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Primitive man with club


Tom Black

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In Willoughby’s The Super Athletes he describes an interesting leverage lift by Paul von Boeckmann.  Mr. Von Boeckmann was said to have performed leverage lifts in the style of the Weaver stick lift before Weaver “standardized” the dimensions and length. Anyway, Mr. von Boeckmann had an Indian club made of Iron that was “about 20 inches high, that weighed between 80 and 85 pounds.”  He would grasp the club at the small end with his hands close together, in baseball bat style and “lever it up and over his shoulder.”  

 I decided to try this lift yesterday (not my workout day) and found that I could swing 55-pounds up and gently lever it down to my shoulder, while holding the handle parallel to the floor.  I could not “lever” it from the floor.  It may be that the shape of the Indian club on Mr. von Boeckmann’s club did not distribute all 80-pounds on the end, whereas I used 2x25 pound plates.  I used Ironmind’s Olympic loading pin.  I put the plates on, then 2 collars for safety.  The Ironmind pin is only about 16”, not 20”, but like I said the weight is more to the end, making the torque very high.

   I decided to try this again today in my workout, and will attach the picture in my next post so that it doesn’t override the text like in previous posts.  I warmed-up with 45-pounds and then did 65.5-pounds five different times to get the best picture.  I actually took two good pictures, but this one has the most actual leverage because the bar is almost parallel to the ground.  I was happy with the 65.5-pounds at around 10” (although I don’t know what the correct measurement should be).  This would be a torque of 650-inch-pounds, or 325 inch-pounds per hand (the right hand may be more, the left less).  I actually think I could have done 70-pounds or a little more, but was more focused on getting a good self-portrait.  I had to hold the weight for as long as 5 seconds to get some of the shots.

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Ya know you are crazy Tom. You have just given new meaning to the words "plate ice cream cone".  Kind of looks like you are trying to eat one! :D

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One way of estimating the center of mass is to balance the loaded pin horizontally on a thin board. Stacking the Hampton plates smooth side up actually makes the lift easier. Tom, using two collars is a good idea. You may want to use a third collar to create a hilt.

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Tom,

Von Boeckman was indeed the inspiration for Weaver's

Stick lift, and the drawing of Boeckman in Your Physique

Oct 1944 p 23 shows him with the 80 lb Indian club, small

end  near to in between his feet, heavy end out on front of his

body. The club lifter apparently begins the lift with the

club on the floor, thus the similarity to the Weaver Stick idea

and it is lifted parallel to the floor, instead of off a box parallel.

Having never seen this club, I am not sure if the artist here

had seen it either, but when you lifted it, did you have the

bar vertical at the beginning of the lift? If so, you may want

to try it with the bar horizontal to the floor, so that it can

remain parallel to the floor. until  you reach the point for the

pivot to the shoulder to begin. And keep in mind if this is

how Boeckman did it, then the radius of your plates will

give you too high a starting point off the floor.

I know, picky, picky.

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I’d say that’s picky, try it and you’ll see! :)  Well, I said in my write-up that I swung the weight up on Friday to test what I could do overhead.  In my actual workout I started with 45 and 55 pound warm-ups and levered them strict and parallel from the floor, as you described.  When I got to the 65 I found I could do this also, but barely.  Problem was, this is a self-timer portrait and with the grunting to get the weight strict up I basically had a picture with the weight held out in front, but not levered.  Felt kinda dumb when the flash went off.   Since I proved to myself that I could do strict to the start of the top lever, in order to get the picture I did all the remaining sets (around 5 times, I lost count) with a swing up.  As far as the plates being “too high” at the start, I don’t think that is a factor.  In fact, using 10-pound plates would lower the weight, but make the lift easier because they would be farther down the handle.  I didn’t have enough 10-pound plates to try it.  Ultimately, if I try 80-pounds I’ll buy more 10’s because this probably would better approximate the club lift (if they fit).  Joe, the Von Boeckman picture should be added to your grip bibliography, I don’t think it’s there.

Today in the gym I was curious what I could do on a similar style lift.  Basically, I took an Olympic sized EZ-Curl bar grabbed it by one end with both hands in baseball bat style and levered it strict up parallel to the floor and then over my head.   I was told the bar was 22-pounds, but I’m not sure.  I then added a 2.5-pound plate to the far end and lifted it again, and then a 5-pound plate.  This is where the fun began.  Everyone there got quite a kick out of this and then I called the gym owner over to watch it.  He’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever met, in his powerlifting days about 5-years ago squatting in the 700’s.  Anyway, he failed to budge the weight, not even the slightest nudge.  Three of the strongest guys there all had a go with no success.  Each time, of course, I had to demonstrate that it could be done.  We measured the lever and it is was 32” from top of hand to the plates.  I added a 2.5-pound plate (just for myself) and began the lever.  I lifted it about 2" off the floor, but was out of steam.  Three days in a row of this wore me out!  I guess I could call this the Tom Black challenge lift ;)

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Tom,

Remarkable lifting, and I mean that!

The list of articles in the FAQ section that

Wannagrip posted for me, is as I indicated,

a sample, by no means comprehensive, and

represents some of what I have filed under

hand, grip, forearm. There are numerous

articles, and paragraphs of information, that

relate to these subjects that are not included in

that posting.

As I may have mentioned to you, my computer

files (all subjects total) contain about 34,000,000

bytes, which of course, includes some cross-reffing,

and therefore duplication, and much of a bodybuilding

nature that would not concern grip board members.

But it may be a moot point as not very many members

have checked out what has been posted so far. As I

once commented about my filing system, that unless

a person has access to the mags then it is similar to

a roadmap leading nowhere.

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