Mark Bell's Power Project - He Squatted 683 Pounds at 55 Years Old! | Grant Higa

Episode Date: October 19, 2026

At 55 years old, Grant Higa is still squatting nearly 700 pounds, breaking American records, and competing against lifters half his age.We sat down with the legendary powerlifter and strongman to discuss how he's maintained elite-level strength for over three decades without performance-enhancing drugs. Grant shares his approach to training, recovery, injury prevention, and longevity, including why he now prefers six-week training cycles and how strongman training keeps him motivated.We also get into his recent performance at the Olympia, where he broke four American records, the evolution of powerlifting since the 1990s, and why staying strong for life matters more than chasing short-term success.

There's one thing I'm pretty proud of because to be able to squat near 700 pounds at 55, you know, I'm pretty excited and proud that I can still be able to do that. How did you avoid taking performance enhancing drugs with like it swirling around you so much, or were you able to? It just never was my thing. If you want to stay in this sport, no matter if it's power lifting or strong, then don't be just a flash in a pan for a couple years. There's not too many over mid-50-year-olds that can squat or deadlift almost 700 pounds. You know what I mean? That's pretty cool, in my opinion. Grant Haga, great having you on the show today.

I'm super excited and I'm also inspired by all the work that I'm seeing you put in over so many years. What has it been like to be able to still hit the platform and be able to perform and be able to lift some of the weights you're able to lift now that you're 55 years old? I think, you know, first of all, being healthy and being able to move some heavy weight at my age is one thing I'm pretty proud of because to be able to squat near 700 pounds at 55, you know, I'm pretty excited and proud that I can still be able to do that and stuff, you know. So it was a good opportunity to break four American records. And fortunately, I was able to get at Donboro, you know, so, but yeah. How do you think, do you think, because I know like a long time ago, or not even that long ago, but you were doing Strongman for a long time too.

Yeah. Do you think the background in Strongman has helped you with longevity? And did you move from Strongman? Because Strongman in some ways is like, maybe a little bit hard. to do from like longevity standpoint. Yeah, you know, I think, you know, I haven't done a strong man contest in quite some time as far as like out of state enough. But it's more because of just my, my kid's schedule, you know. So like a lot of these big strong men shows what happened in the summer and all that.

And both of my daughters, you know, as you know, both played softball and are in their collegiate careers now. So I didn't want to miss any of that, you know. But I would try and just do whatever local powerlifting contests I could. But offseason, I definitely love training like strongman stuff because I feel it kind of refreshes me. You know, instead of just doing squat bench deadlift, let's go carry some sandbags, let's go lift some natural stones and stuff like that. And I find that it keeps me fresh and makes me eager to go back into a power lifting prep

whenever I sign up for our contest. When you think of some of the strongest people of all time, do you tend to think about people that are great in multiple aspects of strength? Like you got, you know, Mark Henry, for example. And Mark Henry, I know when a similar path is you, you've competed a lot in the USAPL and you've done drug tested federations for a long time. But then you also have people like Mikhail Kokelev, who, you know, was doing weightlifting, strong men.

and powerlifting, a little bit like Mark Henry. When you think of some of the great, some of the all-time greats, do you kind of look at it that way, or do you have, you know, you're just like a huge Ed Cone fan or like, where do you kind of lie? Who the hell is Ed Cone? I don't know who that is, Mark. He's some little guy with giant hands. He might sneak out behind me.

I know. He's only got to watch the attack. Yeah, man, you got to watch that guy. No, you know, like, I think for me at my age, having longevity and knowing that, hey, I can back squat or deadlift 600 pounds with no belt with no problem. Or even this, do a 600 pound yoke or pick up a stone. I think, you know, like with those athletes that you mentioned, they are very inspirational to me.

So hopefully, you know, I think strength is when you're ready, no matter what. Like, no, there's no way you can squat or deadlift 600 pounds. Like, bet, you know, let's go. Give me a couple of warmups. or, you know, you know how it is as a top strength athlete, you're ready to go and having that confidence of knowing that you're prepared, if called upon to do something like that. And it becomes, I think it's like riding a bike, in my opinion, you know,

because, like, sure, you know, you might have to work the kinks out a little bit, but I'm fortunate that I'm able to do it at 55, soon to be 56, you know, and it's exciting. I enjoy it, which is, I think is important. I love what you're saying there because, you know, sometimes people are like, well, give me 12 weeks, you know, or or give me a year, grow and I'll be, but you're kind of just like, hey, I'm, I'm good to go right now. Well, 12 weeks just sounds awful. I remember when I first started, that was the thing, you know, like, oh, we'll do like 10 to 12 weeks. That would be just like a beating on my body, I feel like, you know.

