Monthly Archives: August 2010

Taking Care of Your Back – Part 1

by Al Myers

Mike McBride, the Best Lifter at the 2005 USAWA National Championships, performing a Deadlift with Heels Together with over 600 pounds. This All-Round variation of the deadlift increases the stress placed upon the back compared to a traditional deadlift.

Recently, I was contacted by an all-round lifter who asked my advice in dealing with persistent back pain caused from his training.  I’m not going to give his name out here, but he is one of the strongest current All-Rounders in the World and is capable of deadlifting over 700 pounds.  This says quite a bit about his overall back strength, as we all know All-Rounders have many exercises to train and can’t be deadlift specialists, like powerlifters.  He obviously knows how to train very hard to reach this level of performance.  This is just the way it is with All-Round Weightlifting – it is about being all a round strong, not just in specific lifts.  After reading his description of his training, it was obvious to me that he was over-training his back, which can be very easy to do. We have close to 200 lifts to prepare for at any given time, with about 75% of them requiring back strength to accomplish.  I once found myself in this same “over-training trap” as he is when I switched my competition focus to the All-Rounds from Powerlifting.  I still wanted to train like a powerlifter, but just decided to add in extra training for the All-Round lifts.  Combining this extra training volume on my back, in addition to being older, I quickly reached a state of over-training.  I don’t mind my back being a little sore after a hard back workout, but when it is constantly sore the entire week, and affecting my other training, I knew it was time to re-evaluate my training routine and make some changes.

Lots is written about HOW to train your back to make you stronger, but very little is written about how to TAKE CARE OF YOUR BACK  so you don’t sustain a back injury from your heavy training.  I consider this very important.  I have a history of back problems in my family.  My dad and grandfather both had back surgeries for herniated discs.  One of my brothers has issues with chronic back pain.   I know most health issues are linked genetically – and with this family history I am probably more at risk than others to have a “bad back”.   You can find all kind of information about how physical therapists rehab a person after back surgery, or exercises for the non-weightlifter to strengthen their back in suffering from back pain.  However, these things don’t really apply to a weightlifter who wants to be able to at least have one VERY HEAVY back training session per week, and recover fully so it can be repeated the next week. I am going to revel some of my “secrets” that I have learned through the years that have helped me keep my back strong, and preventing  injuries.  I not going to discuss ways of making your back stronger. The things I am going to discuss are all about recovery, things that help you be back to full strength for your next heavy back workout.  I am willing to bet that most lifters do NOTHING in this regard, outside of maybe just some “light stretching”.  That is not enough.  I have discussed these things with my friend Thom Van Vleck in the past, who also believes in this,  and he termed the expression calling these workouts “active recovery” workouts.  I plan to do a 4-Part story on my Thursday workout, which is geared completely to maintaining a healthy back.

The first change in my training philosophy  when I became an All-Rounder was realizing that I have to be careful not to train the back in every workout.  I ONLY train exercises that put ANY strain on my lower back TWICE per week to give adequate time for back recovery.  I am sure this training frequency is different for every lifter, but that is what works best for me.  Now you got to remember – exercises like doing Push Presses or Jerks constitute as a back exercises.  Doing 1 arm full body exercises, like the One Arm Snatch,  puts demands on the back, even though the demands are not like deadlifting.  These exercises need to be trained on one of these “back days”.  Training the upper back also puts demands on the lower back. Even common All-Round upper body lifts like the Pullover and Push or a Clean and Press put pressure on the back.  So you can see where I’m going with this, it doesn’t leave too many exercises available for the other training days during the week!   My back day workouts are Tuesday and Saturday.  I like this schedule because if I have a small meet coming up on the weekend, I can just substitute my Saturday workout for the meet and it doesn’t interrupt my training.  It also spaces my “back days” out evenly – 3 and 4 days.  I do my active recovery back workout on Thursday – two days after my heaviest back workout of the week.  The sole purpose of this workout is to get my back  ready to lift heavy again on Saturday. The details of this workout of mine is what I’m going to highlight over the next three USAWA Daily News segments.

