Author Archives: Thom Van Vleck

Lifting in the 70’s

By Thom Van Vleck

David Rigert, one of the top lifters of the 70s.

David Rigert, one of the top lifters of the 70s.

I grew up in a weight lifting family.  My Uncles were state champs and my Uncle Wayne won the Teenage Nationals in Olympic style weightlifting.  By the time I started lifting regularly it was 1977.

The 60’s were a great time to be a fan of USA weightlifting.  With stars like Tommy Kono, Bob Bednarski, Joe Dube, and Norb Schemansky.  Just to name a few.  Then came the 70’s.

The 70’s were a tough time to be a fan of USA Weightlifting.  Sure, there were a few bright spots.  Ken Patera placing 2nd at the 1970 world’s.  Lee James winning a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics.  But other than that USA Weightlifters weren’t even in the same zip code as the top lifters.  I know because I perused every weightlifting magazine of the era over and over.  We didn’t have any other source of news and these magazines would get read over and over.  It was depressing.

Lessor known but perhaps the thickest and strongest looking Olympic lifter of all time was Sultan Rakhmanov. He was the world champ in 1979 and the Olympic champ in 1980.

Lessor known but perhaps the thickest and strongest looking Olympic lifter of all time was Sultan Rakhmanov. He was the world champ in 1979 and the Olympic champ in 1980.

There hasn’t been much to brag about since then.  Except 1984.  Which didn’t really count because the Eastern Bloc of communist countries boycotted the Olympics that year.  I came up with a list of reasons for the fall of the USA in weightlifting.

First, money.  Many lifters in the Eastern Bloc made money lifting.  USA lifters were true amateurs with the exception of the lifters working for York Barbell.  But they really did work and I’m sure the pay wasn’t great.  Eastern Bloc lifters were officers in the military for the most part and could make handsome bonuses and perks by winning.  There was no money in weightlifting in the USA.

Second, the rise of team sports.  In 1969 Nolan Ryan, the great baseball pitcher, I think made $15,000.  By 1980 he was making a million dollars a year!  That’s where the talent went.  Weightlifting was getting the leftover talent.  I’m sure Norbert Schemansky would have made top money playing football but didn’t because there was no money in it when he was at the top!

Third, the rise or powerlifting.  My Uncle Phil hated powerlifting.  He called powerlifters “Olympic Lifting Rejects”.  For this reason I initially focused only on Olympic lifting.  But increasingly as the USA dominated powerlifting I transitioned to powerlifting exclusively in the early 80s.  Much to the chagrin of Uncle Phil!

The greatest lifter of the 70s and perhaps all time: Vasily Alexeev.

The greatest lifter of the 70s and perhaps all time: Vasily Alexeev.

As a result I idolized Communist lifters in the 70s.  I was a big fan of David Rigert and Vassily Alexeev.  Then Sultan Rakhmanov and Anatoly Pisarenko in the early 80s.  It was tough being an American rooting for Russians and the height of the Cold War!  I felt like a traitor and I think that is also what led me to powerlifting.

So it was tough being an Olympic lifting fan in the 70s.  I would add that I lifted in my first “odd lift” (what became the USAWA) meet in 1979.  I still catch myself pulling up old videos of lifters from the 70’s.  It was an amazing time….if you were from the Eastern Bloc!

Arnold Fit Expo 2018

by Thom Van Vleck

Got to meet Arnold for the 3rd time. Here he is talking about the Highland Games

Got to meet Arnold for the 3rd time. Here he is talking about the Highland Games

Recently I got to attend the Arnold Fit Expo in Columbus, Ohio for the 3rd time.  Pretty crazy event.  It is there that I’ve got to meet Franco Columbo, Frank Zane, Lou Ferrigno, Tommy Kono, and Arnold himself!  I’ve also gotten up close with many of the World’s Strongest Man competitors.

When I say it’s a crazy event it’s not for the person who hates large crowds.  There are people everywhere.  I’ve heard as many as 200,000 attend.  There are athletic events going on all over the place as well as bodybuilding, Olympic lifting, Powerlifting, and Strong Man.  You can’t see it all.

