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| Steve's BLOG June 13th, 2008 New Personal Arnold Classic Lifting Pictures March 6, 2008 Successful 788 personal record Squat at the Arnold March 1st, 2008 804 Squat Attempt Jan. 11th, 2008  I am honored to have been selected to the Atlantic division of the Quest
Invitational Powerlifting Championships, held March 1st in Columbus, Ohio
at the Arnold Sports Festival. I found out I will be lifting just 10 weeks from the event. This is the
biggest sporting event I have attended as an athlete in my lifetime. This
as usual is a drug tested, drug free event, sanctioned by the International
Powerlifting Federation. I am training with the highest amount of focus I have had in a long time and I am hoping to bring my A game to one the biggest stages I've been on.  July 20th, 2007 YouTube Version of my 551 LB Bench Press at the 2007 Men's Nationals YouTube Video of my third DL attempt at 683 at the 2007 USAPL Nationals Missed attempt, my left hand had a calais tear July 19th, 2007 Well I end up placing 5th in what was the most competitive contest I have competed in the United States. I took only 2 squats based on a groin injury and tied a PR in the squat at 782. Then I took 534 as an opening bench, went to 551 and double locked, so I had to repeat the lift and was successful with this third attempt at 551. Not what I expected to do in the bench, had hopes on at least matching my PR in that lift. Then came the deadlift, I opened with 611 and hit it easily, took 661 on my second and I also hit it easily. On my last pull I was in 4th and needed to much to get third, so I focused on hitting a PR Total and Deadlift. I went for on my last pull, but I tore a calais on my hand and lost my grip. I believe I could have completed the lift, if my hand didn't tear. Although this was one of my lowest finishing at Men's Nationals in 5 years, I can't be overly upset with my numbers, considering I was injured much of the training cycle. Congrats to Anthony Harris who won the class with an American Record Total! July 11th, 2007 - In the News May 16th, 2007 I am now the last 9 weeks of training for the USAPL Men's Nationals. I have had some health setbacks and this year's competition in the 242 LB. class is going to be fierce. This is a big year for the USAPL making the Arnold a main event in March 2008. The last qualifying for that event is in St. Louis. So regardless of health and economics, I must go and put up a good total. If I don't compete or don't finish in July, then I am not eligible to make the Arnold event, not to mention not making the 2007 World Team. I believe again this year the 242 LB Class will be tough and deep. I am going to give what I have and let the cards fall where they may. March 29th, 2007 I forgot to mention in my last post, I was out of contest drug tested without notice Saturday, March 24th, 2007. I am proud to be drug free and am happy to be tested at any time. March 28th, 2007 This week I am 16 weeks out from USAPL Men's Nationals July 15th, 2007 in St. Louis. I have had a few weeks of rest for a groin injury. I am hoping to put a solid training cycle together and represent myself better at this year's Nationals. January 24th, 2007 Back to training, but not to much sleeping. Going to do a test lift at a benefit event in Philadelphia on February 23rd. I will be doing all three. Not sure of how much I am going to push it. I have had some minor strains, with some off season work I have been doing. It will be a game time decision. On a high note, my pec has completely recovered and I have done some things to address the elbow issues that helped create the pec tear. Focus is set for July in St. Louis. Even with the pec tear, my health is better then last year's offseason,. For example, at this point last year I could barely walk, based on a knee scope and gout. December 19th, 2006 Well on December 6th, my wife and I welcomed our second child, a baby girl, Kaylee Jean. She was 4 weeks early and weighed 6lbs. 6oz.. Mother and child are doing great! So now it's time to set my lifting up for 2007. I am looking to hit one event before the USA Powerlifting Men's National Championships this July in St. Louis, MO. October 13th, 2006 Well it's been a while, as I expected. My wife is still doing well with the pregnancy, so everything is on track. As far as lifting, I have had a few setbacks. I have been dealing with tendoitis in my eblow for a good part of this year. I started a bad habit of compensating for it and it caught up with me. I have small tear in my right pec and trying to get it right before I get back to pushing solid weight. The root of the issue is my elbow tendoitis, better know as tennis elbow, but believe me I don't play tennis to get this. Even as recently as this week, my elbow flared up after doing volume squats, mid 500 lb squats for sets of 5s. My squat numbers are up, but so is my bodyweight. I am eating for two! :0) Going to have my bodyweight back in the low 240s by December. Was planning to peak out my training in the gym in December, but my chest isn't going to be in any type of shape. August 31st, 2006 Sorry for the late update, things on the non Powerlifting side have been crazy. I ended up doing ok at the Motivations BP event. I opened with 500 pounds, nailed it. Then I jumped all the way to a personal