Lt. Col. William R. Beuch United States Army Reserve

In rememberance of my father on Veterans Day

My dad was born in 1925 in Spokane Washington. He married my mom in 1944 which effectively ended his short football career at the University Washington. He was in night classes and was enrolled in ROTC when his country called him to duty. He shipped of to Korea as a Second Lieutenant in the infantry. Dad was in Korea a short time when a closed trench he was in took a direct hit from an enemy mortar. Dad had shrapnel all up his legs and into his back. Because it was a back injury they hung the stretcher upside down on the medivac chopper and took off. It was at this time that dad watched an enemy rifleman shoot the chopper down. It was not dad’s time to go. He received two purple hearts and went on to serve another 22 years on active duty.

In 1954 dad completed his courses in Romanian at the Army foreign language school and we moved to Frankfurt, Germany. Dad was stationed at Camp King but spent most his time elsewhere. We had a lot of stuff from Turkey so you can make some basic assumptions.

In 1958 we moved to Ft. Sill Oklahoma, where dad went to artillery school and then served as a battery commander. It was known as Air defense by then and included nuke capabilities.

In 1962 dad went to S. Vietnam with the first 200 American army advisors in country.
He earned a Bronze Star and the Air medal while there.

Dad came home in 1963 and the family was posted to Ft Riley, Kansas while dad went to Commanding General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas and finished earning his college degree at the University of Omaha. In 1964, after graduating second in his class at the Commanding General Staff College, we moved to Virginia and dad started to work at the Defense Intelligence Agency. For the rest of the war dad weekly and often daily met with the Joint Chiefs to brief them. When dad retired from the Army he went right back to work at the DIA. After eight or ten years there he retired again and went directly to work for SAIC.

When dad finally retired for good, he and my mom moved back to Oklahoma. They liked the people in Oklahoma and the cost of living made it a great place to retire. Two of my brothers lived in OK City at the time and that made it even better.

In 1994 my dad went into the hospital to have a kidney removed that he had injured playing football so long ago. While in the hospital he contracted a MRSA infection that succeeded in doing what the communist could not do for so many years. He rests in peace in the Old Post Cemetary at FT. Sill where some legendary native Americans, such as Quannah Parker and Geronimo had been interred. Geronimo’s grave was moved from Old Post out to the Wichita National Wildlife Range to prevent desecration by tourists.

My dad started his military career fighting the communists and lived to see the Berlin Wall come down. That’s a hell of a ride. I will always be proud of him and hope he would have been proud of me today.

God Bless you dad, and God bless all the Americans that have served our country, and God Bless The United States of America.

2009 100% Raw Federation Single Lift* World Championships!! November 7th and 8th

*This means that each type of lift is a championship contest. You still get three attempts at the lift.

Three of us from Fitness 19 in Manassas traveled to Norfolk Virginia for the event.
Mike Richards bench press and dead lift: open and 25-29 @ 198
Sid Zullinger bench press and dead lift: open @ 242
Ron Beuch (that’s me!) bench press and dead lift: 55-59 @275

All three of us lifted on Sunday the 8th. It was a little unusual. Usually the lighter weight classes say 198’s and 242’s will lift in the first session and the 275’s and the SHW will lift in the afternoon session. Because Mike was lifting 198 Sid and I went down for the technical meeting and the morning session. Much to our surprise there was only one session starting with four flights of bench press. The flights were not divided by age groups but by some formula known only by Paul Bossi. Mike was in the second flight opening fifth and Sid and I were in the third flight opening second.

I lifted off for Mike and he later lifted off for Sid and me. We all went 2 for 3 missing on our last lifts .I believe Mike scored gold for both the open and the 25-29 with a 347lb bench press, Sid scored 3rd in the open with a 363lb bench press. I scored gold with a 386lb world record bench press. I brought the 402 down a little low on my chest and could not get under it stalling at the transition.




386lb world record bench press


There were three flights of dead lifts after a flight of strict curlers. Paul Bossi wanted to finish with the big dead lifts and a cheering crowd. Sid and Mike were in the second flight and I was in the third flight with the big boys. Mike pulled 507 on his second lift for the gold in both the open and the 25-28. Sid opened with an easy 507, went to another easy lift of 546, then put it all on the line with a 567. He walked away with the Open Gold. The third flight was the last flight of the day. Ed, the guy lifting first was 60+ and opening with a world record. I of course am 59 with a birthday in two months. I was second and opening with a world record. The rest of the flight were 600lb and 700 lb dead lifters. Ed and I went 4 for 4, all world records, so he and I finished off the meet with my last world record dead lift of 540lbs as the last lift of the day. The crowd loved us and we loved them.

