Backbreaker Pentathlon

by Joe Garcia

The 2010 Schmidt Backbreaker Pentathlon was held Saturday, November 6, 2010 at Clark’s Gym after a one year abstinence.   Steve Schmidt showed up with his back machine loaded on the truck, Mike Murdock rolled in from Kansas, and Bill Clark and I rounded out the crew.  Bill stayed out of the competition, running the meet and judging, with the rest of us both competing and judging attempts.  After weigh ins, we got started as usual with the Harness lift.  As this was the first time for Mike in attempting any of these lifts, we showed him how to put on the gear and get into the setup.  Wanting to break a few of Bill’s records, Mike came up a little shy but managed a nice 1000 lbs for himself.  I put in a 2415 and tried a personal best of 2615 to no avail.  Warming up while I was struggling with my lifts, Steve got a fairly easy 2705 and decided that was good enough for the day.

Next up was the Hip lift, so we unloaded the bar for that lift.  Mike was able to get 865, showing that with a little work his Harness would definitely go up.  After the Harness, the legs just didn’t seem to have any push, so I was only able to get 1485, and Steve put in a 1915, again not really pushing the limit.

Everyone’s favorite the Hand and Thigh lift was next event.  Again, the bar was unloaded, and we showed Mike the rudiments of doing this lift.  Mike picked up 445, Steve had 1105 and I got 1200.  This is one event where Steve did have problems, just couldn’t get his groove.

Switching to a different big bar, we then proceeded to the Neck lift.  Like any lift, there is certain technique which will aid the lifter in doing the lift and Mike struggled on this one.  Rather than letting the legs do the work, he tried to do the whole thing with his neck.  But, with Bill egging him on, he did manage a 200 lb lift, thereby breaking one of Bill’s records which made Bill extremely happy.  He had threatened to give Mike more weight on the results even if Mike hadn’t gotten the lift just to take it off of his own record.  Both Steve and I did a 335 lb lift.

The final lift of the day was the Back lift.  Out to Steve’s truck to haul in the infamous back machine. It’s not as smooth as the one at the Dino Gym, but seems to work pretty well for Steve.  Mike was able to get 635, with the biggest difficulty being in getting in and out of the contraption.  The least favorite of the five lifts for me, I kept working on setting the depth and the boards and was finally able to get 1625 which seemed fairly easy, but someone nailed the 1825 to the ground.  Steve worked up to 2425 and once again decided he didn’t want to work too hard so stopped at that point.

End results were Steve as the overall winner, with a fun day, and I’m sure that some records were set. Good to see Mike show up in the Show Me State, actually two times in two weekends.  We all went to Golden Corral afterwards to partake of their delights.

Results

Lifter Age Bwt Harn Hip HT Neck Back Total Points
Mike Murdock 70 241 1000 865 445 200 635 3145 3,331.39
Joe Garcia 57 208 2415 1485 1200 335 1625 7060 9,746.00
Steve Schmidt 55 229 2705 1915 1105 335 2425 8485 10,989.90

NOTES:

All weights in pounds. Points are adjusted for bodyweight and age.

Officials: (3 Certified Officials used on all lifts – Bill Clark, Joe Garcia, Mike Murdock, and Steve Schmidt)

Lifts:  Harness Lift, Hip Lift, Hand and Thigh Lift, Neck Lift, and Back Lift