Behind the Neck Jerks

Lots of people can do 500 BTN jerks.  To the front, that's a different story....

I saw my roommate in college almost make 500 BNJ. He hit 460x3 earlier that day. He was 6'5" 270 and threw the shotput 68'5" from a glide, won 3 NCAA titles and was in 3 Olympics. He also had a 330 snatch, 427 (just missed 440) clean, and 550 Bench (raw, after throws practice). He was a strong dude. Hadley, he was one of your fellow countrymen, Brad Snyder. Very explosive. I am sure some other big time guys have made that lift, but I have not heard of or seen any. From what I have seen, it is not very popular due to the need for someone to lower the weights down once you blast a big weight like that up. I gave up on them at 308x3. Too much trouble for a hammer thrower.

C.Smith, what other guys have you seen do that much? Let me know who they are so I can stay the hell away from them! Hell, you can probably do it.

Bert

Bench press 1980 485 x 5. I was in a to the death bench challenge  w. Steve McMichael - 18 years NFL defensive line - at the time he was at New England playing nose and I was a senior at UT playing center , so that whole I HATE noseguards thing tends to get in the way a bit - he also was the big cocky All-American a**hole stud who was mean to the freshman -KILLED us in practice.....he gave us all "nicknames" -  I got called " little pussy " by him until this night.....a**hole........It's the week before the season starts and we're all snorting to hit somebody after a hard summer off-season of heavy lifting.....There was one special bench in the corner of the huge weightroom full of athletes...it had the best bar and these really tight Olympic  45's......ONLY the Big Dogs got to use it........you EARNED your way onto that bench and if a better bencher walked up , you moved over ....HATED that sh*t....McMichael moved me plenty when I was younger......a**hole......we did bench death battles to decide supremacy - sets of 5 until someone fails - guy w. the best PR single called the weight - we bounced the bar and were not strict REAL benchers - you play football fast and train like it .......... ...a hot Friday night -we trained like crazy and then  partied like crazy- Beer is the best recovery drink ever ...................I had just sat down on the special bench to get my mind right -KLBJ was playing a Ted montage..............  I felt an expectant air about the place ....a**hole slams open the doors struts in........Look!BamBams back in town!............... comes up and says "Move over little pussy".........I had had just about enough of his sh*t so I loudly CHALLENGED the man whose name was on the big weight room records plaque in 2 lifts - power clean and squat........A**HOLE!........weight room goes silent..... Dana LeDuc - strength coach -just starting out -  been w. Rams now for a million years - comes over and gets it ALL stirred up............everybody stops and crowds around - we start at 225 x 5...315...405....455....the school record was 465 by Tommy Nobis in the 60's - considered "permanent" by most people - McMichael had just missed 455 a coupla weeks before and I was throwing some Iron my ownself  -wow -  to beat THE Tommy Nobis and be the best all - time at THE University of Texas....what more could a little Texas boy ever want? McMichael looked me and says in that a**holey way " How much ya got left littlepussy?" and calls 485... place goes WILD- 20 lbs over the school record of a god.......McMichaels goes first ...blows the first 2 up and barely makes the 3rd to thunderous cheers........he comes over and sticks his chest right in mine in front of the world and says " Beat that, ya littlepussy!!!...............a**hole..........Ted Nugent blaring.....crowd doing this wordless chant like a call for blood....the redmist falls over my eyes.......this insane blast of tingley feeling comes BLOWING up my legs and explodes out the top of my head and fingertips - I feel like a GOD OF POWER has seen my plight and blessed me w. the power to crush my enemy......I give off this weird exultant roar and roll back on the bench.........everyone crowds around.........I lift it off by myself before Dana can get ready ... the first one feels like it JUMPS off my hands....Hammer out 3 more and pause at the top holding 485 at arms length and let the crowd love me.........a hot orgasmic feeling of victory pours through me as the crowd chants MY name......I fight the fifth one up and leap up into the mass of burnt orange muscles jumping up and down around me..........RRRRRRROOARRRRR!!!..............tribal bonding......teammates.........GO TEXAS!!!!!!..............to this day , my life is a quest to feel that again and to see my name at the TOP of the list         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;         &n bsp;     

Mike,

Thanks for the awesome post.  I am going to read that right before my next squat workout (since I can't really bench anymore).  Great stuff!

Peter.

..........hehe.........got my first game in 2 days after 5 months of training and I'm just a bit JACKED!

How about this?  This was the conclusion of a similar thread, in which several of Udo Beyer's lifting marks were posted, supposedly as per Louie Simmons.  However, these were almost unreal, even for those understanding the extent of Beyer's gifts.  Anyway, someone eventually contacted Beyer himself and got the real numbers, which were about 10% lower than what had been claimed due to an honest conversion error.  As you can see below, his lifts were still astounding. 

One minor but relevant point:  the translator erroneously identifies the 90 degree half squats as "parallel squats", which is incorrect.  These squats were done to a few inches above parallel, understanding that Beyer was 6'5" tall.  I should mention that one of my old coaches personally witnessed Beyer doing a set of 5 reps of these squats very explosively with at least 800 pounds about a week before an international competition in about 1982.

GOHEAVY.COM Olympic Weightlifting Forum

Udo Beyer finally himself

Posted By: wolf hasenmaier (cache-frr-ad03.proxy.aol.com)
Date: Wednesday, August 30, 2006, @ 1:42 p.m.