540lb world record dead lift

Bench Press Nationals 2009 Cleveland Ohio

Friday, 9/11 (God Bless the United States of America)

Pat and I left Manassas Va. at about 9:30 am. Garmen routed us west through Winchester and into West Virginia. We traveled past Eddie’s Tires “they’s good for the money” into Berkeley Springs then up to Breezewood PA. passing Phantom Fireworks on the way.

Now let me tell you, for white knuckle driving of the worst sort, poor cracked concrete paving, constant construction, narrow lanes and basic non-driving truckers, the Pennsylvania Turnpike is the place to be. Yes sir, this piece of America’s interstate road system has not changed since the last time I drove it from Philly to Pittsburgh in the early 70’s. They just move the Jersey wall barricades from one side of the road to the other, repaint the center line on a new track and lay down a new uneven lane of asphalt, collect tolls for six months and repeat.

Once past Pittsburgh it is a very short distance to the flatlands and Ohio. We rolled into Cleveland just after 4:00pm. The Cleveland Renaissance Hotel is pretty spectacular, and nearly impossible to get into or out of with luggage. After negotiating a series of elevators, stairways and escalators we were finally checked in and were ready to explore the venue.

Now the ritual begins:
“Hey big man, what’s happening?”
“Same ole stuff, you’re looking strong”
“How’s the training going”
“Hurt my wrist two weeks ago”
“Want to get something to eat”
“Oh I can’t man, I’m 4 lbs over”
“You seen Klinger?, I hear he’s going 750.”
“No man, but I saw Horace Lane, Wow”
Etc. etc. etc………

The hotel restaurant, the Sans Souci, is rated in the top 100 in the country, so Pat and I went there with Fran Houston, Deb Dufy-smet, and Ivan and Wanda Zwick. The seafood was delicious. The girls were lifting in the morning and I was going to be helping a number of them so it was early to bed.

Sat, Sept. 12,

Hit the warm up room at 8:00am. My Sunday lifting partner, Leigh Haines, was fourth in the first flight. Leigh dropped 10 pounds in the two weeks before the meet. At 123, that’s almost 10% of her total weight. Consequently the shirt she had been training in was way to loose. I explained that because of the loss of muscle mass combined with the altered fit, I could not see her making a lift in that shirt. Therefore, after warming up we squeezed her into a much tighter shirt she had in stock. She was very anxious; this was the tightest shirt she had ever lifted in. I refreshed what we had been practicing, which was, pull the bar down and inhale deeply bringing the chest up to meet it. This would prevent the bar from following its own course out of the groove to the belly. This would load the bar even more and hopefully provide the momentum to get to lockout without the strength lost from dieting down.

I handed her off to her husband Allen and took her two boys out front to watch her opening attempt. Three whites! She just didn’t have the triceps left for the next two attempts. I keep telling her that she either has to stay at 123 or lift at what she normally weighs, because the extreme weight loss is decimating her awesome power. She still took silver and achieved her main goal of qualifying for the Master Worlds in Orlando.

In the next flight I was handling my very good friends Paulette Calhoun and Holly Oxford. You could not ask for two more compliant world champions. By this I mean to say that they will take your instruction and run with it. Paulette was on fire. She cranked the first two attempts out like a machine. Her third was a PR attempt but she just couldn’t lock out the weak side. She took first in three divisions and secured her spot on the world team.

Holly and Fran joined the bomb squad. I am a charter member with multiple service pins. There is no bright side to being in this predicament. If you look at it with an open mind and the intent to learn from it you can glean some very valuable information. Here are my thoughts on why these two world champions did not get a lift in. Holly suffered a wrist injury recently that held her training back just enough physically and also mentally to keep her from maxing out her lock outs. Fran, though she will disagree, uses a shirt that has no pop left in the material. You can tighten it up until it squeaks but it won’t give her the explosion off the chest necessary to take it through to lock out. If she continues to use it she will need to work her triceps considerably harder than she presently works them.

My old work out partner Dr Demetrius Maoury was in the last flight of the first session. I wanted to be there to help him out as well. Pat and I went to lunch with about an hour and a half to go before Demetrius would lift. We waited and waited for our lunch. By the time I finished it was very late and I left Pat at the restaurant and returned to the back room. I found Demetrius at the water fountain putting water on the sleeves of his bench shirt. Apparently he had made an error when he had the shirt custom made. He had them shorten the sleeves two inches but did not request to have them tapered. When he brought the weight down the sleeves would slide up and release the shirt front panel. He thought he could make the sleeves stick by wetting them. I explained that people loosened the chest panel by spraying water on it, so he was probably aggravating the situation. The mechanics of the shirt just were not working. I had him take the shirt off. I then rubbed his arms and shoulders with chalk and then replaced the shirt. This helped a lot but by then he was fairly fried and unable to get a lift in. Demetrius has developed a very unusual set up in the time that he has trained alone. I need to get back with him and straighten this out. I think he may be ready to listen. If he is, I think I can help him reach his potential which is incredible if he can bring it all together.

