It is the duty of the free man to live for his own self and not for others.
~Friedrich Neitzche
John Davis is one of my favorite dinosaurs from the past. The man was one of the greatest strength athletes of all time. He won the United States National Championship in Olympic lifting an incredible twelve times, won the World Championship six times, and was Olympic champion in two Olympics - and this was in a career interrupted by World War II. Absent the war, Davis doubtless would have won THREE Olympic gold medals.
Davis was the first man in history to clean and jerk 400 pounds in official competition, breaking that awesome barrier with a 402.2 pound lift on June 16.1951, in Los Angeles, California. He was undefeated in international competition from October 23, 1938 to August 30, 1953, when the Canadian giant, Doug Hepburn, dethroned him as world champion in Stockholm, Sweden.
Davis was one of only three or four men in the history of the world (historians dispute the number) to lift the enormous Apollon Wheels overhead, accomplishing the amazing feat on September 13, 1949. The Apollon Wheels were a huge set of railcar wheels. They weighed 366 pounds and were connected with an axle 1.93 inches in diameter. The wheels and axle were frozen, rusty and bent - nothing revolved. For all practical purposes, the wheel were a solid iron barbell with a 2” handle. On September 13, 1949, Davis CLEAN AND JERKED the wheels! Most strong men would be lucky to deadlift them! I've seen the tape of that lift and it's one of the most inspiring feats of strength you can imagine. What Davis did on that day in post-war France, nearly 50 years ago, ranks as one of the all-time greatest feats of strength in history.
HOW AND WHERE DAVIS TRAINED
Now check this out: Davis trained in the most primitive of training quarters - ALL BY HIMSELF - even during the years when he was World and Olympic Champion and a legitimate claimant to the title of “World's Strongest Man.” In the April, 1993 issue of THE IRON MASTER, Osmo Kiiha notes (on page 11): “For many years Davis trained alone in
the basement of a neighborhood church, on an old exercise set. Of course, he also made the rounds to the local clubs to train but the bulk of his training was done alone in the basement.”
Can you imagine the sight of the greatest lifter and arguably the strongest man of his generation, hitting the iron like clockwork, cleaning, pressing, squatting, and benching weights that only a handful of other men could even approach, and doing all of it alone in the basement of a neighborhood church, using an old exercise bar instead of an Olympic barbell? Davis had no spotters, no coaches, no supporters, no fans. no training partners. He had only the most basic of equipment. For all practical purposes, he trained in a dungeon.
Davis' training program was as basic as his equipment. He did cleans, snatches, presses, squats, bench presses and virtually nothing else. He trained four times per week. His workouts lasted 90 minutes to two hours. He trained his cleans, snatches and presses with a series of progressively heavier warmup sets (dropping the reps in a 6/6/3/3/1/1 pattern, followed by eight sets of two reps with his working poundage. He did five sets of three reps on the bench press and five sets of five reps on the squat. Pretty basic stuff.
THE QUESTION
So here's the question: how did Davis build the strongest body of his generation by training five exercises on an abbreviated program with an old exercise bar in a corner of the basement in a neighborhood church, working all by himself, alone with the iron, without any coaching, guidance or assistance of any sort?
THE ANSWER
Here's the answer. Davis was a MAN. He had guts, courage, pride, tenacity, willpower and a burning desire to excel at his chosen sport. He didn't need mirrors to pump his ego as he pumped his body. He didn't need gym bunnies wiggling up to tell him how “buff” he was looking. He didn't need an entourage to support his efforts. He was able to do everything he needed to do entirely on his own, using only the strength of spirit that came from within. Nowadays, guys are into making excuses, “I can't get big because I have lousy leverages.” “I can't squat because I have bad knees.” “I can't deadlift because I have a bad back.” “I don't train heavy because I don't want to hurt myself - and besides, I just want to look good.” “I can't get a good workout because my gym doesn't have the latest equipment,” “I don't use drugs, so of course all I can do is pump and tone.” “I can't afford the supplements I need.” “I haven't been eating too well,” “It's too cold.” “I couldn't get all the sleep I needed last night.” “I had to study for finals.” “My shoulders are sore.” “ My stomach hurts.” “My wife is mad at me,” “My boss yelled at me,” “Work was extra tough.” “My knee wraps are too tight,” “My squat suit is too loose,” “The bar is bent.” “The floor is uneven,” “Capricorn is in Virgo.” “I cut myself shaving.” “I had a rough day at work - I can't concentrate today.” “I had a fight with my girlfriend - I can't train today.” Do any of those sound familiar? How many times have you heard one or more variations of these time-honored chestnuts?
