Whoa! Powerlifter Blaine Sumner has shared footage from a workout that left fans stunned.
Powerlifter Blaine Sumner is no stranger to record-breaking feats of strength. “The Vanilla Gorilla” shattered multiple world records at the IPF Championships last year and broke his own bench press record by deadlifting 1,091 lbs. Blaine Sumner has done it again — sharing a video with fans over Instagram that showed him squatting an impressive 1,005 lbs. You can check out Sumner’s own commentary on the moment in the post below:
“Just been doing some fun conjugate work for my heavy work. But it’s time to start thinking about the Arnold again. 7 weeks out…DADDY’S HOME,” Sumner shared with fans. Sumner does not use wraps in the video, but that’s nothing unusual for this athlete; Sumner previously squatted over 1,900 lbs. combined in Dubai using similar training methods. He seems to genuinely be an athlete who enjoys not using wraps and pushing himself to the limit. A questionable practice, but Sumner is a good enough powerlifter to get away with it.
Sumner is of course referring to the Arnold Sports Festival, where he’s almost guaranteed to place as one of the world’s most competitive powerlifters. Of course, there are no guarantees in the world of sports fitness, but if Sumner keeps his conditioning up and continues on this path, he’s definitely looking at a top 3 finish. As a powerlifter, Sumner
However, Blaine’s upcoming draw for fans may not even be on the competitive stage. In December, Generation Iron and Vladar Company officially announced the production of Strength Wars, a feature documentary based on the popular YouTube channel. The film follows eight competitors as they train for the Strength Wars, among them names like Larry Wheels, NDO Champ, and, yes, Blaine Sumner.
“We’re very excited to bring the Strength Wars brand to the United States,” said director Vlad Yudin. “This film will do for strength sports what Generation Iron did for bodybuilding.”
The film highlights a strength competition that escalates from 2v2 battles into an eight person tournament. It’s too early to say where Blaine would place in an eight way match up like that, but he is certainly considered to be one of the champions of the sport and it would not be surprising to see him do well in that style of competition. After all, this is a repeated world record-holding and world record-breaking powerlifting champion.
Sumner was born on June 22, 1987 in Conifer, Colorado. He was the 2016 IPF Open World Superheavyweight Champion. He has broken a number of powerlifting and strength training records, including having the highest single ply total across all federations of 2,812 lbs. and a bench press that exceeded 1,000 lbs. He played football in college and is active across many sports disciplines, including wrestling, lacrosse, and track and field.
