Last Visit: Nov 16, 2007 11:46pm Last Forum Post: Oct 10, 2007 8:02am Last Photo Upload: Jun 20, 2007 7:45am Last Profile Update: Sep 5, 2007 8:08am Last Blog Post: Jul 26, 2007 6:22am
I have been in the iron game since 1976 when I got my butt kicked after school one day. At that time I was about 5'6" and close to 185 of jello. When I got home that day, bleeding and crying, there was a rerun of the "Beverly Hillbillies" on the tube. You know the one that featured Dave Draper. When I saw Mr. Draper and what he looked like I knew that I wanted to look like that some day.
My dad had an old 110lb set of sand filled plastic weights in a box in the garage. He showed me how to do chest presses on the floor, curls, rows, upright rows, squats, and calf raises. After my first workout of 1 set of 10 per exercise I was so sore I couldn't walk and addicted to the feel.
Back then there was no internet and the only scorce of information was "Muscle" and "Strength and Health" magazines. Also, we lived in a very rural part of Alabama where the only place to buy these magazines was at a mall bookstore that was 47 miles away.
Armed with limited information and a desire to be as big and strong as possible I improvised with what I had. I used chair backs as squat racks, a 2x8 between chairs as a bench, and a rope tied to a bar and run through two pullies for pull downs.
That year for Christmas I got a copy of "Pumping Iron" (for some reason the page with the the topless girl sitting on Arnold's shoulders is missing but I still have the book), an unpadded bench with uprights, and another 110 lbs set of DP weights. The next year for my birthday I got a hard cover copy of "Arnold. The education of a bodybuilder." and I read it over and over.
I was in the military before I saw my first set of olympic weights. They were old and never used, stuck in a corner near the post basketball court. There I hooked up with a powerlifter named Dan and my lifting goals took a sharp turn. He taught me how to squat properly and about deadlifts. It seems that I have naturally big and strong quads because within 6 months I was squatting and deadlifting over 450 at 175lbs body weight. He also hooked me up with my only cycle of d-bol. I took 20mg a day for 100 days preparing for a local power meet. My size and strength skyrocketed. He took first and I took second with a 1375 total in the 220's. My bench has always been very weak. It wasn't unusual for us to do a 3 hour "power workout" on Saturday morning then hit the breakfast buffet for another hour. He also convinced me that I could never be a bodybuilder so I stayed with powerlifing movements for the next 20 years.
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Big guys squat...deep, nuff said.
Last Updated: Apr 24, 2007 9:33am
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Had my MRI and follow up with the doc last week. I have a tear approx 5 mm in my rotator cuff. I'm scheduled for surgery next month. NO heavy upper body work till at least next year.
OK. I've been slacking off waiting for a verdict on my shoulder. Haven't...
