Monthly Archives: May 2011

Monster Garage Meet

BY DAVE GLASGOW

MEET REPORT AND RESULTS

POWER IN SOUTHERN INDIANA

Larry Traub squats 520 pounds in the Monster Garage Meet.

Abstinence of chemical assistance when building strength has long been the message of Larry Traub. His inclination and mind set are that anything worth having is worth working (hard) for and, thus, earning.  He has preached this message to hundreds of his high school lifters over the years.  That is what led the multi-time national masters powerlifting champ to the USAWA.  It was against this backdrop that 5 of his former high school pupils/lifters returned to their mentor, joined his current protege and took to the platform.  All to be a part of the first, and now to be annual, USAWA sponsored Monster Garage Powerlifting Meet and Record Breakers Day.  The pedigrees of each of these young men is impressive.  Even the spotters were former high caliber lifters!  One of the judges, Larry’s brother Barry, can even boast a 650 deadlift!  The only mongrel in the house was yours truly!!  This was, indeed, an exceptional day of lifting.

The premise was simple. The lifts contested would be the three powerlifts. The ‘catch’ being that the rules of the USAWA would be enforced (rules are no joke!).  So, all the lifts were truly raw, and as they used to say in drag racing, ‘run what ya brung!’  With only seven contestants, the action was fast and furious. As there were a wide range of weight classes being contested, so were the weights being handled by the lifters.

Monster Garage Participants: upper left - Adam Roth, upper right - Tyler Baines, lower left - Blake Dedas, lower right - Bobby Bonifacio

The youngest of the crowd was 18 year old high school senior, Adam Roth.  His flawless technique helped him accumulate a total of 930 pounds at a body weight of 58.8 kg. (he was voted ‘best lifter’ junior and senior years at st. ‘X’ high school, Louisville).  Tyler Baines kept the momentum rolling, posting a total of 935 pounds.  Another technician, he used that along with determination to secure his place in the meet (he was teen national champ/bronze medalist at sub junior worlds).  Showing true competition experience was Felix Rodriguez.  His 455 pound deadlift was outstanding and gave way to his final total of 1070 pounds (he was 2nd at teen nationals).  Blake Dedas came to show that strongman training has left him in good stead as he posted a fine 1485 total at a 220 pound body weight (he was a subjunior team member and collegiate national champ).  Drew Traub, Larry’s boy, provided proof that strength does run in families.  He took a break from his usual 60 hour work weeks and ran up a total of 1385 pounds with next to no training for the past year (he was a teen national champ and subjunior world champ).  The new kid in the house was Bobby Bonifacio, Larry’s son-in-law (and my god-son in-law, lol).  Bobby started training about 9 months ago and to say his lifts needed help, at that time, would be the understatement of the year!! Bobby has persistence, a great attitude and a top notch coach to thank for a very creditable total of an even grand. I am certain this will spur him on to even greater totals in the future.

When the final attempt was made, the tally sheets said that it was the old man, Larry Traub himself, who carried the day!  His bench presses made one of the spotters remark, “coach!!? is that your shoulder creekin’?? It sounds like someone is trying to open an old door!!” . His 520 pound squat and 560 pound deadlift would make most lifters days, however, this was a ‘down’ day for him. Regardless, it was enough to win by 175 points on the formula.

Monster Garage Meet Participants: left - Drew Traub, right - Felix Rodriguez

As a side note, I want to mention our loaders. Mike Tullis (who was a subjunior world team member) and his running buddy, Jon Clark (who was selected to be on the world subjunior team but subsequently passed up that opportunity to ‘walk on’ as a player at the University of Louisville, where he is today) spent the competition loading for their friends and adding good stories and commentary at the ‘after glow’.  These were great kids to be around, indeed!!  Although this meet was touted as a ‘record breakers’, I think the days lifting damped spirits for any further lifting as only four USAWA records fell; two by the youngster and two by the ole man.

