Photograph by Dilip Vishwanat
Andrew “Mandrew” (it’s a high-school nickname) Kim is a 25-year-old powerlifter who’s helping to organize this month’s Heart of America Bench Press and Dead Lift Championships at the Gateway Center in Collinsville, Ill. He would have no problem lifting your refrigerator by himself, and at just over 5 feet tall, he might fit inside of it, too. Tough as he may be, though, we didn’t have to employ any strong-arm tactics to find out what it takes to lift like a champ—he was happy to help us break down the numbers.
347.2, 479.5, 529.1: What Kim can bench-press, squat and dead lift, respectively, in pounds
177: Kim’s weight, in pounds. He’s considered a “light middleweight.”
5-3: Kim’s height, in feet and inches. Kim is not exactly tall, but in the sport of powerlifting, that’s a good thing. “Being shorter gives you more leverage in certain movements, particularly the squat and the bench press,” he says. “If you have the right body height, you’ve got a mechanical advantage.” He references 5-foot-tall Turkish powerlifter Naim Suleymanoglu (a.k.a. “Pocket Hercules”) who lifted three times his body weight in the clean and jerk at the 1996 Olympics.
Late 30s to early 40s: The age when Kim says people often peak as powerlifters. He’s got at least 10 years to go before his body attains full muscle maturity.
1: The number of corners of a station wagon he estimates he could lift off an accident victim pinned under the car. “I can dead lift in the mid-500s,” he says, “so I can pick up a lot of things. But do understand that due to my short stature, if it came to picking up a car, when I stand straight up it’s probably going to lift up the car to the top of where the shocks are.” (That’s OK, Mandrew—you lift, and we’ll yank ’em out.)
?: The circumference of his biceps. “Measuring your muscles is more along the lines of bodybuilding—those guys are more about the aesthetics,” he says. “Lemme put it this way: Bodybuilders are as strong as they look. Powerlifters are stronger than they look.”
5: The number of months, as of press time, that Kim had been engaged to fiancée and fellow powerlifter Erica Haislar. The obvious question: Who will carry whom over the threshold?
