Daily Archives: July 1, 2014

A Brief But Necessary Explaination of “Powerlifting Vis-à-vis Olympic Lifting” Part 3

As one of my long time readers stated about last month’s article,

“…what a fun read !….wasn`t aware you & Kathy were offered jobs w/ Weider…….btw, that picture of Joe Weders ‘most muscular’ was actually me, taken either @ Community Health “Studio” -OR- Vito`s basement gym. Always wondered what happened to the negative.”

That specific photo of Joe Weider has always provoked controversy. In fact, physique man Dan Lurie said in an interview that Joe used “retouching art work on several of his pictures. Putting his face on well built men is not new for Joe.” I know that much of the York gang of the 1960’s always believed that Joe had attained his peak of development for the 1953 Mr. Universe Contest and none were impressed.

A Brief But Necessary Explaination of “Powerlifting Vis-à-vis Olympic Lifting” Part 2

While it was my intention to return to the ongoing discussion related to powerlifting equipment and specifically questioning the need for a bar with rotating sleeves, the thirty-eighth installment of our TITAN series of articles sparked a great deal of comment and a number of requests for additional information.

A Brief But Necessary Explaination of “Powerlifting Vis-à-vis Olympic Lifting” Part 1

My compulsive nature is most comfortable when I can maintain both order and the order of completing tasks in a sequential manner. However, an interruption in communication with Ivanko Barbell founder Tom Lincir due to his schedule, and our readers’ repetitive request for further explanation about “Powerlifting as it was then” requires a month’s delay in Part 2 of our discussion about the necessity of having rotating sleeves on a barbell used exclusively for powerlifting.

Early Beginnings for Powerlifting’s Bar

The Strongmen

Let’s Make Dumbbells

Typical of the era and like almost all of the other teenaged boys I knew at that time, I had a job that kept me busy after school, in the evenings, and/or on the weekends. With time “off” to participate in high school sports, most of my “employment related work” was left for the weekends although a Saturday afternoon high school football game would often be approached after working with my father or uncle from 6 PM Friday evening, until perhaps 8 AM Saturday morning without a hint of sleep. My uncle was a respected chef who believed that the best way to keep me from falling prey to the clutches of the street was to insure that I had a viable trade. Thus, I had the advantage of learning the skills of an iron worker with that of a typical saucier and broiler man.

Making Dumbbells for Everyone

Before getting into the construction of home made dumbbells and discussing the archaic “revolving sleeves” that were part and parcel of every 110 pound set of standard weights sold throughout the 1950’s and ‘60’s, I want to present an e mail from Jan Dellinger. For those who don’t know, Jan was York Barbell Company’s representative from approximately 1976 into the early 2000’s.

More Dumbbells for Everyone

I was contacted by a fellow I knew in high school whose son was a patient and trainee of mine and he mentioned that he had been reading the ongoing Titan/Eleiko series of articles and remembered how so many of my classmates and others around school thought that walking through town with a loaded barbell in order to accumulate free plates was “just the strangest thing anyone could do.” Of course, lifting weights in any manner in the late 1950’s and early ‘60’s was also considered to be “the strangest thing anyone could do” so one must maintain the perspective common from that time period. This individual did however follow up with a “left-handed compliment” when noting that “everyone also thought you had to be pretty strong to do that stuff.” Call it dedication, motivation, or simply an obsession to gather as much weight as I could if it was offered at no cost. As a youngster intent on becoming muscularly larger and stronger so that I could improve my football and street survival skills, I was convinced that the possibility of having “too much weight” or “too many dumbbells and extra plates” did not exist.

For those who saw the 1986 film “Back To School” starring the late Rodney Dangerfield, there is a line that became a catch-all for many things in our house among the children, and something I heard repeated on the street for a very long time; “Shakespere for everyone!” I could entitle this “Dumbbells for everyone!” because many powerlifters miss the boat when it comes to fully utilizing dumbbells in their training. If I may be allowed to digress, I should note that Dangerfield was a Long Island guy, very much a local when he was starting his career or more accurately, that should be clarified to read when he was re-starting his career. Those who are long time readers of my articles in Powerlifting USA, MILO, Iron Man, Muscle And Fitness, Strength And Health, STRONG, and Muscular Development magazines, The Steel Tip Newsletter that Kathy and I published in the mid-1980′s, as well as numerous internet articles, know that my father was an iron worker, a fact I have always been very proud of. That he taught me the basic skills of his trade so that I could cut and weld and eventually build my own training equipment was a huge bonus.