SNOHOMISH — After months of rigorous training, 17-year-old Ryan Fromm of Snohomish entered his first USA Powerlifting competition last month, hoping for a state record or two.
Apparently the young man doesn’t know his own strength. He ended up with four.
Fromm, a senior-to-be at Snohomish High School, competed in the 220-pound weight class for 16- and 17-year-old boys at an event in Seattle and came away with state marks for the squat (385.8 pounds), deadlift (529.1) and combined total for the squat, deadlift and bench press (1,129.9). He also claimed the record for the single-lift deadlift, which is a separate record for athletes who only enter that event.
His deadlift, in fact, surpassed the American record of 501.5 pounds for his age group and weight class, but is not being recognized because the Seattle event did not have a full allotment of certified judges.
Next month Fromm will get another chance at an event on Seattle’s Alki Beach, where there will be enough certified judges. And in the coming months his goal is to break the national championship deadlift record of 633.8 before he turns 18 on Dec. 6.
“I have a determination to be the best and that’s why I want to break the national record,” Fromm said. “And if I can break a national record I’ll be very pleased because that’ll mean I’m the best.”
Fromm started working out about four years ago because, frankly, he didn’t like looking in the mirror.
“I saw myself as a skinny little guy who didn’t look good,” he said. Even now, the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Fromm will appraise his physique and see “a small guy who has a little bit more muscle (than before), but still needs a lot of working out.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever get there,” he admitted with a smile. “I’m always going to be able to get a little bit bigger here, a little bit stronger there, so there’s always going to be something I need to work on.”
And that’s not a problem because Fromm is passionate about weight training. Or as he puts it, “I’m addicted to it.
“I just love to work out,” he said. “I have this drive. And I love to lift heavy things. It’s kind of the caveman mentality where you want to lift the biggest thing.
“Honestly, I hate taking days off. In the 4½ years I’ve been working out, the longest I’ve taken off is a week and I did it on purpose. My brother (Brandon, 21 and a fellow weightlifter) and I took a week off to see if we’d come back stronger, and it was the hardest week ever.”
Fromm also took a week off to rest before his June competition, “but I still went to hang out (at the gym) because I couldn’t stay away.”
Bill Wilkie of Snohomish, an Oak Harbor police officer and a powerlifter himself, helped Fromm get his start in the sport. Wilkie’s son Bryant and Fromm are longtime friends.
“Ryan started lifting in my basement with my son and me,” Wilkie said. And right from the start Wilkie saw that Fromm was “a real motivated and dedicated kid.”
To succeed in powerlifting requires some athletic ability, Wilkie went on, “but that’s not the biggest thing. You just have to have the ability and the desire to push yourself. Because when it comes down to it, character and desire mean a lot more (than pure talent).”
Wilkie has seen Fromm do some remarkable things in training. Such as taking 315 pounds and doing 10 deadlift repetitions 10 times, or 100 total lifts, which is “just an incredible number.”
“He really pushes himself and commits himself,” Wilkie said. “And he loves to be there, too. He really lights it up for other people. His smile kind of lights up the room.”
Fromm trains mostly at Team Fitness in Lake Stevens, where he is also an employee. He typically works out four days a week and usually for about 2½ hours a session.
He avoids drugs — “Some people think I take steroids, but I don’t,” he said — and expects to go to college, and then into a career either as a police officer or firefighter.
As he continues in powerlifting, he would like to compete nationally and internationally. He would also like to enter competitions such as the World’s Strongest Man, a televised event “that I watch religiously,” he said. “I love that show.”
“I want to get to my potential,” Fromm said. “I want to get to where people are looking at me and thinking, ‘This guy is a freak.’”
And those kinds of things could happen, Wilkie believes.
“I expect Ryan to do some good things just because he’s so motivated and dedicated,” he said. “I think he’s going to have a really good career in it if he sticks with it.”
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