Because I was lifting the next day I had to take the rest of the day off and return to the room where I could kick back and watch TV. I went back down at 5:30pm for early equipment check. There was a big party for those who had lifted and those young enough to handle it at the Cadillac Ranch. Pat and I returned to the Sana Souci for dinner and then called it a day.

Sun, Sept. 13,

The Browns were playing Minnesota at Cleveland Stadium so the hotel was full of people in purple jerseys with blond braids wearing Viking helmets. They had partied their way through the night in the halls and rooms on either side of us. About 3am it sounded like someone knocked over the TV console/armoire in the room above us. I stayed in bed until around 8:00am which is like sleeping in for me since I usually arise at 4:30am on work days.

I weighed in at noon and hung out in the back room. I needed to clarify some information that would affect my lifting plan. My original plan was to open at 468, go up to 485, and then try 496 for a new national record. However, I found out from Dan Gaudreau, who coaches the US masters national bench team, that my lifts at Raw Nationals were not qualifiers for the team but that my lifts this day would be qualifiers for the M3 (60-69) spot. So I changed up my plan and decided to open raw with enough weight to secure the automatic position on the national team going to Worlds in Orlando next spring. You see I was lifting in the 55-59 division but I will be 60 in January. Anyway, I put up 165 kilos (364 lbs) raw, which was what I needed to secure the spot.

I went with the 212.5/468 for my second attempt. It pulled it down but it still slipped to my belly at the bottom. I pressed it up but the head judge had the spotters take it because it was already three reds for the touch.

I knew I needed more weight to touch so there was no question about repeating the weight. I then had a choice. Go to 220/485 which I had made in the gym or give the record a shot. You know me. I gave the record a shot, 225/496. I pulled it right to the spot and it blew off my chest. I took it almost to lock out when it stopped. I gave it a big push but it double pumped on me and the spotters took it.

I have a theory about this situation. I did not train much shirt this cycle and I think that when you really explode and are not used to it you are so surprised by how fast it is moving that you miss the follow through. By the time you regroup you have bumped the bar. This is where the intermediate lift with the shirt may have helped to get the last lift. So, I ended with a spot on the national team going to Worlds in Orlando and second in the 55-59 275 class.

If you read this far you may have noticed a similarity in all the missed and/or unfinished lifts. There were problems with the gear. The gear was too tight, the gear was too loose, the gear had no pop, etc. etc…. A weight difference of a few pouinds will affect the mechanics of the shirt. How many lifts you have made in the shirt will affect the mechanics of the shirt. Washing the shirt will affect the mechanics of the shirt. How the shirt is seated will affect the mechanics of the shirt. I have not made a successful lift in a bench shirt since Nov. 17, 2007. Watching the videos of my meet lifts I can see that I am not really in control of the weight. I do not train regularly with the shirt any more. This is due to the number of training partners who lift in a shirt and/or can help with the weights I use when benching with a shirt. I will be looking to rectify this in the near future or I will be benching Raw from here on out.

Last heavy workout before Bench Nationals:

Hit the raw work out pretty heavy before going to the shirt. Went
5x315
3x365
2x385 thats a PR
407 (collars weigh 1 lb each)

Put the shirt on and hit 455 easy then went to 485. Hit the rack on the first try. I tightened the shirt up a little then put this one up.

Felt very good about the results. I will do heavy decline on Tuesday and my opener next Sunday and that will be it for training.

Two more work outs until Bench nationals!

Today was the second bench work out since dropping the weight on my chest. I was OK with it but not too impressed with the shirted lifts.

Had to pull some spotters in from the Sunday morning "crowd". This is a pet peeve of mine since I started lifting with gear 5 years ago. I am a regular lifting buddy. This means I show up regularly week in and week out. I help out my lifting partners with advice, spots, and usually some free equipment. So three weeks before a national championship I would think they could return the favor and show up for the work outs. But then I am probably too hard on people and expect too much from them. That is what my boss tells me at work when I complain about the help, of course he says this as he piles more and more work on me from his plate.

Anyway, Sid and Leigh (who are reliable lifting partners)) and I worked shirts on Sunday. Unfortunately the vids of my lifts had problems and were unusable for review. Sid did however get some good vids of Leigh.

