[Tom Ryan]

That’s Odd Haugen, Chad. I met him in Atlanta several years ago. He is now 61 and was still quite strong when he was in his 50s and did well in competition against much younger guys.

[Tom Ryan]

Al,

I didn’t know much about it myself, so I also did some reading. In case anyone else is interested, here is one place to start. http://www.yukonrendezvous.com/about-us/history

Yes, it is quite a festival with various events, even a can-can dance demonstration. 🙂

The flour packing record for men is apparently 900 pounds and 664 pounds for women. Those are pretty impressive numbers considering the conditions.

The event is described as “This event showcases some of the life skills necessary to survive the Yukon at the turn of the century …” Of course they are referring to 1900.

Apparently the flour packing numbers are dropping off, as here are the results for this year. http://www.yukonrendezvous.com/events/flour-packing-contest

You can take them, Al! You have 5 months to prepare for the event.

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

Okay, I found a video of what I was referring to, which is the flour packing competition at the Sourdough Rendezvous in Whitehorse, Canada. Check out this video.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimbob_malone/3324135991/

It must be great fun to carry 800 pounds of flour on your back in the snow and over a course where the footing has got to be treacherous due to ice and snow. I’m sending Al a photo of a little guy who won the competition multiple times, winning one year by packing 850 pounds over 50 feet. That appears to be about 5 times his weight!

Joe Dube has stated elsewhere that he took a step or two backward from a rack and did sets of partial squats with up to 1,400 pounds, but undoubtedly some would question whether or not anyone, even Joe as strong as he was, could walk even a step or two with that much weight, and backwards at that!
http://goheavy.com/forums/olympic/index.cgi/noframes/read/66798 But if a little guy could walk 50 feet with 850 … 🙂

[Tom Ryan]

I doubt if anyone will ever conquer the Inman Mile. I recall when John Carter tried this many years ago and he didn’t get very far.

Yeah, Thom, I want to see Mark carry over 600 pounds for a mile. 🙂

I don’t know if they still do it, but years ago there were contests in Canada in which the competitors would carry a large amount of weight, like 700 pounds or so. I don’t recall the distance, but it was undoubtedly far less than a mile! They called this “packing”. I believe I have a photo somewhere of one such contestant posed with four girls sitting on a bar, which was supposed to depict him training for the competition. 🙂

I wasn’t planning to play basketball my senior year in high school as I was seriously into weight training by then, but I let a transfer from Maryland, who was a good player, talk me into coming out of retirement. I didn’t know anything about weight training for basketball (this was 1962) so I did some unusual things, including jogging up to the nearest traffic light and back with a barbell loaded to 100 pounds. (I weighed a shade over 200 then.) That distance was probably about 1/4 mile. Jogging that distance was easy, but of course the bar bounced up and down on my shoulders and did a number on them. I’m sure I could have walked a mile with that amount of weight. (Make note of that, Tedd.) 🙂

I also loaded the bar to 400 and walked around a bit with it. That was just about twice my bodyweight, so how far could I have walked with it? Probably 50 yards at most!

If anyone is to even come close to negotiating the Inman Mile, it will probably have to be someone who weighs under 150 pounds and is practically off the charts in terms of physical skills.

[Tom Ryan]

That is indeed funny, Al, but it is actually no joke as there have been incidents over the past 10 years or so where gym members have been kicked out for grunting.

Planet Fitness does have a rule against no grunting. See
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=2665478&page=1 .

[Tom Ryan]

Thom,

No, I don’t receive Milo so I haven’t seen your article. Remember you were going to send me a copy, so please e-mail it to me.

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

Training frequency and/or intensity must be reduced as we age. The Russians discovered this decades ago and wrote about it. I’ve lifted weights for almost 53 years and for many years I trained 5 days per week: Monday-Thursday and Saturday. I trained hard and never missed a workout. As I reached my early 30s, I found that I had to occasionally put a workout back a day, as my body wasn’t able to go.

Now I train only when my muscles seem to have recovered and I train 2-3 times a week. This is usually easy to determine. For example, I can place my arms in a starting press position (without any weights) and see how my shoulders feel, or bend my knees slightly and see how my legs feel.