Now, nowadays, I just do six weeks. and I feel that it works perfect for me. It might not be for anybody else, but I think six weeks is ideal for me where I can build up and then hit whatever goals I want and then be done. You know, I don't, I can't imagine doing 12 weeks. I don't be insane right now.

It's such a crazy focus and stuff like that. And you said, you know, with your kids and your work and everything, it's not always easy to manage that schedule. I mean, if we're being honest, you know, a strongman workout, especially when you're doing, like event training sometimes you go to someone's like shed or whatever barn or some shit and you pull all these weights out and by the time you pull all the weights out and rocks and stones and all the different stuff it that might have taken about a half an hour yeah no doubt 30 minutes when

people are strong a good 30 minutes of warming up yeah yeah starts it's like a four hour thing you know for sure and then you know after you do your event training for a strong man especially it's a workout to put it back if you're the only one there, you know? So, you know, I totally get what you're saying. And I feel just being ready and staying ready to be prepared and lifting any kind of competition is important to me. I think a lot of other top strength athletes probably feel that same way, you know, Ed could probably just like pull a stupid amount, you know, with no warm up, you know, that's how awesome he is. And hopefully I can, maintain and get up to that level as guys like Ed and Mikhail and stuff, you know?

I think Ed has a story of like he traveled like Sweden or something like that and all these guys were all fired up and they, they wanted to see him pull a big weight and I think the guys were just like finishing up a workout or something. He just got there. And I think he like with no warm up pulled like seven something like 765 or 705 or whatever it was. Yeah. You can't doubt him because of how just freakishly strong Ed has always been. No doubt, man. I mean, you know, it's, you know, to me, hopefully we can inspire the younger generation that, you know, if you want to stay in this sport, no matter if it's power lifting or strong men, don't be just a flash in a pan for a couple of years. If you can set yourself out of status where people will remember your name for a long period of time.

And I feel like to this day, you know, with my, you know, years as an animal pack athlete, I can. still hear like conversations from people or just strangers I've never met saying, man, I remember when you lifted this in the animal package or did this at nationals and stuff. So that that humbles me because knowing that I had that effect on a person at that time, especially if they say that's what got me into powerlifting and you're still doing it to this day, that means a lot to me, you know. That's, that's, uh, hopefully I can pass. on that longevity to these young lifters, you know?

Which one's more fun for you, Strongman or Powerlifting? You know, that's a good question. I think Strongman was fun because it wasn't normal. You know, a Strongman is so visual, right? You shouldn't be pulling a semi-truck. You shouldn't be flipping giant tires, right? But I think it has a good crossover into powerlifting as well because powerlifting is more simple to me, I guess,

because it's just a bar. I'm not, you know, I don't know. That's the way I feel. But I would say probably lean more to the strongman is a little bit more fun. And I'm looking forward to hopefully doing one next year because now my summer schedule is a little bit more free up where I could compete in like a master's level, strong man or America's strongest master and stuff.

So we'll see how that goes, you know. You said you broke four records. What kind of weights did you hit in this last meet? So the American records for USAPL Masters 2B. That's 55 to 59 years old in the 140 kilo class was the squat was only 545. So I opened with 611 and, you know, broke that right away. A second attempt went 639. And it really felt good.

So I made a big jump to 683. And Joe Ken House was in the audience. And he was even tripping out. He said that I made the big jump to 683. And fortunately, I got that up. I think I was really hyped that when I walked out, I took two extra steps more than I normally do. Normally, just a one, two, set and go.

But I kind of like rocked a little bit and had to settle just a little bit longer. And that's what made it a grind. You know, so I was able to break that. Bench press record was only 398. I'm not a great bench presser. I admit that. So I just wanted to just beat it by like five pounds and was able to break that. The deadlift record was only 611 pounds.

