Mr. Weightlifting: Norbert Schemansky

[Joseph Rodriguez]

My wife got me the book Mr. Weightlifting: Norbert Schemansky- History’s Greatest Olympic & World Champion Heavyweight Lifter by Richard Bak as a gift for earning my SSC. I had been looking for this book for years because it is out of print and the publishing company went out of business.

Norbert Schemansky was an American weightlifter. He was the first weightlifter to win four Olympic medals, despite missing the 1956 Summer Olympics due a back injury. He won a silver medal in the 1948 Summer Olympics, a gold medal in the 1952 Summer Olympics, and bronze medals in the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics.

My favorite part of the book is when he describes how he rehabilitated himself against medical advice to make a comeback after 2 back surgeries. Norb went on to earn 2 Olympic medals and set a heavyweight world record performing the split snatch. He set that snatch world record when he was 38 years old. He won his last Olympic medal when he was 40 years old.

Read this excerpt from the book where Norbert describes the process he used to rehabilitate himself and see if any of it sounds familiar:

“Norb rehabilitated in his usual methodical fashion. As he explained in a letter to Strength & Health’s Bob Haase, “After my second back operation in November 1957, I started training in January 1958 for a second comeback. I did mostly bench pressing, press off rack, rowing motion, and curls. Using light weights such as 250 pounds for 10 sets of 3 reps in the bench press, 175 for 10 sets of 3 regular presses taking the weight off the rack, rowing motions with 70 to 100 pounds, 5 reps and 10 sets, and a few curls were enough to get me back on the right path. During these first few months of training I made sure I did everything with a very straight back.”

“Over time, he began to ‘pull’ or dead-lift by starting at the top and taking the bar from a rack, then lowering the bar to perform a partial dead-lift or pull. As his training continued, he progressively lowered the bar closer and closer to the platform, until he was able to lift it from the floor. Norb also worked his press and his squat harder than ever before. This great emphasis on assistance exercises eventually led to a substantial gain in bodyweight.”

“Norb’s recovery continued, cautiously and incrementally. He perfected his version of the new “layback” style of press, which involved more body movement than the strict presses of the past. In order to build up strength in his slow lifts, he incorporated more squats, standing presses, and bench presses into his routine.

Within a few weeks he was able to bench press 440 pounds and had worked his standing press up to 345 pounds, his best ever. A new device called the power rack had gained popularity. The four-pillared cage-like apparatus allowed a lifter to safely perform partial movements with heavier weights than would have been possible if executing the full movement. Norb used it extensively with good results.”

[Brett79]

There was a .pdf of this book floating around years ago. If I can find it and it's kosher, I'll post it.
It's a good read and important story of one of the greatest Americans ever to touch a barbell.

[Johnsonville]

Nice, the wisdom of those guys seems to be mostly lost which is unfortunate. Starr seemed to be the only one from that group who spread the word and kept the methods alive. Although rip doesn’t seem interested in “lineage”, he really does have some of the best lineage of any American strength coach. Lots of guys talk about starr, but I don’t think many of them directly trained under him, and the fact that ss has instructional videos from Tommy Suggs is outstanding.