It’s not every day that the powerlifting world witnesses a 500-kilogram (1,102.3-pound) training deadlift, but that is exactly what 100-kilogram athlete Ventsislav Dimitrov accomplished on Nov. 26, 2023. In a video published to his Instagram page, Dimitrov can be seen wearing lifting straps and grabbing a Texas deadlift bar — a barbell with more give than a standard Olympic barbell — with a mixed grip in a sumo stance.
What proceeded was a stiff lockout that bulged Dimitrov’s delts so much that it seemed as though they could detach from his shoulders at any moment. While the give of the barbell combined with the sumo stance limited how far Dimitrov’s range of motion was, a 500-kilogram pull is impressive regardless and worth a watch. Check it out below:
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While Dimitrov did not state his body weight at the time of his lift in the caption of his post, he did remark that the lift was five times his body weight, which would equate to his competition body weight of 100 kilograms. Given that his most recent powerlifting meet was the 2023 Eisenhart Black Competition on Dec. 3, 2023, in Bavaria, Germany, it would make sense that he weighed 100 kilograms at the time of this training lift.
The Black Competition has featured some of the heaviest deadlifts in competition by notable athletes in the strongman space, including Ivan Makarov (486 kilograms), Rauno Heinla (452.5 kilograms), and 2017 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) Eddie Hall (420 kilograms) — Hall was the first athlete to ever lockout a 500-kilogram deadlift in 2016 at that year’s World Deadlift Championships (WDC).
Dimitrov has the fourth-heaviest deadlift ever pulled at the Black Competition — 430 kilograms — and it seems clear from his training that he is well-equipped to exceed that mark by a significant number of kilograms.
Per Open Powerlifting, Dimitrov has only competed in two sanctioned powerlifting meets: the 2019 and 2021 World Raw Powerlifting Federation (WRPF) World Championships in Moscow, Russia, in the raw (w/wraps) category, to gold-medal finishes.
Editor’s note: BarBend is the Official Media Partner of the WRPF. The two organizations maintain editorial independence unless otherwise noted on specific content projects.
Featured image: @htnomakeup on Instagram