There are trade booths set up in the main convention area.  Selling supplements, equipment, gear….anything related to weightlifting and exercise.

This year I attended as an assistant to the equipment director at the indoor Scottish Highland Games.  I would have rather been a competitor!  It was well attended with some of the largest crowds I’ve seen for a Highland Games.  The Pro Class was won by Spencer Tyler who put on one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen at a Highland Games.  He set several World Records.  The next day he got to go to the main stage and compete against Halfthor “The Mountain” Bjornnson.

I would say that every muscle head should make the trip at least once.  I know I’ll go back.

Unique to the Arnold, an indoor Scottish Highland Games!

Unique to the Arnold, an indoor Scottish Highland Games!

The Lost Treasure: York Power Rack

By Thom Van Vleck

Not "the" rack, but one like it. Note how there was maybe 6 inches between the front and back.

Not “the” rack, but one like it. Note how there was maybe 6 inches between the front and back.

When I was a kid, I recall a very specific moment when I “knew” I wanted to be strong.  I was around 13 and had ridden my bike over to my grandparents and at that time the Jackson Weightlifting Club gym was in their barn.  I asked my grandma where my Uncle Wayne was and she said, “He’s out back lifting weights”.  So, I headed out to say hello.  Wayne was a superheavyweight, he was huge and at the time was around 340lbs.  He idolized Paul Anderson and I have to say, was a pretty good replica of Paul.

I liked Wayne, as a small child I would pat his stomach and say, “You sure have a big belly, Uncle Wayne”.  This got laughs from my Dad and my other Uncles, which probable encouraged me to do it pretty often.  My point is that I liked Wayne because he was nice to me, I knew he lifted weights and I knew he was strong and I recalled him winning at weightlifting meets, but I really never looked at him as a strongman.  Wayne was a gentle giant who wouldn’t hurt a fly.

As I walked out to the barn, this image was about to change.  I heard a series of thunderous “thumps”.  As I got closer, I swore I could feel the ground shake with each one…..and as  I got closer, I was SURE the ground was shaking.  Wayne was in a power rack, wearing only his work pants (covered in oil and grease from the garage), leather lifting shoes, and a belt.   He was doing front quarter squats with over 1000lbs.  Wayne loved the Clean & Press, the Olympic lift dropped in 1972, and he felt this exercise helped his foundation when he pressed.  He had an old York 45lb bar loaded with a hodge podge of weights out to the end and two 50lb scale weights wired to the ends and hanging about a foot under the end of the bar.  He was doing sets of ten and with each rep the rack, sitting on a bed of timbers in the dirt floor of the barn, would shake violently and pile drive into the ground, causing the shaking I had felt.  As he did each one, muscles began to appear everywhere on his body.  Kind of like the Hulk, muscles appeared out of nowhere.  Most of all, I noticed the change in his demeanor.  The look of fiery determination, he looked at me, but right past me, with a focus that only champions know. I was impressed.   Wayne had big muscles, he was strong….and he had that determination, that focus, I wanted to be that!

I fooled around with weights, but a couple years later, I began to train with that focus and I used that power rack often.  It was an old York model, with about 4″ to 6″ of space to lift in.  York made at least two racks.  One had more space.  My understanding was this one was an “isometric” rack. It had a chin up bar across the top to stabilize it and had been bolted to old, rough cut, timbers that created a small platform about 3ft wide and 5ft long.  I used that thing a lot since I often trained alone.  I would do old school leg presses, calf raises, squats, bench presses, partial lifts, and isometrics in that rack.  I would use it as squat stands and since it was 8ft tall, for overhead supports.   There seemed to be endless uses for that thing and to be real honest, as stupidly as I trained as a teen, often using weights well beyond my capabilities, it probably saved my life!

