SALEM – The kettlebell doesn’t fall far from the bench press in the Cox household.
Belinda Cox and Chris Cox both set Guinness World Records for feats of strength during the pandemic – goals they set to keep themselves from going stir crazy during a time of lockdowns and uncertainty.
Belinda did 775 chest-to-floor burpees in one hour – the most by any woman in the world as of March 2021.
Chris set three world records. In May of 2021 he completed 202 Turkish get-ups in one hour using a 24.1kg kettlebell for a total cumulative weight of 4,868.2kg or 10,710 pounds.
In November that year, he lifted the most weight by Atlas stone in one hour for a cumulative weight of 17,463kg or 38,500 pounds.
And in January 2022, he set the record for the heaviest single repetition Turkish get-up, lifting 76.56kg or 168 pounds, 8 ounces.
In this attempt, he not only set the record but established the category.
And now, their son Tyler, 13, has won the Under 13 category at the National Youth Championships in weightlifting in the U.S., which is not a world record, but certainly a personal best.
His parents have converted their garage into a workout room with all the bells and whistles.
So Tyler has been exposed to their training and equipment almost all his life.
As well, he would occasionally accompany his mother to her weightlifting training at the Maximus Barbell Club.
“I met my mom’s trainer (Roland Chretien) and that’s how it started,” he said in an interview in the home gym.
He started training in earnest in November 2022.
“There’s a lot of technical stuff you just can’t learn without someone who knows,” he said.
Having the right stance and making the correct moves not only protects a weightlifter’s body from injury, but allows them to increase weight and the number of lifts.
All this was good training. And he was seeing improvement. But competing was not on his radar – at first.
“I kind of fell into it,” he said.
In Canada, the youngest weightlifting category is 17 and under. So in any competition here, Tyler found himself competing against 16- and 17-year-olds, which is daunting when you’re just 13.
But in the U.S. there’s an under 13 weightlifting category. There’s actually an under 11 category there as well.
So on June 15 he headed to Pittsburgh for the U13 USA youth weightlifting national championships.
Canadians are allowed to compete but not to medal at the American competition. Tyler was pretty excited to compete against kids his own age.
And he beat all competitors, lifting 58kg in the snatch category and 69kg in the clean and jerk category, for a total 127 kg lifted.
But as a Canadian, he had to leave the hardware behind.
In the snatch, the bar is lifted from the floor to above the head in one movement.
The clean and jerk is a two-stage action – the bar is first brought up to the shoulders before being jerked over the head.
“It was exciting to be there but also nerve racking,” Tyler said, noting there were 192 competitors from across the U.S. at the meet.
“The guy to beat didn’t show, so we just competed with each other.”
“At every meet he’s done a personal best,” said a beaming Chris Cox. “He’s still on a good curve.”
Tyler attends Elora Public School and plays football, basketball and wrestling on top of weightlifting twice a week.
“It’s just a hobby. I have no eye on setting a world record,” he said.
However, considering the family, these things can never be ruled out.
