The 131kg Northland behemoth shook a little and he huffed and puffed.
But neither of his eyes threatened to pop out of his head and, too be honest, the 31-year-old looked like he might have been able to stack a bit more weight on the bar.
His squat broke the 120kg-plus national record and was arguably the highlight on the last day of the national powerlifting championships in Dunedin on Friday.
To put his lift into perspective, it was the combined weight of the All Black front row plus 8640 tea bags. But you probably already knew that.
After that mighty effort, Whitaker probably needed a cup of tea too.
But there was no rest. He went on to bench 230kg and made a deadlift of 325kg for a combined total of 930kg — 3kg off improving in his own national record.
"It would have been a record and the total would have been a record as well," he said shortly afterwards.
"But I’ll take the good things out of the comp. I was happy with my squat and the bench."
The former prop took up the sport in 2013 when a knee injury ended his rugby career. Initially, his motivation was to lose a few kilograms but he packed on the muscle and weighs about the same as when he started.
"The weigh is more useful now, though," he joked.
Auckland’s Barbra Auva’a was the other standout lifter on the final day.
She won the 72kg class and broke three national records in the process. Her deadlift of 190.5kg and squat of 177.5kg were both national records, and her total of 468kg was 28kg better than the previous record.
