Gregory Novak and his sons, kettlebell juggling later in life.
Author's note: Since I wrote this article (September 15th), the American team have been the personal witnesses of Novak's weight wizardry. They have seen him create a new world record in the two hands snatch of 286 pounds. They have seen him press 308 pounds in such a manner that it gained the approval of all the judges. Because of Novak's excess bodyweight over and above that of the light-heavy limit, this last lift was not allowed to stand as a new world record in the press.
What is a source of satisfaction to me, is the proof and vindication of my opinions. The moral to the following story is: "Judge an athlete by his performance and not by the country of his birth."
CONCERNING THE LIFTING OF GREGORY NOVAK AND HIS TRAINING METHODS
In recent weeks, it has been possible for any lifter who cared, to get into some of the hottest battles of words ever experienced outside of a family brawl. The cause of these heated discussions is a man by the name of Gregory Novak . . .
. . . a citizen of Soviet Russia and the focal point of all the argument centers around whether or not Novak can press 303 pounds. Commencing from March of this year, sensational reports have appeared in the both magazines foreign and domestic of poundages and totals which stamp Novak as the greatest light-heavyweight ever seen, and these poundages are such that in every lifting club doubt has been expressed as to the genuineness of these lifts.
So far as I am able to observe, the chief cause of this doubt is not the poundages that Novak claims or his ability to perform them but rather that Novak is a Russian and a citizen of a communist regime, and because of the recent press campaign and support of everything anti-Russian, it would seem that these lifts are to be given not the slightest credence. [1945 and the Cold War's set to get rollin'].
Now, I do not for one moment propose to discuss the rights and wrongs real or imaginary, of anything pertaining to politics be they Russian or American. Such things have no place in this magazine. But rather do I propose to try and convince lifters, and I might add SPORTSMEN, that when a man performs any meritorious feat of athletics, he deserves all the praise due even tho he happens to be what the "press" calls a "Red."
I yield to no one in my hatred of all things Nazi -- and I am no armchair hater having spent my last six years as a volunteer in the British Navy -- but I raise my hat to the grand lifting of Rudy Ismayr and Joseph Manger, and in this article I do so again and again to one of the greatest lifters the world has ever seen -- to Gregory Novak.
I think it is necessary first to emphasize that the international lifting rules differ in no way to those used by the Russians. Only once have the Russians lifted outside of their own country and that was in March of this year while touring Czechoslovakia. The eminent Russian authority who accompanied the team. Dr. Nepomnyashchy, has told how he received scores of letters asking him to "outline the rules of lifting as accepted by us and to explain any deviations from the International Federation rules if these existed."
The doctor goes on to say that "I always explained that there was no difference between our rules and those of the International controlling body," and that "our lifting is done in the same way as that done in other countries."
Let us consider the press as defined by the IWF. This authority states that "At the commencement of the press, the bar shall be held no higher than the line of the sternum. During the press, no sagging of the trunk shall be permitted."
To put this in terms all will understand, the bar must be held at the sternum or in line with it, and once there, no back bending is allowed. Now, it has been my privilege to see the official Russian weightlifting textbook, and held by famous authorities to be the most comprehensive ever compiled, and it is most obvious that the Russians
on a side note, here's some interesting stuff relating to Alekseev, in three large parts, the training-log section is the third:
There's a drop-down to select language.
Some great material at that site if you're not familiar with it yet:
and it's most obvious that the Russians place a marked emphasis on the style and have a strict regard for the rules. Altho they are not members of the International Federation, the method they have adopted for the performance of the Olympic Press and the rules which enforce its correct performance, differ not an iota from the International Federation rules.
The Russians do not ask for an erect trunk when pressing, but they do insist that the bar remains on the same vertical line throughout the lift. The lifter CAN set his shoulders when he gets the bar to the sternum, but once the bar is there he cannot move his trunk forward, backward, or sideways. Is this method of pressing different to that used by other champion lifters? No. It is precisely the same way that all the great lifters of America perform the Olympic press.
So much for the rules. On March 4th of this year, Novak in competition at Prague pressed 294, snatched 281, and clean & jerked 363 while weighing half a pound over the light-heavy limit. Simultaneously with the publication of these lifts began the arguments.
I would like to draw the attention of the readers to three other lifters whose poundages are as sensational and in one instance even more sensational than the lifts of Gregory Novak.
The lifters are:
Joe DePietro
Tony Terlazzo
Khadr El-Touni
The first two are Americans, and the last, the sensational Egyptian middleweight. Let us first compare the press of Joe DePietro and the press of Novak.
Joe's press of 217 and his reported press of 225 at a bodyweight of 123 pounds are to my way of thinking the greatest lifts on the press ever seen. Here is a man pressing a weight only twenty pounds under DOUBLE BODY WEIGHT and no one raises an eyebrow. Weight for weight, Joe is without doubt, the strongest man on the press the world has ever seen. So let us reduce Joe's press to a simple equation. If a man weighing 123 pounds presses 225 pounds, what will a man weighing 181 pounds press?
The equation forms itself as follows: 225 over 1 x 181 over 123. The answer we get is a press of approximately 331 pounds for a man weighing 181 pounds. Or, in other words, that is what Joe would press, all things being equal if he weighed as much as Novak, or that is what Novak would press if he were as strong pound-for-pound as Joe. Se we see that there is not so much cause for disbelief.
Now let us take the press of Touni. Here, since Touni claims a press of 275 pounds at middleweight limit, the equation presents itself as: 275 over 1 x 181 over 165. The answer we get is a 301 pound press for Touni if he weighed 181 pounds.
