If you needed an end of the week pick me up to get you through your next training session, then look no further. Yesterday, Lawrence (@larrior) on Instagram, shared a ridiculous front squat video of Chinese weightlifter Tao Wenli. This video has already made the rounds in the social media strength community, and for good reason.
In the video, Tao Wenli front squats a monstrous 197kg/434 lbs at a bodyweight of 55kg/121 lbs. The weight is impressive within itself, but as Lawrence mentions in his video’s description, what’s possibly most impressive is how clean the form is. The speed coming out of the hole on this squat is insane, and it’s not incredibly far off the mythical 4x bodyweight front squat feat. Check it out below.
If you search around online, it’s tough to find more videos and results covering Tao Wenli’s latest lifting. And at the 2018 IWF World Championships, China didn’t have a 55kg athlete compete, so we’re unsure how he stands on both a national and international very recent level.
Outside of weightlifting and in respects to other massive front squats, there have been very few athletes who have accomplished the 3.5x+ bodyweight milestone. In fact, even seeing a front squat of 3x bodyweight is pretty rare.
One of the heaviest front squats we’ve ever seen came from Bulgarian weightlifter Ivan Ivanov. In the video below, Ivanov squats a ridiculous 210kg/463 lbs. Ivanov competed in the (now defunct) 52kg weight class, and at the time of filming for the video he was competing in the 56kg weight class, so if we had to make an educated guess — he was possibly sitting slightly heavier than that since it was in training. Regardless, this squat was still around 3.75x his bodyweight!
We don’t know about you, but after watching how easy Tao Wenli made his latest front squat look — we’re excited to see what the future holds for him.
Feature image fro @larrior Instagram page.