Bench Press World Record

Grand Rapids mom Koley Hockeborn, 51, a champion powerlifter for 30-plus years

Five years ago, at age 66, Ken Donnelly’s knees were swollen and he was forced to walk with a cane.

Now he is a world champion powerlifter, and has Koley Hockeborn to thank for his transformation.

Donnelly met Hockeborn after he had been retired for a year.

"I had sat around for a year and had not done a thing, so I was just getting back to the gym," Donnelly said. "She taught me how to lift weights properly and she helped me get healthy again."

Hockeborn, a 51-year-old mother of two whose father worked for NASA during the early Apollo missions, graduated from Rockford High School and Chic University of Cosmetology and has been powerlifting for more than 30 years.

Hockeborn has set 23 world records in her lifting career, including six in the 2011 World Single Event Drug-Free Powerlifting Championships last month at the Frauenthal Theatre in Muskegon.

"When I was younger, I weighed only 89 pounds and lifting was the only way I could change my body," Hockeborn said. "When I first joined a gym in the '80s, women weren’t really into this. I started as a powerlifter but then I got into bodybuilding, but eventually I went back to lifting."

Being named Miss Grand Rapids 1988 was the highlight of Hockeborn’s brief bodybuilding career. She won the title at Grand Rapids Community College’s Ford Fieldhouse.

Strictly a steroid-free lifter, Hockeborn belongs to three powerlifting federations -- the American Drug-Free Powerlifting Federation, USA Powerlifting and the World Natural Powerlifting Federation.

Hockeborn, who is 5-foot and 128 pounds, set six world records in Muskegon, in the bench press and squat lift events and in the Open and M-3 divisions. Masters divisions begin at age 40, with the M-1 divisions being reserved for those lifters 40-45. The M-3 division is for lifters 50-55.

Hockeborn also competed in the equipped and unequipped divisions, meaning she lifted with and without compression shirts and suits. Her unequipped bench of 231.25 pounds earned her the Open and M-3 world records, while her equipped bench of 248 pounds also earned her world records in the Open and masters divisions.

Her unequipped squat lift of 220.25 pounds earned her the M-3 world record, as did her equipped squat of 292 pounds.

"She is unbelievable," Donnelly said. "I train with her five or six days per week, and I can’t believe what she does every day.

Bench Press World Record | Sport Canada

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