NAked Warrior - ZANDERBILT

5
T H E P U R P O S E F U L P R I M I T I V E
We were not suburban pussies; we were street toughs who fought with each other often
and swore and smoked and pushed each other into the creek for no reason. We’d already
made phenomenal physical progress. Roy looked like Robert De Niro and treated us like
mates, not like children. He rubbed his hands gleefully and unleashed us on other schoolboys.
He began trucking us around to intramural Olympic weightlifting competitions. As a
team we went undefeated, eventually winning the Eastern Regional United States high
school team title. Other teams would compete in cute uniforms and bring cheerleaders.
We’d show up with our hair greased back with Brylcream, wearing black leather jackets
and Chuck Taylor high top shoes. We made overt passes at the cheerleaders. We were
aggressive and physical. We were primordial archetypes, “Here little man; hold my 1st
place trophy while I French kiss your cheerleader sister.”
Soon the “basement boys” were entering adult male Olympic lifting competitions.
Suddenly we were comrades in arms with adult men and this accelerated the maturation
process of already mature youngsters.
There was a ferocious Olympic lifter named Robert Lancaster who went to Howard
University and later became a fighter pilot. He lifted at the time in the 181 pound class. Roy
entered our team into the DCAAU Potomac Valley Regional Senior Men’s Championships
in order for us to get bitch-slapped in open men’s competition. “This mauling will be good
for you.” I remember him telling us in a philosophic moment during the van ride to the
meet.
I was given a life lesson that day, one that still serves me well. It was a demonstration of
the relationship between muscle strength and muscle size. We were at the competition
beforehand preparing to weigh in when AAU President Pete Miller excitedly said, “Marty!
Hurry! You’ve got to see this!” As I followed, Pete explained, “Hey Marty, have you ever
wondered why Robert Lancaster can lift so much more than you?”
Before I could answer we turned the corner into the men’s locker room, “That’s why!”
Pete pointed at Bob stepping down off the scales in a pair of shorts looking positively
Herculean, like Arnold Schwarzenegger on his best day. I turned to Pete and said, “DUH!
Of course he can out lift me! With those massive muscles and that low body fat percentile,
next to him I look like a point guard or a baseball second baseman. I got to get a lot more
muscle and lose a lot of body fat if I’m going to look and lift like Lancaster.” That was a
profound formative moment for me.
The functional muscularity Lancaster displayed that day became my lifelong physical
benchmark. Lancaster’s physique had function: He could clean and jerk 410 when the
world record was 413 and at 5’8” could slam-dunk a basketball.
For complete information on Marty Gallagher’s The Purposeful Primitive, or to
purchase the physical book, visit http://www.dragondoor.com/b37.html now