American weightlifter Nathan Damron is taking some time to focus on his back squat strength, and it seems to be paying off with new PRs almost every week.
Now, the 20 year old training out of Mash Elite Performance has finally hit the 300kg mark on the squat — that’s 660 pounds for those of you who prefer imperial measurements. Weightlifting coach Don McCauley captured the lift on film, which we’ve embedded below in the article.
To put this in context, that’s just 2.5kg off of Anatolii Novopismennyi’s raw (or “Classic”) IPF powerlifting record for the 93kg Junior Class, set earlier this summer in Killeen, Texas. (While 20 years old is the cutoff for Juniors in weightlifting, it’s 23 for powerlifting, so Damron would still be a Junior lifter; Damron normally lifts in weightlifting’s 94kg category.)
Yes, that’s a little like comparing apples to oranges as far as squats go — for starters, powerlifting uses a different style bar and plates, so the bar’s physical oscillation and behavior is quite different under competition circumstances compared to what you’ll see below. And he also weighed in at 95.3kg, so he’d be in the next weight class above in IPF competition. But it’s still a darn impressive lift from the young weightlifter who could soon be one of America’s best in the 94kg category.
Check out the video below; if there’s one thing no one can criticize, it’s the depth.
Here’s another angle from Damron’s Instagram account.
What’s the most impressive squat you’ve seen from a weightlifter? Let us know in the comments below!
Featured image: Don McCauley (@d.j.mac) on Instagram