I entered the Marine Corps and my Uncle Wayne fell on some hard times.  Upon returning, I also returned to training with him…..and found the power rack gone!  Wayne explained that he needed some cash and since he didn’t use a lot of the equipment, he had sold some stuff.  This included an old York set and some other classic stuff…but hey, he could have no idea how much this stuff would be worth later.  We’ve all been there.  But I was young and being a little older and wiser now…..I feel guilty for how mad I was at him.

I tried to track down that rack, but the guy that had bought it had already sold it to some guy in Centerville, Iowa, about 2 hours away.  He gave me a name, Carson.  I thought maybe someday I’d be up there for some reason and I’d look him up.

Several years went by and I forgot about that rack.  In the meantime, I had one custom built for me that was 8ft tall and had 2ft of width inside, much roomier and a step out that could spot me on squats.  It was a good rack.  Then, the local gym that was owned my Jeff Jacques and where I got to train with John Ware and Glenn Jacobs (AKA Kane of WWE fame) was sold to a guy named “Carson”.  It jogged my memory about that rack and lo and behold, he was from Centerville.

Sometime later, that rack showed up at the gym!  This was great!  I asked him about the rack, but he wasn’t interested in selling it yet and being a college student, I couldn’t make an offer he couldn’t refuse.  Then, a couple years later, the rack was gone!  I asked him about the rack and he said he had loaned it to his brother.  My heart sank and I was wishing I’d come up with that offer.  He said he’d tell his brother of my interest.  Then, several years later, I made an effort to contact his brother to see if he still had that rack.  He still lived in Centerville and he said he had it and since he didn’t really train anymore, he’d sell it!  I made arrangements to go look at it the next time I headed that way.  Some months later, that time came and I went up to check this out.

As we headed to his basement I was excited that I’d see that rack after all these years, it was like finding an old friend. As we went down, we went by a rack that as about 5ft tall and he said, “There it is”.  I looked around and said, “Where”?  He said, “Right here” and patted the short rack.   I was sick to my stomach.  He had cut this rack to pieces and welded all kinds of extra stuff on it, spread it out, opened the top, and basically butchered it to pieces.    He was pretty proud of his work and wanted a premium for his “improvements”.  To be honest, the improvements made it a much more useful rack, but I nicely declined as I wanted it in original condition.  I think he thought I was nuts.  To be honest, I felt a little nuts.  I had went from wanting that rack really badly, to not wanting it at all and wishing I’d never found it again.

It was a long drive home.  It had been a 15 year journey searching for that old rack and just when I thought I had it….it came up short.  Nostalgia, sentimentalism, call it what you will, but I wanted that rack.  It was a part of my history and a part of the Jackson Weightlifting Club history.  But it also made me think.  Victory often comes at the expense of sacrifice and loss, and it becomes sweeter with it.  I recovered other parts of my lost treasure and I’m grateful for that.

The whole experience also made me think about not attaching too much to objects.  The object is NOT the memory, it merely represents the memory.  Whether I have it or not, the memory lives on as long as I choose to remember it.  I remember the lifts done in that rack often and that’s what’s important.

I also have a greater appreciation of the things I have now and the memories I’m making with my own children as they begin their lifting careers.  Maybe they won’t be as sentimental as their old man, but if they are, I hope I can teach them the real treasure is in the memory, not the thing.

The Long, Lost Ship Wheels

by Thom Van Vleck

The old "Ship Wheel" Collars compared to later types.

The old “Ship Wheel” Collars compared to later types.

Collars for weights are an interesting topic to me.  The “spin” type collars have been around for a long time.  They have clamps that tighten down with nuts and then they have a “spin” collar that turns into the weight to tighten it down.  Since these came into use there seems to have been a hundred new versions come out.  Kind of like the mouse trap…everyone invents a new one yet the good, old spring snap traps still seem to work the best.

