Most of us judge strength on a person’s ability in the three big lifts – deadlift, bench and squat – but there is a fourth lift to add to that list, a lift which in powerlifting’s early days was used to prove how tough an athlete was. It was the strict curl.
The strict curl, for those of you that don’t know, is a barbell or EZ-bar bicep curl that’s performed with your head, back, and glutes positioned against a wall, so that it’s impossible to use momentum to lift the significant weight.
Of late, the strict curl has been going through a bit of a renaissance. Powerlifter, Larry Wheels has been sharing posts on Instagram of him performing strict curl challenges and now Leroy ‘The Machine’ Walker has broken the American strict curl record, completing a strict curl of 226 lbs (103kg). You can see his world-record-setting lift in the video below.
Admittedly, from the video, it doesn’t look like there’s too much weight on the bar. But for any cynics out there, notice both the need for two men to pick up the bar and hand it over to Walker and watch the strain on Walker’s face as he battles to curl it.
Having made the lift and taken the American record, fans were quick to congratulate him on social media. “Making it look easy,” wrote one user. “Man, he had another 20 lbs it seemed,” said another.
While Walker’s lift is undoubtedly impressive, it wasn’t enough to claim the world record for the lift. Right now, that’s held by Ukrainian strongman Denis Cyplenkov, who in 2015 strict curled 249 pounds (113 kg).
Source: Read Full Article