Strongman Adam Derks may have suffered a minor injury, but that didn’t stop him from setting a new world record in the -105kg weight class with a massive deadlift of 402kg/885 pounds.
Derks pulled 402kg in his opening attempt at the War of the Shore competition in San Diego this past weekend. His deadlift broke the previous -105kg world record held by Luke Davis’ 400kg/881lbs. While Derks still set a new world record, his intention was to even lift more. In his Instagram post he mentioned that he felt his hamstring pop at his knees so decided to not push it any further.
“Broke the 105kg world record deadlift with my opening attempt at 885lbs,402kg. unfortunately this is not the top weight I came to do, but my right hamstring popped at my knees on that pull and we decided that it wasn’t worth trying heavier. I will be back to doing this again!Thanks to everyone who made this possible.”
We caught up with Derks after the competition and he said that he’s getting his injury checked out in the next couple of days.
“Well, it’s feeling more like the inset of the adductor and not hamstring. I’m getting it checked out in a few days, I know it will be fine, but I know it would have been worse if I made my next attempt so we called it there,” Derks said.
Derks also added that he had to make a really serious cut ahead of the competition, and wasn’t sure how he’d perform. “We did do a dangerous 25 pound cut to make weight and we had no idea how my power was going to be after that,” Derks said.
As for what’s next for Derks? He said at the moment he doesn’t have a set plan. “Maybe stay and set more records in the 105kg weight class, or maybe jump back up in the pro open, not sure yet, we’ll see what comes my way.”
Feature image from @aj_derks Instagram page.