I am now training for Olympic lifting and working on my top pull. I didn’t train for Olympic lifting for 24 years and I found that my top pull had totally disappeared! For the past several months I have been doing muscle snatches and muscle cleans for 8 reps, just trying to develop a base. My traps have been quite sore at times.

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

I just looked it up and it doesn’t sound familiar. I’ve heard of the person, however.

[Tom Ryan]

[b]Quote from 61pwcc on June 8, 2011, 08:19[/b]
Tom, it took me about an hour to find on GoHeavy.com but I think it was a response by Gwen Sisto that you complimented correct?? I’ve always wanted to know more about this subject. I’ve done ALL my Olympic lifting in low cut Chuck Taylor’s.
Here’s a link to the shoe question[url]http://goheavy.com/forums/olympic/index.cgi/read/538763[/url]
Thanks to you for bringing it up!!

Yes, that is it.

[Tom Ryan]

Okay, I will chime in with my thoughts on lifting footwear.

Paul Anderson lifted barefoot at times, even in his exhibitions, as has been recorded on film. I certainly wouldn’t recommend that, however!

When I was in my prime, I wore indoor track shoes for some exercises, such as squats because I had to squat with a thick board under my heels and lifting shoes on top of the board would not have worked at all as my shoes would not have been flat on the board. I also wore those track shoes for all types of pulls and for some pressing exercises. I liked having snug-fitting, lightweight shoes for those exercises. Of course powerlifters have long worn slippers for deadlifts, which is similar.

Indoor track shoes are not a great thing to wear if you are going to drop a 75-pound plate on your foot, however, as I did in 1980. Broke my big toe big time and killed some nerves on top of my foot. The damage was permanent. I also had a metatarsal head surgically removed in 1996 and have had other “foot events” that you don’t even want to know about. My feet are still quite functional, however, even though any doctor would look at x-rays of my feet and practically shudder.

In my prime I wore lifting shoes, which I ordered from York, for squat snatches, squat cleans, and Olympic-style presses. I still wear a pair that I bought in 1978, although you can imagine the condition that they are in! I won an eBay auction a year or so ago, so I have replacement shoes ready when my 1978 shoes finally die.

I used wedges (as Bob Crist, who gave them to me, called them) in my York lifting shoes for the snatches and cleans, with my heels raised higher for snatches. The wedges were hard rubber. For snatches, I would fold a sock a few times and put that on top of the wedge to give me the extra height that I needed for snatches. Just a bit different but I knew what I needed.

There is a big-name Olympic lifter from the distant past who wrote in an article decades ago that lifters won’t need high heels on their shoes if they have sufficient flexibility. That is nonsense, as I did flexibility exercises and could hit very deep positions. Necessary heel height depends on body measurements and ratios. This topic was discussed on the GoHeavy forum about a year ago and someone, maybe Rachel Crass, explained all of this correctly. I was so pleasantly surprised that I complimented her.

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

It is good to have goals, Derrick, but you will need a wrist about as strong as a gorilla’s wrist in order to set the all-time Weaver stick record!

Although Willoughby credited Grimek with a lift of 11.75, the lift was actually invalid for two reasons: (1) the distance to the notch on the stick was only 33.75 inches instead of the correct 36 inches (Willoughby did point this out in a footnote), and Grimek’s method of performance was such that he would “scoop” the bar (i.e., analogous to getting a running start), as Terry Todd explained in something he wrote in MD decades ago.

David Horne is one of the all-time greats in the lift and here are the all-time top lifts that he posted on the Grip Board on 1/1/01.

Front

John Grimek — 10.0 lb.
Paul Von Boeckmann — 9.5 lb.
David Horne — 8.8 lb.
Steve Stanko — 8.0 lb.
John Davis — 8.0 lb.
Chris Moore — 8.0 lb.

