Jim Haislop's Training -- Dick Falcon (1966)

 

Article Courtesy of Joe Roark and IronHistory:

https://ironhistory.com/

Although Florida has produced many fine physical specimens in the past years, none was as outstanding as Jim Haislop of Tampa. Just over a year ago, Jim was a complete unknown in the physique field and it wasn't until he competed in the 1965 Mr. Florida physique show that he came to the attention of physique fans. His appearance on the stage during his posing routine caused a terrific sensation and a wild tumult of long-lasting applause from the audience. When he was awarded the Mr. Florida title, the applause was repeated and lasted even long. No mistake had been made by the judges of the contest. Their selection seemed to meet the approval of everyone present. 

I had the pleasure of meeting Jim Haislop for the first time in 1963, while he was home on leave from the navy and training at the Tampa Health Gym. Although, at the time, he weighed only 170 pounds at the height of 5'11". 

I was impressed with his physical appearance and plied him with questions concerning his life. I learned that Jim had been an average American boy, receiving fairly good grades during his school years. He graduated from Hillsborough High School in Tampa where he excelled and received letters for three years in track and football. After graduation he enlisted in the navy for a four-year stint. He was sent to naval school and he became a machinist first class.   

Although Jim had seen a few bodybuilders in action, he did not really become interested in weight training until his second year in the navy when he saw the movies of Steve Reeves portraying Hercules roles. Reeves' magnificently developed body impressed Jim so much that he decided to take up weight training and build his own body to the maximum degree possible. 

Once he made this decision, Jim lost no time in requesting permission and acquiring weights for use on board ship. Here he began his barbell training, following written instructions consisting of a basic barbell and dumbbell course requiring three exercise periods per week on alternate days. When I met Jim he had been training according to these instructions for about a year. 

In the course of our conversation, Jim confided that although he had acquired some fair results from his training, he now felt that he was ready for more advanced methods. He had decided to use the split routine upon his return to the naval base. I agreed with his decision and wished him great success in his efforts. 

In 1964, on his next leave from the navy, I again saw Haislop exercising at the Tampa Health Gym and this time I was amazed at the physical improvements he had made. He had gained from 170 to 208 pounds of solid muscles that were evenly distributed over his body. He looked simply great!    

Jim informed me that for the past year he had used the split system as he had planned, training five days per week and incorporating the best known exercises required to give his body a thorough workout. 

On Monday/Thursday/Saturday he concentrated on his shoulders, chest and triceps. On Tuesday/Friday he had exercised his lats, legs and biceps. Abdominals were worked at the end of each of the five workouts. 

Jim said that he also paid more attention to his food and had also included food supplements to his navy rations. When I left him that evening, Jim said he planned to train for another year and then perhaps, compete in a few physique contests. 

About a year later, the first of April, 1965, I saw Haislop for the third time, on leave from the navy and training at the Tampa Gym and this time he looked better than ever. His bodyweight had increased to 228 pounds and he looked very shapely and trim. After I greeted him, Jim said he planned to enter the Mr. Florida contest scheduled later in the month. On April 17, 1965, Jim competed and easily won the Mr. Florida title. 

He also competed in the power lift contest held the same day, making a 350 bench, 485 squat and 545 deadlift. At this writing he holds the All South Bench Press record and is the Florida State Heavyweight Power Lifting champion.

Jim's navy enlistment ended last August of 1965 and he is now back home in Tampa. Currently employed as a machinist, Jim spends a large part of his evenings training with Dick Fudge, owner of the Tampa Health Gym. At present Haislop is training six evenings per week. 

He begins all his workouts with a light warmup routine and then concentrates on the heavier exercises. He sticks to each exercise until he feels it is no longer giving sufficient benefit and then substitutes a different movement. 

Employing the split routine, he trains his chest, deltoids, and triceps on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and he exercises his lats, biceps and legs on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Following is a list of some of the exercises Jim performs in his training. 

