John V laid to rest today

by Steve Gardner

John Vernacchio pressing big weight in his earlier lifting days. This picture is on the wall of Steve Gardner's Powerhouse Gym in Burton. (caption by webmaster)

Long time All Round Weightlifting enthusiast from Pennsylvania USA: John Vernacchio, is being laid to rest today. John was a superb lifter, Promoter of several World Championships and Gold Cup Events, Official, and USAWA Board of Officials Member. John had suffered ill health in recent years and finally suffered a very bad heart attack which led to his sad demise. On this day of his funeral I am sure all members of IAWA(UK) would join me in sending our deepest sympathy to his family and friends, and keeping John and them in our thoughts. John was a really good guy, friendly and helpful to everyone, not only in lifting but in life too. I and many others in the UK had the pleasure of knowing him well. He was a good friend and he will be missed by many! John will leave a big hole in the family of friends that is all round weightlifting, but John V you will never be forgotten xxx

John’s Funeral Plans

by Steve Gardner

Details for John Vernacchio’s Funeral:

 Boyd Horrox Funeral Home
200 W. Germantown Pike
Norristown, PA 19401

Viewing Wednesday evening 6pm-8pm
Viewing Thursday morning 9am-10am, followed by service\

Sympathy and/or Remembrane cards can be sent to John’s brother Sal at:

Sal Vernacchio
2929 Third Street
Trooper, Norristown PA 19403, USA

Dan Lurie – For Real

by Tom Ryan

(Webmaster’s note: Occasionally posts are made on the USAWA Discussion Forum that deserve to be seen by more than just those that follow the forum, and this post by Tom Ryan regarding Dan Lurie is one of those.  A while back Dennis Mitchell wrote a nice bio story on Dan Lurie, and these were the followup comments made by Tom Ryan, which included a few pictures he emailed to me.  Thanks Tom for providing this interesting information!)

Dan Lurie Bent Pressing Miss California.

I did want to add a few comments to supplement Dennis’s article on Dan Lurie.

Dan has both a website and a Wikipedia entry and I have observed that the latter is updated almost immediately when someone passes away. So I am pretty sure that Dan is still alive — at the age of 89.

I recall seeing Lurie appear on TV each week in the early or mid-1950s as “Sealtest Dan, the Muscle Man” on the Sealtest Big Top show. He can be seen in this YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZldsSnESew at about the 6:25 mark doing some overhead presses on the show, in what amounts to a commercial for Sealtest milk. There is also an interview of him, conducted a few years ago, here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbHKzhpZ61c

Sealtest Dan, The Muscle Man

During the late 1950s, when I was getting started in weight training, he had a mail order catalog that included a photo of him bent pressing Miss California. Now we know that Dave Whitley goes around bent pressing women when they are vertical, but Lurie did it when they were more like horizontal.

I had a copy of that catalog but I no longer have it. Although I am not a big collector of strength memorabilia, I do some collecting, so about 10 years ago I contacted Lurie’s son in an attempt to obtain a copy of that catalog, or at least the photo. He knew what photo I was referring to but they no longer had either the catalog or the photo. He did send me a photo of his father bent pressing some other woman, however, as Lurie may have made a habit of this. LOL

Dan Lurie Bent Pressing a man that weighs around 200 pounds.

Fortunately, one of my collector friends has the catalog and sent me the photo and a photo of the cover of the catalog. I also have a photo of Lurie bent pressing a young man of maybe 200 pounds that presumably occurred on the TV show. I am e-mailing these photos to Al.

Now about Lurie’s claim that he bent pressed 285. That would be a prodigious bent press for someone his size and I doubt if he ever lifted that much. John Y. Smith also weighed 168 (same as Lurie) when he bent pressed a dumbbell weighing 275.5 and Willoughby claimed that was equivalent to doing 313 with a barbell. Lurie was not in the same league with Smith as a strongman, however.

Lurie does, however, deserve a prominent place in history as a bodybuilder, promoter of physique contests, entrepreneur (I still have some Lurie barbell plates), and TV strongman performer.

Rest in Peace, John Vernacchio

by Al Myers

Two legends in All-Round Weightlifting, John Vernacchio (left) and Frank Ciavattone (right) at the 2009 IAWA World Championships in Lebanon, PA.

