I don’t write about other people very often. It’s not what I want to do, and I don’t think it’s what most of you are interested in reading. This magazine is called Performance Menu, which probably means most of the people who read it are looking for ways to improve their…performance. I don’t think athlete biographies or weightlifting history articles are exactly what you’re thirsting for, and I understand. As I said, it works out pretty well because that kind of stuff isn’t what I want to focus on as a writer.

However, there are a few situations here and there where I think we can learn a hell of a lot by reading the stories of certain people. I love watching shows like A&E Biography and Inside the Actors Studio. When successful individuals sit down and talk about their lives, I almost always find something in their back story that connects really well with my own. Every single one of them has had defeats and obstacles, which is something we all like to hear because it makes us understand that we’re not the only ones. Also, they’ve all usually had a point in their lives where they had to take some kind of huge risk. This gives us confidence about the chances we have to take in our own lives.

So, let me tell you some things about a guy most of you have never heard of (which is a damn shame). I’m going to write about Norbert Schemansky in this month’s article. Norb was an American Olympic lifter during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. You could make a pretty strong case that Norb is the best American weightlifter of all time. In fact, it’s not a huge stretch to mention his name when you’re talking about the greatest weightlifters in history…period.

STOP! Some of you might already be thinking about dismissing this article because you’re not interested in spending a few minutes of your day reading about some weightlifter from the old dinosaur days. You want to read about training programs, technique, coaching, and all the other stuff we normally cover in this magazine. That’s why I’m going to stop you dead in your tracks and tell you with 100 percent certainty that you can learn some of the most important lessons of your career by reading about Norb Schemansky. He’s my weightlifting idol. And I’m not one of those guys who do a lot of “hero worship” with athletes, or anybody else for that matter. This guy is an exception to my rule, though. He’s an exception to every rule you could ever think of.

Trust me, I’m not going to bore you with three or four pages of statistics and stuff like that. I’m going to connect this guy’s life with your own. You’re going to learn about Norb, but what you’re really going to do is learn about yourself. By looking at what he did, you’re going to get a clearer vision of what you want to do. By reading about what he went through, you’ll see the things you’re going through in a different way. And by learning about the kind of person he was, I honestly think you’ll develop some new ideas about the kind of person you want to be.

I probably shouldn’t use the word “was” in that last sentence, because Norb is still alive. At the time of this article, he’s 89 years old. His career as an athlete is obviously in the distant past, but the accomplishments and legacy of this man will live forever because his spirit is in all of us. Yes, you read that right. His spirit is in you, me, and every weightlifter in the world. Let me prove it to you.

How’s this for a resume?

Norb is from Michigan, the Detroit area (Dearborn, precisely). He was born in 1924 into a working-class Polish family. After growing up in a pretty normal way, he started playing around with barbells and weightlifting during high school. His training was interrupted for a few years by this pesky little inconvenience called World War II. No big deal. He joined the Army and served with an anti-aircraft unit in Europe, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, shot down German fighter planes…you know, the typical stuff we all did in our 20s. When the war was over, he did what most GIs did. He came home, got married, impregnated his wife a few times, and got a job. But he also decided to get back into the weightlifting thing because he was pretty good at it, and he was hooked. I’ll give you the basics of Norb’s career:

- Four-time Olympic medalist (silver-1948, gold-1952, bronze-1960, bronze-1964)
- Three-time World Champion
- Nine-time US National Champion
- 26 World Records (he set his last one when he was 38)
- 34 US National Records

Like I said, he’s one of the greatest weightlifters of all time. That record stacks up against anybody, from any era. How much did he lift?

- Clean and Press- 402 lbs
- Snatch- 363 lbs
- Clean and Jerk- 445 lbs

Now, I need to give you a few bits of information about these numbers. First of all, weightlifting was a three-lift sport until 1972. Some of you might not know that. When you competed in a weightlifting meet, you did the clean and press (which is exactly what it sounds like, a clean followed by a standing overhead press), then the snatch, and then the clean and jerk. The press was eliminated in 1972. Ever since then, it’s just been the way we know it now (SN, C&J). Stop and think about what it would be like to do a three-lift weightlifting meet like this. I’m telling you, the guys from the old pressing days were as hard as pig iron.

Second, Norb was a split-style lifter (as were most of the old timers from that era). That means he did split cleans and split snatches. If you don’t know what these are, get on YouTube and type in “split snatch” or “split clean and jerk.” Almost nobody does them anymore, but they used to be common practice.

Now, I listed above that Norb’s best snatch was 363 lbs. That means he split snatched that weight. Stop and think for a second about split snatching 363 lbs. Once that image has kicked you in the brain, let me mention that Norb did this weight when he was 40 years old, after having a back surgery to repair a crippling injury that prompted doctors to tell him he might never walk again.

Yeah, he split snatched 363 lbs when he was 40 years old. He did it in a full three-lift meet. That means he had already clean and PRESSED 400 lbs, then he did the 363 split snatch, and then he split clean and jerked almost 450. When he was 40…after back surgery…while working a full-time job and supporting a family… We can reach a clear conclusion from these little details; this guy was the toughest son of a bitch in weightlifting history.

And by the way, he did all of this before the age of steroids. That means he was drug-free. Brothers and sisters, there has never been anybody like this guy. I know we’ve got some behemoth numbers in the sport these days. The top lifters in the world can snatch 450 lbs. and C&J 550. But when you look at all the pieces of the puzzle, and you take everything into consideration, this man’s feats of strength are incomparable. Norb Schemansky is one of the giants of strength history, an iconic legend.

