Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
Last year, Ron Nicodemus went to New York for the first time since he was a child, and he says he felt a little intimidated as he walked down the streets of Manhattan.
In a way, one can understand that. Manhattan is a high-powered place full of high-powered people. No one is going to stop to soothe you if you feel overwhelmed. They’ll just trample you.
But Nicodemus says he was surprised that when he walked down the sidewalk, people got out of his way. He had no trouble getting a seat on the subway, and nobody would dare take his seat when the subway was crowded, even if he offered it to someone.
Well, you want to tell Nicodemus, you are 6-foot-2 and 290 pounds, with a 54-inch chest and 21-inch biceps. You are a powerlifter, a guy who throws weights around 500 and 600 pounds at a time. That could have something to do with it.
Nicodemus responds, “I’m an Indiana boy,” and a little shy at that.
He’ll have to leave that shyness behind next month, though, when the quiet quality engineer at ITT heads for England for the world championships of the World Drug Free Powerlifting Federation.
Nicodemus, who is 45, hopes to set world records for his age in at least some of the events. His goal is to lift 525 pounds in the squat, 465 pounds in the bench press and 610 pounds in the deadlift.
Stack his goals up against other claimed world records, and they might not sound like much. YouTube is full of videos of guys bench-pressing and squatting much more weight.
But it’s noteworthy that some of those videos have a little message on the bottom that says: “non-drug tested.”
That means no one tested any of the competitors for steroids or human growth hormone or other performance-enhancing drugs that some say are often used in the weightlifting world.
In some of the videos, the strongmen are wearing what are called lifting suits, super-tight shirts that are designed to squeeze the muscles and significantly increase a lifter’s power. The record-setting squats also show lifters wearing heavy knee braces.
Some of the supposed record lifts also show flaws in performances. When a lifter squats, for example, his entire seat has to fall below the knees, until his hamstrings practically touch his calves. Many of the record squats show lifters bending their knees less than 90 degrees. Some bench presses are similarly flawed.
That’s the way the world of weightlifting works. There are all kinds of different organizations with all kinds of rules. Some claim to be drug-free but never test anyone, Nicodemus says, and some make no mention of drug testing. Some have a drug-free category and an “open” category.
Open category. Hmmm.
What’s different about Nicodemus’s endeavor is that he will be in a competition where competitors are tested for drugs.
He won’t wear a lifting suit or braces on his knees. He’ll be doing what is called lifting raw.
“I want to do what my body can do, and I want to know what my body can do,” Nicodemus said.
That’s an admirable goal for someone who didn’t get into powerlifting until relatively late in life.
Nicodemus played football through high school and played a little bit of semi-pro football, but he didn’t participate in sports at Purdue University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in movement and sports science, or at Ball State University, where he received a master’s in community health.
It wasn’t until after he finished grad school that some friends started bugging him to come with them to a gym in Middletown. It turns out the gym was run by a former world-champion lifter.
Nicodemus has been lifting weights ever since, setting record after record, including one for carrying 300 pounds of stone 347 feet in the Indiana Highland Games.
During his lifting years, Nicodemus has suffered a couple of injuries that doctors assured him would end his weightlifting career. Once he ruptured the bicep tendon in his left arm. His doctor told him he wouldn’t be able to do any more powerlifting.
Nicodemus responded, “Fix it better than it was.”
And the doctor did.
Right now, besides working out four times a week, eating seven times a day and working full time, Nicodemus is looking for a company to sponsor him in the competition. He could pay all the bills himself, but it has been a tough year.
“I’m hoping to find one company” that can cover the cost of the flight and hotel expenses, about $2,000. “I’ve contacted a few businesses and they said they’d look into it,” but he hasn’t heard anything.
One way or the other, Nicodemus will be in England Nov. 14 and 15.
