Hulda Waage Sets a 550 kg Icelandic Powerlifting Total Record

Icelandic vegan powerlifter Hulda B. Waage has smashed her own national total record again, lifting a combined 550 kg (1,213lb) and qualifying for next year's World Championships in the process.

Hulda, 33, weighed in at 82.2 kg. She broke her own national squat record with her first attempt and broke it again with her second, finishing on 230 kg (507lb). She then benched 140 kg (309lb) and deadlifted 180 kg (397lb). The total added more than 10 kg to the record, which she already held. She was the highest-ranked woman at the meet and third of all lifters on the Wilks formula, which compares lifters of different bodyweights.

She managed it while dealing with sciatica and piriformis syndrome, and she told Great Vegan Athletes the result surprised her.

It went better than I imagined. Our goal was to qualify and has been this whole year. But I thought I wouldn't because I haven't manage to do so those times I had the chance.

Hulda first got interested in veganism at around 15, after reading about it in a book, and committed fully in 2014 after watching Earthlings while trying to lose weight after the birth of her younger daughter. "Suddenly I remembered how much veganism meant to me and how I had blocked my feelings towards the meat, dairy and egg industry for all those years. No more!" she has said. At home she fuels eleven training sessions a week with smoothies with peanut butter, tofu, chickpeas and curry, miso, nori and beets, and when traveling she packs black bean pasta, hummus, beans and nuts. Athletes from other sports in Iceland now ask her for advice on going vegan.

She joins a strong line of plant-powered lifters. We've covered powerlifter Matthew Jones, a vegan weightlifting champion who set a national squat record, and strongman Patrik Baboumian, whose motto is "my strength needs no victims".

Congratulations Hulda! No meat, no problem.