By Al Myers
It’s always exciting to see someone new join our officials ranks. Chris Todd, of the KC Strongman Club, recently passed the USAWA Rules Test and then completed his practical judging experience. He is now listed as a LEVEL ONE USAWA certified official.
Congrats Chris!!
By Bill Clark
One of the hardy folks who use the dungeon-like facilities of Clark’s Gym to recuperate, recharge and keep Father Time at a distance, with or without a face mask, is Dave DeForest.
Dave turned 60 on February 3 and decided to join the elite ranks of those who, once past the age of 40, could earn a certificate for doing the number of different lifts to match the lifter’s age.
He geared up to do 60 different lifts. Then he was successful – with many efforts that would have been national records had “Lift Your Age” been sanctioned by the governing body that approves such events.
Dave with a 1,085-pound harness lift at age 60
Now he’s building a neck-lifting harness to go after the national record in the United States All-round Weightlifting Association’s national heavy-lift championship, an event that was first held in Clark’s Gym 30 years ago. His goal is break 500 pounds at age 60 – a record for his age in the 95-kg. (209 lbs.) class.
Have you ever wondered about guys like Dave DeForest? Where do they come from, what drives them – and what are their ultimate goals?
Dave is an excellent example of a normal male who enjoys a hobby. He looks and lives and acts like your next-door neighbor – because he is just that. The only difference, his love affair (outside the family) Is lifting heavy things when others his age have different “big boy toys.”
Dave, to be honest, is not the “guy next door,” but he is the guy “at the next farm down the road.”
He grew up in Marysville, Kansas, a community famous for its black squirrels (they are still there), the youngest of three children.
He was a center and linebacker in football, “but not in the class of the Riggins Brothers,” he admits.
John and Junior Riggins were college football stars and John went on to lead the Washington Redskins to the Super Bowl XVII title and to a losing effort in Super Bowl XVIII. His brother, Franklin (Junior), landed a big bonus contract with the California Angels, but vision problems limited his baseball career.
“They were from ‘just down the road at Centralia,’ and from a decade earlier, but every athlete in the area was compared to them – some of us not for long,” Dave admitted during a recent workout in the sauna of Clark’s Gym – which has no air conditioning and faces southwest.
“I also wrestled, but hated cutting weight and really preferred hunting and fishing on the Big Blue River to the wrestling world.”
Dave graduated from Marysville High in 1978, attended Kansas State for two years, then followed his heart to Lawrence and graduated from Kansas in 1982 with a degree in occupational therapy.
He married Kristy Ringen, who grew up in Beattie, a dozen miles down the road from Marysville, soon after graduation from KU and landed in Fulton – where Dave began 37 years as an occupational therapist at the Fulton State Hospital and Kristy taught junior high mathematics at Auxvasse Junior High for 31 years before retiring in 2014 to handle the family’s orchard business. Dave remains a part-time employee in the occupational therapy section.
Kristi and Dave of holiday in 2018 in Iceland
In 1985, the DeForests bought 14 ½ acres south of Millersburg on Callaway Route J and planted 400 apple trees. They called the place “Cedar Wind Orchard,” because they love to hear the wind through the nearby cedars.
Along the way, they raised three kids – all girls, all scattered today, and all successful. Bridget Aldrich is a manager at Tiger Tots in Columbia; Lindsey Foster is a mechanical engineer in St. Louis: Ashley Pyle is an ophthalmology technician in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Lindsey and Ashley were both power lifters as teenagers.
Dave and Kristi now have three grandkids to keep them sharp, occasionally enlisting Dave as a baby sitter.
Kristi played softball for years and today is active as a pickle ball player. Both she and Dave love fishing the rivers for big catfish and recently landed a 45-pounder from the Moreau River just above where it enters the Missouri River.
They also pick most of the apples from the 400 trees at Cedar Wind Orchard. They share the orchard’s upkeep and the retail business. Dave says he has the responsibility of spraying the trees twice a year, but Kristi handles the sales and bookkeeping. It works.