MONDAY/WEDNESDAY/FRIDAY

CHEST: 

Bench Press, 300 pounds, 5 sets of 6 reps

Incline Dumbbell Press, 120's, 3 x 10

Incline Barbell Press, 200, 3 x 6 ->

alternate with Incline DB Press, 70's, 3 x 6

Flyes, 90's, 3 x 10 ->

alternate with: 

Dumbbell Pullovers, 70's, 3 x 6.

DELTOIDS:

DB Front Raise, 50's, 3 x 10

DB Side Laterals, 50's, 3 x 10

Seated Press Behind Neck, 175, 3 x 10

TRICEPS:

Incline EZ-Bar Triceps Extension, 140, 6 x 8 ->

alternate with: Close Grip Bench on bench press machine, 150, 6 x 8

Triceps Pulley Kickback, 150, 6 x 8

Triceps Pressdown, EZ-Bar Handle, 120, 6 x 10

alternate with: Close Grip Incline Press, 180, 6 x 8.

TUESDAY/THURSDAY/SATURDAY

LEGS:

Squat, 400 pounds, heels raised, 6 x 10

Leg Extension, 75, 3 x 15

Leg Curl, 75, 3 x 15

Standing Calf Raise, 200, 20 reps followed by 3 sets of 12 with 10 seconds pause between sets. Ouch. But wait . . . 1 set of burns, 200, 40 reps, followed by 20 more reps of regular calf raises with 200. The entire calf routine is repeated 3 times.

LATS:

Chin Behind Neck, 4 x 10

Pulldown, 4 x 10

Seated Cable Row, 150, 4 x 8

Biceps:

Incline DB Curl, 70's, 5 x 7

Standing Cable Curl, 120, 5 x 8

Lying Cable Curl, 110, 5 x 8

The abdominals are exercised with situps and leg raises at the end of every workout. Jim rests on Sundays by attending church in the mornings and relaxing the the Florida sunshine during the afternoons. He retires early in order to obtain a sufficient amount of sleep.

Haislop is very careful about nutrition. He does not believe in eating or drinking anything that has very little food value. Neither will he partake of anything that may be harmful to his health. He does not use tobacco in any form, does not imbibe in soft drinks, coffee or alcohol. He shuns all forms of pork, white flour products, fried foods and starches. His diet consists chiefly of beef, poultry, fish, dairy products, fresh vegetables, fruits and honey. He is a great believer in plenty of proteins, food supplements and vitamins, and eats three well-balanced meals per day.

Enjoy Your Lifting! 

 

 

Yes! Moving Forward . . .

 

Motivation -- Stuart McRobert (1991)

 

https://www.hardgainer.com/books/

To get much  bigger and stronger you really have to WANT IT. 

Thinking you want it isn't good enough. 

Wanting it next year when things have settled down in between isn't good enough. Wanting it once you start to attend a better gym  isn't good enough. Wanting it when you have more money isn't good enough.

You have to want it so much that you're willing to do anything within the boundaries of reason and safety. 

If you want it badly enough, you're going to get it. 

You might have to waste years of your life training on useless routines before learning the lessons needed. So long as you're motivated enough, you'll still be training after tons of frustration and failure. 

Program your mind for achieving your realistic goals, visualize daily where you're going, think positively, maintain your resolve, don't let negative people have a detrimental influence upon you. Train your mind as well as your body. Get in control, and stay in control. 

While muscular might is built over the long-term, you have to get the short-term in order first. To get the short-term in order, you have to get each day in order. 

Your attitude matters, matters a heck of a lot.

Explore texts on how to program your mind for success and positive thought. Then unleash it on sound training programs. 

The best motivation is success. Once you're training productively, your motivation and ability to train hard increases. Your discipline when out of the gym intensifies too. The reverse is true too. The more failure you have, the more your motivation gets worn away.

Don't exhaust your motivation by ignoring what works and trying to prove you're an exception to the rules for typical lifters. Knuckle down in the gym to some hard work on the big exercises. Knuckle down at home to some substantial, nutritious eating. Knuckle down at home to getting lots of sleep. 

There's still no other drug-free combination that will help you. The basic requirements for getting big and strong are simple enough. It's marrying productive interpretations with application, effort and discipline that's tough to do. Make the commitment.