So what I wanted to do was I was aiming to break it on the second attempt because I kind of noticed the meat was a little fast. So I don't want to like open too heavy per se. I would still manage it, but let's get a nice safe opener because on that opener of 584, that already got me the total, the American record total. So I knew that I would have three with my opener and then break it on the second attempt, deadlift was 617, and then I pulled 639 to bump it up a little bit, you know. So that was the goal.

I got invited to the Olympia to two different contests. I got invited to the Masters Championship and Primetime. I took Primetime because, you know, prime time is all eyes on the last contest of the day. And I'd rather lift with all the young kids instead of lifting with the Masters. Let's see what Uncle Grant can do, lifting with all the young boys, you know?

So my goals were still could be achieved either way, but I'd rather lift in primetime with all the young kids, you know. You said you had, you like to do six week preps nowadays. How are you training? You know, how has your training changed as you've gotten older? Has there been some big changes? Because we've got to be people listening to this right now. And they're like, man, man, this guy's done strong man. And, you know, now he's powerlifting and he's going to go back to strong man.

this is pretty wild. They're like, thinking to themselves, I can't even, you know, do an overhead press on a machine without my elbows screaming. So like, how have you kind of preserved the joints and how have you been able to take care of your body? Like what's maybe different about training when you're 55 as a yeah,

you're 30? Off season, I like training with a lot of safety squat bar because I feel that saves my elbow a lot because when I start squatting with a regular bar, I always tend to like torque up while I'm trying to attempt the squat and that has a little bit of a residual effect on my bench press where it feels like a little tendonitis, you know, where when I unwracked the bench,

it kind of feels like jumpy per se. And then as I lower it, it's like a numbness kind of per se, but not extreme, but it's there and affects you too, you know. So I like doing a lot of safety squat bars off-season. I'm a big believer in like we own a hyper ice. We use that all the time. Like I'm driving to the gym. If it's a 20 minute drive,

I'm just driving and I got the massage gun. If I got squats or a bench today, I'm trying to open up here and doing it on my legs instead of wasting that time here at the gym to prehab per se, you know? Sleep is important. you know, if I get seven hours, though, I mean, that's, it could be more, obviously, you know, my sleep doctors are you should get 10 hours. I'm like, who gets 10 hours, right?

But, you know, sleep is important and, you know, nutrition and stuff. You know, I'm pretty, pretty simple. I just take branched amino acids and I've been just a simple pea powder protein that I get from Costco. And that's it. I don't take creatine or anything, you know, just, uh, a lot of mobility. I love using like Donnie Thompson's, you know, body tempering stuff all the time.

And I really feel that helps with keeping me healthy and my longevity in the sport. You stretch or anything like that? I don't do it as often as I could. I'd rather, like, lie on a softball or lacrosse ball or, you know, doing like triceps smashes on the barbell and stuff like that. that that is one probably thing i need to improve to help with that longevity you know so you're um you know it's interesting because yeah i agree like i do a lot of that kind of stuff too but it sounds like to me that you just you stay ahead of stuff um what about your actual

programming have you because i know i remember years ago there were some people like like chad ikes and a couple others actually that because chad had a real issue with sleep i don't if you remember that but he really just had very poor sleep and so he actually took a regular training week that most people would do and most people would agree and say hey that four day a week training program looks great but he just spread it out over two weeks have you had to do anything like that where you have a little bit more rest in between the harder workouts or i know some people use the technique of like not deadlifting that much in a training you know in a training block and things like that. Yeah. So I have been doing four days a week for power lifting prep. I'll go Sunday,

Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I had hired Bryce Lewis at one time from the strength athlete to help me with some programming. And Bryce was awesome. And I just used that same template from before. And I find that it works out for me just fine. The dead lifts is only like, twice a week per se but one heavy day and one just you know super light or maybe like a pause deadlift and stuff um but i feel like you know like sundays i'll do squats and then a little bit of a bench movement and then monday is a little bit of a light deadlift technique movement and maybe some upper body chest stuff that's not as heavy as the actual barbell press maybe something dumbbells or a machine or something like that and uh it's been uh it's been okay for me yeah i mean

my bench press could improve that's always been my weakness but i feel that my squats and my deadlifts have kind of maintained around you know mid six hundreds over the past couple of years during that template but uh i try to space it out so that i'm not doing a super heavy load like if i did lift heavy on Friday, I'm no, I'm not going to squat till Sunday. So it gives me enough time to recover along with me using my, you know, hypervote, rolling out, body tempering, whatever, to recover, you know. I've worked with some athletes that are very similar in terms of their physique as you. And what I've learned when it came to bench, actually some of them were,

ended up being pretty proficient at benching. But what was really difficult for these athletes was to tuck their elbows in. because their lats are so big. And as I'm looking at you right now, you just, your shoulders are really wide and seeing you in person and knowing you for many years. You have a huge back. And so it is great to have a huge back, especially for like, you know, squats. You load that weight up on your back.