Sounds like a normal family, enjoying life, the quiet of the country and the grandkids.
So why weightlifting?
Let Dave explain.
“When I was in the seventh grade, my parents bought me a 110-pound lifting set from Montgomery Ward – a six-foot bar with one-inch plates. I loved it. I added plates and continued lifting through high school, working alone at home. No competition, just the thrill of lifting.
“I was involved in intramurals at Kansas State, but didn’t touch weights again until getting settled at Fulton. I started lifting at home, then found the weight room at the Fulton YMCA and continued to train alone – really thriving on self-motivation.
“In 1994, I entered the Show-Me-State Games at West Junior High, my first meet since the K-State intramurals.
“You and Joe Garcia were in charge, so before the next Show-Me Games, I joined Clark’s Gym. I truly enjoyed the next few years, lifting in the Games and in national and international meets in the USAWA. I ran three open meets that drew the Midwest’s top lifters to North Callaway High and to Westminster College and was thrilled to win a silver medal in the world meet in Valley Forge, Pa., in 1997.
Dave with a 330-lb. squat at IAWA World Meet in 1997
“I realized there was more in life than lifting and family responsibilities put lifting on the back burner, but not totally forgotten.
“So here we are today.”
At age 60, Dave is within range of what he did 20 years ago.
His best lifts included a 355 squat at 181 pounds; a 410 deadlift, 220 bench press, 1,275 hip lift, 1,600 harness lift, 590 neck lift, 850 hand-and-thigh, 600 leg press, 365 hack lift, 375 straddle lift, 390 two-barbell dead lift – all done before the age of 40.
Now, at age 60, he’s flirting with those same poundages.
His goal as a lifter? To beat those “bests” of two decades ago.
And Dave adds: “I love the excitement when my mind and my body come together, and I succeed in doing something I had not done before.”
And now you know why normal-looking family men lift weights.
By Thom Van Vleck
Wilbur was all around strong but he was perhaps most famous for his tremendous Deadlift made all the more impressive with the double overhand grip.
I bring sad news today. The great Wilbur Miller has went to join the other strength greats in the big gym in the sky. To say that Wilbur was a great strength athlete would be an understatement. Here are some of his lifts. Remember, these were in the 60s and Wilbur was a drug free athlete!
Wilbur’s best lifts in competition were: 725# deadlift, 320# clean and press, 320# snatch (split-style), and a 385# clean and jerk. Wilbur often competed in the 240-250 lb bodyweight range. He often gave up over 100 pounds bodyweight to his competitors! His 725 pound deadlift was an World Record at the time, and was done in 1965 in York, Pennsylvania. He weighed 245 pounds in that meet. Even more impressive was that Wilbur had a competitive lifting career that spanned over 50 years! At age 79 he deadlifted 457lbs!
My connection to Wilbur dates back to the 1960s. He and my uncle, Wayne Jackson, had a long standing rivalry on the lifting platform. But off the platform they were the best of friends. When I started lifting as a teen I trained with my Uncle Wayne and he often would tell stories about Wilbur.
Wayne had great respect for Wilbur. Back then in the Olympic lifts they did the Clean & Press before the Snatch and Clean & Jerk. My Uncle Wayne always beat Wilbur on the Clean & Press. But Wilbur, being a very competitive man, would come back and beat Wayne in the Snatch and Clean & Jerk and win the overall. As a kid it elevated my Uncle to hero status in my book that he could best the great Wilbur Miller at anything. It was like throwing a strike against Babe Ruth.
In 1984 I was lifting in a meet in Wichita. My Uncle Wayne came along and we contacted Wilbur. Wilbur came by and hung out all day. He and my Uncle Wayne laughed, told stories, and Wilbur was very polite, open, honest and had little of the ego many lifters of his status have.
