Vlad Alhazov squats 505kg / 1113 lbs, the heaviest squat with wraps of all time, at Pro Raw X at the Arnold Sports Festival Melbourne, Australia. Wasn’t too long ago that this beast came back from a total knee replacement to set a new WR squat of 500kg and only a few short months later this:
505kg Second Attempt Miss
505kg Third Attempt Good Lift
Opened with 465kg on the day and then took 505 for his second attempt and missed it. Came back and and got it tho. Like a boss.
Does anyone know how he trains currently ? Any information would be appreciated.
I heard that Mark Rippetoe is his coach. Starting Strength all the way!
Replaced with hydraulics.
I think he’s a West-Sider.
He used to train at Westside at one time, as far as I know he now lives in Israel. One thing that people need to consider when looking at elite lifters is that what works for them is probably far from optimal for the rest of us, look at what got them to where they are rather than their current training.
If your program is designed around Optimal Training, and you always stick to the program, your training Is Always Optimal!
I don’t think anything can ever be 100% optimal since there is disagreement on what optimal actually is in terms of volume, intensity, frequency, exercise selection, etc., and your ability to recover will fluctuate unless you live in a Soviet training camp. If you are making progress then you are probably doing something right, so keep doing it until progress stops or slows down and then consider making changes.
I recently came across an article by Stan Efferding that I wish I had read when I first got into PL, the article is “Boost Your Big 3 Lifts” on Muscle and Fitness. The general idea is to alternate between hypertrophy training and higher intensity low rep training with the competition lifts and close variations. If you’re ever at a loss for what to do or which program to follow then this is the answer.
That is also what Coan, Karwoski, and Furnas did and we know how they turned out.
Coan’s off season was HiBar squats, deficit deadlifts and close grips for sets of 8-10. Comp lifts started 10-12 weeks out for 8’s.
@khangles
Alhazov’s squat doesn’t count. He bombed out on deadlift, lost grip on the first two attempts and got it on the third but then slammed it down to the ground, which is against that fed’s rules and got him red lights. Something about “forcefully propelling” the bar down. Quite a shame.
Back in the 90’s when I lifted in the ADFPA (now USAPL), the NY state chairman, Charlie Shroeder would give red lights for slamming the bar down at the end of a deadlift. His phrase during the rules briefings was - “If you can lift the weight, you should be able to put it down”.
I don’t think the IPF has that rule, but it does exist in other feds. Seems like a silly thing to bomb out over, it’s not like he dropped the bar but he was stupid for losing a squat record over this.
Kinda wanna know how he reacted when he got reds or realised his WR wasn’t going in the books. I wouldn’t wanna be the guy telling him or red lighting him. Make Alzahov mad and he would probably go squat your house and dump it upside down or someshit.