Keep your motivation up by progressing in the gym. 

It's time to put aside the arguments, reasoning, whys and wherefores. Time to put routines that work into practice. Time to adhere to the need for progressive poundages (no matter how gradual and slow the increments). 

Time to be patient and persistent. 

Time to grow. 

Never forget, doing less nearly always results in more. Cut back, cut back and cut back again. Then grow, GROW, GROW AGAIN. 

Enjoy Your Lifting! 

   

newspaper 

Doug Hepburn Interviews, Part Seven -- Jake Striefel

 

Q [Jake Striefel]: How much could you do in the crucifix lift? 

A [Doug Hepburn]: I've held out to the sides 110 pounds in each hand. My best hold-out in front was 150, 155.

Q: I looked up the results from your Cote contest and how it was done and it differs from that you told me on Sept 6/82. The contest was decided on the total out of four lifts, not three. 

Cote did: 

Press - 270

Bench - 354

Squat - 644

Deadlift - 752.5

Hepburn did: 

Press - 350

Bench - 409

Squat - 574

Deadlift - Doug thinks he did 550 and missed 600

You each won two events, but Cote totaled 2025.5 and Doug did 1883.

A: I never trained on the deadlift because I didn't think I would need it, so what does that tell you. I guess I wanted three out of the four not the total. Cote wanted the total.

Q: Was the bench press done strict? 

A: Yes, 32 inch grip and a pause at the chest. I had no trouble deadlifting the weight, I just couldn't hold onto it. We had three attempts for each lift, like they do now. 

Q: Did you know George Spearman, and where he might be today? 

A: He was a judge or official in the weightlifting, that's all I know about him, except he used to work Belkin Box company in Richmond in the office. 

Q: What about Lucien Roy? 

A: He ran Western Gym for a time, he was a hand balancer and weightlifter.

Q: Who was the guy that bought your gym on Hastings . . . Bill something.

A: I can't remember his last name, I went to school with him, he was a lot of things. Vancouver detective, Karate specialist, the last I heard he was training guard dogs and working with them. He used to be in the medical core in Korea, he didn't have the gym very long. 

Jake Striefel: I needed a photo of Doug bench pressing for the B.C. Hall of Fame, first man to bench 500. I phoned Doug and asked him if he had a picture of him bench pressing a heavy weight sometime in the early '50s. He said he didn't have any but referred me to Vincent Drewa, a friend of his in North Vancouver who had a scrap book all on Doug. He said he would help me. I then asked Doug if he would be willing to have his picture taken with Tom Magee, two world champions together. He refused on the ground that Tom Magee has not even set a world record yet. Doug claims he set 25 World records, and to never have used drugs to help his lifts. He was quite mad about the local magazines stating Tom was the strongest Canadian ever, he even phoned the editors. 

He claims his 420 bench press set on December 6th, 1975 at Spartacus was a world master record. He phoned Dave at Spartacus and told him that this would have been in the Masters category. I informed him that there were no international referees present so it could not officially stand.

Now Dou8g states that he will set another world record in the Masters category before Tom Magee will set a world record. 

On June 16th, 1983, Don Sturnock informed me that he had all of Doug's negatives, he has approximately 50 photos of Doug doing various things, older and newer negatives. Doug curling, posing, benching, with his dogs, bending nails, him and his mother. 

Jan 22nd, 1983. Don developed photos from his negatives and duplicated pictures and articles from Vincent Drewa's scrapbook which I borrowed and gave them to me. 

On March 29th, 1983, Wes Woo showed me the hardcover book by David Willoughby, "The Super Athletes," in which there are a few chapters of old time strong men. It has Doug Hepburn doing a 365 pound press behind neck, standing, and a 705 deadlift by Doug, listed, not pictures. 

Enjoy Your Lifting!  

Doug Hepburn Interviews, Part Six -- Jake Striefel

 

This photo is from the Bill Pearl Facebook page

Q [Jake Striefel]: Did you ever do 1/2 squats or 1/4 squats? 