The next time I saw Wilbur was about about 20 years later when I did an article on him for Milo. He was still in Medicine Lodge, Kansas with his wife. I stopped by for a visit. You’d think we had been friends our whole lives. He was still training in his garage on a set of York weights from the 60’s. He took me to his “trophy room” and told me stories about each of the mementos, photos, and awards. The whole time he had a smile on his face.
His obituary is as follows:
Wilbur D. Miller, of Wellington, Kansas, passed away on Wednesday, August 5, 2020 at the Glen Carr House in Derby, Kansas at the age of 87.
He was born the son of Howard and Flossie (Brewer) Miller on Saturday, November 12, 1932 in Gray County, Kansas. Wilbur’s grandparents homesteaded the family land and he continued farming the land for many years. On February 5, 1966, Wilbur and Janet (Falkingham) were united in marriage at the First Presbyterian Church in Fredonia, Kansas. Together they celebrated over 54 years of marriage. He was an outdoors-man that enjoyed hunting, fishing and backpacking. Wilbur took up weightlifting as a young man and continued lifting well into his 80’s. He held several national competitive weightlifting records and was a member of the National Weightlifting Hall of Fame. Wilbur loved books and was an avid reader of Louis L’Amour. Additionally, he was a talented musician who taught himself to play the ukulele and harmonica simultaneously and loved to play with his dad and brother. His family remembers him as a great father and grandfather whose calm, steady nature served as the rock of the family. He will be missed by all that knew him.
Survivors include his wife, Janet Miller of Wellington, Kansas; son, William Parker of Tekoa, Washington; son, Robert Parker and his wife Karen of Raymondville, Missouri; daughter, Nancy Fischer and her husband Andy of Golden, Colorado; daughter, Julie Carey and her husband Jeff McGuire of Wellington, Kansas; son, Christoper Miller and his wife Ann of Inman, Kansas, grandchildren: TJ Mensch, Staci Miller Ulrich, Jason Parker, Alexander Parker, Angela Collins, Amanda Ray, Stephen Hoyt, Tricia Halling, Matthew Hoyt, Parker Hoyt, Jeffrey McGuire, Rachel McGuire, Lily McGuire, Kristin Miller, Andy Miller and Anabelle Miller along with numerous great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Howard and Flossie Miller; brother, Duane Miller and a great-granddaughter, Kennedy Hoyt.
There are many great stories about Wilbur. All show a man with great strength and greater character. I am hoping those who knew him will share one on the message board and we can send them to his family. Additionally, I wrote an article on Wilbur in Milo Strength Journal and if you want a copy let me know. Al Myers wrote a great article on Wilbur that you can find on this website by using the search box.
So take a minute to remember Wilbur Miller. And let’s try to be more like him as well. Strong of body, strong of character.
AGING AND STRONG
Part II: The Effects of Aging
By Dan Wagman, Ph.D., C.S.C.S.
Ever since I got involved in all-round weightlifting I developed an interest in the aging and strength issue. This because of the age adjustment formula used and how arbitrary and capricious it appears to be. Still, just about anybody will tell you that as you age your performance declines. If this is true, to what extent might your strength decline? There are literally thousands of scientific studies on the topic of aging. As strength athletes our focus is on muscle. And with all those studies the human brain isn’t capable of determining the proverbial bottom line. For that reason, statisticians have developed a technique called meta-analysis. This method of data analysis allows researchers to input all sorts of information from an unlimited number of studies and on the other end come up with that elusive bottom line, such as whether your inescapable increases in age will make you weaker.