JOHN DAVIS DIDN'T MAKE EXCUSES. HE WAS A MAN. MEN DON'T MAKE EXCUSES!
The great thing about John Davis is that he was into training for himself, not for other people. He trained because he WANTED to train. He trained because it was his passion. He trained because he had a deep, burning need to elevate more and even more weight in his chosen sport of Olympic lifting. He wasn't training for the glory. He wasn't chasing medals or trophies, and he certainly wasn't in it for the money. He did it because there was a part of him that HAD to do it.
Davis never came up with excuses to skip workouts or have a lackluster training session. What he did with a barbell was far too important for excuses. Davis simply went out and DID WHAT HAD TO BE DONE.
Most guys who lift weights nowadays have absolutely no idea of the type of drive and determination that kept John Davis hitting the iron day after day, week after week, in that lonely corner of the church basement. Most guys would last about one workout if they had to train by themselves. Most guys would give up after two weeks if they were forced to stick to five exercises performed on an old exercise bar. Most guys would never be able to train without a constant barrage of ego-pumping from friends and fellow gym mates.
If you want to be a dinosaur, you need to be able to do what John Davis was able to do. You need to use your inner strength to keep you motivated. YOU NEED TO MAKE YOUR TRAINING AN INTERNAL THING 1NSTEAD OF AN EXTERNAL THING - SOMETHING YOU DO FOR YOURSELF IN STEAD OF SOMETHING YOU DO FOR OTHERS. If you can't do it for yourself, you eventually will not do it at all - and what you do when you go to the gym will be a far cry from the type of effort you would give if you were doing it for yourself.
A TROUBLING ASPECT OF MODERN TRAINING
One of the most troubling facets of modern training is that it is almost entirely directed at training for others rather than training for yourself. Why do most guys train nowadays? They train to LOOK better. They don't train to be strong, they train to look “buff.” They want to shape – tone – cut – rip – sculpt - and define. Why? Not because they have a burning desire to be shaped, toned, cut, ripped, sculpted or defined, but because they want to look a certain way in order to gain temporary admiration from others. They simply want to attract favorable attention. The only reason they train is so that other people will compliment them on the way they look.
If you think about it, training in order to look pleasing to others is an essentially feminine endeavor, it certainly is not a masculine undertaking. How do women attract a man? Through
their appearance. How does a man attract a woman? Historically, men attracted women not by the way they looked but by the things they did. A prime example would be a Neanderthal warrior who could kill and skin a cave-bear. He may not have been much to look at, but a woman would have wanted HIM for a mate, not some pretty boy who would run and hide if he saw his own shadow.
Weight trainers today are far too caught up in their personal appearance. It was different fifty or sixty years ago. Back then, guys tended to train simply to get stronger. Sure, they got bigger, and they always looked better as a result of their training, but the gains in appearance were viewed as a natural by-product of training for strength. You trained for strength and you ended up looking better as a byproduct of your strength training. You didn't train to look better. What's more, people who looked strong but couldn't back it up were viewed as sissies by the rest of the Iron Slingers. If you weren't strong, you weren't much of anything, no matter how pretty you looked in posing trunks.
WHAT WE NEED
The Iron Game desperately needs to regain its former emphasis on training for strength rather than training for appearance. Weight trainers need to internalize what they are doing. They need to train because they are doing it to satisfy a deep-sealed hunger in their hearts, not because they want the rest of the crowd to tell them how “cut” their legs are or how “buff” their chests are becoming. We need more men like John Davis - men who nailed themselves to their goals with grim determination and who trained with brutal intensity because they knew that nothing less would do the job.
If you wan to be a dinosaur, keep the example of John Davis in the forefront of your imagination. Train as if you were John's workout partner. Pretend you have one occasion - one supreme opportunity - to train with John on that old exercise bar in the corner of that humble neighborhood church. Make every training session one that John Davis would have been proud to join you in. Carry that attitude to every session. Be a man. Be a dinosaur. Be like John Davis.
Self trust is the essence of heroism,
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is not necessary to hope in order to undertake, nor to succeed to persevere.
~Charles the Bold
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp - or what's a heaven for?