Bench pressing phenom Julius Maddox has broken his own world record. Over the weekend, the Kentuckian benched an astonishing 744.1 pounds— a little shy of five pounds over the prior world record of 739.6 pounds, lifted by Maddox in late August.
The lift took place at the Rob Hall Classic in Austin, TX, where Maddox only competed in the bench portion of the competition. What’s more, the 744.1-pound bench was his second lift of the competition — Maddox declined to go for a third, and heavier, lift due to a tight pec.
Not only was this more weight than he accomplished in August, but it was a cleaner lift, too. When he broke the world record the first time— surpassing the former record of 738.5 pounds held by Kirill Sarychev—he had difficulty reracking the bar. No such problems this time around.
We, and Maddox, know that this is only the tip of the iceberg. In a YouTube video where he can be seen training alongside Strongman Eddie Hall, the American said he originally wanted to set the world record at closer to 760 pounds but was advised against trying that much by his coaches.
Maddox has made it known that he’s gunning for an 800-pound bench. At this rate, that might happen sooner rather than later. He recently uploaded a video where he’s seen benching 700 pounds for three clean reps.
In the meantime, Maddox has certainly etched his name into the history books. It’s not often that someone sets a world record, and then proceeds to break that just three months later.