The Basics
The place to start is to develop an overall understanding of whether healthy non-athlete people lose strength as they age, then to ask what effects lifting weights might have. Some of the findings for non-athletes were presented in Part I. But if you looked at all of the relevant research on muscle strength and activation between young and older people, then perhaps you could find out what the bottom line is. A group of researchers from Marquette University and the University of South Australia collaborated to find out.(4)
So how do you test an old muscle compared to a young one? The two most reliable ways are called the interpolated twitch technique (ITT) and the central activation ratio (CAR). Don’t worry, I won’t bore you to death with the details of these methods, but I do believe that you’ll find the basics of at least ITT interesting. What researchers do is have a subject, say a 25-year old, perform a maximal isometric contraction against an immovable object and take a reading on that muscle. Then, during that maximal contraction they deliver an electrical stimulation to that muscle’s main nerve. If additional force or activation is generated, that means during the subject’s own maximal contraction the muscle received inadequate neural input and thus contracted submaximally, and of course you can measure the difference. Then you repeat with a 60-year old and see to what extent, if any, the older person’s muscle contracts with less neural input. If that happens, then you know that aging could impact muscle activation.
There are, of course, other considerations to bear in mind, which is why the researchers set specific standards all of the studies had to meet to be included in their meta-analysis. Besides using only ITT or CAR studies had to look at young people between 18 and 35-years and those 60 and older, the study had to be published in English, only studies with the lowest bias risk were considered, etc.
A General View
As a whole, age made no difference in muscle activation capability in a healthy non-athlete population of men and women. As an example, 18 studies looked at the biceps with the age in the young people ranging between 19.9 to 30.6 and the older people between 69 and 84 years; 12 of the studies found no difference. Similarly, for the knee extension muscles 9 out of 17 studies found no difference; for the flexor group of the foot 9 out of 12 studies found no difference, etc.
The researchers found that across all muscles investigated (elbow flexors, wrist flexors, knee extensors, plantar flexors, and ankle dorsiflexors), with a total of 790 young subjects and 828 older ones, in 70% of them no significant age-related differences in muscle activation were observed and in 28% younger muscles were able to activate to a greater degree than older ones. In a general sense then, age would not seem to make a difference in a muscle’s ability to contract. But this represents a general analysis, not the actual meta-analysis.
Enter Meta-Analysis
Once the scientists applied the meta-analysis technique to sort through all the data points, a bit of a different picture emerged. What they learned was that voluntary muscle activation was greater in younger people than older ones. However, the difference was very small and the research team explained that this finding could be due to the muscle group that was looked at in different studies, how muscle activation was calculated in each study, the way in which the muscle was stimulated, and number of stimulations used.
In analyzing the number of muscle stimulations a study employed, if it was once there were no significant differences in the strength of muscle activation between young and old. If, however, the number of muscle stimulations were more than one, then the young people reached the level of significantly greater muscle activation over older ones. In looking at the different muscle groups, the scientists learned that younger subjects outperformed older ones in the plantar flexors, knee extensors, and elbow flexors but not in the wrist flexors and ankle dorsiflexors.
Interpretation
What this study of the studies found is that older, healthy, non-athletic people have, in the words of the researchers, “a reduced ability to maximally activate their muscle during isometric contractions.” One of the problems with this finding was, however, the large range of older subjects’ age from 60 to 84. As the researchers point out, “it is well known that the deficits in muscle function are accelerated in very old age (~80 yrs.).” This means that if you have a bunch of 80+ year olds along with people in their 60’s, the results might end up being skewed toward the muscle abilities of the 80+ year olds. Put another way, if you eliminated the 80+ year olds from analysis, then perhaps no differences between young and old muscle activation abilities would be found.
With that in mind I closely scrutinized all of the studies that found a deficit in older people’s muscle activation in an effort to ascertain at what age this might start to appear. The youngest age of the old group that displayed this deficit was 67 years. The vast majority of subjects were, however, in their 70’s and beyond.
Perhaps the most important consideration for the finding that younger muscle can activate to a greater extent than an older one is whether this difference is actually of any practical meaning. To put it in to a lifter’s terms, if you find that with 60 you end up lifting 100 pounds less than when you were 30, you might consider that meaningful. If, however, you find that with 60 you end up lifting 30 pounds less you probably wouldn’t consider that meaningful nor give it a second thought. After all, there are an infinite number of reasons for a young lifter to end up lifting 30 pounds less, too.