Coming tomorrow – Taking Care of Your Back  Part 2 – Be Sure To Limber Up

The Sheffield Showdown – Saxon vs Sandow

by Thom Van Vleck

Arthur Saxon supporting his brother Hermann, who is seated on a kettlebell. To make the act even more difficult, Arthur is holding out another kettlebell with his other arm!

Al’s recent story on Sandow beating Sampson got me to thinking about another great old time strongman confrontation.  When I was a kid, my granddad Dalton Jackson (originator of the Jackson Weightlifting Club) told me this story.  My Granddad (or “Pop” as I called him) was a big fan of Arthur Saxon and always seemed to paint Sandow as the villain in his stories.  Pop often liked the guy that talked less and showed more and I think he thought Sandow talked a lot more than he lifted and manipulated situations to his advantage rather than winning with his strength.

Arthur Saxon was a master of the Bent Press, which is a USAWA lift and the rules for it can be found in the rule book.  At one point, Arthur laid down the challenge to Sandow, or any other strongman, that he could not be beaten in the Bent Press.  Money was involved and the honor to be called the World’s Strongest Man was on the line.

As Sandow was the older (around 30 to Saxon’s 19 or 20) and the more established performer at that time, Saxon’s claim was taken very seriously by Sandow.  On February 26, 1898 in Sheffield, England the Saxon Trio was performing, and when the challenge was laid down, Sandow jumped to the stage to accept the challenge.

As was the custom of that day, each strongman would pick a lift and go back and forth with the winner often being the man to beat the other at one of his “pet” lifts.  First, Saxon lifted a 110lb kettle bell to his shoulder and held it there with his little finger while a 160lb man climbed up his shoulders and sat on the weight.  Saxon then bent pressed both.  Sandow refused to even try this, and as Pop told me, “broke the unwritten rules of strongman feats”.  Saxon then, using his whole hand, took a 180lb Kettle Bell and 188lb Oscar Hilgenfelt, a member of the original Saxon Trio, in the same manner and bent pressed it, but did not stand erect with it.  Again, Sandow refused to try it!  Finally, Saxon Bent Pressed a 264lb barbell and stood erect with it on his second try.  Sandow, very fresh having passed up every feat to this point, agreed to try the lift.  I recall Pop painting Sandow as purposely trying to wear Saxon out before finally answering a challenge.  Even with this ploy, it took Sandow 5 tries to get the weight to arms length but he did not stand erect with the weight.  Saxon claimed victory, and in my mind, rightfully so!

Saxon began to use the event to promote his shows and the “sore loser” (as Pop called him) Sandow then took his only recourse, which was to sue Saxon in court since he couldn’t beat him on the platform.  Sandow, being the home country favorite and significantly better financed (seem not much has changed about courts….money wins!) won a decision after getting a witness to the event to say he lifted the weight and that even though he admitted he did not stand erect with it, he did not have to!  Pop made it sound like Sandow claimed he “could have” lifted it, but chose not to!  Now the impression I had was Sandow was not only a sore loser, but a cheater!  Further, Sandow cried foul that Saxon used a barbell loaded with mercury and that he had “practiced” with it and could counter the Mercury flowing in the bells and keep his balance. While Sandow struggled with the balance each attempt.  Either way, Pop told me that if you accepted a challenge, you didn’t cry foul later!

It was some time later I was reading a story on Donald Dinnie, the legendary Highland Games athlete that went 40 years undefeated in the caber toss.  Dinnie heard of Saxon, but refused to believe that Saxon’s claims.  In October of 1904, Saxon traveled paid a visit to Dinnie and using Dinnie’s weights, bent pressed 340.5lbs.  After that, Saxon had Dinnie’s support and praise.

Now, I don’t mean to ruffle the feathers of Sandow fans out there, I just wanted to convey the story of a great event in strength history and from the perspective of how it was told to me as a young boy by a man that lived not too long after the event transpired!   But truth be told, to this day, Arthur Saxon is my favorite!

