[Tom Ryan]

LOL, ET. It is good to have ambition, James, but I would listen to ET, as nobody in the USAWA or IAWA has ever come close to Joe’s 1,910, which in addition to being the all-time record, is 12.25 pounds more than Louis Cyr did. Of course Cyr was generally considered to be the strongest man who ever lived until Anderson came along. A match between Cyr and Joe when they were both in their prime would be something to see! Joe came close to getting 2,000 some time after he did the 1,910 and if Cyr were to do 2,000 in a head-to-head match, that might be the stimulus that Joe would need to do, say, 2010. But, alas, such a match of course cannot be arranged. 🙂

Since Joe turns 60 sometime this year, catching up to what he is doing now might be possible, but I wouldn’t bet on anyone approaching his all-time record.

[Tom Ryan]

James,

You are doing some very nice lifting, especially your clean and press of a 45-pound plate by the hub. Very impressive.

I do have a few comments about your hand-and-thigh lift technique. The lift is essentially a modified hip lift but in order for it to be that, the bar that you are gripping must be high on your thighs. If not, you will be doing something that is almost like a partial deadlift.

You are starting with the bar a bit too low. Compare your position with the position used by the grand master of that lift, Joe Garcia, as can be seen here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhduna0Srak

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

Yes, excellent lifting, Timo.

[Tom Ryan]

Vince Anello was indeed an unusual deadlifter. I believe it was said of him that his torso seemed to shrink in length when he was doing a heavy deadlift. Lamar Gant was another great deadlifter who also almost seemed to be an anatomical illusion as he was called “plastic man” because his arms seem to become longer during a heavy deadlift.

[Tom Ryan]

No, Starr’s 666 national record deadlift was performed in the 198 class. See http://www.liftinglarge.com/The-No-Deadlift-Deadlift-Program_ep_51-1.html

Of course this was during the early years of powerlifting and several years later Vince Anello did about 150 pounds more than Starr’s record while also lifting in the 198 class.

[Tom Ryan]

Nice job, Dan. I eagerly await your reply to this, “lucky Al”. 🙂

I generally agree with you, Dan. I have done a few RDLs and would certainly recommend them over SLDLs.

I am baffled by a few of your statements, however.

So you’d be much better off training high pulls than SLDL’s to increase your pull off the ground. There’s a reason weightlifters tend to be great deadlifters…and it’s not because they do SLDL’s.

I don’t see that at all. I can’t think of very many U.S. weightlifters who have been great deadlifters. John Terry was certainly one, however, but what other national- or world-class Olympic lifters have also been great deadlifters? That would definitely require some thought. Various Olympic lifters have tried their hand at powerlifting and have done well, such as Bill Starr, but I wouldn’t describe Starr as a great deadlifter, although he was certainly good at it. Schemansky’s PR deadlift was not very high at all.

If by “high pulls” you meant pulling the bar to belt height, then I might be somewhat in agreement with you but that is not what I would call a high pull, as to me the latter would be like to the level of a snatch pull.

I believe that Olympic lifters do need a lot of low pulling strength. I realized early in my career that deadlifts would not help my clean, so I would just pull the bar over my kneecaps and stop there, doing three reps. My PR was 3 reps with 580, which I did in the Fall of 1973, using straps and with both knuckles facing forward.

As for athletes from other sports, such as football players, I would never recommend that they do any type of low pulls without the close supervision of an expert strength coach. Bill Starr in one of his books recommended that football players simply not do deadlifts.

[Tom Ryan]

I am saddened as well. As I posted previously, I spoke with Dale on March 1, just 17 days ago. He sounded okay then. He did tell me, however, that he had been in the hospital and was supposed to still be in the hospital but he convinced his doctor that he could take his medications just as well at home as he could in a hospital.

The last 5-6 years of his life were very rough and he almost died a few times. He told me that he had three heart attacks, two episodes of congestive heart failure, and of course many infections in addition to what was obviously a fatal infection.

A very sad day for those of us who knew him, as he leaves us at the age of 72.

[Tom Ryan]

I also ordered a copy, which may have arrived in my PO box by now.

[Tom Ryan]

Well, a few minutes after I posted my message I got a call from, you guessed it, Dale. We had a nice chat as he had just gotten back in town. At first I thought he might be responding to my message here, but he said he hadn’t seen it.

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

I also went to one of them — about 10 years ago. Big crowd indeed!

[Tom Ryan]

I’ve never heard of an isokinetic power rack either and I go back further than almost all of you.

About 50 years ago, Weider advertised squat stands that were pictured as having sliding sleeves. The product that arrived was different from what was in the photo, however, and did not have sliding sleeves. I did use the product for a long time, but in thinking back, it was not completely safe, although I didn’t have any mishaps.

[Tom Ryan]

Hello Joe and ET,

Thanks for inquiring.

Yes, I have had some major health problems. Big Time!! Specifically, I had a lower left leg amputation on Nov. 21 — apparently necessitated by Charcot’s Syndrome in my foot. I also have some evidence of that problem in my right foot but my podiatrist, who is world famous, is sure he can save it with an orthotic shoe insert and other treatment he has been giving me.

As if a leg amputation wasn’t bad enough, I had to call 911 in the early morning hours of Jan. 4 when fluids had accumulated in my lungs and elsewhere and I could hardly breathe. It is bad enough to be out of breath for a minute or two, but I had trouble breathing the entire day of Jan. 4 when I was in the hospital. Gruesome, believe me! That was undoubtedly the worst day of my life!

I was in that hospital, which was not where I had the amputation, for almost 2.5 weeks and then spent 8 days in an extended stay facility.