A [Doug Hepburn]: No. I never bothered with that. I can't really think of anything else, mostly just the hold-outs, and I used to like one arm pressing. 

Q: What was the most you did on that. 

A: I think I did about 230, but it was a side press, but I did do 190 or 185 fairly strict with one arm. I don't think that Kazmaier or any of them could do much more than 200 pounds today. He pressed a pair of 170's. I think that's a very interesting thing, because I went to a show in my time, I weighed 275, and I took a pair of 170's and I almost had them up, and I never trained on it; there's an interesting thing with Kazmaier. 

Q: Yes. Because he can bench so much weight, 660 pounds.

A: Yes, I had these 170's at the show, two of them, but the things is, the guys helped me to the shoulders. I couldn't get them up, I don't know whether Kazmaier got them up by himself or what. Sometimes a guy will grab hold of them and help you get them up. I remember this, but I hadn't trained it. I made five attempts, and drove them halfway up or more. They were almost there, but you know what happened, I hadn't trained on them and they came out sideways. You see, I had the power, straight up, but I never developed the individual weight to hold them both in. 

Q: They went out to the sides? 

A: Yes, but I had them up. I could have, so there you go, there's Kazmaier. I was capable of pressing at my peak a pair of 170's. I could have pressed a pair of 170's, so my press would be on a par with Kazmaier. My standing power going by that lift must be close to what he did. Let's get Kazmaier, and put 440 pounds there, and just see whether he can press it, standing. 

Q: So today you are in the barbell and protein business? 

A: Yes, barbells, and putting out an exerciser here. 

Q: Is this 250 Kingsway? 

A: Yes. We're putting our a new exerciser here to go on the market so it will be a handy thing for the guys traveling, very small, compact and I think well worth it. 

Note: I di get to try one of them. A guy I worked with in some music thing had one. Plenty of resistance! Very smooth really. Only thing is there was no resistance on the eccentric, no lowering resistance. But when it came to a portable exerciser with plenty of resistance, useable for squats, presses, curls, etc., it was real easy to pack around. Easier than that other guitarist-guy's way of taking a bar and hundreds of pounds of plates on the road with him. He did get a 200 strict overhead in his hotel room somewhere in Northern Saskatchewan on a break one night though. Hahaha! 25's and smaller plates so's he wouldn't put two holes in the ceiling. Anyhow . . . 

The Canuck hockey team bought six of them to try out. I sure wish they were still on the market. You could be all in on that squat/hi-pull day on your lunch break in the coffee room! Come back in wet with sweat and beaming like a little boy so happy. 

Here is the patent, exploded diagrams and the rest of it in a PDF. 
Douglas I. Hepburn patent. 

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/4f/00/33/f0870e2f120279/US3690654.pdf 

Q: Did you ever do seated presses behind the neck? 

A: I never trained on them, but I once did a 350 press behind neck.

Q: Do you know James Walter, a colored fellow, who was in that bench press contest with you, or where he might be now? 

A: I remember him, but don't know where he lives now. I haven't seen him for years, I think he used to be a longshoreman. 

Q: What was your best bench press using a collar-to-collar grip and a bit of bounce? 

A: I did 5 singles with 550, probably 580. Not sure. I went to Portland once, took my own bench along [as did Pat Casey, in the back of his pickup to meets, thank you Laree] . . . told them I didn't want any spotter. I did 550, tried 600, bounced it and drove it halfway up and it went out of the groove and fell on my neck. The spotters had to come over and take it off. So . . . I was the first person to hold 600 like that on my neck! I never raised my hips when I benched that way, just wide grip and a bounce.

Q: In the squat did you pause at the bottom, that used to be the enforced rule, stay down for the count of two.

A: I can't remember for all of them, but I do remember squatting 700 and holding it down in the bottom while a photographer took my picture. 

Q: Strength & Health magazine, December, 1954 issue credits you as the first man to squat 600 pounds. 

A: Yes, that's probably true. 

Here:

http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2013/11/train-for-strength-doug-hepburnjim.html 

Q: Can you remember a squat and deadlift contest or show in '53 or '54 at Ed Yarick's Gym in California. I think you also did one arm pressing with 170 pounds.