Of course that is now out of date as Steve Gardener almost certainly belongs on that list somewhere, as does Al Berger. I suggested some years ago that David contact Glenn Middleton regarding Berger’s best lift, which Glenn witnessed. Glenn told me about it but I don’t recall exactly what the poundage was. I’m sure it was at least 11 pounds, however, and may have been more. (I can believe a huge lift for Berger because he held the world record in the reverse curl at one time and he could do some amazing grip feats.) Regarding Grimek, I wonder if he performed that 10.0 in accordance with the rules. I have my doubts.

Berger passed away in 2002 at the age of 84 and Glenn, who is 82, is practically on borrowed time as he was classified as 6-months terminal more than 6 months ago. When I spoke to him a couple of months ago, he told me that he hoped he would still be around for my next phone call but he didn’t sound too optimistic that he would be.

I sat across the table from Berger at the AOBS dinner many years ago. I believe he was 73 at the time and he still looked physically impressive.

Derrick, 6 pounds is very good in the lift and I consider 8 pounds to be the elite level. No USAWA lifter has come close to 8 pounds, however. When Andy Durniat assaulted the all-time USAWA records about a year ago, the only one that he didn’t break of the contested lifts was my Weaver Stick record, as he came up a bit short. I e-mailed him and thanked him for that. More or less. 🙂

Show us some more videos, Derrick, with you arm at your side throughout the lift and your elbow locked.

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

[b]Quote from dinoman on June 7, 2011, 16:57[/b]
Thanks Tom for that information. The issue of Dales Newsletter you are referring to is number 15, January 2005. You are correct – you were listed at number 42, one behind Bill at 41, even though you both lifted the same weight of 255 pounds! Hmmm…. Could a little favoritism be the cause???? haha

I assume that Bill was listed ahead of me because he was both older and lighter than me, or maybe just the latter. I’m glad to know that my memory is still working because my mind has been a bit shaky a few times in recent weeks, such as forgetting to put some ice cream in the refrigerator when I returned home from shopping a few weeks ago and arriving at my local post office and realizing I had not put a stamp on a letter I was going to mail. But I remembered my ranking on Dale’s list even though it has been some time since I looked at that newsletter. I suppose all of this means something, although I’m not sure what! 🙂

[Tom Ryan]

[b]Quote from joegarcia on June 7, 2011, 14:46[/b]
I don’t receive it. What is the right website?

Joe,

Here is the website: http://home.comcast.net/~daleharder

There is an e-mail address at the top that is different from the one that I have for Dale, which is daleharder@comcast.net.

Among other things, Dale gives all-time ranking lists for individual lifts. Do you remember Record Day at Clark’s Gym on 12/11/04 when you, me, James Foster, Clark, and Steve Schmidt all tried our luck at the 1-inch vertical bar deadlift? You won with 280 while Clark, Foster, and I all did 255. Schmidt did less (I don’t recall how much), but I remember him saying “So I finished last”. That sticks out in my mind because it is a bit humorous for Steve to finish last in ANY strength feat! 🙂

Shortly thereafter, Dale came out with the next issue of his newsletter and he had a list of the top 50 all-time performances in that lift and you, me, Foster, and Clark all made the list. I don’t recall where you were ranked but I was something like 42nd.

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

[b]Quote from Scott Tully on June 5, 2011, 03:18[/b]
well Tom Ryan since your mr. technical, I was referring to the guy in glasses who looks like Denny.

ST

Yes, Professor, I am technical but I have been called worse than that, with “picky” being among my other labels. Someone I worked for/with when I was a college professor told me one day that I am somewhat picky.

It is better to be picky than sloppy, however, which is obviously what Bank of America was and that resulted in a homeowner foreclosing on THEM (see http://www.digtriad.com/news/watercooler/article/178031/176/Florida-Homeowner-Forecloses-On-Bank-Of-America )

I was around Denny on a few occasions over 20 years ago and I don’t recall him wearing glasses then, although I see that he wears them now. Of course if he did eye exercises and took nutritional supplements … 🙂

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

[b]Quote from dinoman on June 4, 2011, 12:05[/b]
BINGO!!!! The Professor is a winner!!!!

Hold the phone. The Professor guessed that Denny is the guy with glasses but most of the people in the photo are wearing glasses! 🙂

[Author]

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