The Day Sandow Beat Sampson

by Al Myers

Sampson's advertising poster at the Aquarium

I enjoy reading about Old-Time Strongmen.  It is interesting learning about their training,  their show performances, and even their rivalries with other Strongmen.  You have to remember that there were no structured competitions for lifters to compete against each other in that day (late 1800’s and early 1900’s).   Often several Strongmen in the same generation would promote themselves as “the Worlds Strongest Man”, which logic tells us can not be true!  There can be only one. Today, this question is answered yearly, and with EVERYONE able to witness it on television, as the “Worlds Strongest Man” is settled amongst the best professional strongmen in the World.  Of course, the argument could be made that someone who didn’t compete in this Strongman Competition was stronger, but that it not the point.  The point is that this TITLE is crowned on only one man every year.

All Old-Time Strongmen made their living off of giving performances.  Their “strongman acts” usually involved feats of strength, mixed with a little theatrics.  The best performers were actors in every sense.  They would “build up” the crowd with their strength stunts, and once performed, the crowd would lavish them with applause and admiration. These guys knew how to sell tickets, and would do anything to “pack the house”.  One of their  ploys was offering “challenges” to other Strongmen – and put up wagers to increase the significance of the challenge. If no one shows – all the better, as these Strongmen would pump their chest and say everyone else was afraid to “take them on” and use this statement to back up their claim  as “the Worlds Strongest Man”. Sort of like winning by default.  But occasionally, a well-known Strongman would take another well-known Strongman up on “their  Challenge”, resulting in a make or break confrontation. Someone would win and someone would loss – thus the beginning of competitive weightlifting competitions.

This day happened on November 2nd, 1889 when the famous Eugen Sandow decided to take up Charles “Samson” Sampson on his challenge, and refute Sampson’s  claim as the “strongest man on earth”. To make a long story short, Sandow came out on top as he completed ALL of Sampson’s challenges, and was declared the winner.  This was one of Sandow’s most talked about victories over a rival strongman, but the details behind this dual are often left out with the mention of his “beating Sampson”.  I recently read Sandow’s book, Strength and how to obtain it, and Sampson’s book, Strength, and found many discrepancies between the two of them on their reports of this challenge.  The old adage, “there are two sides to every story”, is so true  in trying to re-tell this story.  I will try to do my best to represent the opinions of both Sandow and Sampson. Now on to the story!

Sampson was performing at the Royal Aquarium in London when this challenge was issued by him – 500 pounds of his money versus 100 pounds of the challenger, that the challenger could not duplicate  the feats used in his (Sampson’s) strongman act.  However, Sandow said Sampson was putting up 1000 pounds instead of 500, which in the end didn’t really matter as Sampson reneged on his payment, and Sandow had to settle with the Aquarium for a small settlement.  When Sandow’s manager, Professor Attila, notified Sampson that Sandow wanted to take up his challenge that evening, Sampson postponed it till the next Saturday evening.  Sandow said “Sampson wasn’t prepared to meet me” while Sampson said it was for promotional purposes. Thus the disagreements on the reflections on this challenge begins between the two of them.

The next Saturday evening the house is packed, with a reported 10,oo0 people in attendance. Standing room only. So full they locked the doors to prevent more people from crowding in (apparently there were no fire codes in those days!). When Sandow arrived 20 minutes before the challenge was to start he found himself locked out!  He kept trying to get in but the door guard had orders not to let anyone else in.  Finally the hour the challenge was to begin had arrived, and Sandow was still not present, as he was locked outside.  Whether this was done by intention of Sampson is uncertain, but when Sandow heard Sampson proclaiming to the impatient crowd, “Ah – see. He does not come! I thought he would not meet me!”, Sandow decided to use his brawn instead of his negotiating skills and broke the door down!  What an entrance that must have been!

