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Shawn Frankl Powerlifting



On August 21st 2010 Shawn Frankl broke the world record in the 220lb class by squatting 1060lbs and bench-pressing 875lbs which he finished with a deadlift of 750lbs. His total was 2715lbs, there are very few men on the planet that have managed to develop this kind of strength.

Shawn started training when he was 12 years old and by the time he got to college he was benching 315lbs as a freshman. Standing only 5'6" tall and weighing 198lbs he broke his first world record in 2009 with an incredible 1055lb squat and 825lb bench-press with a 750lb deadlift. He became the first powerlifter to squat 5 times his bodyweight.

Shawn trains hard and heavy three times a week, using raw warmups to get his body going, Shawn trains bench-press with a bench-shirt all year round. In his own words Shawn says that he trains heavy and hard three times a week to build his endurance to lifting a heavy weight.

Shawn uses a lot of volume when he trains deadlifts, sometimes doing sets of 15 to 20 reps lifting the heaviest weight he can. He explains that this increases his core strength and prevents fatigue setting in when competing at a meet. His weekly schedule is simple and looks like this:

Monday: Bench-press Tuesday: Shoulders Wednesday: Deadlifts, upper back and abs Thursday: Arms Friday: REST Saturday: Legs and Sunday REST.

If you think the above training schedule looks like a bodybuilders routine, then you would be right. Shane competes in bodybuilding competitions often and has won the Mr. Natural Olympia bodybuilding competition four times in the last ten years. Shawn has often been called a powerlifter who competes in bodybuilding, because although his primary strength training is to increase strength, he also trains for size.

Shawn explains that the hardest part when transitioning to bodybuilding was learning to train to the point of failure. Unlike his very successful powerlifting career, where the objective is to move a weight from point A to B, he says bodybuilding is about focusing on keeping tension in the muscles throughout the lift until failure.


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