The researchers addressed this, though unfortunately not in a lifter’s terms. What they stated is that the loss in isometric muscle contraction force due to age was only “modest.” They therefore questioned the degree of meaningfulness of the overall findings. You also have to consider that the older subjects displayed a high degree of variability in muscle activation. In addition, multiple studies have found that when older subjects are able to practice the type of muscle contraction, they attain similar levels of muscle contraction as healthy young adults.(1-3,5).
So What?
That final consideration takes us in to the realm of people who lift weights. For those who don’t, the effects of aging are only moderate and don’t seem to make a noticeable difference until the late 60’s or so. This is most certainly a surprising finding, especially if you consider the issue of whole body disuse. If you’re a 30-year old healthy but sedentary person, then your years of body disuse has been about 15 years if you consider that even a non-athletic child and young teenager might get a little bit of exercise due to play. But that same sort of person who’s 60 has been sedentary for 45 years. If in that sort of person the effect of aging on muscle is only moderate, what might it be for someone who’s pumping iron religiously?
There are likely readers among you who will take this information as being exceptionally motivating, allowing them to make all this “getting older” talk disappear in a cloud of chalk as they prepare to crank out another set. But there will also be readers who’ll want to instead dismiss what they learned because it flies in the face of what they think they know. After all, everybody knows that as you get older, man or woman, your hormone levels decrease and that’s why you can’t be as strong as what you used to be. Part III will investigate.
References
By Bill Clark
Twenty five years ago, Harrisburg’s John Carter was on the top of the weightlifting world, then he disappeared only to resurface in recent months at Clark’s Gym – still the guy to beat when it comes to the world of chain lifting.
A quarter of a century ago, John, now 61 and looking as trim and fit as he did in 1988 when he first showed up in Clark’s Gym, compiled such world class marks as 3,405 pounds in the harness lift; 2,805 in the back lift; 2,525 in the hip lift: and 2,000 in the Carter Lift, named for him because few others in the lifting world even attempted it.
In his first meet back in 20 years, just before the corona virus pandemic hit, he took the title in the meet named for his main adversary of three decades ago – the Steve Schmidt Backbreaker Pentathlon. Steve was on hand to officiate.
John Carter about to complete his 3,405 pound harness lift. Note the position of his left hand .
And just who is this John Carter?
Let’s say he’s a survivor.
John was born November 28, 1958, the son of John Jerome Carter, Sr., and Delores Carter. He attended school at Harrisburg from the first through the ninth grades, but left school at age 16 never to return.
His dad was a heavy equipment operator and John wanted to follow in his dad’s footsteps. By the time he was eight years old, he was operating his dad’s bulldozer and soon thereafter was driving a car around the area.
At age 12, he took the family car to town, ran out of gas at the courthouse and approached life from a different angle for years to come.
In his junior high years, John showed his athletic ability and his strength by setting the school records in the shot and discus and playing basketball, but he also was plagued by discipline matters.
In the seventh grade, he took issue with a classmate in a gym class and went to fists, as he was wont to do on too many occasions then and later. In the fight that followed, John’s punch missed the opponent’s head and he hit the wall behind, breaking his arm in six places and shattering his wrist.
John had a powerful punch, but not well-directed.
The injury almost cost him his athletic future. He had to have plates inserted in the wrist that left it fixed in place without flexibility – and a four-month stay at Boone Hospital. Fortunately, it was his left hand. The plates are still there.
Even to this day, the injury hampers his mechanics as a lifter and golfer that requires modification of leverages and style, but not with final results.
When John reported to Harrisburg High to start his sophomore year, he was told his hair was too long and after a battle with administration, he left school three years short of graduation to get into the construction world at age 16. The bulldozers quickly followed.