Dead lifts. It's really great for the pull and gets even bigger from, you know, heavy deadlifting. But sometimes some of your mechanics or some size that we have can sort of almost get in our way. So it's sometimes harder for athletes that are thick to really kind of bent, you know, quote unquote, bend the bar, pull that in. And sometimes that angle, you know, that angle just look a little different. It might take more shoulder. And that's kind of the beauty of powerlifting is that the fact that we have three lifts. And then you look at someone like, you know, Colton Ingebritt. And you look at some of these people that don't have any holes or Jesus Olivares, right? These people are, you're like, man, I wish they were at least bad at one. one of the lifts, but they're amazing at there's are amazing at all three, right? And that is kind of the thing with power lift. I always struggled with the deadlift for me.

It was always very, very difficult. And I had to train you have, whatever the bad one is, it's kind of a curse a little bit because you try to train it a little differently and treat it a little bit differently than the other ones. But probably if you just had a similar mindset for the bench, then you can, or that you have for the squat, uh, you could probably improve, right? And then same thing with myself. if I had a similar attitude with bench, I was always just like, oh, I'm going to bench,

I'm going to be able to kick everyone's ass on the bench. I'll make up a lot of ground there. And if I had that mindset for the deadlift, I would have been able to have a much better total and a much better deadlift for it. Yeah, 100% agree. That's another thing that is probably like a chink in my armor for sure for powerlifting is I get really hyped up to squat and deadlift. The bench always is kind of a little mind battle, right?

like so uh you know you're you're spot on with that because uh that's a never ending battle even at my age i feel and for me like i am i'm not an archer i i don't like benching wide i feel i got like no explosion off my chest but when i bring it in much closer than normal i feel like my trisop strength is a lot more stronger to finish the lockout as compared to you know a little wider grip. I'm just horrible with a wide grip bench. But with that, you know, that squat issue I was telling you about my tendonitis,

I feel like when I bench now, I feel like I'm lowering the bar because my trap is so, you know, like tight from heavy squats that I'm bringing the bar down like this. And I kind of get that little helicopter effect that, you know, kind of bugs me when I'm trying to do a heavy bench breast attempt.

So, you know, it's just things you got to work on and when I go to nationals and stuff, that's something that I always got to make sure I stay on top of as much as I can because I may have a big squad and deadlift, but you got a big bencher. They make up a lot of ground on my total. And then I could be forced to a situation or I got to pull more than what I need, you know, so. But it's, it's definitely something that I need to improve upon. It's probably an advantage a bit.

I mean, I don't know. Actually, this is a good question, I guess, for you is, when the bench shirts and squat suits and stuff came in, did you compete that way as well? Yeah, when I first started powerlifting in 1992 in Hawaii, I did single ply. Yeah, it was crazy. And I always told this story.

When I first started powerlifting, you know, I learned to order powerlifting USA and look up what the latest routine was and who competed and did what in your weight class. But remember all those old like Inzer ads they had, Anthony Harris is like benching, reverse benching 600 and all that. But my first single that I got was a Z suit. And I put that on at my first contest, Hawaii State Powerlifting Championship. I remember it felt like a tourniquet on my legs. It was just awful. It just cut in so bad. And when I was done with the squats, I was like, get this off of me. I'm ready to bench. So I got my bench shirt on

and I got my shorts on. Ski, he's an OG power lifter from the big on Hawaii. He was like, he got to, where's your singlet? I was like, what do you mean? I'm going to bench now. You got to wear a singlet throughout the entire contest, boy. And I'm like, what? So I had to put on this in their Z suit again. It was just an awful experience, man. But that's the kind of things I had to experience, you know, or learn as a young novice power lifter getting into the game because I was their squat suit for the bench press.

