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FERGUS – When he successfully lifted 442 pounds at the HackenDinnie Classic in Kentucky on June 7, Chris Frappier beat the existing world record for his weight and age.
This is despite breaking his wrist just three days after deciding to work towards the record-breaking lift in October 2020.
Though it was a short fall from a ladder, the break was serious and Frappier said initially the injury “squashed all dreams of even going for it.
“I broke the arm bone and two or three fractures in the wrist bones, and the ligaments in the wrist got torn apart,” he said.
His arm was in a cast for four months.
Frappier said he felt “deflated,” and believed he’d “lose a good portion of my strength and mobility with my hand permanently.”
Recovery
But over time, after multiple surgeries and commitment to physiotherapy and training, Frappier rebuilt his strength, spending three to six hours a day working on physio exercises.
His physiotherapist Mark Stonehouse from Grand River Physiotherapy was “a huge part,” in his successful recovery, Frappier said.
“He gave me hope, and when someone gives you hope, they give you the greatest gift in the world.”
At first progress was slow, and it was weeks before Frappier had enough mobility to touch his thumb and forefinger together.
For six months he “wasn’t allowed to do any strength movements in that hand – all mobility and nerve stretches.”
But by July 1 last year, his hard work really started to pay off and he achieved a big personal goal – to lift as much as he could before the break.
After that, Frappier felt “there’s no limits now,” and decided his next goal would be to go back to shooting for that world record.
Inspiration
Frappier said his two sons provide significant motivation and inspiration. When the pandemic pushed him to workout at home instead of at the gym, his sons started working out alongside him.
This exercise has led to them becoming much stronger and healthier, Frappier said.
“They look good and feel good, so as a parent that was all the inspiration I needed,” he added.
Frappier has been lifting weights since he was 16, and the initial driving force behind his hard work was a deep desire to be different from his dad, and strong enough to protect the people he loves from abuse.
“I was a scared, shy, unconfident kid who felt weak,” Frappier said.
He described a “terrible incident” he witnessed at 14, and how he struggled with feeling that “I couldn’t save my mom from what happened to her.”
Frappier said his dad was manic depressive, bipolar, struggled with addictions, and spent time in a psychiatric hospital after a nervous breakdown when Frappier was a kid.
By the time of the incident, his parents had been separated for years, but his dad said he wanted to see the kids on Christmas Eve, so she let him come by for a visit.
And Frappier and his siblings then witnessed their dad attack and rape their mom.
When Frappier and his 12-year-old brother tried to protect their mom, their father turned on them, and they quickly used bunk beds to barricade themselves in an upstairs bedroom with their six-year-old sister.
They hollered out the window until help came.
His mom reported the assault to police shortly after, but because they were legally married it was not considered a crime.
That formative moment “propelled my brother and sister into dark times,” Frappier said, and “destroyed my mom – she died being an alcoholic.”
For Frappier though, the incident “sent me the other way.
“I wanted to show him up – I wanted to be better than him.”
Now, 44 years later, Frappier is not only better than his dad, but stronger than everyone else too, as the world record holder in his class.
His weight division is 90 kilograms (198 pounds) and his age group is 55 to 59 years.
The former record holder was Larry Blockston, who lifted 441 pounds in 2002.
Fergus competition
Frappier’s next goal is twofold: to beat the world record in the next weight division, a 470-pound lift, and to do so in Fergus.
Clint Poore, the organizer of the Kentucky event, “planted a seed” of an idea for Frappier to organize a weightlifting competition here.
Frappier has been connecting with community partners, including physiotherapist Stonehouse, Craig Janzen from the Co-operators and Blaire Bouwman from Anytime Fitness, who will host the event next summer.
Fergus is “already a community of strength,” Frappier said, as home of the Scottish Festival and Highland Games, and he challenges “everyone in the community of any age and sex to compete and see what they can do.
“You are capable of way more than you believe,” he said.