best of 580 pounds and hit it. I would have red lighted my lift, for uneven extension, I am my worst critic, but it was called a good lift. Then I went for the 600 pound barrier, pressed it great off my chest, but was to tight to the racks and caught the bottom end and went back down. All and all, it was a good day. Need to work on a few things, recharge my battery mentally and physically. My wife Jenny is now almost 22 weeks pregnant, with our second child, with certain medical conditions she has, she could have the baby as early as 28 weeks, normal is 40 weeks, hopefully not, but the possiblity is there. So I am staying close to home, I'm not focusing on anything but the arrival of our second child. I will train to hit peak out my training, in the gym, around first or second week of December. Then reset my numbers, hit a tune-up in the fall, the get ready for 2007 Men's Nationals. August 7th, 2006 This Saturday, August 12th, I will compete in the Motivations III BP Competition in Dunmore, Pennsylvania. It's one of my first Bench Press only competitions. I normally have only done just three lift competitions, but with recent problems in the Bench Press, I have decided it would be good to compete in this lift alone. I will compete at whatever bodyweight I show up at, which will likely push me into the 275 pound weight class, since I am currently weighing 248. Current state record at 275 is 529. Lifting Begins at 10 AM Motivations Fitness Center 1128 Meade St. Dunmore, PA. 18512 570-341-7665 July 12th, 2006 I write this post as I am returning from what “could” be considered one of the worst contest performances in my 16 year powerlifting career, the first time I have EVER been disqualified or bombed out of a powerlifting contest. This is top contest every year, the only contest I really care about. Every lifter there has put in the time and energy and everyone deserves a good day, but it’s not always meant to be. I have to say going in, I had put my attention and effort on my weak lifts or the lifts I thought I had the most potential to gain on, the squat and deadlift. It ended up the bench press became the lift that disqualified me from the contest. I had my concerns going in on the setup of the contest, in that we had only 7 lifters in our flight and session, so that would mean, a short rest between attempts. About 6-7 minutes time between multiple 700+ pound attempts, then only 15 minutes down time between the last squat and the first Bench Press. I was able to open up with a 744, then a 771 pound squat. On my third attempt I took an aggressive jump at a new personal best of 799.75 pounds, previous best was 783 pounds. This was a long draining attempt, that I just missed. I had made some minor step errors on the setup I then had to take the time to make sure the weight settled. As you would expect, letting nearly 800 pounds settle will take some energy out of you. This time likely zapped my strength enough to prevent me from making this lift, not that I didn’t give it every ounce to push out. This woulda, coulda, shoulda been a 16 pound personal best. Maybe this was a bit to aggressive of a jump, especially at a National contest, but at the time, I saw it as my only way to have a chance to win, plus I was confident I could hit it. Maybe I'm a fool, but I still think, if I did things just a little better with the setup, I could have hit it. Video of my squats at Men's NationalsGoing into the Bench Press I was a bit beat up from the
missed squat attempt and with so little time to get my shirt on, it became what
would mark the end of my day. I made the mistake of taking a weight I was
successful on in the 2005 USAPL Nationals and 2006 USAPL PA States. I should
have picked up and acted on the signs of fatigue and lowered my opener. That’s
one of those things, where you take for granite the weight, when you’ve done it
before, but don’t take into account when the conditions have changed. I guess I should have left my ego home, as I
normally tell people and taken the fatigue more seriously, but I didn’t. I was able to lock out the weight of 562
pounds on my second attempt, but because of downward movement during the upward
press, I was rightfully disqualified for the attempt. I took it a third attempt, but didn’t get it
to go. This was one of those humbling days, where I need to go back and take a good look at things. Maybe there are some quick adjustments, maybe some more complex ones, but as you can see, even after 16 years of dedication, we all have our bad days and I am going to put this one up there as just one of those days. Everyone has those days and when it really comes down to it, this is a sport. I walked away healthy and a little embarrassed by my performance. Where I might show up for a contest next is anyone’s guess,
I am thinking about getting back on that horse I fell off of, as my plane home
is about to land back in This week my wife Jenny is going to have preventive surgery
related to her pregnancy. That’s where my focus will be and should be. I wish
everyone who made the World Team good training and let’s bring the IPF Open