Here is a good one of her getting a double at 190

and here is her last lift at 190

Leigh did a total of 6 lifts counting the double @190, this is really good work.

First workout after dropping 225 on my chest!

Very anxious about today's workout after the mishap last Sunday and then how things felt on Tuesday.

I warmed up in the usual manner going to 365 before putting on the shirt. I had Leigh take video of my head to see if and when my head came up.

I started with 435. This went fast and smooth, however just before touching my head came off the bench.


I took about a minute to rest and then tried it again. This time I tilted my head back and looked up and back just like when I am squatting. My head stayed firmly on bench but the bar touched a little low.



Loaded 465 and used the same technique. My head and shoulders raised up a little at the bottom but my head never left the bench. The bar touched well and the weight fired of my chest and locked out easy.

All In all I am very happy with the work out. I am confident that I can lift in Cleveland next month and keep my head on the bench. I am confident that I am capable of lifting enough to take the 55-59 275 class.

My chest was tight and sore this morning but that was to be expected. I am sure that it will recover more every day and my potential will not be diminished.

Notice that I talk about capabilities and potentials. Nothing is ever assured in a contest.

Four more weeks to Bench Press Nationals in Cleveland!!

Training has been going extremely well in the bench press. I have always said that when things look good for a long stretch that you should be careful and keep an eye behind you for a smack in the back of the head. Sunday I smacked my self in the back of the head (figuratively). I was into my second set of warm ups which were close grips at 225. On the third rep I hit the hook on the rack. The bar rolled out of my hand and fell from arms length onto my chest. It hit squarley just above the zyphoid process. It actually hit my chest before I even new I had lost it. I was surprised to say the least and had the wind knocked out of me. I rolled the bar down to my stomach and a couple of gym rats picked it up and put it in the rack. I was quite embarrassed and felt foolish to say the least. I continued on with my work out doing wide grips at 275, 315, and 365.

I put my shirt on at that time and did one at 425. Then I went for two at 425. These went well so I did another double at 425. I bumped the weight up to 455 and tried one. I could not arch and breath at the same time so my head came off the bench and I called it a day.

By Sunday night my chest was very tight and taking deep breaths was difficult. I do not think any ribs were broken or cracked because I could sleep on my sides and back without pain. I figured Monday and Tuesday would be worse. However the soreness has receded each day and my breathing is almost back to normal. I hope I will be able to bench in the shirt again this Sunday.

I have been taking ATP since Sunday. That is adenosine triphosphate which is the substance your body creates when you take creatine and is considered the building block of cell structure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine_triphosphate
Of course my weight jumped up about three pounds to 275 but this will drop when I stop taking the ATP (Same as Creatine)

I also upped the amount of resveratol I normally take.
resveratrol 60 minutes with mike wallace 1 of 2, health benefits
I noted on the supplement store sites that this is a big ingredient in the supplements they market to juicers to repair the damage they have done to themselves while taking anabolic steroids. I figure if it can repair that kind of damage that it ought to be good to go for simple trauma.

Keeping my fingers crossed and hope to still compete in Cleveland, but if I cant I will still go to see and help out my bench pressing family.

I am going to be 60 this January so I cannot make the masters world team with an automatic by winning the ten year class. That is not likely anyway since Brad Klinger is in the 10 year class. So are a bunch of other potentially great lifters. However I am hoping to make a good enough impression to be invited to lift in the 60 to 69 M3 division. I have been training very intensely to give my good friend "Hutch" one last run for the money in the 50 to 59. I put up a bigger weight than he did last year but was red lighted for numerous infractions. 1. Head off bench 2. Rings not covered completely 3. Too sexy and too handsome to be 59 4. Too intelligent 5. Too bald and on and on. I hope "Hutch" is recovered enough to compete after the gall bladder surgery that kept him out of the New Zealand meet.

USAPL Raw Nationals Results:

Well the new kid (Brad Phillips 55 years old) out of Maryland handed me my butt in the squat and the dead lift on Sunday in Charlottesville. Despite the fact that I had PRs and new state records in all three lifts and total. The 385 bench press is a new National meet and American record as well. So I was second out of two with a banner day of lifting. Its ironic, if that is the correct use of the word, because in 2004 I won gold lifting equipped at masters nationals with a 585 kilo total. Sunday, five years later I beat that with a 600 kilo total lifting raw, but only placed second.



This is my 424 lb squat, 16 pounds over last year.



