OUTLAW THE GEAR by Coach Jim Massaro
As I sit here reading one of my favorite magazines, Power Lifting USA, I can only wonder what happened to the sport I once loved so much. I was first introduced to the sport of power lifting in the early eighties on "Wide World of Sports," when I could spend a perfect Saturday afternoon watching these amazing feats of strength. I thought to myself, "What type of competition can be better than this? Mental and physical strength against enormous amounts of steel!" To me this was a true test of determining what you were made of.
I will never forget the strength that Doug Young and Larry Pacifico were able to generate. Their numbers at the time were unheard of. I remember Doug Young actually breaking his ribs during one of his attempts in a squat competition. He still managed to finish the meet and win his division. Years later I competed in a meet against Larry, and like so many before me, I too got my ass kicked.
What makes power lifting a great sport? You are tested on your maximum strength output. Mental toughness and discipline also come into play. And there are no unanswered questions. You either make the attempt or you don't. Unlike bodybuilding, you are not subjected to a judge's opinion regarding your muscular development. (Is it really a sport when there isn't any actual physical competition involved?) These are just a few of the reasons why I have always believed power lifting is such a great sport.
For all the good we see in something there always has to be a dark side. For me the dark side of power lifting has come in the form of technology. Some of you might think this sounds crazy but hear me out. Technical advancement in actual training modalities I would welcome with open arms, but that is not what has happened. It has come in the form of assisted gear metal bench shirts, super squat and dead lift suits all guaranteeing to add an extra 100 lbs to your lift. The sad part is that when properly mastered they work. You can take a 400-lb bencher raw and within one workout with a shirt turn him into a 500-lb bencher. There was a time when you paid for a private session with a top bencher to learn training techniques and specific lifts to increase your bench. Now you take those same sessions to learn how to use the shirt.
A case in point I would like to share with you: I have a friend who I have been training for ten years now and he is by far my best lifter in my stable. He has already won world and national championships. We agree to disagree all the time about the use of the shirt. I completely understand his position. If the others are wearing one, the only way for him to compete against them is to wear one himself. But I feel that the most important part of his body of work is being diminished: The countless hours of hard work in the gym. Maintaining the proper nutritional balance. The incredible amount of tonnage that he puts up in the gym, that others can only dream about. This is what is lost when you add assisted gear to the sport of power lifting.
When a raw 500 or 600 lb bench gets overlooked because someone has done a 700 or 800 lb bench with a shirt on, that is a disgrace. You cannot get the bar to your chest with some of those shirts unless you have 500 lbs on the bar. Once it's there just hold it, press, the shirt will spring it off your chest and then all you have to do is lock it out. Is it bench pressing or lockouts? So I guess the new title of the competition should be Lockouts Instead of Bench Press! "Hey, did you see so-and-so did an 850-lb lockout?" That will sell a lot of magazines.
I am presently working on a bench shirt that will have a small hydraulic system under the arm pit guaranteeing you will add 400 lbs to your bench without working out. Please let's stop all this madness and restore the true meaning of power lifting. Brute strength against raw steel. Where only the strong survive, not the geared.