Over the decades the old spin collars seem to have not changed much.  But they have and it’s a change not many would notice and few are left who would remember when they did change.  The short version is that the first collars York made had large ends like the above photo but were even larger than in the photo.  They were red, had brass wing nuts and were made up until WWII.  During, and for a period after, the war there was a shortage of iron.  In 1948 York redesigned the collar as the “nubs” tended to snap off and what you see above on the left is a representation of that redesign.  They made these to some time in the late 50’s (I’ve heard 1958) and then evidently had a back stock that lasted until 1963 as people bought them up to that time.  After that if you ordered collars individually or as part of a set you’d get the version on the right above.

This is a minor issue in the world in general, and even for most of the lifting world.  Maybe a topic for collectors and for those of us who just find some things “cooler” that have some character.  I’m one of those guys.  But here’s the rest of the story.

Way back in the day when my Uncle’s had saved for their first Olympic set they had to drive 180 miles to Kansas City to purchase and pick up the set.  It was a big deal.  They had saved for some time and that set of weights became the core set of many to follow and used by the Jackson Weightlifting Club (JWC) that created a Teenage National Champion, many state champs, too many contests to name, won two team state championships, and has had over 100 members over the years.  That set is in my gym and is still used to this day.  Well, almost.

I have the original bar and the original plated, including the “deep dish” York plates.  I had every part of that set….except the collars.  When I first started lifting in the mid 70s with my Uncle Wayne the JWC had fallen on hard times and the equipment kept in a barn with a dirt floor covered with wooden platforms warped from the damp and the weights being dropped on them.  There was no heat, no air conditioning…..it was pretty spartan and the weights rusted.  I cleaned them up and painted them.

There was a set of Ship Wheel collars but half the nubs were missing.  When they would rust he would bang them loose with another plate and they eventually started to break off.  At some point they got thrown away and I assumed lost forever.  I recalled them being red and I always assumed they were a part of the original set.

Then I made a trip to visit one of the original members, Wayne Gardner.  When he left the club in late 60’s he had taken a York set that he had shared with the club.  He was selling some stuff as he is no longer able to lift heavy.  I saw those collars and immediately asked for them.  He shot me a more than fair price and I was pretty happy to have a set of those collars that was just like the collars that came with that original set.

I was about to get an even bigger surprise.

As I asked Gardner about them he told me the story.  When he left the club he took his set but he had bought this set used in 1957 from a doctor in Kansas City who he thought had bought it prior to WWII.  That was where those red collars had come from.  He said he was mad that the other guys had broken his collars so they let him take the collars from that FIRST SET!  And here they were!

I don’t have to tell you how special a moment this was for me.  After all these years to have the original collars that belonged on that first York Olympic set.  I felt very blessed.  They were soon home and I loaded up the old bar with all the old weights and slide those collars on.  It had been at least 45 years since that set had been loaded as it was the day they bought it.

Of course, I had to lift it!  A fitting end….and you can bet I won’t be using another plate to knock these collars loose if they lock up!

Training for the Older Lifter

By Thom Van Vleck

Thom Van Vleck and his brother Tedd who is over 11 years younger. Over the years we have talked a lot about training but our age difference has meant we follow different programs. Age makes a difference in how you train!

Thom Van Vleck and his brother Tedd who is over 11 years younger. Over the years we have talked a lot about training but our age difference has meant we follow different programs. Age makes a difference in how you train!

Shot Put Gold medalist Adam Nelson told me, “Most training programs are designed for a younger athlete and older athletes need to train differently”.

I would say training programs need to be adjusted over the life span.   When I turned 40 I told my Uncle it seemed like when I was a teen I could work out hard every day.  Then at 30 I needed a day to recuperate from soreness.  Then at 40 it seemed to take a week to get past a heavy duty squat workout soreness.  My Uncle, who was pushing 60 and still training very hard said, Thom, I’ve been sore for the last 15 years!”.  I laughed but he was serious!  He said, “If I waited until I felt 100% I’d never workout again”.

So the body doesn’t recuperate as well.

Then there is injury which is different than recuperation.  I remember being young and pulling a muscle or straining a tendon and it recovering very quickly.  Now things stay hurt longer and some things just continue to hurt even after they have healed.  I tore my hamstring many years ago and I will still “feel it” from time to time.

