Chapter 560: Rehabilitation Training

Chapter 560: Recovery Training

Powerlifting, a new competitive weightlifting discipline distinct from traditional weightlifting, encompasses the squat, bench press, and deadlift.

Squat, press, and pull—these were originally fundamental means and methods of basic strength training, known as the three core lifts of strength training, which gradually evolved into an independent competitive sport.

As a weightlifter, Meng Fan had naturally encountered the three major lifts—squat, bench press, and deadlift—in his training. He practiced the bench press relatively less, but the squat and deadlift were frequent exercises, singled out for focused training.

In weightlifting training, one cannot always practice only the lifts themselves; it requires breaking down each movement for training and incorporating more exercises for other body parts to comprehensively enhance weightlifting performance.

Meng Fan looked into these three events—no, four, including the total—and found another world record, making things quite complicated.

Since powerlifting is not an Olympic sport, it has developed numerous branches and various "technologies" to improve performance levels. According to the classification of Meng Fan's powerlifting world record table, it mainly divides into whether drug testing is conducted and whether equipment is used.

The classification of drug testing is simple: it separates competitions with drug testing from those without.

The classification of equipment is slightly more complex: raw (no equipment) is further divided into with knee wraps and without knee wraps, while equipped is divided into single-ply and multi-ply.

The impact of equipment assistance on final results is enormous. Take the bench press world record, for example: the difference between raw and equipped is 150 kilograms.

Take the well-known Icelandic strongman "Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson" as another example. He is one of only two people in the world capable of deadlifting half a ton. That is the weight he can pull under the conditions of no drug testing and heavy equipment. Meanwhile, the raw deadlift world record with drug testing is 375 kilograms, a vast difference.

So the question arises: if Meng Fan wants to challenge and have the system recognize it, which world record table should he challenge against?

Meng Fan definitely falls under drug-tested and raw. He is currently in the off-season but still subject to random drug tests. In other words, he is someone who cheats; from the perspective of competitive fairness, his cheating is far more serious than drugs.

Therefore, based on the system's judgment, Meng Fan felt it best to aim for the world records in the non-drug-tested and heavy equipment category, and specifically the heaviest weight class.

Squat: raw 460 kg, equipped 585 kg.

Bench press: raw 337 kg, equipped 487 kg.

Deadlift: raw 460 kg, equipped 501 kg.

All under the premise of no drug testing.

Meng Fan planned to go after these two records: first try raw; if the system deems it successful, he would stop; if not, he would try equipped; and if that still didn't work, he would gradually increase the weight.

...

Meng Fan went out, first stopping by the Xizi Lake Cultural and Creative Park. He hadn't "worked" there for a month, so he figured he should at least show his face, even though there was nothing left for him to do there now.

Around one in the afternoon, after eating lunch there, Meng Fan strolled over to Zhejiang Provincial Sports Institute.

"The missing person has returned!"

When Dean Zhan saw Meng Fan appear in the gymnasium of the Heavy Athletics Department, he teased him with exaggerated surprise, then dragged Meng Fan off to guide the various teams. Meng Fan currently held the title of coach at Zhejiang Provincial Sports Institute but rarely did any work, so now that he was here, they couldn't let him off easily.

Meng Fan's arrival was welcomed by a crowd of athletes and sports students. Guidance and training were set aside for the moment as a flood of gossipy, curious questions poured in. What everyone cared about most was how much weight Meng Fan had lost after a month of running, as this directly affected the performance level of China's heavyweight weightlifters.

Meng Fan held up one hand with five fingers spread: "After running three thousand kilometers, I've lost about five kilograms."

At first, everyone thought that was a lot of weight loss, but upon closer consideration, it really wasn't impressive—three thousand kilometers for only ten jin? Too little!

That equates to losing one jin every three hundred kilometers, a volume that most ordinary running enthusiasts couldn't achieve in a month. For the weightlifters present, it would take at least a quarter or even longer to cover that distance.

Indeed, running doesn't help you lose weight!

At the same time, some coaches breathed a sigh of relief. Losing just five kilograms had no significant impact on Meng Fan's weight class.

An hour and a half passed in a flash. Meng Fan provided some technical guidance to a few athletes while also completing his warm-up, and then, under everyone's watchful eyes, he began his "recovery" training.

First, the snatch.

He started with one hundred kilograms as a warm-up for the single movement.

One hundred kilograms felt no different from snatching an empty bar to Meng Fan, but he was still very serious, executing each movement with precision, every step in place.

Then the weight was directly increased to two hundred kilograms. He snatched it comfortably and smoothly, drawing envious looks from the athletes around him, their eyes gleaming everywhere.

The line of force was truly beautiful—the beauty of strength was all there.

After two snatches, Meng Fan increased the weight to 233 kilograms, the world record he had set at the Olympics. For his former self, this was nearly the limit, with maybe one to three kilograms more possible, but for his current self, it was merely a warm-up weight.

He lifted it easily, and after the system prompted him that he had completed a world record challenge, he did two more consecutive snatches.

"Damn, he loses weight but not strength?"

"Not only does he not lose it, he's even stronger!"

"Over these two years, I feel like the Iron God has gotten much stronger, and by a lot. Snatching a world record three times in a row—by normal conversion, he can definitely snatch two hundred and fifty!"

"Snatch one? You're something!"

"Get lost!"

...

After completing one challenge, Meng Fan switched to "recovery" training for the clean and jerk.

The current world record was, of course, still his from the Olympics: the clean and jerk at 282 kilograms, along with the total of 515 kilograms (Wu Tong's birthday). If he didn't break it, this record, under normal world development, might stand for fifty or even a hundred years without being broken.

Meng Fan started his attempts at 233 kilograms and then directly jumped to 282 kilograms—too easy. Without boasting, Meng Fan could now snatch that weight, and with great ease.

The limit?

Meng Fan's current snatch limit was at least 400 kilograms, and for the clean and jerk, he could probably challenge half a ton!

Ding.

Ding.

Two more prompts. Progress on the hundred world record challenges: 3/100.

After finishing the snatch and clean and jerk, Meng Fan moved on to basic strength "recovery" training.

First, the squat.

The squat is one of the essential and frequently practiced training movements for all weightlifters. Weightlifters primarily train with full squats, a characteristic determined by the current squat technique in Chinese weightlifting competitions.

Before participating in the Olympics, Meng Fan's squat training weights were generally between 300 and 350 kilograms. He could squat 350 kilograms for six reps. He had rarely attempted heavier weights, and compared to top powerlifters in the world, he was still far behind—a difference also related to the training methods of the sport.

This time, Meng Fan started his squats at 300 kilograms, easily completing a set of twelve.

Then he directly added 100 kilograms and continued with another set. After a three-minute rest between sets, he loaded the bar to 460 kilograms to see if the system would deem the raw world record challenge successful.