s description that this pull was less than 10 lbs from being a 4x bodyweight deadlift, which is long sought after strength feat for many powerlifters.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bk8Dy0_BjRV/?taken-by=thats.so.swolissa
At the 2017 USAPL Raw Nationals, Barber took third place behind Jennifer Millican and Jessica Shay Edwards. To finisher her meet, Barber finished with a 192.5kg/424 lb deadlift, aka only .5kg shy from Millican’s 193kg/425 lb third attempt, which set a new USAPL Raw National record that still stands today.
Since then, Barber has deadlifted 200kg/440 lbs in a meet, so it’s going to be interesting to see if she can execute similar numbers on the platform in October and take down the current USAPL deadlift record at 2018 USAPL Raw Nationals.
Related: Romanian Deadlift
Feature image from thats.so.swolissa Instagram page.