[LONG POST]
Rachel McKinnon has been publicly tweeting about their workout recently and then I fell down a rabbit hole of (also publicly available) statistics:
twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/1122578451192602626
One of their lifts was stated as follows: "Doing low ROM deadlifts. 485lb singles" (220kg)
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WORKING ASSUMPTIONS FOR POST
- R McKinnon competes in the 35-44 age category for cycling, which is generally accepted as the starting “Masters” age range in sports.
- According to the velonews article (link at end) R McKinnon weighs around 200lbs (~88kg)
- R McKinnon may have only been doing “one rep max” which can be higher than part of a general lifting workout (although the tweet does say deadlifts (plural)).
- R McKinnon's tweet appears to mean a Romanian Deadlift, versus a Conventional Deadlift - which I think is what the British Powerlifting results are for (link at end). I don't believe the difference in lift is significant here though.
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So I looked at the British Powerlifting records for the entrants that match that as closely as possible:
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For women this would be the 84+kg Masters group
(note: this is the maximum weight grouping and includes all women that weight and over.)
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For men, the 83kg Masters group
(there are 2 further weight classes for men - 93kg and 105kg)
I have used the “2018 British Masters Classic Championships” results; then calculated the mean, median and mode for each class (links at end).
There were 13 entrants in the women’s 84+kg class and 15 entrants in the men’s 83kg class.
Women’s Best Deadlifts (84+kg): Mean: 161.5kg / Median: 150kg / Mode: 170kg, 150kg
(Individual “best deadlift”: 192.5 187.5 170 170 150 145 150 137.5 130 120 207.5 200 140)
Men’s Best Deadlifts (83kg): Mean: 214.8kg / Median: 210kg / Mode: 210kg, 200kg, 202.5kg
(Individual “best deadlift”: 272.5 265 232.5 255 210 215 200 202.5 252.5 210 200 180 202.5 175 150)
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I then looked at the higher class men’s results as well:
Men’s Best Deadlifts (93kg): Mean: 212.5 / Median: 235 / Mode: 250
(Individual “best deadlift”: 250 235 220 235 240 250 222.5 237.5 210 180 250 237.5 250 185 245 16 150)
Men’s Best Deadlifts (105kg): Mean: 248 / Median: 237.5 Mode: 200
(Individual “best deadlift”: 323 302.5 260 230 200 237.5 255 225 200)
These results show that that R McKinnon’s tweeted lift falls in between the averages of the 93kg and 105kg classes, and completely outranks every British Powerlifting female's best efforts in 2018. Every. Single. One.
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Six months ago in the velonews article, Rachel McKinnon stated "My body produces next to no testosterone, and my levels are below the bottom of the average female range, to the point where they’re essentially undetectable" - which reads as if they believe they are virtually indistinguishable from females in terms of biological advantage.
So, er, right… No inherent male bodily or muscular advantage, yet able to lift more than all the female power lifters on their best lift in the 2018 British Powerlifting Masters Classic Championships? ALL OF THEM? And, somewhat amazingly, significantly more than most of the men’s bests as well?
This is why women's sport will be destroyed.
LINKS:
www.velonews.com/2018/10/news/commentary-the-complicated-case-of-transgender-cyclist-dr-rachel-mckinnon_480285
www.myprotein.com/thezone/training/deadlift-variations/
www.britishpowerlifting.org/documents/665_british_masters_classic_championships.pdf
www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/statistics/mean-median-mode.php