This is my 385 lb bench press also 16 lbs over last year

this is my 512 lb dead lift also 16 lbs over last year,

The meet was a great deal of fun. A very good job by John Shifflett and Willie Morris. Unfortunately it looks like Willie might have broken his hand when a lifter dumped the bar on the spotters. This is major breach of protocol/ethics/intelligence whatever you call it. Never dump the bar off on the spotters. You will not likely save yourself any more injury than you have already experienced but you will most likely seriously injure one or more of the spotters.

This brings me to a matter I need to clarify.

Willie Morris and I have had serious differences of opinion on judging over the years. This does not make him unique. I have differences of opinion about judging with many national referees. THIS DOES NOT DIMINISH THE RESPECT NOR THE FRIENDSHIP I HAVE FOR THESE INDIVIDUALS AS LIFTERS OR FRIENDS. It is merely a disagreement on judging.

Willie is still an incredible power lifter at 66 years of age. A multi-time world champion at three different weight classes and at least two age divisions in the Masters. He will give you sound advice and critique on your lifting and tell you when you have done a good job. He will also tell you if you are messing up and be correct most the time. He will jump in to help at whatever needs to be done. He will buy you a beer if you cant afford to buy him one. He has strong opinions and is man enough to tell you what they are and stand behind them. He thinks all women are princesses and should be treated as such. I like Willie and want everyone to know that I consider him a good friend.

Raw Nationals!

July 24 -26

Training has been going well. I am hitting the numbers on schedule as planned. I am staying injury free to date. Hotel reservations have been made. No need to fly, just a 90 minute drive to Charlottesville from Manassas. Pat and I will go down Saturday the 25th and stay over. I lift on Sunday the 26th. My weight is very close to where it was last year and ten pounds below SHW.

I am hoping to bump my numbers from last year by about ten pounds on each lift, which will put me over 1300. In 2004 I took gold at Masters Nationals in the M3 275's equipped with a 1290. I was 54 years old. Five years later I have a very realistic chance to beat that lifting raw.
As you might well imagine, I do not subscribe to the theory that you get weaker every year as a masters lifter.

Results of Freedom Open in Leesburg.

Weighed in at 266 so I was in the 275lbs weight class and the 55-59 age division. I opened with 340lbs and it went up easy. Second attempt was 365lbs. It was a little wobbly at the lift off so I held it at the top until it was steady, it went up fast. My confidence was high at this point and I raised the weight to 385. I previously missed 375 at bench nationals last summer. The lift was strong and smooth and 49 pounds over the 336 national record that we started the day with. I opted for a fourth attempt at 405lbs. to up the record again. I had a mental lapse and held the bar after lift off for almost 4 seconds waiting for a start command. Of course there is no start command in the 100% Raw Federation. I brought the bar down a little high on my chest and was not able to complete the lift. I had to settle for setting a new national record 3 times. The world record is also 336 but this was a sanction II meet so national records were as high as you could go.

Next up the 100% Raw Freedom USA Open:

Next Saturday Sid, Mike (new guy from Fitness 19), and I will take Pat over to Leesburg for a raw bench meet. The 100% Raw federation allows lifting belt only.

I will be attempting to set a new national record for the 55-59 275lb weight class. The current record is 336lbs. I will be opening with 340lbs.

As we know I was drug tested at the Richmond meet. I am not worried about anything I have taken for weight lifting, however I have taken some new supplements that are about healthful aging etc. (Protandim and Resveratol) The only problem with them is that the conditions with which they are packaged are not controlled like they are for drugs so there is the possibility of cross contamination with a supplement that may have been packaged just prior to whatever you are using. This is a chance you take with any supplement. I would however like that big Pass to show up soon.

I think I figured out why I have been steady putting on pounds. Back when I pulled a groin muscle I quit doing my daily morning squats. I do these to fire up my metabolism so it burns strong all day. I started back on the morning regimen last Monday and have dropped 5 pounds already. Whew! (Slap forehead).

After this meet I am going to purchase a new Super Katana and start shirted traing from the beginning. The groove is different from the Fury and therefore the technique is different also. I have to train to keep my head on the bench. I will train for the nationals in Cleveland in September. If I cant get the shirt to work for me I think I will just lift raw.