Oh, my God. It was off a Z suit for that matter. Unless I hurt so bad. I can't imagine, like, trying to get your shoulders to the... I had like scab rings because it was so tight. Yeah. Because even when I was deadlifting, the Z suit was on me. And I didn't even want to cinch it up all the way.

It's probably like that far away from my crotch because I didn't want to pull it up any higher. But it was just awful, bro. Just a hard learning, hard learning experience that day, man. It was crazy. A Z suit for people listening is a squat suit. So it's much, much different than a just like a ordinary, ordinary singlet. You know, that's interesting because I probably started like not too much. I probably started almost as similar time as you because while you were in Hawaii doing that,

I was lifting on the East Coast, lifting in New York, probably in the same federation, because I started out in the ADFPA. Is that what you had available as well? Yeah, yeah. We did ADFPA and then my first state championship was USPF, 1993. Gus Rethwish put that contests on at the Turtle Bay Hilton on Oahu. But my first actual contest was just a simple push pole at a gym in Kona called Malka Gym. And that kind of got me hooked from there.

Is there a lot? It seemed like in Hawaii, it seemed like especially at that time, there was a lot of power lifting going on. Is that driven by Anthony Clark and some, or is there some specific guys out in Hawaii that got it kind of launched out there? You know, I got into the game after like the Budweiser World. record breakers and all that so i had no idea about it uh you know until afterwards but then when i got into it and looked back at those uh kind of contests and the amount of like hammers that just came to hawaii to lift you know it was it was pretty crazy you know like jean bell you know doyle kennedy pulled there too it was just incredible and uh they had a way the funny

I always heard this story from other Hawaii lifters that they had to weigh Anthony Clark on the pallet scale at the hotel because he buried their normal scale because he was just so huge, you know? But when I got in, you know, guys like Anthony Harris, you know, Harris was like 198 and he was pulling like 722 with no problem and stuff. You know, Julian Lee was a big bench presser there.

Derek Ito, just a bunch of like just monsters. Joel Onosai, before he got on the strong man, Joel was a, you know, a big powerlifter. Tony Laato, you know, Leato, to this day, I still feel he was like the Samoan with the biggest traps I've ever seen. And he could bench like 6-11. He was crazy with long arms, you know.

But to, you know, some of these guys still live, to this day, which is great. And, you know, I was chatting with this with one old Maui powerlifter before. Like, hey, man, you're like still going too, you know, which is awesome because a lot of us aren't doing this anymore, you know. So that longevity thing, you know, is I'm definitely fortunate for it. Do you remember how excited you would be about getting a powerlifting USA in the mail? It's funny you say this.

I finally got to meet Paul Leonard. I met him at the Olympia. Got to meet him face to face for the first time. And I was chatting with him about this because everything nowadays is on the phone. Easy access, instantaneous, right? I remember after subscribing to powerlifting USA, how you'd be like counting down,

hey, you know, checking the mail, check in the mail. Is it here yet? And I told him the story. You remember Sylvester Anderson? I do, yeah. Yeah. So Vester Anderson, you know, he was a pretty big deadlifter and stuff. And he had posted the workout of the month, the deadlift workout of the month in powerlifting USA.

And he would deadlift with 35 pound plates because he felt like if it was that low. And when you get to a 45, it was super easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So me and my buddies are at the gym. We're trying to grab all the 35s at physique's gym. You're like just going to grab all the 35 so you go, hey, so Bester Anderson did this. We should do it to it. It was simply just a deficit pull.

You know what I mean? I could have just like stood on a block with 45s and done the same thing, you know? But you were just locked into what the workout of the month was from that powerlifting sensation that was showcased in PLUSA, you know? And it was crazy, man. That's what we did, though, you know? who's uh who's your mentor who'd you learn to live who are some guys he learned to lift uh i had just moved out of my parents house uh while going to college i was working in a moving company part time while still going through college there was uh my friend keith daniels

and he was like a bench rest only guy and keith was uh like 165 and we're like single apply, he could bench like 335, 340 and stuff, you know, which is pretty impressive, you know. I was like Farm Boy Strong in Hawaii. I never got into Wade Still College. So, like, I could barely do like 135 and stuff. And Keith is, I believe, I tell everybody this, that Keith is what got me into powerlifting because he was like, hey, if you want to do this, I'll come pick you up at 4.45 a.m. The gym opens at 5.