I was diagnosed as having congestive heart failure. Medical experts say there is no cure for that but I have researched it and it can indeed be cured. When people say that I can’t do something, that gives me even more motivation to do it and show them that they are wrong.

Guided by my research results, I had the Acworth Wellness Center order some bottles of two cardio products (Cardio-Plus and cardiotrophin), which are bovine tissue extracts. The former, in particular, has helped various people return to good health from a condition of congestive heart failure. (This info is on the Internet.)

I have used myotrophin (beef muscle extract) from the same company (Standard Process) off and on since about 1973, when a nutritionally oriented doctor in the Atlanta area thought it might help me as a weightlifter, so he prescribed it for me. I presently have a bottle of it, as I returned to using it about 2 years ago.

These products are supposed to be ordered only by health professionals but they can also be obtained from various Internet sources. They are just parts of a cow, so they shouldn’t have any side effects.

I have lost a ton of weight (about 30 pounds excluding my lower left leg) but that does make it easier for my arms and right leg to move me around my house (from the wheelchair to my bed, etc.), using a sliding board for the transfers.

I did invent a new lift for you guys to consider. 🙂

It is called the “lying-in-bed one-arm press”. I did 10 reps with 30 pounds with my right arm the other night and 6 reps with my left arm, which was injured multiple times competing in USAWA meets during the 1980s. Considering what I have been through, I am satisfied with those numbers — for the time being.

Work on my prosthesis has been underway for awhile and I will receive the finished product next week. Then of course I will need some outpatient rehab work to learn how to walk with it.

Ejection fraction is a measure of the heart’s pumping ability. Mine was only 25% when I had the amputation and that signifies “severe left ventricle dysfunction”. Then it dropped to 20% when I was in the 2nd hospital and I was starting to think that the end might be near!! But it jumped up to 35% right before I left that hospital. (A normal reading is around 55%.)

Of course they tested me for everything and it is nice to know that I don’t have diabetes and a heart catheterization showed no coronary artery blockages. My blood pressure stays around 110/70 and my heart rate is around 70-80, although slightly irregular. My oxygen level is in the 97-99 range.

So in some ways I am in great shape. LOL

I considered myself to be retired from USAWA competition before my health problems, so I will stay retired and not try to follow in Dale’s footsteps. But I do intend to return to lifting reasonable poundages, as I told the young man who worked on the fitting of my prosthesis. He said the apparatus is designed to support 330 pounds, which should certainly be adequate. (I will probably get the urge occasionally to show myself that I can still lift over 300 pounds, and indeed I did 3 reps with 320 in a simulated hand-and-thigh lift about 7 months ago. That certainly wasn’t my limit, but I did feel the weight.)

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

Please give Art my condolences as well.

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

[b]Quote from dinoman on September 26, 2012, 10:46[/b]
That’s true!!

I only know one personally. Bob Burtzloff did a Bent Press of 250# weighing around 240 lbs 20 years ago.

Dennis Mitchell has told me that he has done a close to bodyweight Bent Press of 170# at a BW of 180lbs when he was younger.

Does anyone else know any Bent Pressers that have done bodyweight?? Dinoman

Starting with lifters who have competed in USAWA/IAWA competition, I don’t know how much he did when he was younger, but I’ll relate a story about Harrison Skeete (1921-2008). It was a meet during the late 1980s, I believe, when a lifter mentioned that he had done bent presses when he was younger. Another lifter pointed toward Skeete, whom I believe may have been on the platform at the time, and stated “You didn’t do as much as he did!”. At the time Skeete was in his late 60s and still rather strong. So I’m guessing that he probably did over 200 in his younger days, with that exceeding bodyweight. Here is an article about Skeete for those of you who are not familiar with him.
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/19/nyregion/long-island-journal-at-78-breaking-barriers-in-weight-lifting.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

I have seen Dennis Mitchell do a bent press or two but I can’t recall seeing any other USAWA lifter do so.

One day when I was a faculty member at the U. of Iowa, I got started talking about weightlifting with another member of my department. He was in his 60s at the time and husky, probably weighing about 250. He told me that it was commonplace to see guys in gyms in the 1940s doing bent presses and he stated that he had done 220. That blew my mind slightly as one doesn’t expect to encounter a big bent presser as a college professor in a university statistics department!! (This was circa 1987.)

Of course Saxon did an official 370, unofficial lifts with 386 and 389, with the latter performed at Professor Szalay’s Barber Shop in London, and missed with 409.75 when some of the weights tied to the bar started sliding off (see Strength and Health, Oct 1933 p. 25).

Undoubtedly the highest poundage lifted since Saxon was Al Beinert’s 360 performed with a dumbbell in June, 1965. He was 6-4 and weighed 260. Willoughby claimed that his lift was equivalent to about 409 with a barbell. I would like to see someone do 409 with a barbell. I can’t even begin to relate to that!

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

I see your point, Al, but I think some consideration should be given to revising the rule so that spotters don’t get hurt, such as a broken wrist that you mentioned. Surely it would be rather unusual for a lifter to need to be spotted on the squat since the hard part is shouldering the bar, especially for those of us who aren’t built to shoulder it in the usual manner. With my 6-4 height and long legs, I had to shoulder the bar on one shoulder and then twirl it around so that it rested across both shoulders. After that “ordeal”, the squat was a piece of cake and I recall in one meet deliberately squatting extremely deep, which I could do with my long, slender legs, to show Clark how easy the squat was for me after shouldering the bar (which was certainly not a heavy poundage). I recall one meet when Bill Fellows tried to shoulder a moderately heavy weight on one shoulder for the Steinborn lift and despite a valiant effort, was not able to control the bar well enough to shoulder it. That attempt was a show in itself. 🙂

Tom

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