Today, my Dad – Kaj Salvin – will be ninety. He has trained with weights since 1943, inspired by “the Smiling Hercules” Nils Nilsson, a local strongman. Nilsson later toured the country and eventually became ringmaster for Trolle Rhodins circuses. Dad and his two friends Anders and Allan saw the strong act, and immediately went to work to become strong themselves. They rented a small room in the block were Dad lived. They belonged to the wrestling club, and even had an old mat to practise on. Weights were scarce in those days, but somehow they got hold of some bars, a few dumbbells and kettlebells. He still trains with those same weights, to this day. Some of you know of his interest in the high deadlift, where his highest mark is 365 kg, more than 800 lbs. His bw at the time, all of 165 lbs. He got interested in this lift in his early sixties, and made his record when he was 73 years old. No straps were used. Dad always had at terrific grip, being able to tear large – and I mean large – phone books lengthwise. He was also able to chin himself in I-beams, hanging from his pinkies. Try it sometime. When he was “only” eightyeight our local newspaper wanted to do a story on the old strongman. After Mom passed away, he had not been in heavy training for about two years, but we had about a month before the reporter and photographer would visit our gym. In that month he tried to peak for the high deadlift – with a special touch. We call it “Kajan Special”. You simply hang a solid iron weight of 100 kg/220 lbs from a hip belt – then you proceed with the high deadlift as usual. He took 100 kg on the bar as well and did 12 reps with the 200 kg/440 lbs total. By then his bw was down to 154 lbs. At the same time he did 20 reps in the bench press lockout with bw (the bp was always his worst lift). Some time ago he told me that if, and when he reached ninety, he wanted to see how much he could lift in an hour in the above lifts: the high deadlift, the Kajan Special and the bench press lockouts. We began the training exactly 16 weeks ago, doing two workouts each week; one doing only the pulls, one doing only presses. NO training at all in his special lift. During this training period his heaviest weekly loads have been 19.650 kg or 43.230 lbs. He tried himself out on the high deadlift with 200 lbs, doing on some sessions 40 reps with that weight. In one wo he did 10X10 with 100 kg/220 lbs. During his heaviest press session he did 10X14 with 50 kg/110 lbs. Maybe it does not seem such a big deal, but for a man of ninety, weighing only 154 lbs. it´s no mean feat. We have kept the rest period between sets down to 2 minutes. I´m not all that certain he can keep this up for a full hour – but I know one thing. Dad will make a real effort. Of course I will keep you posted of his result. We will do this the next week, hopefully. But tonight we will celebrate the old strongman over here in his hometown of Kristianstad in Sweden, with his children and grandchildren
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 16:00:29 +0000
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