Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
When I broke that first world record, I just remember feeling like … ‘I’ve got more. I can do more.’
By Micah Mertes
Update: Chad Singleton, BS’08, has broken his fourth Guinness World Record — most pounds deadlifted with two fingers in one minute.
Chad broke the record shortly before Christmas, using just two fingers to deadlift 4,657 pounds over the course of 60 seconds.
Chad's previous Guinness World Records include heaviest sumo deadlift in one hour (male), most burpees in one minute while wearing high heels and most consecutive bodyweight deadlifts (male).
Chad actually has the most Guinness World Records in the deadlift of any other weightlifter. Having posted an additional deadlift world record (though not through Guinness), he's the only person to have a certified world record in conventional deadlift, hex bar deadlift, sumo deadlift and, now, two-finger deadlift.
Read on to see how a Denver high school teacher became a world-record-breaking powerlifter.
* * *
Published November 2022
Chad Singleton can’t stop breaking world records.
The Denver high school teacher and powerlifter recently scored his third entry in the Guinness World Records books — most consecutive bodyweight deadlifts (male). Chad deadlifted his own weight (185 pounds) 70 times in a row, no breaks, no stopping. The previous record was 60 consecutive lifts.
At nearly 13,000 pounds altogether, it’s by far the most weight he’s lifted in one go. His trick — both in training and beating the world record itself — was to lift as quickly as possible.
“I wanted to get as many reps as I could before my body realizes what’s happening,” Chad says. This appears to be his strategy for breaking world records, as well.
His first Guinness World Record was heaviest sumo deadlift in one hour (male). To break the record, Singleton lifted 142,750 pounds, beating the previous record by nearly 12,000 pounds. (Video) That means Singleton deadlifted 125 pounds 1,142 times in one hour. Side note: He went skiing the next day.
Chad broke his second world record in high heels — 43 burpees in one minute while wearing heels, five more burpees than the previous record. (For the first part of his training, Chad used the shoes of his wife and powerlifting partner, Mandi Ruud Singleton.)
How did the record breaking begin?
It started with Chad’s middle school theology teacher, who was himself a world record-breaking powerlifter — Ron Garofalo. He became Chad’s weightlifting coach. By the time Chad was a junior at Regis Jesuit High School, he’d won his first state championship. Before coming to Creighton to study exercise science, he had placed third at his first national meet and broke the Colorado state record for deadlift. He still holds three USA Powerlifting state records.
“Around that time, I was accomplishing things I never thought I could,” Chad says. “And it just made me wonder: What else could I do?”
Chad dedicated his most recent world record to his wife, his powerlifting coach and his former class of eighth graders (many who he now teaches as freshmen).
This school year, Chad took a new job as the health and global studies teacher at Arrupe Jesuit High School in Denver. As he previously taught physical education at a Catholic elementary school, 10 of his current students have been in his class since fifth grade. With their help, Chad has already started a Weightlifters Club at Arrupe.
For Chad, the world records are as much as anything a way to lead by example, to show his students what’s possible.
“Students may doubt what you say, but they’ll always believe what they see you do,” he says. “I want to show them that I believe in what I’m teaching and maybe inspire them to challenge themselves, too. Not necessarily for weightlifting but to achieve what they’re passionate about and do the things they never thought they could do.”
Chad’s drive, he says, has more than a little to do with being a Jesuit educator who was himself a product of Jesuit education.
He recalls his four years at Creighton as not only one of the best experiences of his life, but also one of the main sources of motivation in everything that came after.
“My two younger sisters also went to Creighton,” he says. “The University helped each of us get to where we are today. It helped us find our path. It empowered me to do what I love.”
(Oddly enough, Chad’s time as a Creighton theater actor ended up making him a better powerlifter. Starring in nearly a dozen productions while he was a student gave him the confidence to seek ever bigger stages.)
Chad is far from finished breaking world records. He recently applied to break his fourth — most pounds deadlifted in one minute, using just two fingers.
And if that weren’t enough, Chad is also thinking about breaking one of his own world records, the 142,750 pounds he sumo-deadlifted in one hour back in 2020. (In fact, his wife Mandi might train with him to break the same record for female powerlifters. This would be one heck of a way to celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary, Chad says.)
“When I broke that first world record, I just remember feeling like … ‘I’ve got more. I can do more.’”
