Powerlifter Julius Maddox officially broke the bench press world record at the Arnold Classic in March 2020 by benching 770 pounds. With that feat accomplished, he’s embarked on a training path to bench 800 pounds—and that progress isn’t letting up during the coronavirus pandemic quarantine. Maddox is taking his YouTube followers on his journey as he stays the course.
“Gym PR WITH REPS. Still getting it in during the Quarantine,” he wrote in his most recent video’s description.
“Today we’re doing a reload, and I’m going back to the basics: 585 for 8-plus,” he says of his training plan.
But Maddox also wanted to use the footage to put any rumors about his supposed bench press advantages to rest. Namely, that he’s so strong because he is able to work within a short range of motion.
“I get comments all the time that say, well I could bench 700 pounds if my arms were that short too. So today I’m gonna show you guys how long my arms really are,” he says.
Sure enough, Maddox produces a tape measure, and proves that his arms are 22 inches long.
“Let’s see if it’s truly what it is,” he says as he sets himself up for a bench. “Well folks, there you have it.”
From there, he’s onto his workout, easily pumping out reps of 585 pounds. He was supposed to work for sets of 6 reps, but he ramps his work up to 10 reps. Maddox winds up failing on his last set going for 11 reps. Still, the 10 reps at the weight is a PR.
He goes on to talk about his disappointment with everything that’s going on with the coronavirus.
“It sucks right now that everything that’s going on. They said we’re gonna be in this quarantine for about a month. So, man, that’s gonna suck big time,” he says. “But yeah, I have enough background and education that as far as myself and what I can do and what I know will be beneficial for me, is I can train at home with basic stuff. I don’t care if I have to use sandbags. I’ll train from home. It doesn’t make a difference,” he says. “If you truly have a goal in mind, and you truly have a love for the sport… you’ll find a way to get what you need.”
He gets back to his workout, knocking out tricep extensions and chest presses on an inclined bench. Then he’s onto side lateral raises, a front delt raise, and upright rows.
Then he shares his trick for how to load more weight on your cables if you’ve out-trained your weight stack. He takes a resistance band and wraps it around the weight stack, and attaches a clamp.
He’s onto more tricep and chest moves, doing cable overhead rope extensions, standing rope cable rows, and tricep rope pushdown. Then he hits his back with a seated cable row with a wider bar.
To close out the session, Maddox offers encouraging words for those keeping their goals during this time.
“If it’s something you want as far as your goals, you have to be creative in order to maintain your program or normal regimen,” he says. “Even if you’re just walking, get some extra cardio in for the next couple weeks. Push ups, sit ups, burpees. Find you some rocks to do carries with some stones. I don’t know. Whatever floats your boat. But the whole point is stay active, stay doing something.”
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