Here's a photo of Doug at Yarick's . . . 

A: Yes, I did two or three shows down there, he was always after me to come down.

Q: Were these contests or strength show? 

A: Just strength shows.

Q: I noticed in one photo of you benching 450 there are no uprights.

This kind of bench . . . 

A: A couple of guys would hand me the weight from the floor, after I was down on the bench and if I missed they'd take the weight and put it back on the floor.

Q: Is Ed Yarick still down there?

A: No, I don't think so. I once pressed a man who weighed around 360 pounds over my head, he was a truck driver. He crossed his legs, and folded his arms across his chest. I put my hand on the inside of his leg by the crotch and the other hand on his chest and he gave a little jump and I cleaned him and then pressed him overhead. We worked on it for a while, until I couldn't do it later. 

Q: How much could you do in the crucifix lift? 

Continued in Part Seven.

Enjoy Your Lifting! 

Ho Ho Ho 2022 -- YES!

 

Doug Hepburn Interviews, Part Five -- Jake Striefel

 

The Doug Hepburn Statue Project

https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-doug-hepburn-statue-project

 

A statue would be outstanding to see. 

Feel free to send 'em funds. 

Q (Jake Striefel): When you were at your peak in training, did you train every day or 3 times a week or what? 

A (Doug Hepburn): Well, I trained a lot but I never trained that long, but I trained very hard, and I remember some of my routines. 

I would probably go in and do about 10 sets of squats, I know that I trained hard, because there were several occasions where I fainted, and you got to train hard to pass out. I did it once when I was squatting, I actually fell down, fainted, and you know how you can do that, if you're in good shape, real good shape, you can do repetition squats till you faint. Not when you're doing them, but when you stop you'll get real dizzy if you go far enough. You just pass right out, but it's funny, you wouldn't necessarily do it while you're squatting. 

Q: You never trained that much on the deadlift, did you.

A: No, I disliked the deadlift. I don't believe I could have been a good deadlifter, it never felt right to me, even pulling I couldn't do. I don't think I was naturally levered to deadlift, although I know that when I squatted I had a very strong back in a different way. 

I used to squat with my back, almost good morning it up. I used to use my back to come out of it. I was doing these squat movements, they were like a good morning and I found it wasn't the lower back that was strong, where the deadlift is, it's up higher, it's up about halfway, you got that huge muscle up there, that you can do this, but when I was doing that with the squat I couldn't deadlift anything because I had no lower back power. Actually, squatting does not develop the lower back very well; to some extent but not real power, I don't think it does. I think you've got to deadlift to do it. 

Q: Do you think these super-suits they have today help them an awful lot? 

A: Sure, 60, 60 pounds and more. 

Q: You think that much? 

A: Yes. This is what I want to do again. I want to go out and show them that this stuff is maybe a load of crap. I mean, a super-suit is nice, buy maybe you can do it without a suit. It's like a guy who says, well maybe I can do more and easier if I got a crutch. You know. 

And if I went out, here at the age of 56, and I go out there with no suit, no knee wraps, no drugs, and go out there and set a bloody world record or something and say, Okay, boys, when you're 55 there it is. You wait till they get to be 55, it's just as bloody hard as what you're doing now. 

Q: I thought, quite a few years ago, you were in a contest at Broadway Gym with Ben Cote, and it was on television.

A: Not in Vancouver, no. I'll tell you a little story. I went to the World Championships, and I won, and there was a guy named Humberto Selvetti from Argentina, and he came out of nowhere, and he was big. It was kind of funny, and nobody knew about the guy, and he's the guy that almost finished off Anderson. Anderson was almost beaten by Selvetti at the next Olympics because Selvetti came out, and Anderson had lost weight. 

Hoffman told Anderson to lose weight, which he shouldn't have done because he got weak, and if he had that extra weight . . . Anderson was crying . . . he was out of his tree, because Selvetti nearly beat him. He had his best lift and he said there was something wrong with his ears, and his balance was gone, and he lost his balance . . . well anyways, when I lifted in 1953 here comes Selvetti out of nowhere and the guy weighed about 340 ouns, and he's lifting in the heavyweight division, and nobody knew about it. I went out and started to press off, and I pressed about 320, and Selvetti game me a kiss, they do, you know, but he didn't kiss me when I did 371, and beat him. It was funnier than hell! 