And to make our point still further, let us compare the press of Tony Terlazzo and that of Novak. Tony is reported to have pressed 250 while weighing in as a lightweight. Basing the equation on these figures we have 250 over 1 x 181 over 148. We find that if Terlazzo weighed 181 pounds, he would be capable of pressing 305 pounds. And so we find that in two separate cases lifters have made better presses than Novak, and in one case the lifter is as good.
Now I am aware that the above method of computing a poundage between two lifters while using the best poundage of one and the bodyweight of another, is not the most reliable. In fact I am sure that David Willoughby could arrive at more accurate figures. But as I have previously taken care to point out, all things being equal, it does prove that wonderful as is the press and the other lifts of Novak, they are not in any sense a cause for disbelief or argument and are just as much within the bounds of credibility as the press of DePietro or Terlazzo. Those who remain skeptics will without doubt have to eat their words when they see the Russian team in action in the United States.
But what manner of man is Novak? What is his physique like? How does he train? What is his background?
These are questions nearly every lifter in the United States is asking himself, and so little is known about the man from the reports of his wonderful lifting that they are questions that have as yet not been satisfactorily answered.
Gregory Novak is a true son of the soil. Born near Kiev in 1920, no 97-pound weakling he. Endowed with every physical advantage, healthy and strong from the hour of his birth, the warm sunlight of the hot Ukrainian summers and the invigorating icy air of the winter months, good food and clean living, all these added more each day to the powerful physique that had already attracted as a boy the attention of the physical training authorities of his city.
Novak began his athletic career as a gymnast and a tumbler, and but for the sharp eye of an athletic coach, might well have been a gymnast and tumbler still today. The coach happened to be in Kiev on a periodic foray for weightlifting talent, and when he saw Novak, knew that his search in that city had ended. He did not take Novak away from tumbling right away -- for at that time the future champion was but a young lad -- but he waited patiently until the exercise young Novak was indulging in had molded his already powerful body into still firmer shape and then he gradually included more and more lifting in his, Novak's workouts. The time came when Gregory was training solely on the three Olympic lifts, and had nothing but the thought of record breaking in his mind.
To this end, he has received every encouragement. He already had all the bodily qualities, he possessed an aggressive determination and an unbounded capacity for hard work, and it was not long before middleweight records, first local, then district, then national and finally world records began to tumble before his onslaughts. And then, due to his increasing bodyweight, when he had to leave the middleweight division, it was the same story over again. He worked at the time as a meat salesman, and in 1841, when the Germans invaded the country, he was drafted to the Red Army as a physical training officer, and had charge of the training of mountain troops. He was fortunate that he could still train while serving in his country's armed forces, and he missed no opportunity of a workout.
Not many men could stand up under the training schedule of Novak. He has always favored the press and from 1938-49 while lifting as a middleweight he improved his record nine times, the poundages rising from 237.75 to 268.75 pounds.
He presses every day. I will repeat that. He presses EVERY DAY.
On his regular training nights he works from two to three hours performing countless reps on the snatch and the jerk, and then, after a short rest, he presses and press and presses.
On his so-called "non training nights" he takes a low poundage in the press and works up in a series of 3 or 4 repetitions to a poundage close approaching his record.
Every month he tries limit poundages and evaluates the lessons and advances in his schedules he has made.
He has also the advantage of having a close rival, one who adds the stimulus of competition. This individual is Alexander Bhozhko [on your right], a Red Army engineer officer, who has closely approached, and at times bettered the lifts of the redoubtable Gregory. A similar parallel in this country was the rivalry between Stanko and Davis. There is not the slightest doubt that this great strength athlete will go from triumph to triumph. He is but at the halfway mark of strength and has a long way to go before he reaches the peak. That he will not long remain as a light-heavy, I confidently predict, and I am also confident that Novak will one day press and snatch 330 pounds and clean & jerk 400 or over. Terrific as these poundages are and as impossible as they appear at the present time, they are still well within the bounds of possibility. A man weighing only 181 pounds has pressed a weight that would have brought scorn and derision on the head of he who dared to predict such a lift only three or four years ago.
Today, it would appear the sky is the limit and Novak the man who is pushing the records that high.
I salute Gregory Novak.
Enjoy Your Lifting!
This one is different . . . 2024. 102 minutes.
"Dale qasqiri" a.k.a. "Steppenwolf"
Language: Kazakh, Russian, there's English subs out there.
A civil war rages across a vast, seemingly unpopulated landscape. As men fight and die, a mute woman searches for her son who has been kidnapped by child organ traffickers. She is accompanied by 'the Steppenwolf', a reformed ex-convict now hardened into a ruthless investigator. They resemble a bloody odd couple, but are determined to see their mission through, removing every obstacle -- most of them human -- in their path.
Director/Writer Adilkhan Yerzhanov's "Steppenwolf" stands as a testament to his cinematic prowess, skillfully interweaving classic elements from stylized Westerns, road movies and bloody revenge dramas.
This one was a good view for me too . . .
"The Swedish Torpedo"
2024. 120 minutes.
In the summer of 1939, with World War II looming, 30-year old single mother Sally Bauer is determined to become the first Scandinavian to swim the English Channel. Confronted with societal and familial pressures, including a threat to take away her beloved son, she courageously defies conventions to pursue her dreams.
-+
2025. 514 pages. Second edition.
A collection of philosopher Stanley Cavell's most important writings on film.
The second edition contains five previously unpublished essays.
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