From Enfeebled to EmpoweredPart I
1 February 2006If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The 2006 Amateur Athletic Union world powerlifting championships were held this year at the Crown Plaza hotel in Richmond Virginia on January 27 & 28th. After driving for four hours from south central Pennsylvania with Jen and her somber sister I arrived at the hotel at 8:30 on Friday morning. The lifting was to commence at 9am so I literally jumped out of the car without unpacking and immediately walked to the room where the competition was to be held. I found my two lifters that would be competing this morning: my strength and weight loss star, 49-year old Ron Patterson and Slim Nick our 20-year old power protg. I had to remind myself that Ron had never lifted a weight prior to September 2005 and Nick commenced powerlifting only four weeks prior to this competition. I walked in on a seemingly never-ending rules briefing where officials go over the competitive guidelines. I ignored this and summoned my guys; they knew the rules inside and out. I proceeded to have them warm up for their opening squats. My old friend, training partner, world champion/world record holder and Obesity Solution cohort Kirk Karwoski was already there and after exchanging our usual profane greetings he and I commenced the warm-up procedure. Ron had officially weighed in at 177-pounds and this was quite amazing considering 125 days ago when hed started our Obesity Solution Purposefully Primitive project Ron weighed 237-pounds. Ron had come to us as damaged goods: hed had major knee and shoulder surgery in years gone by and had I known the extent of his injuries I likely would not have accepted him; luckily for both of us he kept the seriousness of his industrial accident to himself. Now he was transformed physically but psychologically he was apprehensive.
Ron had he lost 73-pounds of body fat and added back 13-pounds of muscle to arrive at a scale weight loss of 60-pounds. Ron seemed nervous and why not? Hed never competed in an athletic competition of any type and now he was about to lift in a championship event. I had gotten a special waiver from Judy Woods, the AAU meet director, in order to allow my six lifters to compete in this event. Normally they would not be eligible to compete in an event of this caliber as athletes need attain a certain level of proficiency and post a qualifying total in order to be able to enter this competition. Because a reality TV show pilot was being filmed documenting the amazing transformations using pure powerlifting tactics, Judy was kind enough to make an exception. If the pilot was picked up by a network it would be a big shot in the arm for powerlifting and Judy was smart enough to recognize this and grant us a waiver that normally would never be allowed. She had faith that Kirk and I would not deliver a pack of rookie fools to embarrass her and now it was time to deliver. Now it was time for the rubber to meet the road. Kirk and I (along with Kirks significant other, Julie Scanlon - an elite lifter in her own right) guided the two men through the backstage warm-up procedure. You dont just walk to the platform and start with a near limit lift; you need to take several preliminary attempts to acclimatize the lifter to what they are about to face. It is one thing to lift well at home or at the local gym, lifting when you are ready and using techniques that might be less than perfect. This was far, far different: three judges would determine if each lift passed technical muster. Plus the audience was large and vocal, the TV cameras were rolling and Karwoski and Gallagher were standing ten feet away and expecting perfection. Talk about a nail-biting, stomach churning, fright inducing scenario.particularly for total athletic novices.
Warm-up timing is critical: warm the athlete up too soon and their muscles grow cold and stiff by the time the actual event rolls around. Warm them up too late and the athlete has to rush onto the platform with muscles that have not yet physically recovered. This is where Kirk and my vast competitive experience came into play and we walked both men to the staging area with time to spare. Soon it was time to throw down and Ron was up first with a 236-pound 1st attempt squat effort. This lift was done with great ease and promptly turned down 2 to 1 by the three judges for not squatting down deep enough. He was shocked coming off the stage as anyone in his position would: he had a look on his face that was unsettled and disturbedhe sensed impending disaster. Kirk and I talked to him and basically told him to shake it off. His demeanor suggested he was less than convinced. Slim Nick stands 6-foot 1 and weighs 146-pounds. He smoked his 250-pound squat opener for a three white light success. By contrast the youngster was relaxed and joking, displaying proverbial nerves of steel. Ron got himself together and made a beautiful second attempt with 236three white lights appeared and we all breathed a sigh of relief. We were in the game! He ran into trouble on his third squat with 256. He went plenty deep stood erect but was called (turned down) on a subtle technicality: though he went deep enough and stood erect in fine form, he actually stopped halfway up, went back down a few inches before pushing the weight to completion. This made the lift much harder but because the bar did not travel upward in a smooth unbroken path the lift was turned down. Nerves-of-steel Nick made 286 on his second squat easier than his opening attempt. This was the most hed ever squatted and I sensed the kid was gaining momentum. I decided that rather than call for the appropriate and logical 298 (the meet was run in kilos) to really see what he could do I called for 308 on his third. To my astonishment he crushed the 308-pound squat for a three-white light success. This was double bodyweight plus 18-pounds. He could have done a 330-pound squat had he had another attempt.
After the squat endure was over and Nick stood with us in his wrestling singlet, Kirk looked him up and down and said, My girlfriend has more muscle than this kid. I looked at him and said, Hey kid, the basketball game is down the hall - youve obviously wandered into the powerlifting venue by accident. He laughed and I knew he was on a roll. Ron was taking his failure too hard: he wanted to see his glass as 2/3rd empty and it was important he look ahead to the bench presses and deadlifts and not get caught up in what went wrong on the squats.
Part II on Friday
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