Plans are already being made for next year’s version of the Monster Garage Powerlifting Meet. the last weekend in April will be the permanent date. We are looking for this meet to be much bigger by then!!

Good friends, great lifting and superb food/drink – what could be better!? Plan NOW to attend next year!!  YOU WON’T BE SORRY!

SEE BELOW FOR TOTALS AND PLACINGS

Monster Garage Powerlifting Meet
Georgetown, Indiana
April 30th, 2011

MEET DIRECTOR:  Larry Traub and the Ledaig Heavy Athletics

LIFTS CONTESTED:  Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift

OFFICIAL (1-Official System Used): Dave Glasgow

RESULTS:

Lifter Age BWT BP SQ DL Total Points
 Larry Traub  57  92.0  290  520  560  1370  1433.0
 Blake Dedas  26  100.0  355  545  585  1485  1257.9
 Adam Roth  18  58.8  205  320  405  930  1129.3
 Felix Rodriquez  21  75.0  255  360  455  1070  1070.0
 Tyler Baines  23  64.5  235  300  400  935  1033.5
 Drew Traub  27  128.8  310  525  550  1385  1032.2
 Bob Bonifacio  30  118.5  205  365  430  1000  776.5

NOTES:  BWT is bodyweight in kilograms.  All lifts recorded in pounds.  Total is total pounds lifted in pounds.  Points is adjusted points for bodyweight correction and age allowance.

Angelo Siciliano, aka The 97 Pound Weakling

by Dennis Mitchell

Angelo Siciliano, aka The 97 Pound Weakling

Angelo, sometimes called Angelino, was born in Calabria Italy in 1893, either on October 30, or April 20, depending if you asked his mother,Teresa, or his father, Santo.  He arrived in the United States at the age of ten, and lived in a poor section of Brooklyn, New York.  After a short time his father, who worked as a farmer, returned to Italy.  His mother, a devout Catholic, raised him while working in a sweat shop as a seamstress.  Angelo soon left school and went to work in a factory making ladies pocketbooks.

Angelo was a frail child, and two times was beaten up, once near his home and once at Coney Island on the beach.  Humiliated that he could not defend himself, he joined the Y.M.C.A. where he started working out on stretching machines and doing gymnastics. He read Bernard Macfadden’s Physical Culture magazine, and using a set of home-made barbells followed his instructions. He said that his results were very disappointing.  At this time in order to sound more American, he changed his name to Charles.

While visiting the zoo at the age of seventeen, he was fascinated with a muscular lion and watched as the lion would stretch and “flex” his muscles. Charles thought this may be a more natural way to develop his muscles. Using a system of using one muscle against another muscle, he began to show results and by the age of nineteen, he was demonstrating a chest developer in a store on Broadway.  He was soon working as an artist’s model and performing strength feats in vaudeville with a strongman named “Young Sampson”. He worked with Earl E. Liederman and in the ConeyIsland Circus side show.

This was a popular advertisement for the Dynamic Tension Training Program.

In 1918 he married Margaret Casana and in time they had two children.  It was somewhere around this time that he legally changed his last name to Atlas. In 1921 he won Bernard Macfadden’s ” Worlds Most Perfectly Developed Man” contest at Madison Square Garden. When he won again the following year, Macfadden said there was no use putting on future contests because Atlas would win every time. In 1922 Atlas started his mail order body building business.  His course needed no equipment, and he also gave advice on nutrition, grooming and personal behavior. For several years his business was struggling. He opened and soon closed a gym in Manhattan. He worked as physical director at a summer camp for two years, with no pay. His mail order business finally started to make money in 1928, when he hired a young advertising agent named Charles P. Roman.  Charles Atlas Ltd. was formed in February 1928 with the two men being equal partners. Under Roman’s guidance the business was very successful. It was Roman who came up with the name of “Dynamic Tension”, which was the main part of the Charles Atlas system. They advertised in many pulp magazines, Popular Science, and many comic books. The course sold for $30.00.  He opened branches in London, England in1936, and one in Rio de Janeiro in 1939. By the early 1940’s, over 400,000 copies of the Atlas course had been sold. Even with his financial success, Atlas lived a private and simple life. The partnership lasted until 1970, when Atlas retired and sold his half of the business to Roman.