Yesterday brought some bad news to the All-Round Community with the news of the passing of John Vernacchio.  Anyone who has been involved with the USAWA for any length of time knows John.   John has been one of the primary leaders in our organization since the beginning, and without his efforts the USAWA might not even exist today.  I could go “ON AND ON” regarding John’s titles and lifting resume, but today I want to take the time to remember John for “the man he was”, and from the comments that I have received about him, it is obvious that he was loved and well-respected by all.  Please continue to send any comments and/or stories about John, and I’ll share them here on the USAWA website.

by Steve Gardner

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but for those who knew him, just wanted to let you know John Vernacchio has passed away. John was my very good friend and buddy from Philadelphia USA, a prolific all round weightlifter and powerlifter in his early days and a big mover and shaker in the US all round organisation too. John was 75 I think, and he suffered a fatal heart attack this morning. So very very sad. Rest in peace John.

by Andrew Tomlin

he was a gentleman and a legend R.I.P john

by Barry Bryan

Very sad news to hear. I lifted for his gym,trained with him, and he is the one who got me in the all round lifting. We had many great times.

by James Gardner

RIP JOHN. ALWAYS A LEGEND

by Joe Garcia

Sad news indeed. Remember a lot of good times with John at his meets. I called Bill and let him know. If anyone has current address or funeral data shoot them to me.

by John Gardner

Very sad to loose the legend will miss you mr v

by Steve Angell

Am sitting here with tears in my eyes. This has just become one of the saddest days of my life. l owe that man so much and had a love for him like a father. RIP John. You really were a legend!

by Rick Meldon

Horrible news, a great bloke indeed

by David Horne

Very sad news. I always remember my time at his place in Philly with fondness. A great chap!

by Tom Ryan

Yes, very sad news. I echo the comments made above. I knew John well, especially from the 1989-90 academic year that I spent in the Philly area and trained a few times at his gym. John was very active in staging competitions during the early years of the USAWA, in which he was a charter member. And he was a force on the lifting platform! He was a good Olympic lifter who switched to powerlifting after the press was eliminated, as the press was his best lift. John retained his strength as he aged much better than most of us do, as he squatted with 601 at the age of 47, which tied his personal record. Yes, John was 75 and would have turned 76 near the end of the year.

by Graham Saxton

Very sorry to hear the news. I had the pleasure to spend sometime with him on a number of occasions. Treasured memories.

(THERE WILL BE MORE TRIBUTES TO COME OVER THE FOLLOWING DAYS)

Olympic Dumbbell Swing

by Roger LaPointe

Chad Ullom performing a 150 Right Arm Dumbbell Swing at the 2012 USAWA Club Challenge in Ambridge, PA. Chad has the best Dumbbell Swing of ALL TIME in the USAWA.

As a competitive lift, the dumbbell swing has not been part of the Olympics since the first one, or maybe it was the second modern Olympics? I don’t know and the records are a least a little sketchy. So why do it?

Dumbbell Swings are simply AWESOME for your grip work.

Leading up to our last All-Round Weightlifting Meet, I hadn’t done any traditional deadlifting and hardly any clean pulls. Instead, I did a lot of stone lifting, snatches, cleans and the three lifts in that competition: the crucifix hold, one arm deadlift and thick bar Jefferson lift. I was doing the stone lifting because I was training Casey Pelton for the German American Festival Steinstossen event and because I just love summer outdoor stone lifting.

“Wow! Isn’t that actually over training you back?” exclaimed my Dad.

The quick answer, is “Yes… and No.” The volume of back training was pretty big, but most importantly, the volume of grip training was really high. I needed to hit my grip and single arm work, in a genuinely periodized fashion. I really needed to hit some lighter weights, with super high intensity. I felt like the dumbbell swing might just fit the bill.

There is no way to do a serious dumbbell swing being highly intense about it. Without intending to create this dichotomy, it also happens to be a nearly perfect lift to balance out the crucifix hold. Nice.

If you want to see the dumbbell I use to train the Dumbbell Swing, check out this shot. It is a very nice Olympic Plate Loading Rotating Dumbbell. The handle diameter and knurling is about as perfect as you could hope for and my York weights were not sloppy, like on the old one I was previously using. It was a wonderful upgrade.

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