🏋️ 19-year-old's 859-pound deadlift

Author

Jason Serafino
October 05, 2022

The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting longer, and the BarBend Newsletter is getting even stronger. Let's get to it!

First, today's edition is presented by lululemon Studio, an all-in-one fitness destination offering more than 10,000 workout classes at your fingertips. And right now, you can use the code LLSTUDIO700 to save $700 on the lululemon Mirror, a home workout device that brings all of lululemon Studio’s offerings to life to help you reach your fitness goals.

19-year-old Theo Maddox pulled 859 pounds at a recent powerlifting meet in Australia. And that was just the start of his record-breaking day.

A recent CrossFit competition utilized a new scoring system. See what it all means and how it could change the game.

Stuck in a gym rut? There’s probably a simple reason behind your training funk — and we’re here to help get you out of it.

Powerlifting

19-Year-Old Theo Maddox Rewrites the Record Book

Image: @theo_maddox on Instagram

What were you doing at 19 years old? Probably not breaking world powerlifting records. And even if you were, we’ll roll the dice and assume you weren’t breaking multiple records on the same day. Then again, teen powerhouse Theo Maddox is the exception to a whole lot of rules.

At the recent Australian Powerlifting League (APL) Strength Quest II meet, Maddox had himself a historic day. Here’s what the young phenom pulled off:

  • ​​Squat: 355 kilograms (782.6 pounds)

  • Bench Press: 217.5 kilograms (479.5 pounds)

  • Deadlift: 390 kilograms (859.8 pounds) — Teen 18-19 World Record

  • Total: 962.5 kilograms (2,122 pounds) — Teen 18-19 World Record

Somehow, Maddox seemed to expect more of himself after deadlifting what was essentially the weight of a full-grown male moose. “Look, it wasn’t the day I wanted, but it was good to get on the platform again after so long off,” Maddox wrote on Instagram.

Strong and humble. Young Maddox is definitely an athlete to keep an eye on.

CrossFit

A New Scoring Method Gets the Spotlight

Image: Rick Jones (@r1ckjones on Instagram)

The 2022 Crash Crucible took place from Sept. 30 through Oct. 2, 2022, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. And while it’s not the most well-known event on the CrossFit calendar, this year’s installment was notable because it used a new points method known as Z-Scoring.

Rather than assigning a set amount of points depending on a competitor’s placement after an event, this method assigns points based on the quality of their performance. So, for example, there would be a bigger point difference between second and third place if the athletes were separated by one minute during an event rather than just one second.

While this system encourages athletes to fight through the finish line instead of coasting in, it’s not entirely perfect. CrossFit analyst and BarBend contributor Brian Friend is breaking the whole thing down.

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Training Tips

Get Out of Your Fitness Funk

Image: LightField Studios / Shutterstock

Feeling like you hit a wall in the gym? It happens to the best of us — but you can’t always break through these plateaus using brute force. Before you can get out of your weight room rut, you have to understand why you’re there in the first place.

Whether it’s a lack of sleep, conflicting goals, or poor diet, plenty of culprits could be halting your progress. We’re looking at the six most common reasons behind these lulls and offering solutions for all of them.

Everything Else

Strength Sports Collide!

Image: @bilbo_swaggins181 on Instagram