High Country Vigour

July 31, 2025 Diya and Nisha were convinced to step up for Clark's Gym Record Day. They got situated and set Team Records in: Team Bench Press, Alternate Grip - 70 pounds - First ever recorded Team Bench Press, Feet in Air - 80 pounds - First ever recorded Team Bench Press, Hands Together - 70 pounds - Age Class and ALL Team Bench Press, One Arm, Left - 30 pounds - First ever recorded Team Bench Press, One Arm, Right - 30 pounds - First ever recorded Team Bench Press, Reverse Grip - 70 pounds - First ever recorded

Me and my daughters left Colorado on Wednesday to spend a few days with Grandma in Memphis before making the drive to Albany, KY for Nationals Weekend.  It was a long drive from Memphis, through Nashville to Kentucky.  We arrived just after 5 PM and were able to squeeze in a bite to eat before the Annual General Meeting was brought to order. Angie’s Restaurant is family cooking and they had a back room that we completely filled with (32) USAWA members plus additional family members.  The meeting started normally enough with typical officer reports but became contentious when new business was taken from the floor.  There was a lot of shouting and belittling, but very little actual discussion.  The elections were conducted and we have a new board with very little all-round and even less international all-round experience. Old Board – Denny (36), Chad (21), Eric (23), Beth (6), Sanjiv (2) – 88 years New Board – Clint (4), Tony (4), Kyle (2), Eric (23), Sanjiv (2) –...

Diya recently participated in a jump camp through Denver Athletics.  Her coach, Sofia, took four athletes through a week of half day camps. Day 1 - Plyometrics Day 2 - High Jump Day 3 - Long Jump Day 4 - Triple Jump Day 5 - Twilight Meet I was pretty excited to go out on Friday and see what she had been doing. High Jump 3'-6" cleared 3'-8" cleared 3'-10" missed Triple Jump 26'-11.5" 26'-6.75" 26'-1" 25'-10.25" Long Jump 12'-1.5" 12'-8" scratch 11'-7" In and of themselves the results are not earth shattering, but for literally a couple hours of coaching it is amazing.  I am glad she tried it and wished she had more time to pursue these in high school.  Maybe in college.  Videos on Instagram.

The Stark Center has been on my list of attractions for quite some time.  The family was teasing me as it was my Disneyland.  I was recognizing pictures, people and pointing things out wherever I could. It is housed at the University of Texas at Austin in the football stadium.  Entering the stadium and taking an elevator to the 5th floor, visitors are greeted by the Warren Lincoln Travis dumbbell and a large main room with a stein display and large paintings.  To the right is the library and research archives.  To the right are the exhibits. As I cannot do justice or organize my thoughts, I will just do a photo dump with my pictures and why they jumped out to me. I did talk to Patty at the research center and she is familiar with the USAWA and has several of Bill's Strength Journals as Terry Todd was a subscriber. Frank Zane in a vacuum, Lou Ferrigno in a front double bicep and myself in overhead hands out double biceps.  These paintings were just cool. Ter...

Three USAWA masters athletes and one junior took the platform to contest the 2025 USAWA Grip Championships held at High Country Vigour in Lakewood, Colorado.  Weigh-ins and rules briefings were conducted, and the meet was contested using the one official system, Sanjiv Gupta, Jarrod Fobes and in training was Nisha Gupta. We started with Pinch Grip, Strict which is a classic lift that has been contested numerous times at the Grip Championship.  This was contested with 1990’s York Plates.  Ben and Jarrod tied with a top lift of 125 pounds.  However, Jarrod lifted first and established the record in the 100kg 45-year-old age class.  Nisha’s 36-pound lift was also good for a record. The next lift was the Deadlift, Inch DB, One Arm.  This was contested with Nemesis Grips Loadable Handles.  This is a relatively newer lift, but everybody put up great numbers.  This time, Ben had the top lift at 121 pounds.  This was good enough to beat the record in...

Clark's Gym was hosting a Diamond Jubilee for lifters 75 years of age and older and a record day for all. My daughters decided to throw their hat in the ring and set some team records. Deadlift, One Arm, Left - 105 pounds Zercher - 85 pounds Scott Lift - 115 pounds Squat, Lunge - 95 pounds Cheat Curl - 85 pounds

USAWA has a long history of team records with Joe McCoy and Bill Drybread setting records in the Team Clean & Press, Team Deadlift, Team Snatch & Clean, Team Snatch & Clean, One Arm and Team Snatch One Arm during the 1989 Nationals. A USAWA Team Championship was started in in 2007, but has not been contested since 2020.  I may try to bring this back. Since then, record have been set in 60 different lifts (20 Deadlift variations, 7 Clean to Overhead variations, 6 Snatch variations, 27 others).   Some seam intuitive, but some require a little creativity.  Heavy lifts come to mind as not easy to figure out. Recently the power couple of Allison and Tony Lupo have been on a mission and have set 16 masters records in the F/M category.   Al Myers and Chad Ullom - 39 different team records Dead Ross and Laverne Myers - 18 different team records Allison and Tony Lupo - 15 different team records I have yet to set a team record, but maybe I will convince J...