Two very important dignitaries  were appointed the judges by the Aquarium – Marquis of Queensberry and Lord de Clifford.  After inspection by these officials – the challenge began.  Sampson had to know that he was no match for Sandow involving barbell strength, as he chose these three challenges first- bending a pipe over his arm and leg, breaking a wire around his chest by chest expansion, and breaking a chain around his upper arm by flexing. Sandow repeated the first two with ease as he described, but with great difficulty as Sampson described.  The real drama occurred  during the third challenge. Sampson placed a chain  armlet around his upper arm and broke it by flexing his arm. However, when he gave a chain armlet  to Sandow with the exact same measurements Sandow could not get it over his arm as he was a larger man.  This was Sampson’s “ace in the hole” challenge as he knew it would not “fit” Sandow’s arm, and as he was proclaiming his win to the crowd  Sandow pulled an identical chain armlet from his pocket, only longer.  The judges looked it over and said it looked the same as Sampsons. Sandow even had a representative of the company present at the show that sold the chains. Sandow called him up to the stage,  and after this “expert” looked over the chain, he declared it was the same chain Sampson used. The judges HAD to agree  now in allowing Sandow to use his own chain.  Sandow then broke it with ease.  It seems obvious to me that Sandow had “scouted” out Sampson’s act and was prepared for everything.  Sampson latter said Sandow’s chain must have been specially made with a weak link, or he  had someone in the crowd “switch it” out for a weaker chain  as it was passed around for the crowds inspections after the judges inspection.  Sampson really thought he had Sandow on this one.  Now, getting desperate, Sampson produced a leather strap which he was going to break with chest expansion.  Sandow appealed to the judges that this stunt was not part of  Sampson’s act, as it wasn’t, and the challenge specifically stated it had to be a feat done in his act.  The judges agreed leaving Sampson speechless. At this point, Sandow seized the moment and demanded his money since he had met all of the challenges. Sandow quickly produced a 280 pound dumbell, took it overhead with one arm, laid down with it, and then stood up again.  Quite an impressive Full-Gardner Lift!  Sandow told Sampson if he or his sidekick Cyclops could do that feat he would let them keep their money.  Sampson, knowing he couldn’t, proclaimed, “I have had enough of this, It’s all humbug, I don’t call this fair play at all”.  He then went  to his locker room, leaving Sandow to the cheering crowd and  his well-orchestrated victory.  The good news is that this defeat didn’t end Sampson’s Strongman career, as he continued to put on shows for several years.  He even signed off in his book as “Still the strongest on Earth”.

Definition of a Clean

by Al Myers

Longtime USAWA veteran Jim Malloy properly demonstrates how to "catch" a Clean.

The Clean is a lift that is not contested by itself in the USAWA as an Official Lift, but is a big part of several other lifts.  Lifts like the Clean and Press, Clean and Seated Press, Clean and Push Press, and the Clean and Press – 2 Dumbbells are very common lifts contested in the USAWA.  We (the USAWA) define a Clean differently than what is commonly referred to as a  “Clean” in gyms all over the country.   The USAWA Rulebook clearly outlines the Rules for the Clean:

The bar will be placed on the platform, in front of the lifter’s feet. The lifter will grip the bar with the palms of the hands facing the lifter, and then in one single and continuous movement lift the bar to the chest. The lifter may choose any width of hand spacing. The lift begins at the lifter’s discretion. The lifter may drop under the bar as it goes to the chest, using a squat-style catch in which the legs are bent, or a split-style catch in which the legs split. The lifter may also choose to drop only slightly, using a power-style catch. The bar may touch the lifter’s thighs and body during the lift. The bar must come to rest on the clavicles or on the chest above the pectoral muscle in a smooth continuous movement with arms bent. The feet may move during the lift. The elbows and the upper arms must not touch the knees or legs during the lift or it will be a disqualification. No other part of the body other than the feet may touch the platform during the lift. The lifter will recover and stand when ready, from the squat or split position, to an upright standing position. The legs must be straight with the feet parallel and in line with the torso. Once in this position with the bar motionless and under control, the clean portion of the lift is finished.