So I came back to Vancouver, and about six months later Selvetti and his coach comes through. Here's Selvetti and he's saying Selvetti's stronger than Hepburn. But what I had done, I was training hard, I was in the gym and was in good shape. I weighed about 285. I was squatting with 760 and all this stuff, and I got hot, because I knew I was in good shape, and I didn't think he was that good in six months, and I said, Selvetti is mouthing off, and I have Selvetti come over to my gym . . . well, he's in town, and I said if he can beat me I'll give him my bloody gymnasium.

Q: He was here. 

A: Yes, he was in Vancouver, but I said if he can beat me . .  . I put up a sum of money, $5,000 and I'll give him the gym on top of it, and he never came near me.

Q: Was that Broadway? 

A: No, the one on Commercial, Commercial Gym down there. I said I'll give you $5,000 dollars and my gym if you can come in and beat me. 

Q: You were pretty sure. 

A: I was, there was no way he would have beat me, no way because I was in good shape.

Q: What was that picture of you, holding out to the side, a weight. 

A: That's, I think, two 45-pound plates, two of them put together, I put a belt around them, through the hole, and then held them on my little finger, straight out sideways, that's 90 pounds. 

Another one I used to do which was a pretty good trick, I would clean & press about 320 or 330 to arms' length, and then I would drop it and catch it in my elbows and that's hard to do. I'd push it up, and let it go, and catch it, and that thing's coming down hard too with 320, 330.   

Of course you see with me, I could press 330 and it felt like 145 when I was in shape. I could take 350 to the shoulders and stand with my heels together and I could press it halfway up at the sticking point and hold it there with little effort, all this . . .  nice day we're having today, beautiful weather . . . look around and just BLAST it up. I could hold it there without any real effort, just hold it, stop it and hold it, that shows you strength, that holding easily. 

Q: Can you tell us about the time you met John Davis? 

A: That was at the World Championships. Davis knew when I was there he was worried, he knew he was in trouble, and they said Davis wasn't sleeping, and he had little papers all over his room where he was staying, with totals on them, they were all over the floor, and all over the walls and ceiling and everywhere else, and he's doing this, and he's doing this, and he came out, and I did my press and my snatch, and after I finished the snatch, didn't even do a clean & jerk and all the coaches came over and said, You won. They knew, those guys were smart, they said you've beaten Davis, there's no way, he has to clean & jerk this, to beat you and he can't do it. They were cheering me, shaking my hand and there's still three attempts to go in the clean & jerk. 

Q: You hadn't started yet. 

A: Yes, either that, or I did one with 330 or something, every low clean & jerk. They gave it to me, and I did this 330 clean & jerk, when I pressed 370, and they said, You won, because Davis has to do a 390 or something, and he's never done it in a World meet, and he's not in form, and he can't do it. And he didn't do it, he was crying afterwards too, because he got beat. 

Q: When you started off your lifting, who were some of your training buddies around here, who did you train with, of did you work out by yourself. 

A: There was a fellow named Mike Poppel . . . 

[there's a photo of him here: 

http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-private-life-of-worlds-strongest-man.html ]

He was a friend I went to school with, he won the [first] Mr. B.C. contest [aged 17]. We used to go to the YMCA and train. I trained with a bunch of guys. George Dean, he's a weightlifter. [Mr. Dean was in a rare three-way 885 pound-total tie, winner determined by bodyweight, at the 1964 Canadian Seniors and Olympic trials]. 

Q: This YMCA, you mean downtown Vancouver.

A: Yes, it's still there, the weight room is still there, the old weight room right down on the corner, it's still there. A guy named George Dean used to train. He works for the brewery, drives a truck. Gerry McGourlick, he's a soldier, he's a soldier over in Israel. 

Q: Right now.

