9/8/04
General-how old you are, what you do, where you live, where you grew up and anything else general you'd like to add about your life outside powerlifting:
I'm 38 years old (39 in a couple weeks . . . only one more year as a Submaster!). I'm a PhD candidate in Writing Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I'm a specialist in teaching academic and expository writing and I've been teaching for 15 years. I've taught at the University of North Dakota, where I earned my B.A. and M.A., Korea University in South Korea where I lived from 1993 to 1999, and at UIUC since fall of 1999. At UIUC I teach basic and ESL writing. I use my position as a teacher to shamelessly recruit new lifters for Illini Powerlifting.
I grew up in Petoskey, Michigan, which is located near the northern tip of Michigan's Lower Pennisula. I've been living in Champaign, Illinois since returning here from Korea to work on my PhD.
Your best lifts in powerlifting in competition and training, and at what weight:
I haven't squatted competitively since the late '80s. Elbow problems have prevented me from getting back into serious squats in recent years. My best bench in competition is 455 at a bodyweight of 255; in training I've hit 455 for a double. Again, though, elbow problems, as well as shoulder problems, have kept me from hitting bench press full bore.
So thank God for the deadlift! No injuries here to hold me back. My best pull in competition is a 705.2 at a bodyweight of 266. My best in training has been a double with 675 just a few weeks before my 705.
Your proudest accomplishments in powerlifting:
There are two accomplishments of which I am most proud. The first is winning a WABDL World Championship last December in Las Vegas. I had been preparing for a return to competition for just over a year prior to the world meet, and had won my comeback meet in August of 2003. I was able to win a close battle with a very tough competitor in my weight class (259) to come out on top at that meet. On top of that, I won a Best Lifter trophy for the heavyweights - 242's and up. Even though it was a championship only for the Class 1 division, it was a milestone for me in my return to competitive lifting and made me hungry to win a Submaster and Open World title this November in Reno.
The second accomplishment has to do with Illini Powerlifting, which I helped to found in August of 2003 with my good friends and lifting brothers Josh Westbrook, Ryan Harth, and Nick Lepine. On the two occasions when we've had a full roster of Illini Powerlifting members entered as a team in a meet--at a WABDL meet in Collinsville in April 2004 and at another WABDL meet in Tennessee in August 2004--lifters and fans approached me after the competition to commend me on the conduct and class of our lifters. At the Tennessee meet, one man said, "I appreciate the sportsmanship you teach your lifters." Comments like these make me proud as can be of my teammates. It's been said to me and I say it to my teammates: Long after people have forgotten how much we lifted, they'll remember how we conducted ourselves.
Your best moment in powerlifting:
My best moment came on August 21, 2004 at the WABDL National Bench Press and Deadlift Championships in Portland, Oregon. My last meet in April had been a dismal performance and my training through May and June had been difficult due to elbow pain and travel. I really wanted to turn things around with the WABDL National meet, so I completely revamped my training, going back to some of the Old School fundamentals from my roots and incorporating some elements of Ernie Frantz and Roger Estep training. Finally, I took the advice of Gus Rethwisch and made HEAVY rack squats a key part of my deadlift training. Gus told me that if I did rack squats religiously for a cycle I'd hit a big PR, "guaranteed."
Training went superbly, despite my busy summer teaching schedule. My bodyweight stayed up in my "pulling range" from 260 to 266, I hit a PR single deadlift in the gym with 700 then a double with 675 the following week, and my stiff-leg and rack squat poundages went up steadily. I rested for two weeks prior to the meet and arrived in Portland hungry for a big pull. I opened with 606 (again following Gus's advice and making my opener nothing but a warmup), then hit 705.2 for a STRONG PR. On my 3rd attempt, I had 722 going over my knees before it popped out of my grip due to torn skin. I won WABDL National Championships for Submaster and Open 275. More importantly, I erased the disappointment if not the memory of my April debacle. My performance in Portland has given me alot of confidence as I begin preparing for WABDL Worlds in November.
Your ultimate goal in powerlifting:
My ultimate goal is to continue competing and setting deadlift records as long as physically possible and practical. I would like to get my injury situation under control enough to eventually do some full power meets again, but if I'm destined to focus on the deadlift as my competition lift then so be it. I love the deadlift.
More importantly, I want to continue introducing new lifters to the sport and coaching them to success. I hope that I can pass on my passion and love for the sport to others just as my coaches did for me.
How you got involved in powerlifting:
I had been interested in Powerlifting since the summer after my sophomore year of high school, back in '81. My stepfather had bought me a set a standard freeweights since there was no gym in town and our highschool had only a Universal machine. With the weights came a book: Inside Powerlifting by Terry Todd. This is an excellent book on the sport and a great introduction to our our old school roots for the younger lifters today who don't recognize names like Anello, Reinhoudt, Pacifico, Phillips, and Doug Young. I read the book from cover to cover, over and over. I knew right away that this was a sport I wanted to be a part of. Unfortunately, I had no one to coach me, so I taught myself as best I could using that old standard set.