As you can see from this Rule Description  the bar must go from “the floor to the chest” in one motion.  Also,  you can not support the bar on the body during a Clean as that is a violation, as outlined in the General Rules of the Lifts in the USAWA Rulebook. Section IX.3 states, “Neither the body nor the equipment may support a weight in any manner during a lift.” Of course if the Individual Rules of a Lift state exceptions then they over-ride General Rules.  This is the case with this lift, The Continental to Chest, which in some ways is similar to a Clean.  The beginning and end of the Clean and the  Continental to Chest is the same – it is just what happens in between that is different!   This is where the confusion arises.  Continental is even defined in the USAWA Rulebook in the Glossary.  It states, “Continental – This means that the lift may be done in any manner, with minimal restrictions.  The bar may stop, be lowered, be supported by the body, or be lifted unevenly. The hands do not need to stay on the bar and any grip may be used.” In other words – ANYTHING GOES!!

So, a lift from the platform can be called either a Clean or a Continental.  It can not be called BOTH!  And please don’t use the terminology “Continental Clean” to describe a lift  – that is a misnomer due to  being a conflict of description between  both words. The USAWA has adopted the “modern day” rules of the Clean.  Look back in history and you will see the Rules of the Clean were more difficult than what we use now.  The word Clean, was first used because it applied to the bar being taken to the shoulders clean, or clear, of the body.  In other words – no touching of the legs on the way up!!  How many proficient Olympic Lifters do you see keeping the bar “away” from the body?  NONE!! Our Rules of the Clean allow the bar to touch the legs or body without it being a rules infraction.

When the USAWA Rulebook was updated last year, several of the lift names changed to better reflect how the lifts were performed.  In example, the “Two Hands Standing Press” was changed to the “Clean and Press”.  The new updated Rulebook (the 4th Edition which will be released  the first of August) will have some added rule descriptions as it applies to a Dumbbell Clean.  This will be added, “Both dumbbells must be cleaned at the same time and in one motion from the platform to the shoulders. It is an infraction to clean the dumbbells from the hang position”.  THAT is the way it has always SUPPOSED to have been but I wonder how many times, because it wasn’t laid out clearly in the Rulebook, this rule of the clean has been  violated.  I’m willing to bet that several records have been recorded in the USAWA Record List where the dumbbell/or dumbbells were taken to the shoulders using a Hang Clean.  Here is an example that I am sure even some “seasoned officials” have been confused on.  Both are one arm dumbbell lifts in which the dumbbell needs to be taken to the shoulder first in order to perform the lift.  What is the difference in taking the dumbbell to the shoulder between the “Clean and Jerk – Dumbbell, One Arm” and the “Press – Dumbbell, One Arm”?  You should now know this if you have been reading and following what I have described above.  In the first lift the dumbbell needs to be Cleaned correctly, while in the second lift the dumbbell can be taken to the shoulder in any manner, even using BOTH HANDS. Our previous Rulebooks called these two lifts the “One Hand Clean and Jerk with Dumbbell” and the “One Hand Dumbbell Press”.  It would be easy to see how the name “One Hand Dumbbell Press” could imply that ONLY ONE  HAND must be used throughout, which is not the case.

Our Rulebook is far from being perfect.  However, it is far better written now than before.  If we continue to update and correct it every year with issues like this  brought up during the year, it will only get better.

2010 Club of the Year Rankings

by Al Myers

We have past the half-way point for the 2010 Club of the Year Race.  I have just “calculated” the points each USAWA Club has to date, and put together a ranking list for the Top Five.  Details of the Club Point System have already been detailed in a previous Daily News story in case you missed it.  The defending 2009 Club of the Year Award winner, the Dino Gym, is not eligible for 2010.  It will be the Dino Gyms responsibility (and honor!) to present the award to the 2010 USAWA Club of the Year, which will be done at the 2011 National Meeting.

Club of the Year Race – Top Five

1.  Habecker’s Gym – 16 points

2.  Ambridge VFW Barbell Club – 9 points

3.  Clark’s Championship Gym – 8 points

4.  Ledaig Heavy Athletics – 6 points

5.  Frank’s Barbell Club – 6 points

So far in 2010 the USAWA has 10 registered clubs, which is the most of any year since the beginning of the USAWA.  The previous high was 8 clubs, in 2002 and 2003.  This is good indication that the USAWA Club Program has taken off, and will continue to grow.

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