This body building article would not be complete without a list of Charles Atlas’s measurements.  He stood 5’10”, 180 pounds, 17″neck, 47″ chest, 17″ biceps, 14″ forearms, 32″waist, and 23.75″ thighs.

Charles Atlas died in Point Lookout, New York, December 23, 1972.

York Update

by Al Myers

We are now just a little over two weeks away from our Heavy Lift Nationals at York Barbell, in York, PA.   The event organizer and the person who made this whole affair happen, Mike Loncondro, just sent me the days itinerary.  There will be many activities happening at the same time.  We will have our competition in the Main Gym while the kettlebell workshop will be in the auditorium.  We will need to have our meet done by noon in order for all attention to be given to the main feature of the day – the York Hall of Fame induction of Slim the Hammerman.  In the afternoon, we will have a record day session and All-Round Weightlifting demonstrations.  Hopefully, this will give us the opportunity to introduce the All-Round Lifts to several new lifters.

The meet t-shirts are being picked up today.  On behalf of the USAWA, several of these shirts will be donated to this event to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. This charity helps wounded soldiers restore their physical abilities through the pursuit of athletic fitness.  It is truly a worthwhile cause!!  I think everyone will really like the t-shirts I designed for this.  The awards will be ordered the first of next week for the competition.  So – all the plans are “in motion” to make this day a very special day for everyone involved.   

Kettlebells For Warriors – May 21, 2011          Schedule of Events
  Main Gym Auditorium Main Hall
0800 USAWA Contest    
0830      
0900 Crossfit Workout KB Workshop Registration  
0930      
1000 USAWA/Crossfit Opening Ceremony  
1030   KB Workshop (until 0100)  
1100 BREAK    
1130      
1200 USAWA/Crossfit    
1230      
0100 LUNCH (until 0300) LUNCH (until 0300) Dan Cenidoza and Slim
0130      
0200      
0230      
0300 USAWA/Crossfit KB Workshop (until 0500) Mighty Mitts Bending
0330      
0400      
0430      
0500      
0530 Main Gym Clean Up Auditorium Clean Up Main Hall Clean Up
0600      

Team Spirit

by Thom Van Vleck

We have a lot of fun with our team rivalries in the USAWA.  While it is all in good fun, it has gotten heated from time to time, but that’s OK.  Sometimes that’s what it takes to get fired up for big lifts!  It reminds me a lot of the rivalry I felt when I was a Marine.  We hated the Army, Air Force, and Navy, but when we had a common enemy we quickly banded together.  In the Marines we had a saying: “You won’t find a better friend or worse enemy”.  I also believe: “Once a Marine, always a Marine” (Chesty Puller said that, the most decorated Marine of all time and a personal hero). I feel the same about my affiliation with the JWC.

A great photo of Dino Gym member and enforcer Scott Tully....in a great shirt! While I've kidded Scott about this photo, it would not be hard to find one of me in a Dino Gym shirt. And, no, that's not my bald head in the photo!

We all enjoy our training for lots of reasons.  I’m sure most of us have a primary reason for doing it and for most, that primary reason is probably to get strong!  For a bodybuilder it may be to “look strong” (I never understood why you would want to look stronger than you really were….I want to be stronger than I look!).  The reality is that we probably train and compete for lots of reasons beyond that.  One of those reasons is for the social aspect.  We are humans, we generally seek out companionship….even loners will have a dog or cat for companionship! So, for social interaction, we join teams.  Now, I’m not talking about “socializing” (although that certainly happens!) but the act of finding a common bond or thread.  Common interests, so to speak.  That’s the social aspect I’m talking about.

