CrossFit Games Athlete Sam Briggs Squats 20,000 Pounds In Under 10 Minutes
2013 CrossFit Games Women’s Champion Sam Briggs is no stranger to pushing the limits of what she can do in all aspects of fitness. Now she is calling her Instagram followers out for a unique lifting challenge.
On February 3rd, Briggs posted a video that shows her performing what she is calling the “20,000 Pound Squat Challenge.” In short, the objective is to back squat a certain weight for as many reps as possible so that by the time you finish, adding the weight of each rep would be 20,000 pounds of total volume.
That’s the total number for women at least. She suggests that men could potentially go up to 30,000 total pounds (13,605 kg). Of course, the weight can be returned to the rack when necessary, but the rest periods would need to be kept short because there is a time cap as well. There are only 10 minutes to get the job done.
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Briggs herself went with 160 pounds (72.5 kg) on the barbell and completed 125 total reps. So taking 160 and multiplying it by 125, you would have 20,000 pounds (9,070 kg) exactly.
Briggs shared that she completed the challenge in 9 minutes and 46 seconds, just beating her self-imposed time limit. She credited her friend Kristi O’Connell as serving as the inspiration for it. As the nine-time CrossFit Games competitor noted in the caption of her video, she had to make adjustments in order to succeed.
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“The original plan was 100 reps at 200lbs but after testing a few different rep schemes at different weights I felt that wasn’t achievable just yet! I went with 125 reps at 160lbs and managed to squeeze them out in 9:46. The legs will definitely feel that tomorrow!”
She offers advice for anyone else interested so they have a greater chance of succeeding.
“I wouldn’t recommend just jumping in on the challenge unless you’re use to high volume squats we did 3 weeks of gradual building of volume and intensity.”
Even though she has nothing left to prove in her sport, she’s still finding ways to challenge herself and others to see what they are capable of. This isn’t the first extreme offseason fitness test that the British athlete has pushed herself through. In December of 2020, Briggs rowed and ran 50 kilometers each (62 miles total) for charity.
Featured Video and Image: Instagram/bicepslikebriggs