The Strongmen
I was there as the history and birth of powerlifting unfolded. As an enthusiastic football player, already with five or six years of training experience, ready to embark on what I hoped would be a college career filled with success in the classroom and on the gridiron, the basic lifts indigenous to powerlifting and its training were part of my every day consciousness and activity. Revisionist history, at least in my opinion, has presented differing views of what the actual story was. From the start, those who controlled Olympic lifting, which meant Bob Hoffman and anyone that was connected with his York Barbell Company group, were seen as enemies of powerlifting.
That might sound like a rather strong statement but with what appeared to be already dwindling numbers of participants, there was a genuine concern that powerlifting would prove to be a magnet for numerous potential Olympic lifters. Olympic weightlifting had always prided itself upon the need for “athleticism” as well as strength, a need to be disciplined enough to put in an awful lot of practice time in order to master what appeared to be precisely timed contortionist’s maneuvers performed with a very heavy barbell. This proved to be the basis for the introduction of the Olympic lifts and general Olympic lifting principles into the strength coaching profession. It was also the reason that made any athlete or coach believe that if weight training was to be used to enhance athletic performance, Olympic lifting rather than bodybuilding should be the core of the program. Coaches would view the speed and athletic ability of top Olympic lifters and say, “Well these guys aren’t muscle bound and they obviously move really well. I guess these weights may not slow my guys down as much as I think they will” in contrast to the way in which they interpreted bodybuilding.
The “swollen” and bloated appearance of a competitive bodybuilder’s muscular development stamped a permanent impression into the collective consciousness that any true athlete that trained in the same manner would then be walking onto the field with the patented flared-lat, stiff gaited and size-exaggerated swaying stroll of so many bodybuilders. Even at our Iron Island Gym which Kathy and I founded and opened on February 3, 1992 and sold in October of 1998 where athletes came from all over the country, and some from other countries, to train for all four major aspects of the iron sports (including “strongman”) and their mainstream athletic contests and where competitive bodybuilding was supported but kept in perspective, we would at times have to chuckle at the antics of some. As I was fond of pointing out, “How come Cincinnati linebacker Reggie Williams was 238 pounds of solid muscle and as ripped as most competitive bodybuilders, yet walked into a room with normal posture and gait, but (while nodding towards a 167 pound “bodybuilder” or “bodybuilding type” ) this guy looks as if he’s so constricted he can’t even move.” The arms-out-wide, egg-shaped torso pose with triceps popping under the strain of a one pound towel gave rise to the term “ILS” or “Imaginary Lat Syndrome,” a quick and immediately understood explanation of the stilted walk of the wanna-be bodybuilder who at least in his own mind thought he had too much muscle to ambulate normally. However, even as more athletes turned to weight training as a means to improve their on-field performance, Olympic lifting was suffering from a lack of numbers.
“However much Bob (Hoffman) originally disdained this new sport, he soon experienced some attitude readjustment. That he could speak from both sides of his mouth is evident. He observed in 1963 that there were not enough Olympic lifters in America and that physique and odd-lift contests were ‘killing our chances of victory’ in international competition, yet he professed not to be ‘against the power lifter’ and insisted that York was doing its utmost to keep powerlifting in the AAU. He supported the efforts of weightlifting chairman David Martin to establish a national championship and official set of records. Thinking that many odd-lift enthusiasts might be lured into Olympic lifting, he advocated the upright rowing motion and press behind the neck for inclusion in the power-lift program. He also hosted the first two national meets, in 1964 and 1965, hoping perhaps to become ‘Father of Powerlifting.’ Just as Hoffman had once collected the best weightlifters in the world and greatest physique star in (John) Grimek, he now took pride in having at York the ‘best power lifter in the nation.”