It's no surprise to those of us who regularly watch the Olympics that there is an active weightlifting culture in FSU. As a kid I remember being riveted to the TV screen watching Vasily Alexeyev's massive lifts at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics.
I thought about this when I saw a video of an 18 year old named Julia Vins doing squats with 180 kgs (that's kgs, not pounds; it would be nearly 400 pounds).
Here she is. You have to fast forward to the 5:24 mark to see her 180 kg squats.
Here are photos of Julia:
The Norwegian Viking should comment on this thread.
Here is more on women's fitness in Russia:
Russian hockey player Alexander Ovechkin was once asked who he thought was more attractive: American women or Russian women. The Caps star immediately responded “Russian,” an answer that surprised me… Until now. From time to time we’ll feature photos of various fitness models who are attractive, but we’ve never shown you photos from the Fitness Bikini Open in Vladivostok. They’re pretty incredible... Check out the hardest working models in Mother Russia below!
http://coed.com/2012/04/30/russian-fitness-bikini-open-models-vladivostok-photos/Why on earth would Ovechkin's answer surprise him?
Here is just one photo from the gallery at the link:
If anyone else has some photos or videos on this subject that you particularly like, by all means post them below.