So injuries add up and then don’t heal a quickly (or ever!).  The reality is injury is what ends most lifters competitive careers.  Not age.

Finally, there’s the responsibility that comes with age.  I remember spending a lot of time as a teen lifting, reading about lifting, thinking about lifting, watching other lifters lifting….you get the idea.  I just don’t have that kind of time anymore.

So you don’t have the time as an older lifter.

So the older lifter has to think differently.  They have to be smarter with the lifts they train, manage their time, and stay injury free.  If they get injured they need to address the injury and be less likely to “train through the injury”.

So for me it’s the “Three Keys” for the older lifter.

1.  Facilitating Recuperation

2.  Avoiding Injury

3.  Managing time

So how do you facilitate recuperation, avoid injury, and manage time to achieve the goal of being strong?

Let’s think about adaptation.  Lifting is really adapting to heavier loads.  Younger lifters can adapt faster than older lifters.  Thus it is often beneficial to change up lifts for a younger lifter.  Simply put, they adapt faster.  So that means the older the lifter, the slower they adapt.

The thought is as a younger lifter you need to change up lifts and avoid getting “stale” which is the body resisting adaptation.  So the older lifter needs to work the same lift for a longer period of time.  By doing the same lifts longer they would avoid injury.  Sure there’s a trade off but an older lifter will lose more time injured than the younger lifter so he need to avoid injury more than just gain strength.

Another thing the older lifter can do is find a happy medium for the poundage being lifted in training.  It is ingrained in every strength athlete to lift more and more weight.  They don’t refer to weightlifting as progressive resistance for nothing.  But for the older lifter there needs to be a limit.  I believe that should be around 75% of one’s max and keep the reps explosive and low at 3 sets of 3.  This will allow you to walk that line between getting stronger (or just keeping strength) and injury.  You will also stay in a good groove avoiding squeezing out reps that lead to poor form and injury.

The next concept sounds counter to what I’ve just said but think about it first.  The older lifter needs to lift 3 to 5 days a week.  Essentially, more often than a younger lifter.  But it’s the way the lifter trains (doing 75% instead of higher percentages, the same lifts more often, and walking away rather than crawling away) that makes this lifting scheme work.  To be clear, I’m talking about doing the SAME lifts every workout, not a split routine. So you end up lifting less volume but doing it more often.  This scheme also helps you manage time by keeping you in the training hall more often but for less time.  I also believe by training lifts more often you need less time to stretch, warm up, and all that.  Because you are essentially staying in a lifting groove.  Your body is ready every day to train.

I think a final benefit of following this program is I am enjoying my training more than I have in years.  I don’t crawl out of the gym and don’t avoid stairs for three days.  The hard part is that I often hit a very good set and in the past that’s when it was “go time” to load up the bar and do something REALLY heavy.  Now I simply walk away or move to the next lift.  But that means I’m ready to go again in the next day or two.

So here’s some basic points:

  • Lift for 3 days a week 45 minutes max duration
  • 3 sets of 3 reps on average with a 6 rep max
  • 5-10 minutes foam rolling and dynamic stretching
  • Same workout everyday as the philosophy is master’s throwers don’t adapt as quickly
  • 75% of max and if a consistent tempo can’t be maintained then drop the weight. Lose the ego!

The type of lifts that give you the biggest bang for your buck (lift smarter, remember!)

  1. Hip Hinge Pattern Movements (i.e. Power Snatches, Cleans, Deadlifts).
  2. Unilateral/Bilateral Squat Movement (i.e. Squats, lunges) followed by Post Activation Potentiation (PAP) such as broad jumps, vertical jumps, sprints.
  3. Pushes (i.e. explosive type pressing movements) followed by shoulder prehab work.
  4. Core work (2 or 3 weighted core exercised for 6-10 reps which may include decline crunches, standing bar twists, handing leg raises).
  5. Competition lifts:  Work them in but focus on the technique and stay at 75% until competition day.  Going heavy too much in training just means more injury.
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