Team elitefts athlete Jo Jordan’s goal was to squat 1,058 pounds, but things didn’t quite go as planned at the 2019 XPC Worlds.
The biggest issue? His squat suit. It was tighter than he’d anticipated, which he attributes to weight gain.
"It got to a point where I couldn’t feel my legs. It kind of went dead; there was no capillary response, so I still tried my opener with 965, I got the up call, and nothing happened."
With the assistance of his fellow team members, Jo went to the back and sat out the second attempt so he could get the blood flowing in his legs again. He pulled out a brand-new suit, completely untested and untried — it hadn’t been broken in yet — and cut the seams off the bottom so it wasn’t binding down on his legs so much.
Once that was done and over with, Jo went back out for his third attempt, which was another try at 965 pounds, and he got it.
The meet went on to bench press, where he opened with a cautious 555-pound lift after the squat suit struggle. After easily getting that lift, Jo jumped to a successful 605 — a PR since it’s been a little over a year after his shoulder surgery — and a 635.
"And they just called my name."
With that, Jo snaps back up to his feet and saunters over to the stage to pick up his medal.
He tells one of the officials before going on stage: “I’m not used to hearing my name.” Once on stage, he asks if he won something — and he sure did: second place.
"Holy shit! Did I really? There were only two 275ers, though!"
Ever the good sport, Jo exits the stage and thanks each official he passes before continuing the interview.
Moving away from the subject of the bench press and toward the deadlift, Jo says he dropped his opener down to 605 pounds because of the issues he’d had with the squat.
"605 went easy enough. I wish it were a lot easier."
From there, Jo explains that he moved up the weights to 660 pounds, which he notes were more than he pulled at the WPO. Jo, feeling confident after that lift, decided to go up to 675 — which shocked him and all his training partners.
All in all, it was a good day for Jo with a 2,275-pound total.
"I actually just placed second in the 275s, which was a, well, I guess it’s not too much of a surprise because there’s only two of us, so I still got second place. I can’t control who shows up, but I had a good meet!"
Jo can’t wait to come back and do it all over again.