The Richmond Open

Sid Zullinger arrived at my house at 5:30am as planned. Pat and I were packed and ready and we took off for Atlee high school in Mechanicsville just out side of Richmond VA. The trip is 86 miles according to Map Quest and we made it in time to line up for equipment check at 7:15. Sid weighed in at 225 and I weighed in at 263. The lifting didn’t get started until 9:30.
I could tell that the long time to wait for his squat flight was hard for Sid. With two flights of 15 ahead of him it would be a minimum of an hour and a half before his flight came up. His opener was 385 and he did it with ease. Willy Morris gave him red on depth. Because of Sid’s body shape his maximum depth is just past parallel, which is not quiet good enough for some national judges in the USAPL. Sid’s second attempt was 418. Once again he did it with ease. Once again Willy gave him a red light for depth. Sid’s final attempt was 437. He had to put some effort into this one but he locked it out. Unfortunately he took a step forward before the rack command was given. Ironically, Willy said the depth was good.
Once again the long wait to bench played on Sid’s nerves. He opened with 325. I lifted off for him and called instructions. I told him wait for the commands as I handed off. After he pressed I told him to hold it. He got three white lights for a textbook lift. As previously posted I had decided to do a bench only meet. I wanted to be able to coach Sid the rest of the time. Unfortunately, I had to leave Sid out on the platform to finish benching while I went to warm up for my flight. I set it up so that he and Mike Hill would lift off for each other. Sid jumped the commands on his second attempt and did not receive credit for a strong 347. I think if I had been there lifting off and instructing him he would have waited. His third attempt was a repeat of 347 but he was out of gas by then.
I was back in the back room doing a very quick warm up. I did 20x the bar, 10x135, 5x225, 1x315 and 1x365. I put on my tightest 46 Fury bench shirt. The sleeves were so tight that I new my circulation would be compromised so I took it off and put on the back up 46. I have to thank Rob Gormis, a big lifter and friend of Len Walker’s. I met him a couple years ago at the George Mason APA meet. He helped me warm up and get into my shirts. I did 1x455 with the shirt on. By this time I was breathing pretty hard and sweating profusely. I grabbed my stuff and went out to the platform area. Sid and Henry Girard were there to coach me and fire me up.
I took three unsuccessful attempts at 501. I could give any number of lame excuses for the misses. The backup shirt did not have a lot of pop in it. The national judges were not in place when the bar was loaded. The hand off was bad on the first attempt. The effort expended in coaching and loading for Sid took a bite out of my total energy. But, I have lifted in too many meets around the world in too many different circumstances to know that the only reason I missed those lifts was because they were too heavy. It was a little disappointing but this meet was about Sid and having fun so I put it out of my mind.
The meet director came to me after the first flight of dead lifts and asked if I could sit one of the judge’s chairs. I was glad to help out. Nick Mannetti jumped in from spotting and loading when Sid’s attempts came up so I could coach Sid on his way to the platform. His first pull was 425 and was really easy for him. I told him to go to the table and put in 475 as his next attempt. This was the first time he had done this so he told the official 475 and then 501. Sid did not know that he was to give just the weight for his next attempt, so when he came out to lift he thought he was lifting 475 when the bar was loaded with 501. When I told him to give his third attempt as 534 he told me he had already given 501 as his third attempt. I said “you just pulled 501”. He told me he thought 475 felt really heavy”. He entered 540 as his third and it was just a little too heavy. He pulled it to just below his knees and ran out of gas. I think the 534 would have gone.
There were user problems with the scoring software, so it was after 8:00 pm before Sid received his second place trophy for a 1244 total. He had a very good day. He met and impressed a lot of new power lifting friends and took home some nice hardware.
We stopped at the Mexican restaurant on the way out of town and devoured some fine food. We arrived back home at 11:15 PM, 17 hours and 45 minutes after we had left. It was a long day, but a good one, and Sid is now qualified for Raw Nationals in Charlottesville.

There has been some postings about the infamous Masters world bench team speedo on the USAPL Forum. I thougth it would be apprpriate to post a picture of it here.

Ready for Richmond!

On April 11, I will be heading down to Mechanicsville (Richmond suburb) for the Richmond Open.
I hit 405 unequipped on the flat bench last night for the first time in 3 years. I have nailed over 500 in both my past two shirted work outs. The American record for 275 - M4 (55-59) is 490. It looks like preparation and opportunity are about to come together for me. I decided to do bench only so that I could coach my friend Sid in his first meet. He has been training hard and made some great gains. I think he will go over 1300 Raw in his first meet ever.
I hate to open with an American record, because some judges (to remain unnamed) think that you deserve to be red lighted for the presumption. However, if that is where the shirt is dialed in at, then that is where you have to open. Just have to try to make it very clean.
My weight has crept up to the 260’s but my strength is back to where it was when I weighed into the 290’s. My legs and chest have put on a great deal of solid muscle. My shoulder has stopped hurting completely. I think I have to credit the chiropractor for the shoulder rehab. He told me that as he fixed my neck problems my shoulder problems would probably go away as well. This is stupendous, I was ready top go under the knife.