World Title back to the June 28th, 2006 Training is complete!! 10 Days to go! 2006 Nominations! 2006 Men's National Championship Video Review May 26th, 2006 New Sponsor  Read More Here!!May 17th, 2006 Check out the video on putfile!!! May 3rd, 2006 Ok I am working on raising money for travel to Men's Nationals. As most of you know, there is no cash reward for this sport. Although we are hard working athletes, we don't get any funding for our travel. So if you can dontate, even if just a little, it would be greatly appreciated. There are two ways to donate. 1) Donate $30 or more on-line and you will get a PurePowerlifting.com T-Shirt 2) Donate by mailing your donation to USA Powerlifting and get a tax exemption on your donation. Print and mail the form here! With either donation, we can display your company logo under the MannOfSteel.com sponsors section. May 2nd, 2006 It's official: This year I will lift as a Member of Team Titan! I have been sponsored by Titan for a few years now and this year I will officailly be listed on their team. If you want the best gear today, lift in Titan!  April 5th, 2006 Next Up.... USA Powerlifting Men's National Championships Miami, Florida July 10th I have placed 3rd the last 3 years at the USA Powerlifting Men's National Championships, each time raising my total up, last year almost 50 pounds! I have to treat the next few weeks as the heart of my training program. Now is the time where gains or progress is made, not when it's a month before the show. If I am lucky enough to win this contest, I earn a spot on the IPF Men's Open World Team in Stavanger, Norway. I made it to the IPF Junior World Team in 1998 that traveled to Gyor, Hungary and there was nothing else like it. 50+ Countries send their best in each division. I don't make money on this sport, this is an amateur event, but you can sponsor me and get a tax exemption. What to find out how, e-mail me by clicking here.
April 4th, 2006 Pictures from the 2006 PA State Championships March 26th, 2006 Video from 2006 PA State Championships March 20th, 2006 IT'S OVER! Man what a day. I knew I didn't have a whole lot to give in the squat, so I was only planning two attempts. Erik Steiner, my college training partner, called my numbers perfectly. Calling 766 on my second attempt. I was twisted and pushed, grinding and exploding just about all my blood vessels in my head, but I got it up and it was good. I will for sure be putting that video on-line Happy with that I passed on my third squat. The Bench, well I went risky and I opened with 575 (573 + Record Plates) which was not only a personal best, but also and American and State Record attempt. I almost thought I blew it. I setup poorly on my first attempt and was uneven from the top and couldn't lock it out because of that. I of course took the same weight on my second, this time getting myself on the bench correctly. This time I pushed it, like it was even the same weight. My triceps got pretty beat up on the first attempt, so a third attempt was a long shot, so we jumped only up to 578. As expected, I just didn't have the triceps to push it out. The Deadlift started and I just wanted to get my first ever Open American Record in the Bench Press to count, so I opened with 584 and hit it without a problem. I have made some improvements in this lift over the last couple years and it showed again. I jumped to a personal record attempt of 661 and nailed it, for what would give me a 2000 total. Then I took sight on 678, to exceed the current USAPL PA State Total record of 2015, which is held by Beetle Lowe. I had just enough to hold on and lock out with 678, which for me was 18 pound personal best in the deadlift. To give you an idea, up until last year, my best Deadlift in contest was 633 and I have been in that area from 620-633 since around 1998. To say I have struggled for improvements in this lift, would be a huge understatement. This gave me a personal best total of 2017, along with a State & American Record Bench Press at 575 and a personal best deadlift at 678. It was a great, great day! I'd like to thank a few people. First off, my wife for dealing with the time I take away from her and my son Jacob to train like I need to. Thanks to Janel Brown for putting on such a good show. Jim Brown for providing such a great facility to lift at. I have only been training there since the first week of January and look already!! Erik Steiner and Seth Abrams for being there to help me in the back, it was a great day and I'm glad you could help me so much. Thanks to Jimmy Kavarnos who has been training with me at Brown's and has helped keep me motivated. March 17th, 2006 2 Days Out The training this program cycle, pretty much stopped two weeks out. With the short training cycle I had, I was able to end up pushing some good training numbers. My body took the abuse and it wasn't really ready for how fast I went from 0 - 60. So the last few weeks, have been mending weeks, trying to feel healthy again. I got enough weight on my back and in my hands, to at least take solid attempts at weights I should be doing in competition. I will likely have to take some aggressive attempts, since my endurance at peak weight is not going to be there. I really want to have a good day, but if I don't hit my normal numbers, it shouldn't be a real big surprise. Goal #1 Stay Healthy, well as healthy as I have been. Goal #2 Have Fun. Goal #3 Get enough attempts under my belt to knock the rust off for Men's Nationals in July. Go to BLOG/WHAT'S NEW HISTORY |
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