John then began a journey through life that was filled with twists and turns. He spent two years at MFA Feed and Supply, worked concrete for NuWay Construction, was in a concrete footing business with two partners for three years, moved on to work on the development of Cedar Lake for Terry Sapp, supplemented his income by cutting tobacco for Henry Lamb, the “Tobacco King,” married, had a son, Jason (who is his best friend), divorced, then moved on to work for Columbia Public Works, retiring, after 23 years, in 2002.
He spent much of his career on the seat he loved the most – handling a bulldozer and heavy equipment. He still enjoys that role. He has owned Carter Construction since retiring from the city – which coincided with John’s fade from the world lifting scene.
John about to shoulder a 375-pound personal record Steinborn lift. Note the left hand position.
THE CARTER SPORTS WORLD
One of the personal losses that came with being a high school dropout was leaving behind his love of competitive athletics.
He soon joined a Looper League softball team, then spent the next 20 years as a slow pitch softball player.
“My career ended when I blew up at an umpire’s call and he threw me out of the game and said: ‘Don’t ever come back out here.’ The umpire was one of my friends at work, Bill Crum. I never went back.”
In 1982, he discovered bowling and was a regular on the lanes in Columbia for 20 years – good enough to carry a 190-plus average and add an 800 patch to his awards showcase. His high game was 297.
Golf came next – in 1986. The game proved to be a real challenge. The shattered left wrist caused John to develop a different stroke, but he can still drive past the 300-yard mark. Golf has been a part of life for almost four decades.
In 1988, for a reason John cannot recall, he decided to take up weightlifting. Clark’s Gym had just opened and, after visiting other gyms in Columbia, he gave Clark’s a look – and immediately joined.
“I made the right choice,” he said recently. “The gym saved my life.
“When I was going through my divorce, the gym became the place I could vent my anger. More than once, I almost let my anger misdirect me, but I would detour to the gym.”
John was an immediate world class lifter. To meet him on the street or even in workout gear, he looks normal. He’s 5-11, weighs around 215, has surprisingly slender legs and trim middle.
Within a year, he had emerged as a world class lifter, winning both the national and world all-round titles in 1989 in Philadelphia.
In a four-year stretch between 1994 and 1997, he won the national title and added golds in two of the toughest strength tests around – the Backbreaker Pentathlon and the Zercher Memorial.
In 1995, he performed the difficult combination hip lift and squat with 2,000 pounds – a lift that carries his name. No one else has done half that poundage.
He is proud of his gym record of doing a single workout (two hours long) of 1,821 reps in the hip lift with 1,100 pounds – a total workout of 2,002,100 pounds.
In 1992, he met Diane Stone and she led the family cheering section in 1994 when John won a Gold Cup in Cleveland, Ohio, by setting a world record in the harness lift. She is still his head cheerleader.
Then, in 2004, it all ended. The business was a one-man operation and time-consuming. As it grew, so did the distance between John Carter and Clark’s Gym.
On rare occasion, he would drop in, tell stories with the owner about days gone by, see if he could still do a 1,500-pound hip lift, then disappear for a few more years.
Late in 2019, he found that, at age 60, he had trouble with 1,000 in the hip lift – and the reality of aging shocked him into action.
For 60 years, he had been headstrong, defiant, living life head-on, willing to fight. He lifted weights with the same mindset. Strength meant more than technique, and failure was not tolerated as a chance to do things different.
Diane and being a business owner had both helped him get control. Golf, too, had been a stabilizer. He could still hit the ball hard, but he had to master the other shots as well.
Now, back n the gym full-time since 2004, John is the teacher as well as the student. He has accepted the fact that, at 61, he is no longer 31, and that a harness lift of 3,405 will never happen again and that 2,405 is a more reasonable goal – and still a world record for 61-year-olds.
Last month, in an unsanctioned competition to do 61 different lifts at age 61, John exceeded the existing national records in over 50 events for the 100-kilo class in the 60-64 age group.
Welcome home, John!!