Frank Beeler Masters Bench Press World Champion and World Record Holder:

My friend Frank has started radiation treatment at Stanford. He has melanoma that has spread a bunch. I will not forget the first time I met Frank Beeler. It was in the warm up room at bench nationals in 2003. The competition was in Newark New Jersey, just a spit down the road from the Rahway Prison. The hotel and parking lot had a fence topped with razor wire that surrounded the entire complex.
It was only my second competition and I was very nervous as you could imagine. There were maybe 50 or 60 people jammed in a very tight room. There seemed to be about a half dozen guys trying to put a bench shirt on this half bald cannonball looking guy in one corner. I later learned his name was “Slade”. I saw other massive guys close to my age with names like Pat Dennis, Fred Dini, CJ Batten, John Blackmon, Kevin Hutchinson, Kevin Johnson, and Dan Gaudreau, just to name a few.
I slipped over against a wall and tried to find a place to put my gear. It was wall to wall stuff. I found a little spot and pushed my bag into it. I knocked a shoulder horn off the top of the bag next to me. I picked it up and was trying to balance it back in place when this big “grizzly bear kinda guy” asked me if he could help me. He was smiling so I figured I was safe and mumbled an apology.
Things got real hectic for a while. I saw the big bearded guy make a couple of unsuccessful attempts at over 500 pounds. Being new to the sport I didn’t know what they called him for but I knew it wasn’t lack of strength because this guy was benching in a white t-shirt. On his last trip to the platform he smoked 540 lbs in that white t-shirt. As you have surmised that guy was Frank Beeler.
Twice I have had the honor of being invited to lift at SHW with Frank on the Masters World bench press team. It was not a competition because I am not any where near the lifter Frank is, but it was a pleasure. I have lost a weight class or two since then but I still lift in the same session with the big guys. In Charlotte last summer “Hutch” and I helped Frank get into his shirt. He benched a cool 590 lbs that afternoon.
I got my money on Frank. He is a world class competitor and a world class guy. Hey Frank, “I love you man”!! I too will pray for your speedy recovery.

General Well Being and Training Progress:

The groin pull I experienced back in late December is gone. Consequently my squats are headed back up in weight and down in depth. I really don’t like to squat but it is probably the penultimate exercise for core strength. I felt very strong last week and finished with five deep reps at 325 lbs. I am not sure but I think that is a PR. I went on to dead lift two sets of three at 455 lbs. which I know is a PR. My hamstrings have been reminding me of that fact all of this week so far.

My bench press has gone ballistic. Cutting out the speed bench day and putting the heavy decline bench day back in has worked better than I ever dreamed. I had some micro tears in one of my pecs last month and the bruise looked terrible. However it did not hurt at all and I kept pushing the following weeks. I am mixing up the weight and reps and the body shock is really producing results. Adding in heavy lockouts at 2 to 3 inches will boost my shirted bench for sure. I hit 495 lbs. solid last week with just a 46 fury. I will put the 44 on next shirt day and take a shot at 525 and possibly 550, depending on the quality of spotters I can recruit from the gym rats.

Spotters are an unknown at the new gym. I can explain what I want them to do, but not in Spanish. The majority of the guys who look like they can handle the weight are Hispanic and have limited English. They are all willing to help, but having some one grab one side and shift the weight on you is very dangerous.

I have to decide what to do at the Richmond open in April. I am leaning towards equipped bench press only. This will give me the extra time to coach Sid. However, if I do that then Sid might balk at the raw full meet I want him to do as a qualifier for raw nationals. I have a big responsibility to do no harm in my role as mentor to Sid.

St. Louis is a town that has always been good to me.

