[Al Myers]

I know several lifters like to lift barefoot or in socks, and lots of the Oldtimer Strongmen didn’t ever wear lifting shoes. Guys like Arthur Saxon. I’m not saying this is wrong. Maybe its just my generation of “being sold” the importance of special lifting shoes. But then again – I’m like Tom Ryan and the idea of going barefoot scares me! I even wear shoes in the house. Al

[Al Myers]

It sure looked like a great meet! Wish I could have been there. Al

[Al Myers]

I’m with you on this one Thom! Right now I have three pairs of lifting shoes that I use when I train – my squat boots, my wrestling shoes for deadlifting, and my Olympic shoes. Sometimes I wear all three of them at some point in the same workout! Also, I ONLY wear them in the gym. I have training partners who wear the same pair of shoes when training as they wear into the gym! Al

I’ve worn out shoes just using them for training. No wonder my hips are showing signs of wear and tear!

[Al Myers]

Eric made a good point about paying membership fees in other organizations as well (which most all are more than $25 per year). This adds up. We don’t want the USAWA to be that organization you “give up” on for a year because you would rather pay your strongman or powerlifting dues for the year. But I do know at some point we will have to raise fees. I haven’t completed the financial analysis for the USAWA yet for 2011, so it depends on how things turn out with that whether this will be the year I recommend it to the membership to raise “prices”. Hopefully, that will not be the case.

James point on paying online is a good one as well. This is in my long range plans for the USAWA. All it would take is setting up a paypal account (which is easy), and making some additions to the website to work with paypal. The problem is that there are fees with paypal, and this would take away from the USAWA income. Again, more costs equals higher membership fees. And that’s the bottom line. Al

[Al Myers]

I hope my story today didn’t come across as “to brash”. I wasn’t in the best of moods when I got up today, and it’s probably not a good idea to write when that’s the case!

We are very fortunate to be financial secure in the USAWA. We do have adequate “money in the bank” to do the things we need to do as an organization. However, lots of our bank account is “old money” (due to a very wealthy anoynomous donator that has passed away a few years ago). Since then our account has dwindled somewhat, and our financial report last year showed a loss for the year. It takes money to make things happen in an organization – ie drug testing, the awards program, the website, etc. These are things that everyone benefits from for their membership fee.

I’m a business man and I’m trying to run the USAWA like a business. There are lots of things that I will give “wiggle room” on, but when it comes to the USAWA money there is no “grey zone” for me. Al

[Al Myers]

I had seen that on the IAWA FB page, and it caused me to “look closely” at the plates to see if they are real! Any idea who this lifter is? Al

[Al Myers]

Steve, Yes, I hit a max (or near max) in some type of pull every week. My deadlift training is only with singles nowadays. I don’t train to “peak” for meets, but rather just try to keep my baseline strength up at all times so I can compete whenever I want. I love this training program – it allows me to train hard, yet not overtax the lower back with too much training volume.(which doesn’t recover like it used to). Al

PS And Tom – I don’t believe the weight lifted in that YouTube Video could possible be real. And if it was, we might be looking at the next Ed Coan.

[Al Myers]

I don’t know for sure yet – but I would guess around 40-50 dollars, and that is getting them in black & white print.

[Al Myers]

I’m taking the Year in Review to the printer on Monday. I am only going to print copies for those that have ordered them. This is the list of “orders”:

Al Myers
Thom Van Vleck
Denny Habecker
Dale Friesz
Art Montini

The final count on this MANUSCRIPT is 645 pages and 174,423 words. I plan to get it printed in black & white, as that will be expensive enough! If anyone else wants a copy, let me know soon. Al

[Al Myers]

The “old style” (shoulders perpendicular) you explained is still done at times in meets by some of the older lifters. However, the “newer style” (shoulders parallel) is the technique is which most lifters use. I DO believe more weight can be lifted with this style, as like you described, the back is not rounded as much, thus putting the lifter in a more favorable leverage position. Al

[Al Myers]

ET – yes the lifts have been announced. They are:

Day 1: Curl-Reverse Grip, Clean and Jerk – one arm, Pullover and press, Steinborn
Day 2: Snatch – Fulton Bar, hack Lift-one arm, Jefferson

The dates are October 6th & 7th. (a two day meet)

I hope to have the announcement and entry forms on the website next week sometime. Al

PS AND GREAT STORY TOM!!! That is too good of story to be lost in a forum discussion. Was, by any chance, pictures taken at this Zercher Meet?

[Al Myers]

Steve, HUGE JEFFERSON LIFT!! Thanks for sharing that video with us. Your technique is perfect for it, and exactly what I was trying to describe in my blog as the correct way to do this lift. It is also obvious that your body type is perfect for his lift. Gotta wonder – what was your deadlift at the time you did this record Jefferson??

As I’ve got older my training has changed dramatically. I no longer push myself through those progressive training cycles like I did when I was powerlifting, hitting lots of reps, and trying to “peak” for a meet. I only do singles in training with the pull now, and change my max pulling exercise every week, on a 6 week rotation. These four pulls are always in my 6 week program: Deadlift 12″ base, Deadlift heels together, trap bar deadlift, and the Jefferson. Depending on what meet is coming up, I might add in a Hack Lift, 2 bar deadlift, a fulton bar lift, or some other type of pull in one of the other two weeks. I work up to a max (or near max) every workout in one of these lifts. It is always exciting because of the layoff since the last time I did the lift, and use that as “my gauge” as to what I want to get for the night. I do everything I can now to make my workouts fun!! Al

[Al Myers]

You guys will like todays Daily News Story then!

Tom – That Jefferson Lift of yours was done at the 1987 Zercher (I looked it up). That had to be one of the best Zercher Meets of all time. The competition looked fierce! I also saw that was the meet that Stan Frenchie put up those huge MO Valley Record lifts – 700# Jeff, 700# Hack, and 600# DL HT (only took his opener here). It had him listed at 27 years, 206 pounds. Do you know what happened to him? He never really lifted much in all rounds after that? Al and PS Why didn’t you take a picture of Ed Zercher doing the Zercher that day so Thom would have THAT PICTURE?

[Al Myers]

Thom, We sure missed you!!! It was a great day for everyone (and YES – you were the topic of a few discussions – all good stuff of course!) Al

[Al Myers]

The policy of the IAWA is that the member countries certify the officials. IAWA is not involved in this – but instead leave it up to us (the USAWA). So to answer your question – you must be a certified USAWA official in order to be an IAWA official. Al

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