A man smashed the female bench press record at a powerlifting competition in Lethbridge, AB to protest gender rules set by the Canadian Powerlifting Union..Sporting a beard, head coach of Team Canada Powerlifting Avi Silverberg — founder, author and coach at feastgood.com — beat the record in the female 84+ kg category at the Heroes Classic on March 25, 2023..He lifted 370 lbs., beating the previous record of 270 lbs. set by transgender powerlifter Anne Andrea..Under CPU regulations, anybody who identifies as a woman can enter the female category, a rule used in protest by Silverberg..CPU rules state participants can “indicate their gender identity and expression, rather than their sex or gender.”.Unsurprisingly, Silverberg won the competition..Previous record holder Andrea came under fire in November 2022 for criticizing the standard of female powerlifting..“Why is women’s bench [press] so bad?” asked Andrea. “I mean, not compared to me, we all know that I’m a tranny freak so that doesn’t count. And no, we’re not talking about Mackenzie Lee — she’s got little T-Rex arms and she’s like 400 pounds of chest muscle apparently.”.“I mean standard bench in powerlifting competition for women, I literally don’t know why it’s so bad. My son, he weighs 45 lbs, [and] his max bench is like 33.”.“I’m seeing some women in competition who are doing something like 50 lbs, and I just don’t understand it.”.“I don’t understand why so many women are skipping bench and focusing on everything else,” Andrea added..Andrea previously set the female bench press record after a 270 lbs lift in September 2022, nearly 50 lbs ahead of the biologically female runner-up.
