Andy Bolton Squat

[Yvone Samiento]

Ihave been reading Andy Bolton's recently released set powerlifting books. In his Explode Your Bench book he goes on to tell that his first bench press was modest at 70 kg (154 lbs) compared to his first time under a bar for squats which was 220kg (484 lbs) and doing a deadlift at 260kg (572 lbs).

I don't doubt the man's claims but I had no idea that strength at this level could exist without prior training on the lifts. I haven't read much on other elite lifters and their first lifts, I would like to know if they share such crazy beginner's strength.

I recently pulled 755 in a competition (raw). The first time I deadlifted, I pulled 385. I was 15 years old and weighed 165. I could have done a little more but my coach told me that was good enough to see where I was. I plan to pull near 800 by year's end.

I live near Andy Bolton and remember when he first started training at the gym where I trained, There were a number of awesome powerlifters and at the time Andy was not the most impressive there! Obviously now is a different story.

Last time I saw him was about a year ago in our local supermarket where as it happens he was talking to one of the pother guys who trained at the same gym years ago, and he was talking about another powerlifter who trained his grip a lot and consequently never lost a grip on deadlifts.

To help you out. I do believe that all if not most people on that level start out stronger. Jarno Hams the strongest man in Holland for instance also deadlifted excactly 260kg the first time ever. But one has to consider the training the people have undertaken before they ''first started''. Andy bolton for instance played rugby and sprinted intensivly before he really started to lift at 18. He also did light strength training. He probably had good lowerbody development..Besides he benched 70kgs first try or so.... -bolton.html

I don't think jarno hams has done a lot of strength training before he pulled 260kg, he played a lot of soccer at a high bodyweight though. But his dad was 6'6 400 pounds and played tennis and could swim and was VERY athletic at that size. so he inherited some genes safe to say :P.

On the other side you shouldnt be disencouraged to not get really strong and think that u need to start out strong to get real strong. Because another example is Ryan Kennely who started benching I believe at around 200 max first time (pretty average), And now hes pushing 700raw at 670pounds raw. I believe its possible for a lot of guys to triple their strength or more!!

I deadlifted 300 pounds first try @ only 73kgs orso and this was with ocasional dumbell (max weight 25kg a piece) training 2x a week or 1x a week for a year before that along with running, bike and sprint training, and I benched around 70kgs (could do like 30 pushups). If id not done any training i only might have got 150-250 pounds who knows.

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