[Randy Smith]

And I believe one hernia

[Randy Smith]

There was more than one belt broken. Mine held up, but I can remember a picture with like 2 or 3 broken belts sitting side by side

[Randy Smith]

I appreciate Sanjiv’s articles on Lynch, etc. I came across this article about Sinclair. https://barbend.com/sinclair-coefficient-formula-total/
My favorite line in the article is, “In short, the only constants in weightlifting are the weight on the bar and gravity itself. Everything else is variable.”
Because there are so many, Lynch, Schwartz, Wilks, Sinclair, Robi,( ?maybe more?)
I suspect they all have their good points and bad points. I somewhat facetiously say that I’m sure that none of them try accommodate lifters with small hands (Fulton Bar)
or skinny lifters with long arms (bench press). And fairness is in the eye of the beholder.

The question is, “What are we really trying to do/compare?”

I think the best idea is Clint’s suggestion to discuss over food and drink! We may not reach an agreement, but hopefully everybody will have a good time.

[Randy Smith]

My recollection is that when the Travis Lift was contested at the Dino Gym Challenge a power belt was broken during one of the attempts. Maybe Chad or Al can comment on this.

[Randy Smith]

Some thoughts and comments on the proposals:

Prop !/Knee Sleeves. This is a link to a peer reviewed published study documenting that knee sleeves of varying tightness do significantly increase a lifter’s one rep squat max (for reasons that are not currently understood). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33201154/
Dan mentioned that a manufacturer had told him this. I thought this article would be helpful. And I just want those interested to have complete information.

Prop 4/Uniform. I would like to know why this proposal is coming up at this time. It’s not clear to me what the goal is.

Prop 5/Saxon snatch. Dan’s comments about wood plank vs 3 inch square or rectangular bar got me thinking. What is the real “mission” of the USAWA? And what are our goals for the future? I do realize that different people will reasonably have different opinions on these considerations. I agree that a wooden “Saxon Bar” is easy to make. Full disclosure: About a year after making a wooden one I bought a 3″ square steel bar that went on sale to play with. (And I’ve thought about doing some “destructive testing” on my wooden one, but haven’t gotten around to it.)

Proposals 6 and 7. To me the real issue here is how to deal with adding new lifts; whether we need to or should be adding new lifts; and how this fits with the USAWA’s “mission”. I like to try, play with, and work on new (and old) lifts that I can physically do (I’ll skip the Mansfield at this time.). The more the merrier. However, sometimes rules need to be clarified. And unexpected or unintended issues sometimes arise. Therefore, I believe that new lifts should be contested at some in person meets (the number is negotiable) as an exhibition lift (whether the lift should be included in the meet total is another question) before they enter the rule book as an official lift. I like Dan’s idea of making the Fulton Bar a possibility with all of the barbell lifts. (I really enjoy lifting with the Fulton Bar). But I would like the folks who keep track of the records to comment on this before it goes farther. I have nothing against the “Bavarian Deadlift” and think it would be “fun”. But I think the rules may benefit from some review. For example, including the acceptable diameter of the handle.

Again, my underlying questions involve where do we want this organization to go and what do we want to be? We are an all volunteer low budget organization where a small number of people do most of the administrative and organizational work. I hope my comments are helpful. And I hope to make to the nationals to see where all this goes.

Keep having fun lifting heavy stuff!

[Randy Smith]

Thank you for the comments. My interest is partly historical; how they did it once upon a time. And partly practical; I’m considered converting some lifting stones to Dinnie replicas.

On the pictures I found of the Dinnie Stones one looks like it has an eyebolt. The other I can’t tell.

Clint, did the maker of your stones run the rod entirely through the stone? Threaded? Use any adhesive?

[Randy Smith]

Hi Sanjiv. Farm supply stores have been best for me when trying to find parts for the heavy lift belts. I got hay baler conveyor belt from Tractor Supply. It can be cut with a utility knife. Rivets are often used, but I used short carriage bolts for my hip lift belt. I have found that farm supply store staff are often interested and very helpful when they find out what we are going to do with this stuff. They have had specific hardware suggestions that have been helpful not only for chain lifts but for other lifting applications such as optimizing adjustable kettle bell handles.