We also like competition.  I can recall going out to the old JWC gym at about age 10 with a buddy of mine and doing a powerclean and push press.  The first thing he did was slide on a little more weight and lift it….and it was “ON”!  We didn’t stop until we’d about killed ourselves!   Teams give us the best of both world’s.  We can hook up with like minded individuals and find the motivation of competition within our own team and then against other teams.  But we can also have mutual respect for our rivals.  I know I have a lot of respect for my “rivals” in the Dino Gym, Clark’s Gym, Ledaig…and the rest.  That’s why I own at least a t-shirt from each and in the case of the Dino gym almost a whole wardrobe of clothes!

Teams are a good thing.  They give us motivation, friendships, rivalries, and in the end, good times.   Being a part of a team can hold us to a higher standard than standing alone.  It can also reflect a lot about who we are and if done right, in a very positive way.  So join a team in the USAWA, or start a new one and join the rivalry for bigger gains and good fun.  I’m sure Scott will love the fact I used his photo for my example….and I’m sure it will motivate him to lift a little harder the next time we compete!

The One Best Exercise

by Thom Van Vleck

My brother Tedd is a Clean and Press man. It goes to show that different exercises work best for different lifters.

I was out throwing with Bill Leffler the other day.  We were talking training and some of our frustrations.  Between us, we have about 75 years of lifting and throwing experience and the topic became “The One Best Exercise”.

I recall many years ago in an old Ironman there was a question posed to several top lifters and trainers: “If you could do only one exercise, what would it be”?  The answers centered around two lifts.  The squat and the Clean & Press.  Debates and arguments were presented.  It kind of reminded me of a recent thread on the USAWA forum centered around Al Myers’ article on the Deadlift.

The reality is that there are exercises that are better than others, but all exercises have some merit, and it all depends on what you want and how you use it to get what you want.

1.  Does the exercise work the most muscles in the body?  The Clean & Press certainly does that,  but the Squat and Deadlift certainly work the biggest muscles in the body the hardest.  If that were the only criteria for the One Best Exercise, that would probably be the end of it…but that is not the only criteria.  I would argue it’s not even the best way to chose the One Best Exercise.

2.  Does the exercise create the adaptation that you desire?  We all lift for different reasons.  I lift mainly to improve my throwing for Scottish Highland Games.  Does the lift fulfill that need?  Do you grind out reps, or do you explode through them?

3.  Any exercise done for too long will become more and more dangerous and less and less effective.  You get stale, you get lazy on your technique, and eventually the boredom, lack of focus, repetition on the body will lead to injury.  Your body is always fighting against you because it is trying to protect itself and when it knows what is coming, it will resist damaging itself.

4.  Do you perform the Deadlift in a way that creates the muscle adaptation you desire?  The JWC has a member that has done a 4 times bodyweight deadlift.  He can’t clear 8 ft with the 56lb Weight in the Weight Over Bar event.  Al is a great deadlifter and when he was deadlifting 700 plus he could clear nearly 16ft!!!  The JWC member is very much a specialist and he’s very happy with the adaptation he has created.  Al trains for different reasons and his lifting has adapted to that.

So, my opinion is the “ONE BEST EXERCISE” changes over time and it depends on how you perform the exercise.  You have to find what works for you, and you must think outside the box from time to time.  I was stuck at 360 on my Bench Press for a year and made a point to specialize on my Bench for a year and managed only 365!  I used the best routines I could find.  So, out of desperation, I started doing 10 sets of 10 reps.  I started with 185lbs and kept adding 10lbs a week until I finally got 300lbs for 10 sets of 10.  After only 12 weeks I then maxed out and hit 400!  A 35lb jump!  I have theories on why this worked but my point is that it was unorthodox and I don’t know if I even recommend it!  So, don’t get too hung up on finding that “magic” exercise because it’s kind of like the old saying “Just when I figured it out, they changed the rules”.  Just when you find that “One Best Exercise” your body adapts and its time to shake things up and keep an open mind.  As for me….I’m doing deadlifts and squats right now, but not forever!

1 2 3 4