In summer of 1985, I heard of a meet that would be held in Charlevoix, Michigan, about 20 miles south of my hometown of Petoskey. At the time, I was working night shift at a 7-Eleven while attending the local community college, and one of the early morning regulars, Ron L'Huillier, was not only an avid powerlifter but was also going to serve as announcer for the meet. He gave me all the info I needed to get involved, even letting me borrow his belt. I showed up on meet day weighing 226 for the 242 weight class. I had a singlet for a squat suit and ace bandages for knee wraps. I did a 350 squat, a 250 bench, and a 425 deadlift . . . all without hurting myself . . . and placed 2nd to the only other person in my weight class. On that day I was out-totalled by the great woman lifter Lynn Boshovan, although I managed to out-bench her by a whole 10 pounds. Powerlifters being the way they are, all the other lifters were helpful and supportive and seemed genuinely glad to see a new lifter like me. I would learn later that this is the way of things in our sport; we gladly support the new lifters because that is how we all begin. The highlight of the meet was getting to meet and talk to Bill Kazmaier. Another lesson about the sport: the great lifters for the most part are glad to take the time to chat with and help the rest of us.
After the meet, meet director Steve Kehrer invited me to train with him and Ron L'Huillier at his gym in Charlevoix. Like all newbies, I felt like I was constantly in their way, but they patiently loaded and unloaded the bar and continued to teach me and to train me. Most importantly, Steve passed on to me the passion for the sport which still burns today and which I gladly share with the young lifters who train with me.
Some months ago I was able to talk to Steve again after being out of touch for many years. I shared with him my recent successes in the sport and proudly told him about Illini Powerlifting and shared with him the website for the team. I think he was kind of floored when I told him that much of what he taught me is being passed on to the lifters in Illini Powerlifting. It's was really something for him that through the years he spent training me he would touch the lives of so many others whom I would have the opportunity to train.
Type of training you adhear to:
Old School . . . maybe Neanderthal . . . perhaps even Pre-Cambrian. It's old style basic progression that includes heavy singles and very heavy basic exercises. On bench I work up to a target set of 5 and follow that up with a heavy single. When I start feeling stale on the 5's, I go to 3's for awhile. When I'm stale on those, I drop to lighter 5's again. I follow up benching with very heavy close-grip benches. The modern element in my bench training is the suite of shoulder rehabilitation exercises that I've continued to use even after recovering from my shoulder separations. I feel these exercises keep the small stabilizing muscles of the shoulder girdle strong and injury free. I do almost all of my bench training raw as bench competitions are few and far between for me. My easily irritated elbows need the raw training, I believe, in order to get better conditioned for handling the very heavy weights I can use with a shirt.
For deadlift, I work up to two singles . . . one which would be an opening attempt and basically a final warmup, and another as a target single. I cycle the weight on these. In my prep for WABDL Nationals, for example, my top target single in the first week was 605 and in my last heavy workout it was 700. The singles are important for me for two reasons. First, I always do them in my suit, an Inzer Max DL. It's very important to learn how to use a high-end piece of gear, otherwise you're just not going to get the most out of it. In the case of my suit, I've had problems breathing properly in it, problems that led to missing a few attempts and even to passing out once with a 688. Since I've moved to doing these singles, I learned how to breathe properly with the suit, and the suit is coming to feel like a part of my body rather than an uncomfortable piece of gear. After singles I go to stiff-leg deadlifts for one very heavy set of 3 to 5. I push the weight up on these hard. This is where the hard work of my cycle gets done, here and in the next two exercises. After stiff-legs, I do rack lockouts for one very heavy set of 3, as heavy as I can handle. Finally, I take Gus Rethwisch's advice and do rack squats. I set the pins so that the bar site just below the bottom of my sternum, load it up as heavy as I can handle, and get under the bar with the same foot position as for my conventional deadlift. I then raise the weight to a standing position as explosively as possible . . . which is not very explosive with more than 700 pounds on the bar. I do one or two sets of 3 reps, and I believe this exercise more than any other got me past the 700 pound barrier as they gave me much more power off the floor. My teammates said that they had never seen me pull with such speed . . . speed being a relative term in my case. My pulls prior to doing rack squats had been done in creeper gear.
Basic, simple, even minimal. But this is what has been working incredibly well for me.
Type of gear you use and how you use it in your training:
For bench, I like an Inzer Phenom, though I'd like to give the Fury a try. In preparation for a bench meet, I'd use it for 6 to 8 weeks out to learn the groove. Other than that I bench raw. I do keep my wrists wrapped.
For deadlift, I love the Inzer Max DL. I wear deadlift slippers because they get me just that much lower than wrestling shoes and they are easy to get on and off. I deadlift in full gear for my singles in EVERY WORKOUT. You have to learn the gear so well that it becomes part of you and part of your groove. If you don't, then I don't believe you're getting your $150 out of the suit.
