The Gold Standard

Titan Support Systems Inc is the gold standard in Strength and Powerlifting gear.

Since 1981, we have manufactured the overwhelmingly majority of our products entirely in the United States.

Read more

Toll free: 800-627-3145 World-wide shipping

Blogs

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.

More Dumbbells

I could make the obvious joke and point out the knee jerk reaction of many in the strength community who said, “Yeah, Dr. Ken wrote about dumbbells from a lot of self knowledge, he is a dumbbell because of his adversity to kettlebells!” To me that would have been funny but allow me to be brief and clear. There is nothing “wrong” or incorrect about doing any training with kettlebells but it is not an efficient tool and for some applications not a safe tool relative to the use of a dumbbell. Again, I will relate to the fact, and it certainly is an undeniable fact, especially for those of us old enough to have lived through the so-called “Golden Age Of Training” of the mid-1950’s to late ‘60’s, that you just never saw a kettlebell unless it was stored in an elderly former lifter’s basement, or stuck in a corner at the local YMCA. I can recall reading some of the 1961 and 1962 Weider magazines when he was selling “kettlebell handles” that could be attached to one’s adjustable dumbbell bar.

Dumbbells

In a world of specialization during an era of specialization, one of the lost aspects of effective training for powerlifters has come from the demise of dumbbell work. There are those like Louie Simmons who combine many new, innovative approaches to training with “old school” techniques and equipment and Louie specifically incorporates some dumbbell work into his programs. Most do not and for those lifters who are so specialized that they take an “Eastern European Olympic Weightlifting Approach” to powerlifting, doing only the three lifts or some variation of them, they may never use a dumbbell in any training program. For the powerlifters of the 1960’s when the sport was first organized, dumbbells were a staple of many training routines as both adjunctive and “major” exercises. As our previous installments in this series discussed the quality, differences, construction, and most other aspects of the barbells used in training and competition, a few descriptive words are warranted for the oft-forgotten and recently maligned dumbbells. Allow me please to first raise the hackles of numerous readers and many more self-appointed experts who have, in the past fifteen years, touted the praises of kettlebells.

More On Lee Moran and “The Incident”

 

I was pleasantly surprised with the rather heavy response to the TITAN/ELEIKO Part Twenty Eight article of September, 2010. Before continuing the saga of Lee Moran’s 1,003 pound squat at the 1984 Senior National Championships, I would like to expand upon the concept of “coaching and handling” as quite a few of the younger lifters were a bit lost relative to my comments in last month’s installment. I admittedly have been removed from the powerlifting contest arena since 1998. I have continued to train some competitive lifters but have not attended any contests since the five annual meets that we ran for many years at our Iron Island Gym, the last of which was in 1998. I can’t comment upon the quality of meets or actual coaching procedures that now pass for “standard” but I have seen men and women train very hard for many consecutive months, plan their opening attempts, yet then be unable to finish the meet successfully because a planned lift was missed, there was a delay in the competition, or an opponent had done much better than expected. In my day, and I made a passing comment about this in last month’s article, the Senior National Championships was for many of the classes, the equivalent of the World Championships.

Rotation.

 

[As we have in the past, the staff at Titan Support Systems would like to express gratitude to Mike Lambert of POWERLIFTING USA Magazine for the use of his superb photos of the lifters of a past era]

More Philosophy of Abbreviated Routines.

[As we have in the past, the staff at Titan Support Systems would like to express gratitude to Mike Lambert of POWERLIFTING USA Magazine for the use of his superb photos of the lifters of a past era]

The Philosophy of Abbreviated Routines.

One of the long standing debates running through the powerlifting community was noted in a Powerlifting USA Magazine monthly column of mine many, many years ago. I discussed the use of what I termed “an abbreviated routine,” one that consisted of limited exercises and volume. On one side of what has at times been a contentious argument, are those that believe that abbreviated routines will only work for a drug free lifter. The reasoning is that without drugs, one cannot “stand” a great deal of very hard, stimulating work and will be unable to efficiently recover workout to workout or week to week throughout the course of a pre-contest preparation cycle or long term training cycle to receive much benefit. A drug free lifter will only, some think, be able to benefit from a limited amount of hard, heavy lifting.

Zuver’s Hall of Fame Gym, Circa Late 1960’S.

 

Anyone who has participated in the sport of powerlifting knows that there is but one publication that represents the sport of powerlifting, and it is POWERLIFTING USA. In the past few months PLUSA, like this series on the TITAN SUPPORT SYSTEMS web site, has featured historical articles. In addition to the usual selection of fine training related materials, there is information about the original Westside Barbell Club. Certainly, when the modern era lifter hears “Westside,” they immediately visualize Louie Simmons and his stable of incredible lifters and all of their national and world records. I would imagine that the Reverse Hyper Machine and other innovative training devices and techniques that Louie is so well known for would also quickly come to mind.

Family Owned

photo

The Alaniz family are true American pioneers in the field of innovating and manufacturing Powerlifting and Strength products.

Since 1981, they have played a leading role in the development of equipment and the growth of the sport through sponsorships and contributions.

Pete Alaniz was awarded the prestigious Brother Bennett award from the USAPL in 2006. ×

Since 1981

photo

Since 1981, Titan Support Systems Inc has been leading the charge in innovation and craftsmanship of Powerlifting and Strength products.

Each product we innovate undergoes a lengthy research and development process.

We have a dedicated team of product engineers and our products are tried and tested by leading strength athletes across the globe.

×

Made in USA

photo

Our belts, singlets, wraps and equipped gear are proudly manufactured in the United States.

In spite of the pressures of globalism resulting in mass importation of low cost and poor quality imports from Pakistan, our brand has remained firm in it's commitment to manufacturing quality products in our home state of Texas.

Our products enshrine the true values of the American heartland - handwork, dedication, commitment and pride in work.

Titan Support Systems Inc is the embodiment of the American dream, which is only made possible due to the loyalty of our customers.

×

IPF Approved

photo

We proudly boast the largest range of IPF Approved products.

As the first adopter of the "IPF Approved" accreditation scheme, we remain committed to approving all of our products that fall within IPF regulations.

×

Titan Support Systems Inc