When you think of a “powerlifter,” we’re willing to bet a 4’5″, 132-pound dwarf isn’t the first thing that comes to mind — but Jeremy Smith doesn’t care what you think, and he can probably lift a hell of a lot more than you.
Jeremy, who was born with dwarfism, has been lifting since high school and despite his small stature puts up some impressive numbers. He can bench press more than 320 pounds and squat 745! We’re not kidding.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, Jeremy trains at the one-and-only Westside Barbell, an elite, invitation-only powerlifting gym. So yeah, he’s the real deal.
So far he’s only competed in two meets, according to openpowerlifting.org — during his very first one, he totaled more than 1,000 pounds.
Jeremy told Unilad in an interview that he got into lifting for a very simple reason: “I work out to better myself and to become the strongest possible version of myself. I hope to become one of the strongest people, dwarf or not, at 132lbs.”
Of course, some of his lifts have to be modified to accommodate for his size — for example, he often needs someone to lower the bar during bench presses before he can even grasp it. That doesn’t make them any less impressive, though.
Still, that hasn’t stopped the haters and trolls from rolling into his comments. Jeremy chooses to focus on the positive comments.
“In my mind, it’s all just about inspiring people and to give motivation to say if I can put up with this and do this so can you, there is no excuse,” he told Unilad. “If I just impact one person and motivate one person, that’s my goal.”
He regularly posts clips of his lifts for his 70,000 Instagram followers. Here, we picked out some of our favorites from his page.
Continue reading...
Jeremy, who was born with dwarfism, has been lifting since high school and despite his small stature puts up some impressive numbers. He can bench press more than 320 pounds and squat 745! We’re not kidding.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, Jeremy trains at the one-and-only Westside Barbell, an elite, invitation-only powerlifting gym. So yeah, he’s the real deal.
So far he’s only competed in two meets, according to openpowerlifting.org — during his very first one, he totaled more than 1,000 pounds.
Jeremy told Unilad in an interview that he got into lifting for a very simple reason: “I work out to better myself and to become the strongest possible version of myself. I hope to become one of the strongest people, dwarf or not, at 132lbs.”
Of course, some of his lifts have to be modified to accommodate for his size — for example, he often needs someone to lower the bar during bench presses before he can even grasp it. That doesn’t make them any less impressive, though.
Still, that hasn’t stopped the haters and trolls from rolling into his comments. Jeremy chooses to focus on the positive comments.
“In my mind, it’s all just about inspiring people and to give motivation to say if I can put up with this and do this so can you, there is no excuse,” he told Unilad. “If I just impact one person and motivate one person, that’s my goal.”
He regularly posts clips of his lifts for his 70,000 Instagram followers. Here, we picked out some of our favorites from his page.
Continue reading...
