Cedar Rapids’ Brett “Red” Morris pushes himself to be one of the strongest men in the world

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - Brett “Red” Morris, 28, channels his football background into his lifting, where he can lift a combined 2,000 pounds on his squat, bench and deadlift.

“I think it’s 50-50 mental and physical,’ said Morris, a former center at Concordia University. “You have to be in the right headspace to be able to pick these weights up. It is you and the bar. It is lifted or be killed, essentially.”

Red gets a little fired up when he is squatting 865 pounds, like he did last Saturday in a workout at the Anvil gym.

“I am a lifter that gets a little more hyped,” Red said. “I am a bit more eccentric in the weight room than some. My number one mindset is ‘attack this weight, like it’s trying to hurt you, you have to finish it.’”

Morris, who weighs almost 400 pounds, is one of the strongest men on the planet, finishing ninth in the world in May.

“I just did 2,105, 810 squat, 512 bench, and a 782 deadlift.”

Red continues to push himself in the gym, like the time he benched pressed over 500 pounds not once but twice.

“That was something I was chasing for a little while,” Red said. “That day I kind of felt it was there. A lot of my training goes that way I go by feel.”

To bench press 526 pounds takes a lot of dedication in the gym and outside the gym.

“I have a protein goal I try to hit 250 to 300 grams of protein a day,” Red said. “I am eating about 5000 to 7000 calories a day.”

Red isn’t satisfied with being ranked in the top 10 in the world.

“I always have a high standard for myself,” Red said. “2,105 was awesome, but I have to shoot to be number one.”

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