A steel fabrication shop should be able to help you with the bar. For a solid bar cold rolled 1045 steel was recommended because it is stiffer than 1038, but I don’t know what others in USAWA use for their bars. Diameter needs to be 1-15/16″. I think you will outgrow a pipe/hollow bar pretty quickly.

And hopefully you can find a local gym that will let you bring in your bar and lifting rig so you can load it up without having to invest in a bunch of hundred pound plates. You might even find others that are interesting in giving it a go.

Good luck with your project!

[Randy Smith]

Thank you for information about Louie. He’s a legend. I’ve been putting off watching “Westside vs. the World”, a documentary on that gym. I guess now it’s time. The guy that runs the strength/conditioning training for the university football team here is Westside Certified and knows Louie. RIP

[Randy Smith]

Thanks. I’d been thinking routing a groove in two 2×4’s, then bolting or clamping them to a bar. A pipe flange and a piece of pipe (1-1/2″ inside diameter/1.9″ O.D.) threaded at one end might avoid the need to weld.

[Randy Smith]

Al wrote a eulogy to him in 2016. Unless there’s another Tom Ryan? I know a Tom Ryan, but he’s alive and not into weightlifting.

[Randy Smith]

Also, Wow! Lots of ideas have mentioned that merit their own discussions to figure out how to implement.

Thom’s and ET’s comments about supportive gear probably deserve their own discussion. I’m wondering what supportive gear Thom would like to be able to use, and how “raw” the USAWA (and IAWA) would like to be.

Dan’s comments caused me to think about how I found out and got involved in all around lifting. First, I noticed brief recurring articles in Milo that mentioned Zercher, hip, hand and thigh, harness, etc lifts. Nobody up here knew what those were. I was curious. In 2001 or 2002 found a VHS tape of the USAWA 2000 Nationals sold by Roger LaPointe’s Atomic Athletic. I thought these were interesting lifts and decided to try them. I also found a weightlifting book from the 1950’s at the local library that described how to do several one handed lifts (with old records listed). At some point I found the USAWA website that had Bill Clark’s contact information, and ended up getting Bill “Strength Journal”. Then somebody locally encouraged me to go to the 2003 Nationals in Youngstown. While driving there I’m wondering why I’m going 500 plus miles to do this, but it was a great experience.

So, having some website links to videos of how to do our “core” or “classic” lifts (whatever those are) would make it easy for folks to see what we are really doing. A USAWA youtube channel is a nice idea, but my limited impression is that this would take a fair amount of work to set up. Maybe somebody in our organization is knowledgable and facile enough to set something like that up after getting some video footage (solicited from the membership, from a Nationals or record day, or ?).

5 lifts on record days? Probably merits another discussion (mostly by others because I’ve not been to a record day. Travel distance has dissuaded me.). My limited understanding is that the limit was set to ease the burden for the person keeping the record list up to date.

I decided I’m going to ask some of the personal trainers I know if any of their clients might be interested in this. Hopefully I can find somebody to do postal lifts with. We’ll see.

[Randy Smith]

Hmmm. I thought the link would come through. If you search “The Odd, the Old and the Original: A case for Atypical Lifting” should come up. [It looks like I don’t know how to properly add a link to a forum post]

[Randy Smith]

I came across this thread on Reddit

It looks like there are interested folks out there (including two posters that are and/or were USAWA members).

[Randy Smith]

Thank you! The last link worked.

[Randy Smith]

The only person I recall that was interested enough to checkout our website and start training some of the lifts (he really liked Zerchers) was probably in his 40’s and previously into high level Brazilian jiu jitsu competition. But he “disappeared” not long after COVID started. The other person who seems truly interested is a greco-roman wrestler who trains at the olympic training center. But he’s wrapped up in wrestling now. If he stays in the area he may be a candidate when he “ages out” of competition.

I have wondered if those of us who continue to get satisfaction and enjoyment from all round lifting for extended periods of time are “wired differently” than most folks, including most “weightlifters” (i.e., olympic, power, strongman, etc.). But, if so, I wonder what that really means and how we find those like minded people.

I am hoping that a few of the younger lifters at the gym where I work out get disenchanted with powerlifting or get bored with focusing on three lifts, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

It would be nice to find somebody who is interested enough to play with the postal lifts, but it hasn’t happened yet.

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