Max Lang is an elite weightlifter from Germany and competed in both the 2014 and 2015 World Weightlifting Championships. (He finished 14th in 2014 and 12th in 2015, adding 9 kilograms to his total in that time.)
Lang, who lifts at 77kg bodyweight, has built a big following online with his precise technique and rising numbers. He also translates the majority of his social posts from German into extremely well-written English copy, allowing his fan base to grow well beyond Lang’s home country.
He was also the 2014 Under 23 European Champion and has bests of 153kg in the snatch and 190kg in the clean & jerk.
Lang narrowly missed out on making Germany’s Olympic team, but he’s still just 23 years old and has plenty of weightlifting ahead of him. However, earlier this month Lang decided to expand his regimen a little bit and tried out a class at CrossFit Schmelztiegel in his native Germany. He posted a video of the class — a partner WOD that included plate grip walks, knee raises, a variation on wallballs, rowing (which Lang says he “hates”), and one-arm dumbbell thrusters — on his YouTube channel, embedded below.
Lang is a world class athlete in one sport, but as the below illustrates, being an elite weightlifter and being a decent CrossFitter are two very different things.
Kudos to Max for trying something a little different in his offseason. But after watching this, we’re pretty sure he’ll want to stick to weightlifting in the long term.
Want to see more from Max Lang in his…natural element? Here he is hitting a beautiful 186kg clean & jerk earlier this year. We can think of more than a few CrossFitters who would trade some fitness for technique like that…
