The deadlift is a weight training and strength training exercise in which a loaded barbell or bar is lifted off the ground to the level of the hips, torso perpendicular to the floor, before being placed back on the ground. It is one of the three powerlifting exercises, along with the squat and bench press, as well as a frequent lift in strongman. It is also occasionally used in armlifting.
William Kazmaier is an American former world champion powerlifter, world champion strongman and professional wrestler. During the 1970s and 1980s, he set numerous powerlifting and strongman world records, and won two International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) World Championships and three World's Strongest Man titles. In the 1980s, Kazmaier became famous for his claim to be "the strongest man who ever lived" by equaling and surpassing spectacular and versatile feats of strength of famous strongmen of the 20th century. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest strength athletes of all-time, and was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
Andrew Bolton is an English powerlifter and strongman who was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire. He is the first man to deadlift 1000 lbs/453.6 kg, doing so in 2006.
Bench press world records are the international records in bench press across the years, regardless of weight class or governing organization, for bench pressing on the back without using a bridge technique.
Nick Best is an American strongman and powerlifter.
Edward Coan is an American powerlifter. He is widely regarded throughout the powerlifting world as the greatest powerlifter of all time. Coan has set over 71 world records in powerlifting.
Benedikt "Benni" Magnússon is an Icelandic strongman and powerlifter, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest deadlifters of all-time. He held the raw deadlift world record from 2011 to 2022 with 460.4 kg (1,015 lb), and it remains the heaviest raw deadlift ever done in conventional stance.
Brian Shaw is an American retired professional strongman who is widely regarded as one of the greatest strength athletes of all-time. He won the 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2016 World's Strongest Man, making him one of only five men to win the World’s Strongest Man four times or more. In 2011, Shaw became the first man to win the Arnold Strongman Classic and the World's Strongest Man competitions in the same calendar year, a feat he replicated in 2015. With 27 international competition wins, he is the fourth most decorated strongman in history behind Lithuania's Žydrūnas Savickas, Poland's Mariusz Pudzianowski and Iceland's Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson. Shaw has also set more than 25 world records in deadlifting, stonelifting, keg-tossing, grip related movements and more.
Gregg Ernst, is a former Strongman competitor and Powerlifter from Nova Scotia Canada.
Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson is an Icelandic professional strongman who is widely regarded as one of the greatest strength athletes of all time. He is the first and only person to have won the Arnold Strongman Classic, the Europe's Strongest Man, and the World's Strongest Man competitions in the same calendar year and holds numerous Strongman titles from multiple strength federations, including multiple world records. With 31 international competition wins, he is the third most decorated strongman in history, behind Lithuania's Žydrūnas Savickas and Poland's Mariusz Pudzianowski, and in terms of pure brute strength and with over 100 world records, many strength analysts and Strongman experts regard Hafþór as "the strongest man to have ever lived".
Strength athletics in Iceland refers to the participation of Icelandic competitors and holding national strongman competitions. The sport's roots have a long and ancient history going back many centuries with the legends of Orm Storolfsson and Grettir Ásmundarson to the 19th century traditional strongmen including Snorri Björnsson, Brynjólfur Eggertsson and Gunnar Salómonsson; before the televisation of modern strongman competitions in the late 1970s.
Brad Gillingham is an American world champion powerlifter and strongman competitor from Minnesota, United States.
Mike Burke is an American strongman and a grip strength specialist from Aurora, Colorado. Before becoming a strength athlete, he worked as a construction worker.
Blaine Sumner is an American world champion powerlifter from Conifer, Colorado, currently residing in Gillette, Wyoming, United States.
Edward Stephen Hall is a British media personality and retired strongman. He is best known for his world-record setting 500 kg (1,102 lb) deadlift in 2016 which is widely regarded as one of the greatest feats in the history of strongmen. He is also known for winning the 2017 World's Strongest Man competition.
John Haack is an American powerlifter. Haack is considered one of the greatest powerlifters of all time along with being the greatest pound-for-pound powerlifter of the modern age. Haack is a multiple all-time raw world record-holder in multiple weight classes. He is the current world record holder in the raw 90 and 100 kilogram weight class.
Heather Connor is an American powerlifter, competing in the 47 kilogram weight class. She is a 2-time IPF world champion and 6-time national champion.
Krzysztof Wierzbicki is a Polish powerlifter. Wierzbicki has won 5 gold medals at the World Classic Championships and 2 gold medals at the European Classic (raw) Championships in the IPF. Wierzbicki has also took part in the World Games in 2017, where he finished in 5th place.
Listed below is the progression of raw squat world record since its introduction as the 'knee bent' and through the emergence of powerlifting and segregation into sleeves and wraps.
Terry Todd 
Benedikt Magnússon 
Andy Bolton 
Temur Samkharadze 
Lars Norén 
Tibor Mészáros 
Krzysztof Wierzbicki 