Here is his answer:

His own commentary:

bankdruecken sauber(ohne huefte) 260 kg ( bench, no hip )
bench press raw and strict 573
bankdruecken mit huefte un kissen auf der brust 295 kg x 5
(bench with pad and hip movement)
bench raw with pad and arch 650 for 5
stossen im nacken 275 kg ( jerk behind neck)
jerk behind neck 606
umsetzen 210 kg ( clean)
clean 462
stossen von der brust 232,5 kg
jerk from the front 512
kniebeuge 375 kg (squat)
squat 815 lbs, he of course - he concentrated on parallel squats cause they have way more transfer to the shotput

halbe kniebeuge/90 grad 460x5 (half squat, 90 deg.)
parallel squats 1014 for 5 reps !!!!!!!!!!

reissen 157,5 kg im stand/wald und wiesentechnick (snatch,sloppy form)
power snatch with very crude form ( not into the squat but into the stand at 6 feet 5...) 347 lbs....

Bishop Dolegiewicz, the top Canadian shot putter during the latter half of the 1970s and early 1980s and 4th place in the 1980 WSM was also incredibly strong in the power clean, bench press, and back squat.  Sorry no numbers at the moment.  Geoff Capes, who was also a world class shot putter, HG World Champion, and top WSM competitor, was also extremely strong, but I know even less about his exact marks.  Both Bishop and Geoff were about 6'5" and around 300 pounds.

 

Edited by Peter Ingleton

Bishop was very good friends with my original coach and the other older throwers with whom I worked out for the first few years.  I first met him through them when I was about 15.  He was an overwhelming physical presence at 6'5" tall and 295 in reasonable shape at that time. 

I am not sure of exact numbers, but I know he routinely did reps with 500 in the bench in a t-shirt (obviously) and at one point his fall programme included 3 sets of 10 reps in back squats with 610 pounds - these would have been done to just below parallel or so.  I recall something about 800x3 in the back squat, but I am not certain of this.  Keep in mind he (and Capes and Beyer) was about 6'5", which makes a difference in how far you are moving the weights.

 

What exactly is a behind the neck jerk, I am unfamiliar?

Gunthor was incredible. That part of his training video where he is juggling three 16# shots is flat amazing.

arminius wrote: Wernor Gunthor is known to have done 10 singles with 300kg (661 lbs.)  He also had a 992 squat and 672 bench, with no gear.

 

I think you're confusing Beyer and Gunthor.

The Beyer 660x10 singles BNJ thing was resolved by an email being sent to Beyer. It turns out there is a difference between a German pound and an imperial pound. One is 2lbs per kg and the other is 2.2lbs per kg.

So he did 600lbs not 660. Pest 90 degree squat was 1012lbsx5 reps.

 

Gunthor was a freak, but I disagree with those numbers. I heard of a 600lb raw bench, which is insane given that Gunthor was 6'7 or 6'8 depending on who you ask.

big MAC

You're right it was Udo Beyer.   As the lifts were never done in competition they'll probably always be disputed at some level.  Beyer was very tall, but he was also huge.  At any rate, he was one of the strongest men in the world.  He was a power thrower and was incredibly fast for his size.

It's interesting to note that his protege Ulf Timmerman was no where near as strong - 418 bench, 752 squat, yet he broke Udo's records.  It says a lot of the importance of technique and the ability to project power, regardless of limit strength levels.  Many American throwers put too much emphasis on gym lifts.

I suggest everyone Google Werner Gunther.  His program is a good example of balancing all facets of training.


Edited by arminius

big MAC wrote: Ulf at 6'4 250-265 managed to throw further than Udo 6'5 275-320 on the basis of better technique but also a better power to weight ratio (very important in the glide)

Big MAC,

All of this is true, but a very significant additional factor, which might be included in the power to weight ratio but is really a separate factor and deserves specific mention, is SPEED.  Timmermann was much FASTER than Beyer (and almost everyone else), in addition to having better technique, which is why he threw farther despite being significantly weaker than Beyer (along with almost everyone else). 

One must never forget that it is not limit strength that enables one to throw far, it is POWER, which is (in basic terms) speed x strength.  Both Timmermann and Beyer were very powerful, but their power was achieved in different ways - Timmermann with excellent speed and good strength, Beyer with sensational strength and relatively limited speed.  To complete the example, we could add Edward Sarul of Poland, the 1983 World Champion in the shot.  Sarul threw over 21m in 1983 despite possessing rather limited basic strength for a top-class shot putter (only around 400 pounds in the bench press).  However, Sarul was extremely fast and focussed on developing this element. 

Micheal Carter as a high school senior was perhaps the most extreme example of a speed-oriented thrower, throwing over 81' with the 12 pound shot weighing only about 220 pounds and benching less than 300 pounds.

 

The July 1993 copy of MILO confirms that Jim McGoldrick's lifetime PR in the "push press behind the neck" was 500 and that he still did 440 at 40 years of age (pg. 5).  Note that that is push presses, not jerks, which is much more impressive.  Obviously both McGoldrick and Randall Strossen (the publisher of MILO and the author of the article) clearly understand the difference between a push press and a jerk, so we must assume this was not a misunderstanding or a typo. 

I doubt too many guys have ever actually done a push press behind the neck with 500 pounds...

p.s. The Chief's lifetime PR in the power clean was noted as being 400, and a top weight of 340 at 40 years old, along with a squat of "over 600".

 

Edited by Peter Ingleton

Sorry Jim I meant to say strongest ROWER.  lol

I love the dark side of Baab.  Let it out.