we got time to work out, shower, eat breakfast, and be at work at 7.30. And at first I thought he was crazy. I'm like, bro, I don't know. That's insane, you know. But I look at it as my anchor point of whenever I have to work out early now, because I remember the first couple weeks going with Keith, seeing there's like 15 people outside waiting for the gym to open. School teachers, truck drivers, just ordinary people.

they're either coming to the gym to do weights or aerobics class, you know. So sometimes we have to buckle down and figure out a time where we have to work out because later in the day things just get, you know, packed on life, work, whatever, and stuff. Kids. And so Keith was who got me into it. Tony Harris, still to this day, is one of my inspirations and my friends. Old Hogan, I give great credit to Old because Old really, really helped turn powerlifting and strongman contests around in the state of Hawaii when he was

there. And old actually invited me to my first strong man contest, which was 1998 Beauty of the Beast. And, you know, so if it wasn't for old, I wouldn't have done that contest and maybe gone in that path of strong man contests, you know. And when I moved to Seattle, I met Bull Stewart when I was living in Oregon and I lifted at a ADFPA meet, USAPL meet down in Medford, Oregon. And Bull was a guest lifter. And he told me,

hey, you know, if you ever come through Seattle or want to move to Seattle, we have a gym with some pretty good power lifters. And, you know, think about it. Let me know. And that's one of the reasons why I moved to Seattle to get into that industry and meet other people like him, you know?

How did you avoid, take in performance enhancing drugs with like it swirling around you so much or were you able to? Yeah. You know, I just, it just never was my thing. You know, I just never, I just never was, it wasn't a consideration, honestly. I mean, you know, I have friends who do it. We're all adults.

That's all your choices. It doesn't mean I'm not going to love you for whatever you do, you know. We all have choices. But I've always been just that kind of a guy where I just. do it with natural hard work and some, you know, supplementation, like a protein powder or something like that. It's just never been my thing, you know. Are you motivated by that at all? Like, is that like a little bit of motivating factor? Like, let me see if I can hang, even though these guys are taking stuff that helps a bunch.

Yeah, sure. Sometimes a little bit. But it's not to the point where like I'm trying to like, you know, want up you guys and stuff like that, you know, like we're all in it for the same reasons of, you know, being successful or having a target goal of what we want to do in strength athletics. But I'm not going to judge any of my friends who choose to do that because, you know, we all have choices of what you want to do. And I still love you no matter what, you know. That's just my, that's just me. What do you think of these young guys coming through, like some of these lifts that are being done right now?

I know some people are trying to use the excuse of like, oh, you know, the sumo deadlift and the deadlift bars and all this different stuff. but even, you know, Jesus Olivares again, like smashing some crazy records. And there's a bunch of other guys, too, in the IPF and stuff that are just killing numbers, you know, like what the hell's going on in powerlifting? It's pretty incredible, man. I mean, like, when when, when, what Hesus was like squatted like over 900 pounds for three with no knee sleeves even, dude, that was insane, bro. No spotter.

Yeah. His brother's just like, you got this, bro, you know? And just like, knowing that he. Hey, Sousa just handle business, you know? It's pretty amazing, man. You know, it's incredible how the bar has, you know, it's always moving up. So to be regarded as a pretty decent lifter, even in by today's standards, I take a lot of pride in that because I know I did it with my own hard work, you know,

and able to hang with the young boys per se. I might not be able to put up the numbers like I used to be. before but I feel like there's not too many over mid 50 euros that can squat or deadlift almost 700 pounds you know what I mean that's that's pretty cool in my opinion and you're still having fun that's the cool yeah and you got to have fun yeah because if not you're doing it for the wrong reasons all right man thank you so much for your time there I really appreciate it I just wanted to give you a big shout out always been a big fan of yours you always been an awesome person to meet when I, whenever I see in person.

We haven't seen each other in like a long time, but I just wanted to give you a big shout out here on the podcast and make sure people know what's up. Make sure people know that there's people that are 55 years old that are kicking ass like you. You know I, Mark. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate your friendship over the years

and the support of wearing your gear at powerlifting meets. And you guys are amazing. And I appreciate the time, man.