Minimalist Trainers I’ve known…more on Ken Fantano
31 May 2006If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Never a dull moment. I made it a point to watch Ken train the bench press. Wednesday at 5 the bench elite gathered. It reminded me of a race car with a pit crew. Ken, Danny and Jean, the lifters were often assisted to help. The were a quiet crew when lifting…no pre-lift amateur hour theatrics poseur powerlifters use, they would get fired up prior to a really big, top set but it was all business. Ken took a lot of time warming up his shoulder joints prior to lifting. He would hoist little five pound plates in a never ending variety circles. He’d wear these crazy “arm warmers,” sleeves cut off a sweatshirt that he’d wear over bare arms. Sometimes he’d train with no shirt, a pair of shorts, gym shoes and these crazy arm warmers. Again a naked torso with two cut off sleeves…Jean and he would stroll around wearing them, looking like deranged street people. Soon Danny and others began wearing arm warmers. I just sat and drank beer and marveled at all the idiosyncratic anomalies – I seen different flavors of this training at Mark’s gym. Powerlifters who spend a lot of time with each other develop group identities and come to group consensuses on training tactics. Danny once yelled halfway through a threesome bench session, “Hey Mart! Pick up the phones and order us a PIE from next door – that way it’ll be ready as soon as were done.” Mystified, I said, “A pie?! What kinda pie? Pecan? Apple? Banana Cream? The boys thought that was the funniest thing they’d ever heard – Pizza was called Pie in New York/New England, submarine sandwiches were called Grinders for some obtuse reason. The boys thought I talked funny…which was odd because they talked exactly like the guys from the Sopranos; this was 15-years before the Soprano’s were invented.
Basically the work was real simple: work up to a top set, sometimes 5-reps, 3-reps, sometimes just a single rep. Do a “back off” set or two, maybe not, it all depended how each man felt. When you have a three man bench crew all working up to 550-600 or thereabouts, it takes some time. 135, 255, 345, 455, 495, 545, 595, 620-640…it takes a while to hit all those sets and not rush…each needed to be completely recovered from the previous effort. Dan used to wear lifting straps on his hands to give Ken handoffs on his heaviest bench sets. Ken and Jean didn’t wear bench shirts, despite the fact that their competitors did. “Too much a hassle Mart” Was Ken’s curt reply when I asked why he gave away needless pounds to other competitors. It would take an hour to get through flat benches. Then it was time for dumbbell inclines. Again, it takes time to work up to 440-pounds in the dumbbell incline. Ken needed help to do his inclines and it took five guys working in a choreographed ballet, hoisting two 200-pound bells into proper start position in order for Ken to take the handles and take control of the twin monsters. Once he had them firmly in hand he would effortlessly knock out 5-reps. On the tip top sets he would add oddity to the already surreal proceedings: he’d have a lifter stand behind (usually Mic Golden) and the helper would balance a pair of 10 or 20-pound dumbbells atop the 200-pound bells. This was the only way they could get above 200 per hand. A spotter stood under each bell and a third guy stood behind adding a little something extra to the ponderous payload. Like I said, this was better than watching a 1st run feature film. By the time all the flat benches and inclines were complete, it was pushing 90-minutes. Dan weighed 280, Ken 365 and Jean 420 and the longer the sessions took the weaker the men got.
On Sunday Ken shut the gym down to the public and only the gym elite were invited to train. They’d be a big crowd, between 10 and 20 and main attraction was squats on the main platform followed by deadlifts. Again the procedure was super simple: work up to an all out set: 5 would be the outer limit and it might be triples or singles, depending on the nearness of competition. Dan, Jean and Ken were all legitimate 900-pound squatters with never any depth questions. Basically each wore knee wraps and a lifting belt. Though they wore squat suits, the suits were loose – though Dan’s was considerably tighter than the ones worn by Ken or Jean. 135, 255, 345, 455, 535, 655, 745, 835 then a final rep set with the “big weight” for that day…usually 880 to 950. I once saw Jean have an off day and insist on missing 900 five straight times. Afterwards he was inconsolable. No leg curls, no leg presses, no lunges, no hack machine, no nothing…squat then move on to deadlifts…Ken and Dan were in the 700-deadlift club but Jean had hands the size of Mary Kate Olson and could not hang on to anything past 650. After squats it was time to pull and since they were serious about improving this obvious weak point they worked the deadlift hard and did considerable amount of assistance work to improve. Sessions on Saturday took over two hours and it was solid work. Being super big guys they didn’t rush things but all were athletic and they had pushed each other mercilessly. It was a great core group and a great lifter auxiliary. I threw in with them on Sunday and we swapped a lot of squat strategies…I explained the Cassidy “triangulation head position” and they’d talk about rebound (the turnaround) and Crazed Dan would explain why he wore suit wraps and belt on every single squat set, 135,255, 345, 455, 545, 655, 745, 835 and 900 – “’Cause I don’t want to use an ounce of my available strength until I get to 700.” Okay – but a 900-pound guy wearing tight knee wraps and squat suit on 135? It smacked of psychological illness. Ken overheard and said, “Don’t bother trying to talk no sense to him Mart he’s got cement for brains.”
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