USAWA

by Thom Van Vleck

When I was a kid my Uncles and their friends were lifting competitively and going to Olympic lifting contests, Odd lift meets (Pre USAWA), and even a couple of Powerlifting meets.  I remember going out to the gym and listening to the clanging of the weights.  Often they would not put collars on or put them on tightly and this would allow the plates to “rattle” or clang.

Have you ever heard of “ringing” an Anvil.  A high quality anvil has a “ring” to it when you strike it with a hammer.  As a matter of fact I have a tradition in my own gym that if you have a good workout you “Ring” Grandpa Jackson’s Anvil before leaving.  It’s a personal tradition but my youngest son that currently trains with me does it as well.

I don’t know if it’s true or not but I once heard that barbells were called that because they would “ring” when you struck them.  While this may not be true I can offer a little evidence for it.  There was a British poet named Joseph Addison that lived from 1979 to 1719.  He once wrote that he lifted weights an hour every morning and his family knew not to disturb him when he was “ringing” the weights.

I have also wondered why the call a “dumbbell” a dumb bell.  I know the earliest dumbbells often looked like an old style phone hand set (Halteres) and also two cones attached at the points with the grip in the middle before they evolved into the the modern dumbbell that had a balanced handle between two even spheres (regardless the shape of the ends).  Did the old weights “ring” when the would bring them together?  Was that an early sound in gyms that there was a ringing of these weights and when the modern dumbbell came along they didn’t have this rings so they were called dumbbells?  Makes me wonder.

I’m sure someone more well versed in history might have an opinion but I would say that I think I’m right.  People used to “ring the weights” when training.  To this day I enjoy keeping the metal plates loose on a heavy squat and listening to that rattle as I step in and out of the squat rack.  I just sounds like weightlifting to me!

So ring some weights!