Having spent twelve days without electrical power, heat, hot water, and water that led to the hospitalization of over one hundred individuals who were exposed to e coli and other dysentery infections after the local sewage treatment plant and electrical substation blew up as the result of Hurricane Sandy, our family fully understood the difference between being inconvenienced and truly affected by tragedy. The hurricane and aftermath was severely under reported out of the New York Metropolitan region with entire beach area communities completely wiped out and/or washed into the Atlantic Ocean on a level, though not as extensive, just as tragically as Hurricane Katrina. For those interested, there are numerous youtube videos documenting the damage and destruction to Long Beach, Island Park, and all of the Rockaways.
It should come as no surprise that discussions about the bench press, more than the other two official powerlifts, still evoke the strongest of responses among powerlifters. In the sport’s earliest days, I believe that the three individual lifts, contested in the order of bench press, squat, and deadlift, were given equal attention and were approached with equal enthusiasm. Men who trained consistently with the intent of becoming big and strong did squats. Almost all of them did deadlifts and certainly those who trained for any athletic event or sport included some form of squats and deadlifts as a regular part of their lifting programs. We have chronicled how this has changed through the years with the bench press ascending to a position of popularity and importance that has led to its performance as a separate sporting activity.
The last few monthly installments of the TITAN SUPPORT SYSTEM columns have wandered through commentary about the bench press and the ultra-specific training and attire that has developed around the “sport” of bench pressing as a separate activity from that of three-lift powerlifting, and the injuries often encountered because of this. I did however want to return to one of the initial points I had intended to stress, and what was to me back in 1984 and ’85, the unintended “stirring of the pot” within the powerlifting community. I have known too many strong men, truly strong men and I am referring to scary-strong men who never lifted competitively nor sought any public acclaim. In the January 1985 edition of POWERLIFTING USA MAGAZINE I made a comment that was similar to one that had graced more than one of my “MORE FROM KEN LEISTNER” columns that Mike Lambert was gracious enough to publish for over twenty-two years. I had sincerely remarked that, “I have always been of the opinion that the Strongest Man in the World will never be found at the World’s Strongest Man Contest, nor at the Senior National Powerlifting Championships. Somewhere out there, in a garage in Des Moines, or a shed in Amite, Louisiana, or in the yard behind the house in Rising Sun, Indiana, there lives a man who comes home after a day of cutting pulpwood, or laying concrete, or plowing the back forty, and benches 630 for five, and deadlifts 700 for ten…’jes’ trying to stay fit.’ They’re out there, but most of the stories we hear are just that, stories, so our greatest will have to have made his lifts legally.”
Three years ago our family moved from a gang-influenced blue collar neighborhood to a safe, quiet, blue collar neighborhood. In both instances, our neighbors, for the most part, were and are hard-working individuals that included tradesmen, firefighters, police officers, manual laborers, and landscapers of mixed ethnicity. In our current area, there are a large number of bay men and dock workers as our 1.1 square mile village sits on the water. In both locales there are expressions heard on the street, offered by every racial and ethnic group, somewhat unique to the area, but phrases that immediately sum up what might take five sentences to express elsewhere. Any backlash, backtalk, or general hassle that has come from my “challenging” the concept, exercise, and “cottage industry” of the bench press, as they say here, goes into the category of “I brought this ‘stuff’ on my ownself!”
With what is my consistent and ongoing complaint about the state of affairs in the game of football, I utilized the installment of two month’s ago to begin another foray into a heated area of powerlifting discussion.
One doesn’t have to go back to the leather helmet era to find the requirement that players participate on both offense and defense. This made playing and watching football more enjoyable than today’s highly specialized game. The well conditioned players understood and practiced the fundamentals. Strength training and powerlifting have also gone to very specialized “niches” where few if any compete at more than one aspect of the iron game sports and often, only focus upon but one of the competitive lifts.
I had given consideration to discussing the “specialized” equipment and apparel that has been associated with the sport of powerlifting for decades and realized that an age of specialization now spans a number of generations. I have always described myself as it relates to my profession, my interests, my daily and weekly activities, and my focus as a “football guy.” I initially began to train at the age of twelve in order to “be a better football player.” I wasn’t certain what that truly meant but after seeing my first in-person high school football game in 1957 and thinking that the guys on the field were the biggest, strongest, and most exciting athletes I could imagine, my path was very much set in stone. I of course grew up in an era where it could be said of most activities, that there was little specialization. Watching my grandfather and father at their jobs as iron workers had me convinced that it would take too many years to ever master the ability to measure, cut with a torch, weld, heat, throw, and pound rivets, properly use a hoist, drill press, punch-and-chop Pels Ironworker machine, and then enter the blacksmith shop to heat, shape, and work metal into intricate horseshoes, railings, gates, and ornamental staircase fittings as the men in my family did. They truly could and in fact, “did it all” and I understood that it took many years to master the craft of iron working and blacksmithing if only because there were so many aspects that were incorporated into a day’s work.
“Dear Dr. Ken,
A Lifter In Ohio”
It pleases Pete Alaniz, founder and President of Titan Support Systems, to receive feedback on the series of articles I have written for Titan. We both wanted to provide information and a monthly “enjoyable read” to the many customers and potential customers of Titan, and powerlifters who stumbled upon the site. While almost every male or female who has lifted weights for a number of years, has humorous or unusual stories related to the activity we enjoy so much, there have been questions about some of the statements I have made regarding accidents resulting from faulty barbell equipment. Unfortunately, the stories relayed within this column have been true and I suggest that every lifter go to the Ivanko Barbell Company site and read Tom Lincir’s very informative articles.