Category Archives: USAWA Daily News

USAWA Records in the Gardner Lifts

by Al Myers

These are the current overall weight class USAWA records for the Half Gardner and the Full Gardner. John Monk is the only USAWA lifter to have lifted his bodyweight in the Half Gardner – which he did at the 2001 Gold Cup. John has a best Half Gardner of 165 pounds and a best Full Gardner of 111 pounds. These are the top marks ever done in the USAWA.

Half Gardner


Weight Class
 Lifter Pounds Lifted
60kg Mike O’Brien
 71
65kg Izzy Mabrey
 88
70kg John Monk
 154
75kg John Monk
 70
80kg John Monk
 165
85kg John Monk
 143
90kg Denny Habecker
 99
95kg Ed Schock
 110
100kg Chad Ullom
 121
105kg Bill Spayd
 126
110kg Jason Weigle
 143
115kg Ralph Cirafes
 99
120kg Kevin Fulton
 122
125kg Frank Ciavattone
 132
125+kg
 Frank Ciavattone
 96


Full Gardner


Weight Class
 Lifter Pounds Lifted
60kg Mike O’Brien
 45
65kg Barry Pensyl
 65
70kg John Monk
 111
75kg John Monk
 110
80kg Abe Smith
 95
85kg John Monk
 110
90kg Tim Piper
 68
95kg James Foster
 65
100kg Bill Spayd
 100
105kg Ed Schock
 110
110kg Mike McBride
 95
115kg None
 None
120kg None None
125kg Demetrius Davis
 70
125+kg
 Bill Rogers
 70

Rules for the Gardner Lifts

by Al Myers

(The following are the USAWA Rules for the Full and Half Gardner Lifts, taken from the USAWA Rulebook)

D11. Gardner – Full

The first part of this lift is to perform a Half Gardner according to the rules of the Gardner – Half. Once in the finished position on the platform of the Half Gardner, an official will give the command to rise. The lifter must not rise before the command or it will be a disqualification. The rules of the Gardner –Half apply to the rise as well. Once the lifter is standing upright, with the bar motionless at arm’s length overhead, the feet parallel and in line with the torso, an official will give a command to lower the bar. The bar may be in any degree of rotation when overhead. The bar must be returned to the platform under control by the lifter to complete the lift. It is acceptable to use both hands to lower the bar.

D12. Gardner – Half

The lifter may put the bar overhead into the starting position by any method, except upending the bar. This may be done using a One-Arm Clean and Jerk, One-Arm Snatch, pushing the bar overhead in one hand using both hands, putting the bar overhead with two hands and then moving it to one hand, etc. The bar is gripped in the center. The start position is when the bar is held motionless overhead with a straight arm, the lifter’s body upright with legs straight, and the feet parallel and in line with the torso. The non-lifting hand must be free from the body. Once in this position, an official will give a command to start the lift. The lifter will then lower the body to a lying position on the lifters back on the platform by any method, ending with the bar held at arm’s length overhead. The lifting arm must remain straight throughout the entire lift. When the lifter is in the lying position on the platform, the shoulders, legs, hips, head and non-lifting arm must all be in contact with the platform. The bar or plates must not make contact with the platform during the lift. The bar must be under control at all times. The non-lifting hand may be placed on the platform for support during the lift. The bar is allowed to have a slight tilt to it during the lift, as long as the lifter has the bar under control. The bar is allowed to rotate during the lift and may be in any degree of rotation when the lift is complete. Once the lifter is in the proper position lying on the platform, with the lifting arm straight and the bar motionless, an official will give a command to end the lift. The lifter may use both hands to lower the bar or spotters may assist in removing the bar.

The GARDNER LIFTS

by Al Myers

James Gardner doing a Half Gardner at the 2008 IAWA World Championships. James is the master of this lift which carries his name - and successfully lifted 176 pounds at a bodyweight of only 87.5 kilograms in front of IAWA Officials.

After the article regarding the Turkish Get Up (TGU) last month, I received a couple of emails from All-Round lifters reminding me of the similarities between the the Turkish Get Up and the Official IAWA and USAWA All-Round Lifts – the Gardner Lifts. Steve Gardner presented this lift to the IAWA World Council Meeting in Cleveland in 1995 for new lift approval, and the council not only approved the lift but named it after him!!!! In fact, there are two Gardner lifts – the Half Gardner and the Full Gardner.