Work, diet, training, personality…

A guy named Richard Bak wrote a book about Norb a few years ago called Mr. Weightlifting. I hated the title, but loved the book. There was obviously a ton of information about his life and athletic career, but the best parts were the sections where Norb talked about the way he approached certain things. I’m going to break this down into a few short categories:

Nutrition

Obviously this is a topic that’s hugely important to a lot of you. Eating for performance has become a field unto itself. Libraries of books and literature have been published about how to use nutrition to become a championship athlete. Well, let me give you the words of a guy who won more championships than almost anybody in history. When asked about his diet, Norb said, “Most of my diet is hamburgers, pizza, Polish sausage, and beer. If a guy needs a special diet to compete, I’ve already got him beat.” Yeah, that’s what he said. Based on that statement, you might think Norb had a sloppy physique. And you would be wrong. Norb was built like a Greek god. He actually competed in a few bodybuilding contests just for fun…and won.

Training

Programming is on everybody’s mind. One of the main reasons you’re probably reading this magazine is to pick up some tips about your own training regimen that will make you a better weightlifter. Here are some thoughts from Norb: “Don’t attempt maximums in the gym. Some members of the U.S. lifting team couldn’t believe how much more I could do in a contest, where it counted. I was never burned out. Attempts at limit weights should be restricted to once every three or four weeks. One should not work any more than 80 to 90 percent of his limit in training.” That’s straight from the horse’s mouth. You might want to keep this concept in mind when you’re planning your own training, since it comes from one of the greatest.

Work

Most of us have never trained at an Olympic level. I’m talking about the kind of training you have to do when you’re the best in the world and you’re trying to stay there. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the intensity, stress, and all-consuming physical demands at this level are stupefying. Now, think about having to train like this when you’re working a full-time job, worrying about paying your bills and supporting your family. Most of you are shaking your heads, and with good reason. It sounds like an impossible situation. Seriously, do any of us think the top lifters in Europe and Asia are working 40 hours a week at a brewery, struggling to afford their house payment, and then training to win the Olympic gold medal? Of course they’re not. But Norb did. There’s actually a famous story about how he once asked his boss at the manufacturing plant for some time off so he could train for the Olympics. The boss said, “Take all the time you want. You’re fired.” Then he had to go look for another job, while he trained to win an Olympic gold medal for his country.

Okay, okay…what does this have to do with ME?

After all of those neat little facts and quotes, how can we use the content of this article to make you better? I told you in the beginning that I was going to connect the story of this man to your life, right?

There are a couple of different ways we can do that. First of all, I want you to think about the concept of mental strength and determination. Now, look back at some of Norb’s accomplishments. A 363 lb. split snatch at the age of 40, setting a world record at 38, winning four Olympic medals, making a comeback after a major back surgery, all that stuff. I want you to think about the phenomenal resilience and willpower it must have taken to do those things. Then I want you to think about your own lifting, your athletic career. Specifically, you need to think about the barriers and obstacles that are in front of you. Some of you probably have a mountain of crap standing in your way as you fight to reach your goals. Well folks, Norb’s story is one of the greatest examples of overcoming obstacles in the chronicles of sports. Personally, I feel like his story gives me strength. This guy didn’t believe in limits, and he never backed down. What kind of possibilities might be waiting for all of us if we simply apply those two principles to everything we do?

Second, some of the things Norb said about training and nutrition are obviously a lot different from what you read these days. Most current literature directly contradicts his ideas. Some might say we’ve progressed over the years, that our world has advanced beyond a lot of older methodology. We do things differently now because we’re not in the caveman days anymore. Okay, I think that’s true. But I also want to suggest the possibility that there are some old-school beliefs that we should reconsider, and maybe go back to. Everybody wants to think outside the box these days. Most people believe “thinking outside the box” involves moving past our old ways. Well, maybe one of the best ways to think outside the box is to GO BACK to some things that produced success in the past but got thrown in the toilet at some point because we were in such a hurry to reinvent the wheel. Am I telling you to quit eating Paleo and move to pizza, hamburgers, and beer? No. I’m just asking all of us to challenge the way we think and not reject certain ideas simply because they’re from an older time.

Finally, I’m a big believer in the old transcendentalist concept of the Oversoul. This is the idea that the souls of all people are connected in some way, that we’ve all got the same spirit flowing through us and, on some level, we’re all linked together. I think this is especially true in weightlifting. Why do you think weightlifters are so close-knit? Why do you think we stick together so tightly? Why do you think we’re all so fanatical about what we’re doing? It’s because there’s something intangible going on inside us when we become weightlifters. Nobody can put their finger on it exactly, but it’s overpowering and it changes our lives. We’re never the same after we’ve felt it. That’s what connects all of you to Norb Schemansky. His career is one of the highest manifestations of the weightlifting spirit. He had something inside that propelled him forward, something that drove his engine beyond the limits of human ability. And you know what? You’ve got it too.

Look, I’m not a hippie. Some of you know me, and you know damn well I’m not a flower child, rolling around in a meadow and trying to communicate with nature. I’m an old-school guy, like Norb. But I definitely believe what I just wrote about the spirit of a weightlifter. We’ve all got it in our blood, just like he did. So, in some strange way, his life is a part of all our lives. That means his strength is part of our lives too. And that’s a beautiful thing, brothers and sisters. A beautiful thing.