An e-mail from a good friend, actually a very good friend, got me to thinking (yes I do think now and then) about a meet that was so very special in many ways. The meet was the USAPL 2005 Bench Press Nationals in St. Louis, Missouri.
This was my third bench nationals. I took a silver in my first in Newark, New Jersey and joined the bomb squad in my second in Killen, Texas. I met a lot of great lifters and some legends as well in those two meets. I knew who was who in and around my age and weight class and how much they had lifted in the past.
Going into St. Louis I had a greater respect for the national platform then previously exhibited. During warm ups in the back room Kevin Hutchinson told me his crew had not shown up and he needed someone to help him with his shirt. I invited him to park his stuff with mine and assured him I would get the help we needed. At the same time Fred Dini was looking for moral support and someone to team with for assistance.
Now let me explain. Kevin “Hutch” Hutchinson was and is a world class benchpresser. I have never actually lifted head to head with him because he is a few years younger than me and usually lifts in a different weight class. I however, always considered him the competition to beat. I have never beat him in a bench press contest. Fred Dini on the other hand had set a world record on the world platform and was one of my bench press heroes. I was going head to head against Fred that day. I was intimidated. Fred said he was really hurting. He told me his shoulders were so bad that he couldn’t bench over 135 without a shirt. I was honored to just be hanging with these two guys. I don’t believe anything the competition says before lifting because they don’t often tell the truth.
Hutch lifted in the flight ahead of Fred and I. Cliff Tallman and I helped him into his shirt and Cliff tried to latch his belt. Hutch is laying on the floor and Cliff keeps pulling on the lever but the latch wouldn’t close. Kevin is starting to show some anxiety at this point. From my angle I could see that the two leather ends were butted against each other instead of overlapped. I reached down and slipped the one end over the other and Cliff locked the lever. Hutch went out a made an easy 408 opener. He then took an incredible 100+ pound jump to 513, and couldn’t quite lock out. He went out for his third attempt and nailed it. One thing I have learned about Hutch over the past 5 years, he does not give up. Adversity seems to make him much stronger.
Fred opened before me with a 352 and made the lift. I was having problems with my feet kicking out from under me because my fat butt was raising me off the bench a little further than I was used to on the bench at my gym. Because of this I had called for the foot blocks. This turned out to be a bad decision. I was all out of position and missed the groove completely causing me to double pump my opening 429. As I was leaving the platform Regina hackney asked me “What was that”. So now I was a lift behind. Fred took a 50 pound jump to 403 on his second lift but missed. I had the blocks removed on my next lift and smoked the repeat at 429. Fred repeated the 403 but missed again. I called for a 468 which would be a National and American record. Kevin and Fred both jacked me up to the max in the back room. I went out, set up tight, took the hand off, and blew it off my chest. The bar stopped and I knew my right arm was not locked out tight but I new if I locked it I would draw red lights. I just held it like a rock and got the rack command. The judges showed two whites and one red it was a good lift. The National meet record still stands today but will probably be blown away by Frank Beeler next year when he turns 55.
I shared the medal platform with my hero Fred Dini. He really was telling the truth about his shoulders. As far as I know that was his last bench meet.
Later that night the legendary John Blackmon came up to me and congratulated me for besting his old record which had been on the books since 1999.The biggest prize of the day was having shared the platform with and made the friendship of Hutch, Fred Dini and John Blackmon.

What happened in 2008, and what's up for 2009?

I turned 59 last Sunday. This will be my last year as an M4 (55-59). There have been a lot of changes this past year in my lifting regimen.

World gym closed the Manassas location and herded everybody out to their Gainsville facility about 10 miles away. The management there would not allow my equipment bag on the workout floor and thought that chalk was a controlled substance and a felony to have in ones possession. I opted out and bought myself and my neighbors’ son a membership at Fitness 19 just 2 miles from my house. The gas savings paid for the memberships. Unfortunately I no longer bench press with Demitrius Maoury. I do miss his attitude and work ethic.

Dino threw me out of his gym for offenses I feel he only imagined. Jim Pope chose to continue working out there so I lost my squat and dead lift partner and a good friend. Had I known that Dino did the same thing to Gary Hart earlier I would have walked. The story I got was that Gary had moved on after Dino lost the law suit because he thought they would close. But apparently the real story was the same as mine. I will not continue to do business with someone who trashes my friends.

On the plus side; my neighbor Sid is a great workout partner. He has a real desire to make gains both physically and mentally. Our squats and dead lifts have been creeping up weekly. We lift unequipped except for an occasional bench shirt night for me. As a matter of fact I had no successful equipped lifts in any meet this past year. I bombed 3 for 3 in Bratislava and was red lighted on my only shirted lift at bench nationals in Charlotte.

I just received an invitation to go to New Zealand and bench press with the Masters World team, however Pat and I had talked it over previously and had decided that we could not afford it this year. We are still paying off the credit card from last years travels that included Bratislava, Slovakia for Master Bench Worlds, Worcester, England for the flower show (I owed it to Pat), Columbus, Ohio for the Arnold (I felt I should help and support my friend Jim) St. Louis, Missouri for Raw Nationals and Charlotte, N. Carolina for bench press nationals. Even though I did not get an equipped lift in I won 2 national championships, Raw 55-59 and Masters Bench 55-59 and took Silver in the Open Raw Bench press.

Sid and I are going to do the USAPL Richmond Open this spring as a qualifier for him to enter the Raw Nationals in Charlottesville this July. My successful meet last year will qualify me. I am also looking at the AAU bench press world championships. I will do the USAPL national bench press championship and see if I can make the masters bench team for Sophia, Bulgaria in 2010. I will be 60 then and could have a good chance to medal.