USAWA

By Al Myers

The second lift contested this coming weekend at the USAWA Grip Championships will be the Deadlift – Fulton Dumbbell, One Arm. This is a great lift in the USAWA and has been contested before at the Grip Championships. It is one of my favorite grip lifts in the USAWA. Several years ago I wrote a blog over the origin of this lift. The following is an exerpt from that blog that I would like to share with you again.

Back in the early 80’s at a odd lifting meet in Liberal, Kansas, meet director Bob Burtzloff included a thick-handled dumbbell deadlift in the contest.  This dumbbell had a smooth 2 inch diameter handle.  Wilbur Miller, the “Cimarron Kid” and Kansas lifting legend,  was the hands on favorite to win this event.  Wilbur has huge hands with long fingers and was very rarely beaten in any lifting event that involved grip strength.  But this day was one of those rare days – when a young farm boy from Nebraska by the name of Kevin Fulton pulled off the upset! Upon Fulton’s winning – Bill Clark announced that this lift would be forever named the Fulton Lift.  This eventually lead to the naming of the 2″ bar as the Fulton Bar along with the Fulton Dumbbell.  As for Wilbur – upon the finish of the event he went back to the warm-up area and proceeded to pull more on this lift than he did in competition.  He went home knowing that he may not have won the event on this day,  but with the satisfaction of knowing he would next time!

This is the USAWA Rule for the Deadlift – Fulton Dumbbell, One Arm:

I7. Deadlift – Fulton Dumbbell, One Arm

The rules of the Deadlift – One Arm apply except the dumbbell used must have a handle of 2” in diameter. No knurling is allowed on the handle. The maximum diameter of the plates used is 18 inches.

I have some really nice Fulton Dumbbells that we will use in the Grip Championships.  I expect to see some really great lifts this weekend.  Since this is a One Arm event you must choose which hand you want to lift with on all your attempts. Below is the USAWA ALL TIME OVERALL RECORDS in the Deadlift – Fulton Dumbbell, One Arm for the Mens Division.

	LEFT ARM		RIGHT ARM
CLASS	LIFTER	LBS	LIFTER	LBS
75 KG	Stephen Santangelo	130	Stephen Santangelo	130
80 KG	Art Montini	60	Art Montini	60
85 KG	None		Denny Habecker	125
90 KG	Denny Habecker	100	Denny Habecker	100
95 KG	None		None
100 KG	Ben Edwards	175	Ben Edwards	185
105 KG	None		None
110 KG	Jeff Ciavattone	190	Jeff Ciavattone	190
115 KG	LaVerne Myers	165	LaVerne Myers	187
120 KG	Al Myers	170	Al Myers	170
125 KG	None		Dean Ross	125
125+ KG	Darren Barnhart	185	Scott Tully	192

The Best overall All Time USAWA Record is held by Scott Tully with 192 pounds, set at the 2012 USAWA Grip Championships. But I’m sure you are wondering how much did Kevin Fulton lift on that memorial odd lift day in Liberal, Kansas?  It took me “some digging” but I found that Kevin lifted 195 pounds on that day in 1983!  So let’s see if anyone this coming weekend can beat this record mark set by Kevin in the pre-USAWA days!