It seems to me like powerlifting records don’t last nearly as long as records in other sports. To give an example of how fast people are progressing, Stan Efferding set the raw in wraps 275 atwr at 2070lbs in 2009. In 2015 Jesse Norris set the 198 raw atwr of 2033. That’s a pretty small drop in total in a huge drop of weight class, not to mention the knee wraps. It is true that Jesse Norris is clearly a genetic freak and Stan efferding improved his total to 2303 in 2013, but if anything Stan’s strength just proves my point. He set a world record and improved it by 10% in 4 years. I’m pretty sure that Larry wheels’s 242 sleeves record is around 2190, with the second highest total at 242 at 2100 (this very well could change this weekend with Kevin oak taking the 242 record, and Pete rubish pushing up his total). Yuri Belkin also destroyed previous records.
Does anyone know how people are making such quick progress at an elite level in powerlifting? My best guess is that as powerlifting grows in popularity, more genetic freaks start getting into it
Part of the reason is that raw powerlifting is a pretty new thing. Raw powerlifting has only existed since the mid 1990’s, and it wasn’t very popular at the time. We basically have a sport that’s existed for 25 years, and the differentiation of raw with/without wraps is an even newer thing. So it should be expected that records will be broken regularly, particularly with the multitude of divisions.
I think your answer, then, is essentially right. More people are getting into the sport year by year, and raw lifting is very popular right now.
Strongman is going through a similar growth phase. As certain events have been standardized in the last couple decades, more and more people are specializing in those events and breaking records. The deadlift record has flown up in the last 5 years. It wasn’t that long ago that nobody was breaking 1000 lbs in strongman. Now, we’re seeing 2-4 people at the Arnold and WSM every year breaking it, and we’ve got an 1100 lbs deadlift on the books. The circus DB record was broken this year as well.
@flipcollar Nailed it. About the only other thing I can contribute is that powerlifting used to be a sport you ended up in, rather than a sport you pursued. If you weren’t good enough for football, or you got too old and broken, then you’d get into powerlifting. Nowadays, with Instagram fame and fitness youtube being a thing, people will actually set out from a young age WANTING to be a powerlifter, which allows greater opportunity of a superior athlete to pick the sport of powerlifting and do well in it.
I think that’s a really good point. I bet a lot of teenagers like me see strong jacked looking guys on social media and say “hey I want to be like them”. I mean that’s exactly how I got into powerlifting. I guess powerlifting reaches a different demographic nowadays
I saw a lecture on youtube, I think a TED talk, about if people really are getting faster or not. Why is Bolt so much faster than Owens? Well, it turns out that Bolt is running over a different track. And an issue at the Chinese Olympics was that they had designed the pool itself to shape the water to make it easier to break swimming records (no one ever explained to me how that would even be possible). And as sports pay out more money, more people get into them in the first place, so there’s more chances of superb competitors. And a hundred years ago, it was assumed that people of average build were best designed for sports, because evolution would naturally create most people to be physically suitable for competition, which would come as a great surprise to our 7 foot tall basketball players and 300 pound + football players and 5 foot tall, 90 pound gymnasts (except I think how those well muscled young women dominated the last Olympics is going to change the world’s mind about gymnastics training).
Another factor here is fragmentation, which is related to the point that raw powerlifting is a new sport. There are increasingly more federations, classes, and divisions and each of those has its own “world” records. Back in the 80s you had guys totaling well north of the world records listed in the OP. Judging criteria, allowed and available equipment, and PEDs available/tested for were all different. But fundamentally, the pounds being put up is sort of comparable.
another thing contributing to swimming records being broken is what they are wearing. It’s made a HUGE difference.
Golf has been subject to technology affecting the game in a tremendous way for years. Golf club technology, and ball technology is always improving. The ProV1 ball was a game changer. Now, everyone hits the ball 300+ yards at will. On the flip side of that, courses are getting harder, in order to compensate so that players don’t end up shooting in the 50’s. Courses are letting their roughs get longer, making faster, more undulating greens, more bunkers, longer courses, etc.
I think this might be a slightly American point of view. I have the impression of convergence, not specialisation.
Footballers (the other kind) are generally more jacked than they used to be. It used to be home to a lot of skinny runners and a few tall, strong, but not really fit centre backs and goalies. Rugby players in both codes used to be clearly identifiable by position just by looking at them - front row forwards were stereotype fat powerlifters, wingers and fullbacks tall skinny runners, half backs and League hookers tight, strong little guys, back rows and centres all rounders.
Now though they are all converging on a kind of Thibs power look/crossfit with bigger traps all round power athlete body type. The wingers and half backs got jacked, the prop forwards cut and got mobile. Leeds’ Ryan Hall is a top scoring winger but he’s actually bigger than any of the forwards (think a wide receiver who weighs more than the linebackers).
I even notice this with dancers. There are still plenty of long skinny steak dodgers and skinny fat little guys with amazing cores, but there are a lot of big shoulders coming through among the young’uns, and pro companies have got into lifting for strength and conditioning in a big way.
Great story about the Royal Ballet’s new conditioner:
I think training philosophy, diet and steroid use are better understood to a degree now as well. The older guys paved the way and we learned from them.
More and more freaks are popping up. The likes of Larry Wheels and Yury Belkin stand out now but we can with a quick flip through instagram that there are many up and coming lifters moving ridiculous weights in the juniors and sub juniors.
Powerlifting records being broken often and quick progress at the elite level are two different things. In terms of records being broken it can be by 5kg on the total by the guy who already holds the record.
e.g. Belkin is probably the best male powerlifter active right now so he is actually chipping his own records e.g. his recent performance at Boss of Bosses 5. He may break records most every meet but it’s not slapping another 50kg on em.
Larry Wheels is a freak and is making fast progress but if we consider the last few years he has transitioned from barely making the 110kg/242 lb class as a massive shredded cunt to having a little bit of fluff about him barely in the 140kg/308 lb class at the US Open.
OpenPowerlifting can give us a look at lifters’ results and compare meet to meet year to year. Just find whatever lifter you’re interested in and click on their name.
Not exactly on topic here, but remember all the hype between Eric, Andrey, and that other crazy guy with the curls who was always very angry? It’s so weird that they’ve basically faded into obscurity just from not breaking records every meet. Now it’s all about Larry Wheels, Belkin, and Stefi Cohen.
At least this is what I see. I know Eric is slowly creeping back up to where he was, working through injuries. Just crazy to see how hard it is to maintain your fire. Once it’s gone, you have to work so hard to get it back, and often times we see people give in and move on to new things. Derek Poundstone, Brandon Lilly, Chad Wesley Smith, Chris Hickson, Jesse Norris…list goes on. Life just kinda happens. I remember thinking Norris would have a streak of breaking so many records in the future due to his young age. Also Eric Lilliebridge squatting like 1k+ every fucking month and steadily increasing? Chris Hickson using absolutely no sense to yank 850lbs off the floor while looking like a cross country high school kid??
Look, all I’m saying is I have popcorn, and I need Larry Wheels to just climb the mountain and dominate the sport in his youth.
