Meanwhile in Estonia …
Mart Seim Squats 320kg x10 (705 lbs)! One of the best squatting efforts of our time.
Scroll down to Read His Method. Thank you Mart for sharing that. You are amazing!
Like his new Facebook Page.
Update: his 246kg Clean & Jerk at worlds + the Story behind the lift.
Update: Mart Squatted 400kg!
How it came to be
After the 2014 European Weightlifting Championships Mart Seim took 2 weeks off from serious training (he did some squats while on vacation in Spain).
Then on May 12th I get this message from Mart asking:
Hey, do you know how much the record for squats of ten is?
I remember Misha did 10 with 310 or something, but has anybody done better?
Indeed Mikhail Koklyaev did 312.5kg Squat x9. Then there was Derek Kendall who did 317.5kg x10 (PL style). Unfortunately the video is gone.
I believe Rezazadeh would have done it with 350kg
So that’s when Mart set the goal to squat 320 x10.
He told me that day (May 12th) was his first real training session after the Europeans. He did 295kg x3 that day.
Mart kept me updated on his progress so we can now look back and see what he did.
The specific training for this project started 26.05.2014.
His Method
He used the same pyramid approach he did when he worked up to his 350kg Squat. Remember that this is like the first part of the Russian Squat Routine [Spreadsheet Here].
So he only works up to the 6×6 day and then one week or so rest, after which “I do it like I feel… squat 2×6 and then 300/10 and then then I might try 320.
28.05: Mart gets 290/3 x6, saying that:
First 4 sets were easy. Final 2 not so much, but still ok. Next week is killer with 4×6 and 5×6.
09.06: He did 290/6×6, then took 9 days “rest” which included a 290/2×4 session just to get his legs rested for the big day.
18.06: He gets the 320kg x10 you saw in the video at the top.
Next competition for Mart is the Baltic (26.07).
Utterly ridiculous! I once did 228 x 10 with wraps, and it was TERRIBLE. I can’t imagine the type of mental fortitude it would take to push through this set.
Amazing! Probably an unofficial 10 rep world record. Raw, ATG, high bar as well, no tricks. I’d love to see him try for a new 1 rep max now, 360-70 at least.
To be honest, this is in a sense more impressive than any 1 rep max I’ve seen. Let me be clear: it’s NOT more impressive in terms of absolute strength–obviously in powerlifting or weightlifting the implicit goal is a 1 rep max. That said, mentally, it is much more difficult to push through a 10 rep set than a 1 rep max. My squat days where I max are actually not as taxing as those days where I’m hitting a lot of reps.
This is certainly the heaviest 10 rep set I’ve ever seen on squats, and like most ATG readers, I’ve seen a lot! Plus, it seems like just yesterday that Seim was hitting this for only a few reps. Awesome progress.
Agreed.
This is the kind of strength that someone should be able to do a clean and jerk world record off of. If not the jerk then one hell of a clean for sure.
I’d like to see Seim try some max out front squats as well, I think he should be able to hit 300kg.
@CdX — It’s not a world record in any real sense–there aren’t any records for 10 rep squats. That said, some lifters prefer close spotting in training. Especially since Seim has been recovering from a hand injury, he likely doesn’t want to risk dumping the weight if he fails and tweaking his wrist–that’s my guess. The spotter doesn’t appear to be assisting.
Newbie here, just wondering how/if the plates add up to 320 KG.
20 (bar) + 25 * 8 (red) + 10 * 2 (green) = 240 KG?
The dark green plates are 50kg.
Powerlifters Hoss Cartwright and Brian Siders had a contest to see who could squat more reps with 800#(363 kg.) some years back. Cartwright did 9 reps and Siders did 10. Both me had competitive singles over 455 kg.. They used knee wraps and single ply suits.
25s next? Article below talks about Tom Platz doing 227.5 for 23 and not knowing of anyone who has matched.
http://www.jtsstrength.com/articles/2014/08/22/squatting-build-wheels-bodybuilders-train-squat/