I'm on my third Inzer Forever Belt. The other two have been passed on to younger lifters who are still using them. Belt number one is now 20 years old and STILL going strong as far as I know.
The people who have most influenced your training and powerlifting career in general:
Steve Kehrer and Ron L'Huillier, of course, since they got me started. Bill Kazmaier, since he was my biggest lifting hero and also because he was an enormous influence on Steve Keher's training methods. Lynn Boshovan for teaching me the concept of "sticktoitiveness." The late Dawn Reshel for taking the time to write a letter (yes, a real letter) answering the training questions of a new lifter. Ernie Frantz, whose training methods have reached me through other lifters (I would LOVE to get my own copy of his book). Al Baehr for his 700 pound deadlift a few years back that inspired me to make a return to competitive lifting. Gus Rethwisch for his encouragement and excellent training advice, as well as for providing such a terrific organization in the WABDL. And finally my Illini Powerlifting teammates who push me, who inspire me, who amaze me, who humble me, and who fill me with incredible pride.
Your training partners and how they affect your training:
Good training partners are essential for success in powerlifting. Good training partners bring the element of accountability into the training mix. On a day when you're just not feeling your best . . . mentally, physically, emotionally . . . it's easier to let yourself down and skimp or even skip a workout than it is to let your training partners down. Training partners provide the discipline to keep at it when self-discipline is weak.
In my case, my training partners help me by pushing me. Ryan beat me to 700 in the deadlift and I intend to catch him and pass him. If I fail, I'll still have fun and get much stronger. In the bench, several of us are racing to see who can hit a raw 400 bench first. This kind of friendly competition adds fun as well as progress to training. And since I'm one of the older members, it's kind of fun to take the younger guys to school on a lift now and then.
Best of all, my training partners are there with me to share success and failure. It's great to do well at a meet, but even better to have your training partners and team there to enjoy it with you. By the same token, failure hurts most when you suffer alone. The rough roads on the platform are smoother with teammates there to lift us over the potholes.
How long you see yourself continuing powerlifting:
Until they have to peel my cold, dead fingers from around the bar. In my second meet, a deadlift-only contest, I was out-pulled by a 70-year-old man. I was 21. He couldn't squat anymore because of his knees. He had to give up benching because of his shoulders. But there was nothing wrong with his back. Just for kicks, he hook gripped 500 using only two fingers on each hand and hauled it right up.
I don't want to stop . . . ever.
Your opinion of the supportive equipment used in powerlifting:
Gear is a part of life in the sport. There's no going back. Different federations have different rules regarding gear, so lifters can know what they're getting into before they go to a particular federation's meet. If you don't like the gear that is allowed in this or that federation, lift elsewhere. If you do lift in that federation in spite of your misgivings, don't complain and don't disrespect the lifts of lifters using the gear.
I like the limitations Bench America recently put on gear as it creates more of a level playing field, particularly in the eyes of the public. And don't discount the impressions of the public; impressions can come back to haunt us. Impressions are what gets things like ephedra banned, like it or not.
Your opinion of drug testing in the sport:
I like how the AAPF and WABDL handle drug testing, and I've heard few complaints about it. I think drug testing in these organization has helped to create the level playing field that participating athletes want.
Drug testing should always be transparent for the lifter getting tested. There should always be recourse for follow-up analyses and tests and specimens can and do get mishandled. And organizations that use drug testing should never begin with the assumption that athletes are "cheating." As a writing teacher, it sickens me when other writing teachers, after reading an excellent essay from a hard-working student, speculates that the paper must have been plagiarized. And yet this seems to be the operating assumption in certain other organizations that use drug testing: if the lifter is strong, the lifter must have cheated. How about looking at it this way: if the lifter is strong, the lifter must have busted his or her ass in the gym, must have eaten and supplemented effectively, and must have followed a successful training program to peak for the meet. It seems to me that the latter is the operating assumption of organizations which are run for and by lifters, while the former is the operating assumption in those organizations run for and by administrators.
Your opinion of the professional movement in powerlifting like the WPO and Mountaineer Cup:
This is very positive for the sport in terms of getting more coverage for the sport. But I think Bench America has been even better in garnering coverage. If professionalization brings a higher public profile for powerlifting, then I'm all for it. But professionalization for it's own sake doesn't seem necessary.
What you think about the Olympic movement in powerlifting:
Whatever arm of the sport that handles powerlifting in the Olympics will take on all the trappings and excesses of an IOC-style administrative bureaucracy. We don't need it. I'll continue to support and participate in federations that are run by and for lifters, not by and for fat-cat, pencil-necked administrators. We can find ways to garner a more public audience for our great sport in other ways and on our own terms.
Anything else you would like to add:
Thanks very much to Eric Stone for providing this venue to introduce and express ourselves on his very fine website, Chicagopowerlifting.com. Eric is quickly making an enormous contribution to our sport, and at a very young age. I expect great things from him in the future.
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