However, there are some differences between the Turkish Get Up and the Gardner Lifts. In the Gardner Lifts, the lift starts at the top, while the TGU starts lying on the floor. The Gardner lifts allow only the use of a barbell, while the TGU allows the use of any implement – bar, dumbbell, or kettlebell. The Half Gardner Lift ends when the lifter is lying on the platform on his/her back, with the bar held in a single, straight arm overhead under control. In a sense – the starting position for the Turkish Get Up. In the Full Gardner Lift, once a Half Gardner is completed, the lifter receives a command to “Get Up” and return to the standing position with the bar overhead. So – part of the Full Gardner involves doing a Turkish Get Up. This sequence of lifts is easily summed up with this formula:

Full Gardner = Half Gardner + Turkish Get Up

These lifts are more difficult than just standing and lying down with weights. There is technique involved with steps taken in lying down and standing that helps in making these lifts easier to perform. It is important to first learn the “steps” and then follow the same step pattern each time. These lifts also involve flexibility – especially with the shoulder. It is a good lift for any age. I was amazed by Art Montini at last year’s World Championship when he did a Half Gardner of 39 pounds – and Art is over 80 years of age!! Most guys his age have difficulty getting out of bed and tying their own shoes. Art is living proof that weight training is indeed the “fountain of youth”!!!

Sad News from the Strength Journal

(I just received the Strength Journal, published by Bill Clark, and learned of the death of two all-round weightlifters. The following is from the Strength Journal).

by Bill Clark

Word comes to us well after the fact that Cleveland’s Bob Cox has died. I have no obituary to pass along to the membership. If anyone has such, please get it to me. Bob was an active lifter until knee replacement put him on the sidelines. He was 84 years old and a major contributor to the Journal. He was a training partner with Fred Kwast, Howard Prechtel, and many other Cleveland lifters dating back to World War II.

Kevin Heavner, who still holds the Mansfield Lift record, died recently at age 52. He lived in Columbia, trained in his garage, and dropped out of Olympic competition years ago. He was an excellent Olympic lifter with a chance to be a national class competitor, but chose to lift for fun. He lived no more than five minutes from Clark’s Gym and occasionally dropped by to check if anyone had broken his Mansfield record, but chose to train at home. Death was sudden. He seemed to be in excellent health. Some of his weights have been donated to our gym. Kevin was one of those folks about whom Ring Lardner once wrote – “The World of Men Who Might Have Been” – but he was happy with his place in life and in lifting.

TEAM LIFTING

by Al Myers

The date for the USAWA Team Nationals is approaching fast (Next Weekend -Sunday, September 20th, 2009). Team lifting is when two individuals (the Team) perform a lift together. The USAWA provides divisions for 2-Man, 2-Person, and 2-Woman Teams. A 2-person team is a team made up of a male and a female. All of these divisions are contested at the National Team Championships.

My training partner Chad Ullom (to left) and myself training the 2-Man Zercher Lift in preparation for the 2007 Team Nationals. We ended up lifting 705 pounds at Nationals.

Rules for Team Lifts (taken from the USAWA Rulebook)

“Any approved lift may be done as a Team Lift, provided it is done according to the rules of the individual lift. Team Lifts consist of two lifters performing a lift together. This may consist of male-male, female-female, or female-male teams. The combination of lifters may be of any age or weight. The weight class the Team will be in will be that of the heaviest lifter and the age class that of the youngest lifter. An exception is if a Junior lifter is teamed with an Open or Master lifter, in which the age class will be the class of the older lifter. “

Team lifting is very challenging because factors come into play that when lifting on a bar by yourself you don’t experience. The timing of the lift with your partner has to be the same or imbalances occur. It helps if both lifters are of the same height and body type so the bar is at the same height during and at the finish of the lift. Flexibility becomes more of a factor because of the limited space a bar provides when two lifters have a hold of it!! Lifting styles also come into play. For example – when doing a clean, one lifter can’t squat clean the bar while the other power cleans it!! Another factor you don’t think of until you actually do Team Lifting is trust. A missed lift can be catastrophic in team lifting because one person may be successfully completing the lift when this happens and unaware that one side of the bar is dropping fast!!! You have to know each others capabilities and be able to TRUST that your lifting partner won’t let you down.

But at the same time, Team Lifting provides a great challenge. In some lifts you can actually lift more together than the sum of each of your individual lifts. Chad and I found this out a couple of years ago when the Team One Arm Deadlift was contested at Team Nationals. We had an idea of what we thought we could do together based on each of our individual One Arm Deadlifts – but forgot a big difference that was going to occur when we were both gripping the bar. That difference was we were able to create an “alternate grip” on the bar by facing away from each other, thus helping in blocking the “bar roll” that occurs in any one arm deadlift. We ended up lifting more together than the sum of our “Bests” at the time.

There is still time to enter the USAWA Team Nationals.

1 … 450 451 452 453 454 … 462