NEWS: New Animal Powerlifter - Kevin "Oak" Okolie

[naturalguy]

Kevin “Oak” Okolie started lifting when he was a junior in high school: “I think my first gym goal was to bench 185, which I reached after several months.” While he was never a great bencher, Oak did get stronger. Still, he wasn’t training for PRs. He was looking for a way to improve his running. As a competitive sprinter, Oak was hoping that weight training would translate into real world benefits in terms of speed. It did and he was hooked on the iron. Eventually, Oak was recruited by a Division I track program, Villanova. There, he ran in the 100m, 200m, and 400m among other event. He finished in the top three in the Big East for the 100m (2006). In college, Oak started squatting for the first time (but didn’t start deadlifting until he was 24).

After graduating from Villanova, Oak got a job working on Wall Street: “The job was really stressful, so at night I would go to the gym to blow off some steam. At the time, I was primarily doing bodybuilding movements, but I always started with squats and bench to get those numbers up.” He got stronger. Eventually, at 24 years of age, he came to realize that powerlifting was the sport for him: “So I started training specifically for powerlifting and entered my first competition in July 2013. It didn’t go very well. I made a lot of rookie mistakes.” Despite that, he totaled 1600 raw in the 242 class (575 squat, 450 bench, 575 deadlift).

Instead of giving up, Oak continued training harder than ever. A year later, in July 2014, after being fully dedicated to the sport, Oak improved his total to 2002.5 pounds (raw with wraps) while weighing in at only 233 lb (745 squat, 505 bench, 752.5 deadlift). Kevin’s next big meet is the GPA Worlds in Sydney, Australia. There, he will join fellow Animal athletes Dan “BOSS” Green, Andrey Malanichev, Jeremy Hoornstra, Richard “The Ant” Hawthorne and Brandon Lilly.

Oak is proud to be an Animal athlete: “As soon as I started getting into powerlifting, one of the huge events that stood out to me was the Animal Cage. I think I’ve seen every single Animal Cage event. When I first saw the mix of lifters coming together to just hang out and crush weight, I knew I had to do whatever it took to be a part of Animal and lift there. The Cage showcases the absolute best lifters.” As a sponsored Animal powerlifter, Oak may now get that chance.

As a junior in high school, Oak was benching 185. Twelve years later, he was benching 505. What will the future bring? No one can say, but now that he is coaching and training with fellow Animal athlete and 19-year old phenom Larry Williams, the sky is the limit.



To check out his training log or to ask him a question, check out the following threads on the FORVM where Oak goes by “OakStrong”:


The Long Flight To Sydney (Training Log): http://forum.animalpak.com/showthrea...ight=oakstrong
Grow Strong As An Oak (Q/A): http://forum.animalpak.com/showthrea...rong-As-An-Oak

[amar654]

Animal always has epic yet humble athletes. Love it.

[Neverenough43]

Looking forward to seeing more from Larry!

[Universal Rep]

Oak doin zercher squats...

[thiba17]

Oak doin zercher squats...

Awesome athlete, just subscribed to his channel yesterday. Those zerchers are ridiculous!

[KCTonyG]

It didn’t go very well. I made a lot of rookie mistakes.” Despite that, he totaled 1600 raw in the 242 class (575 squat, 450 bench, 575 deadlift).

Instead of giving up, Oak continued training harder than ever.

LOL, yeah I would have given up with such a terrible performance in my first meet.

[fabostrong]

congrats! I hope to be a teammate one day.

[st3althr]

LOL, yeah I would have given up with such a terrible performance in my first meet.

Was going to post the same thing.

What a beast though

[Universal Rep]

Was going to post the same thing.

What a beast though

Think Oak has pretty high set of expectations for himself...

[xBONExCROWNx]

Larry, Brandon, and dan are the only animal lifters that interest me tbh.

[Mizzoutiger26]

Larry, Brandon, and dan are the only animal lifters that interest me tbh.

You're missing out, to be honest. Been following Kevin on Youtube for a couple months now, the dude is an absolute monster and has recently started doing commentary on his training footage, seems like a really chill dude.

[breathinglife]

I like the weird lifts he does, especially trap bar deadlift.

923 lb trap bar deadlift, anyone? (at 2:20)

[Universal Rep]

Larry, Brandon, and dan are the only animal lifters that interest me tbh.

Larry vid with his trainin partner Oak...

[LardLadDonuts]

cool