Ken Patera: Power Personified

[uggy]

In the article it is written:
"Good group: Patera, the mysterious Serge Redding, and the most dominant heavyweight of all time – Vasily
Alexeev, who, by-the-way, had a 1,000 pound back squat."

Source?

1,000 lb. back squat seems way off. Tarenenko says here: http://www.dynamic-eleiko.com/sporti...ews/nv005.html
that Alexeev never squatted more than he cleaned/never used more than 270kg/595lbs in the squat.

[kwerk]

"Win if you can. Lose if you must. But always cheat."

[Scrofula]

How can his rack press be so much higher than his best training jerk? If there is any truth in the number, then it has to be a push press from the rack. Seems bizarre that anyone could fail to clean what they can strict press.

I think the term 'rack press' sometimes refers to a press out of a power rack, possibly starting above the shoulders, used as an assistance exercise.
Example: http://youtu.be/7hhO1Pvv0Ks?t=1m30s

[AdamBlalock]

"1,000 lb. back squat seems way off. Tarenenko says here: http://www.dynamic-eleiko.com/sporti...ews/nv005.html
that Alexeev never squatted more than he cleaned/never used more than 270kg/595lbs in the squat."

I've read this many times too from the site ou listed and the interview article from V.Alexeev. I've also heard of the grand by him too. In the interview I think (my opinion, not fact) that VA is stating what he is currently doing in training. During the biathlon era he did train lighter by a percentage of max and this was noted in his 1974 training "My Training Experience". However a very good and close to us source, 1969 World Champion Joe Dube, saw him squatting 700+ in the training hall at the 1970 Worlds. It could be quite possible that he trained much heavier during the triathlon era, building the needed reserve of strength and power.

Kurlovich did a similar lightening of the squat later in his career too. This was in MILO.

[jurassic]

awesome read! very interesting.
Thanks to Mr. Gallagher for writing it down, and to Rip for bringing it.
I always wondered about the history and numbers of this legend.

[ptarleton]

How can his rack press be so much higher than his best training jerk? If there is any truth in the number, then it has to be a push press from the rack. Seems bizarre that anyone could fail to clean what they can strict press.

Well, right before the Clean & Press got taken out of competition there wasn't exactly strict judging: knee bend, layback, etc.

And if that's what's passing in competition, then there's probably even heavier weights being done in training with form that wouldn't pass.

So that was probably a 552 Push Press or a 552 Pressed Out Push Jerk.

The discrepancy between what Patera could Clean and what he could Press makes even more sense if you consider that Patera probably spent most of his early years doing a Clean where the bar couldn't touch the body, so it's not like he got to spend his entire lifting career developing the kind of technique that lifters like Rezazadeh and Taranenko used. I may be wrong about that bit but it's just a guess. The change in rules for bar contact must have left some lifters behind who straddled the time when both rules where present.

[AdamBlalock]

An acquaitance of mine who has competed since the press era told me that the press and the jerk were close for a few reasons. One, the press was first in the competition and the jerk was last so they were fresh for the press and they were tired for the jerk. Pretty simple. You trained the press more because its the first lift, you have to do well and you certainly don't want to bomb. some guys devoted 40% or more of training to this lift. The supers were doing so much weight that the flex of the bar aided them more so than in other classes, lots of bar whip. These guys (patera, Alexeev, Reding) were more or less limited by their clean at that time. The last reason, as everyone knows, is that the press to into complete garbage. The competition was really clean & overhead anyhow, snatch, and clean & jerk.