Maryana Naumova, the 13-year-old powerlifting phenomenon who can bench a whopping 240 pounds, isn’t the only teenage lifter catching the public’s attention. Pilot Point High School senior Matt Poursoltani is another young weightlifting prodigy who is shocking people with his incredible strength.
He already had a lot to celebrate when he set a personal best bench press of 670 pounds at a regional meet in Ponder, Texas. But he took on an even heavier (literally) achievement at the State Finals, where he and his team were aiming to top the 700-pound barrier at the Texas High School Powerlifting Association meet in Abilene.
“I call Matt the freak show—what he does is spectacular, better than anyone else in the country. People’s jaws just drop when they see him,” says his coach in this behind-the-scenes training video.
Poursoltani is a 5’10”, 270-pound football player who decided to concentrate on lifting after suffering a knee injury. “When I tore my ACL, I didn’t have anything else to do, so I benched every day. I had to do something; it’s all I had,” he said according to Reporter News.
Poursoltani held the Texas state record from last year with a 570-pound lift, but that was child’s play compared to what he achieved at this year’s meet. He went, saw and conquered all before him, hitting his target of 700 pounds and setting a new state record in the process. Though the 18-year-old’s training and nutrition regimen—detailed here in this Dallas Newsprofile—are not exactly conventional, judging from this video of the 700-pound press, they work for him.
