Okay, I admit, the records below are probably not what you thought when you clicked on this article. When I first read their headlines I thought they would be maximal attempts, but I was sadly mistaken.
Over the last month, the sumo deadlift has gotten a considerable amount of attention from both strength athletes and the non-lifting population. In respects to the interest from the non-lifters, these world records below receiving mainstream media coverage could be one of the reasons for the recent surge in popularity.
The first record below was shared on May 24th via Today. Before getting to the attempt, cue the awkward introduction about lifting from hosts Kathy Lee Gifford and special co-host Sheinelle Jones. The goal of the record was to sumo deadlift the most amount of weight possible within one full hour, so it’s all of the reps combined to equate to an hour long load.
“Guinness doesn’t really care how you do it, but I’m going to do about 1,200 reps in one hour,” says world record contestant Walter Urban.
The record to beat was previously set at 120,072 lbs. In terms of guidelines, in the video they state Urban needed to keep his feet wider than his shoulders, there was a fitness instructor on hand to ensure he followed the correct form, and the same bar had to be used (but weight could be changed). Urban topped the previous record and hit 130,830 lbs.
The next record was shared back in late April, and similar to the feat above, its focus was also on the sumo deadlift. This record’s goal was around lifting the most weight possible (in a sumo deadlift) for a full minute.
Raymond Saraiva finished this feat lifting a 184kg (405 lb) deadlift for a total of 10,584kg (23,256 lbs), which equates to about 57 reps.
We’ll save our full thoughts on these two videos, but we’d love to hear what you think in the comments below!
Related: Romanian Deadlift Ultimate Guide
Feature image from TodayShow.com.