Thursday, January 6, 2011

RETURN TO SPLENDOR

"I have always wanted to do a blog entry with a tie-in to Elvis...here is my chance. The title of this entry is borrowed liberally from the 1962 number 1 smash hit Return to Sender by Elvis Presley. I use the title, with a slight change (and sense of humor), to refer to making the The 2010 Powerliftingwatch.com Annual Top 50 List. With everything that has happened since making the 2009 List one year ago, its great to be back."

At this time last year I was just starting to recover and slowly regain the range of motion for my left arm after my operation. Repair and rehab for a complete DISTAL BICEPS TENDON RUPTURE was the order of the day. Although the surgery was a total success and recovery was going well, lifting anything heavy at that point was well into the future. I owe a huge thank you to my friend Dan Leece for all his help and the guys on the powerlifting forums for their advice on beating my (by far) worst lifting injury. During this time I learned a tremendous amount about injury, training, psychology and kinetics.

Strangely, I miss this period and wouldn't trade a moment of it, both pre and post operation.

The Distal Biceps Tendon Rupture injury, operation and rehab was educational, strength building and a lot of fun. I trained my friend Vicki Greenwood 15 minutes after the acute tendon rupture and the only work day I missed was the Friday of the operation. The other major trauma this past year: losing my friend Robert O Smtith was a whole different matter. For the past Seven years Robert O Smith, Aden Carpenter and myself barnstormed around the Pacific Northwest: competing in meets, appearing on Television, and putting up some of the best power lifts of our lives! Robert O Smith absolutely revived my Powerlifting career. Aden and I have already lifted together in December and had a great meet, I Deadlifted 257.5 Kilos / 568 lbs. and Aden Bench Pressed 70 Kilos / 154 lbs. Both lifts were of coarse dedicated to Robert O but, it will never be the same without our Mentor.

Its great to be back lifting competitively. I can't wait to see what I can do in 2011 with my post operation scar on my left arm and Robert O Smith on my side.

POST SCRIPT:
Powerliftingwatch.com, the recognized leader in the Internet world of powerlifting comes out with a yearly Top 50 list for each lift and weight category. This has quickly become the powerlifting standard of excellence because The Top 50 includes every sanctioned contest over the past year regardless of federation.

Also worth noting, The Powerliftingwatch.com Top 50 has no age class verification, only what you weighed and what you lifted, pure statistics the way they should be. Therefore, if you have placed in the Top 50 you have ranked ahead hundreds, possibly thousands of other lifters!

( Jody Cranston / 2010 Powerlifting ).