I met this guy in 1995 at Lost Battalion Hall in Queens, NY at my first real weightlifting meet. He reminded me of a bear.
In my mind at least, he was one of the greatest weightlifters of all time. Arguably the strongest Super-heavyweight pound-for-pound.
This is Anatoly Pisarenko.
In this clip he is Clean and Jerking 265kg – 583lbs for those of us who are metrically challenged. He only weighed approximately 270lbs.
Think about that for a second.
That’s 2.16 times his bodyweight.
That’s some serious strength.
As a young weightlifter he’s who I always wanted to be and who I modeled my technique after. Unfortunately, I was almost his age when I started my weightlifting career.
When I think about my technique, I play back his lifts in my head.
I still love weightlifting. I aspire to get back to the platform and still put 400lbs overhead in the Jerk. One day soon.
Who do you model and who inspires you to greatness – to achieve great levels of strength?