A: Yes, he came back to see me, yes, he's in the Israeli army. He was a 165 pound weightlifter, he was a real character. We had a guy in there, he couldn't make his clean & jerk or a press, at the old gym, and he broke his fist against the wall, he slammed the wall and hit a 2x12 and smashed his fist, broke his fist, so bad he had to go to the the hospital. That's what you call the height of frustration, he hit this wall as hard as he could, a 2x12 plank.

Q: Who was this.

A: I can't think of his name. 

Q: Who owned the Western Sports Center, when you trained down there, was that Johnny Tutt? 

A: No, it was a guy named Ed Lemoin, he owned it. 

Q: Johnny Tutt was the one who put on the meets.

A: He was just working in there. You see, the Western Sports Center has gambling, card rooms upstairs, and they still probably have it. If you want a license to gamble, have a card club with gambling for money, by law you have to support a gym or something. A lot of guys are missing the boat here, if you want to make some real money, if you get a gym, take the Spartacus gym, you could probably go upstairs if there wasn't a bank there and just put a card club up there. 

Q: You can do that? 

A: I think so, providing the card club, will subsidize the gym. 

Q: Can you remember a gym below the Kind Eddy Hotel in New Westminster?  

A: Yes, I wasn't in there but I remember the place. Wait, I was in there once I think. Yes, I remember those guys, there were two brothers there or something, they had the place.

Q: Harry Daniels was telling me about the place. 

A: Old Harry! I remember Harry. He started when I first started down at the YMCA. 

Q: I think you trained him, didn't you.

A: No, no. 

Q: A lot of guys looked up to you quite a lot. 

A: Well, I've known them all these years, you know.

Q: Whenever we talk to them they always say they got their routines from you. 

A: Well, we've all gone our own way, you know. 

Q: Is there anything you'd like to add? 

A: I don't think so, we've, pretty well covered everything, you got a pretty good interview, you know. That type of an interview is something different, and I think, some of my opinions, you can put them in there for what they're worth anyway. Incidentally, I want to point out also along with this . . . who do you think I got a letter from, asking me, how to develop their press? 

Q: The bench press? 

A: I get letters in the mail, from several guys in the world, asking me how they can improve their strength in the press and the bench press. I'll give you a few names. Pat Casey. 

Q: Pat Casey, first man to do 600? 

A: Paul Anderson.

Q: Paul Anderson? 

A: Paul Anderson was writing me letters, asking me how to train. Reg Park, another one. 

Q: Did you ever meet Marvin Eder? 

A: Sure, I did, in New York. 

Q: If he was that light he couldn't have come close to competing with you in the squat or anything like that. 

A: No, but he was strong, he clean & pressed 350 at 198 officially. That's a hell of a lift, the guy was strong. You know, what he could do is one of the best ones, you know how you do dips with the weights around your waist? 

Q: Parallel bar dips. 

A: Yes, he could do repetitions with 460 pounds around his waist. Now that's strength. 

Q: Did you ever try them? 

A: I can't do it, I don't like it, it's too uncomfortable, it pulls my arms and everything. 

Q: What about some of the other lifts? 

A: Odd stuff.

Q: Yes, like triceps extensions. 

A: Well, I'll tell you one I did which was a hell of a good one. You have to be insensitive to pain. I could take a 100 pound dumbbell, clean it, with one finger, and press it. 

Q: A hundred pound dumbbell. 

A: Yes, you have one finger over the bar and rest it on your knuckles. You ever try to hold a hundred pound dumbbell on top of your knuckles upside down, pressing on your knuckles on the bone, and then press it. 

Q: No, I never tried it. 

A: That was one of my specialties too, and I could bend a dime in my teeth, push it up, a thin dime, one that's a little worn. I'd put it in my teeth, with a piece of paper around it, and push up with my thumb and I could bend it. 

And then I bent quarters. I could bend a quarter with my hands by putting it into a crack in the wall, just as long as I could get enough to hold it, pull up on it, and I could bend a quarter that way.

Q: Did you ever do 1/2 squats or 1/4 squats? 

Continued in Part Six . . . 

Enjoy Your Lifting!