Zach Roloff showed a lot of strength despite his size and the growing family drama with father Matt and the now-canceled sale of the family farm. As PEOPLE highlighted back in 2022, the TLC reality staple followed Roloff’s attempt at a record with significant weight at the Hardcore Barbell Weightlifting Competition.
The reality star attempts a trio of power lifts, completing a bench press, deadlift, and finally, a back squat. His wife Tori is on hand to cheer him on with two of their kids, son Jackson and daughter Lilah. The pair also have a third newborn son, Josiah, but he’s not with the group.
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“I’m really focused on the squatting,” Roloff detailed in a preview clip for the episode. His goal is 385 pounds, a weight he says will have “beaten the record by four pounds.”
“It’s impressive to watch anyone to lift that much weight,” Roloff’s stepfather, Chris Marek, says during the exhibition. He and Roloff’s mother Amy married for cameras at Roloff Farms, having a dream ceremony in the years since her divorce from ex Matt Roloff. “Also to see someone Zach’s size. It’s even much more impressive. That’s gotta be sending a good message to Jackson, that size doesn’t matter. And Zach is leading a great example.”
Roloff succeeded in his squat but felt he was lifting heavier than expected. “I lifted that thing up, and I’m like, ‘This is heavy!’” he says in the preview. “I’m like, ‘Do they have the right weight on?’”
After realizing he had succeeded in meeting his goal for the lift, he shared a special moment with son Jackson and told the cameras how he was feeling personally. “I was pretty stoked,” he explains. “This is the end of a really long journey of working out and getting to this moment. I was really excited!”
The success for Roloff comes on the heels of drama with his father, Matt. The elder Roloff angered his sons, Zach in particular, with his decision to sell the farm, which later transformed into trying to rent it out on Airbnb after the sale didn’t happen.
“A lot of hurt feelings have happened over everyone. We’re not innocent in all this either. But, it is what it is. It’s not our call,” Zach Roloff told ET. “The whole family built the equity of that place and built it to what it is. But it’s not any of our calls but my dad’s. That’s his call, which is fine. I wish it maybe was played out a little bit more honest leading up to it. I have my own family to focus on.”
The two did find some peace long enough to celebrate son Jackson’s birthday together. Still, Zach has disputed his father’s very public version of events.
