Powerlifting In Prison

[Parker]

[Darren Avey]

Awesome! Only been posted 50 times before

[Parker]

Awesome! Only been posted 50 times before

I haven't seen it posted here.

[bradistani]

this is and old doc. i remember watching on tv years ago. i wonder if they still run this program, cos if i recall correctly, most american prisons stopped letting cons get jacked lifting weights in the yard/gym.

[El Diablo Blanco]

Fucking prison is such a shithole.  What a way to spend your life.  I don't get why these lifers don't kill themselves.

[hazbin]

this is and old doc. i remember watching on tv years ago. i wonder if they still run this program, cos if i recall correctly, most american prisons stopped letting cons get jacked lifting weights in the yard/gym.

this bottom pic looks like it is from the movie 'the Jericho Mile'.    one of my favorite movies

[the trainer]

Fucking prison is such a shithole.  What a way to spend your life.  I don't get why these lifers don't kill themselves.

Its the perfect place for the average getbigger, you dont have to work, free food, free weights and free buttholes, not sure why more people on here dont try to get arrested.

[bradistani]

Its the perfect place for the average getbigger, you dont have to work, free food, free weights and free buttholes, not sure why more people on here dont try to get arrested.

free health care 

[Stan Diego]

Most state and federal prisons had collections of free weights and weight machines through the 1980s, and inmates could spend significant portions of their days lifting. But that all changed around 20 years ago. In 1996, an amendment to an appropriations bill expressly prohibited the federal Bureau of Prisons from purchasing "training equipment for boxing, wrestling, judo, karate, or other martial art, or any bodybuilding or weightlifting equipment of any sort." Many states, including California, made the same decision, either by statute or policy. These days, whatever free weights you'd still find in U.S. prisons are decades old, but here in California they have all been cleared out

[bradistani]

this bottom pic looks like it is from the movie 'the Jericho Mile'.    one of my favorite movies

full film is on youtube. looks good, give me summat to watch over the weekend.. thanks.

they knew how to make quality 'made for tv movies' in the 70s

[hazbin]

full film is on youtube. looks good, give me summat to watch over the weekend.. thanks.

they knew how to make quality 'made for tv movies' in the 70s

oh, it wasn't a quality movie, lol.  but it seemed to inspire me when I was a kid. seems like they played it on regular tv every 6 months to a year. I found it online a few months ago and recorded it.

[ESFitness]

Most state and federal prisons had collections of free weights and weight machines through the 1980s, and inmates could spend significant portions of their days lifting. But that all changed around 20 years ago. In 1996, an amendment to an appropriations bill expressly prohibited the federal Bureau of Prisons from purchasing "training equipment for boxing, wrestling, judo, karate, or other martial art, or any bodybuilding or weightlifting equipment of any sort." Many states, including California, made the same decision, either by statute or policy. These days, whatever free weights you'd still find in U.S. prisons are decades old, but here in California they have all been cleared out

some prisons still buy new weights/plates/db's/bars, ect...

some prisons have welding programs... and those prisons sometimes use those welding programs to weld up flat, incline, and decline benches.. along with lat pulldown and seated row/pushdown machines... and power racks.. tbar rows, ect...

strong dudes in prison. a lot of dudes that had never, or would never have lifted a weight in their life if they hadn't come to prison, find they have great genes for either bodybuilding or powerlifting.

you'd be surprised at how many 500+ and 600+ deadlifts there are among guys who are sub 220lbs, and kids weighing between 130-170lbs pulling over 3x bw.

[hardgainerj]

some prisons still buy new weights/plates/db's/bars, ect...

some prisons have welding programs... and those prisons sometimes use those welding programs to weld up flat, incline, and decline benches.. along with lat pulldown and seated row/pushdown machines... and power racks.. tbar rows, ect...

strong dudes in prison. a lot of dudes that had never, or would never have lifted a weight in their life if they hadn't come to prison, find they have great genes for either bodybuilding or powerlifting.

you'd be surprised at how many 500+ and 600+ deadlifts there are among guys who are sub 220lbs, and kids weighing between 130-170lbs pulling over 3x bw.

theres branch interview where talks about when he visited a prison with Dugdale anyhow many prisoners told him if they stopped lifting theyd have breakdowns also many were SO

[ESFitness]

theres branch interview where talks about when he visited a prison with another BB anyhow many prisoners told him if they stopped lifting theyd have breakdowns also many were SO

well, the weights were a 'goal' to many inmates.

if you went to the hole, you didnt' get 'rec-yard' and you couldn't train.. if you were on 'bunk restriction/cell restriction' (couldn't leave your bunk area) you couldn't train.

the weights were something to look forward to each day.. the same way a bber on 'the street' looks at his daily workout.

get rid of those weights and you lose that incentive to behave... for many going to the weight room was like going to church, it's a sacred area that nobody fucked with.

nobody gets killed in the weight area, because you'd lose the weights.. no fights ever happen in there because you'd be the cause of the weights getting removed.

most the big guys weren't violent.. we didn't have to be, as we had nothing to prove.

[dr.chimps]

this bottom pic looks like it is from the movie 'the Jericho Mile'.    one of my favorite movies

Peter Strauss. Cool movie. Total prison fiction.   

[Rambone]

[gracie bjj]

back in late 80,s the weights for the powerlifting team had a seperate room to train in with top of the line olympic weights,benches,power rack,adjustable olympic dumbells ect. the general population lifted the old pig iron in the big yard that was all rusted, back then it was get up,eat n go train, go back to the tier n sleep, get up in afternoon n repeat the morning shedule. to b honest i dont think anyone was happy there but u got 2 choices,sleep all day n dont do nothing, or train like an animal n get something out of the unfortunate situation u r in at that moment n get some muscle n power.

[BB]

There were some good lifters to come out of the slam. If you want to read about a few, try googling "Prison postal meet powerlifting". That was how a lot of meets were held, they'd have a meet held in various prisons, then the results would be sent to a main person, who would keep records and inform the prisons how they did. That way they didn't have to bus prisoners around. Sometimes, if a prisoner was well behaved, he would be furloughed, and allowed to compete in one of the large civilian meets.

Bill Clark of the USAWA was big into trying to help prisoners with weights.

Two big lifters to come out of the prison scene were Greg "Beetle" Lowe and Don Blue. Also Joe Bradley that was helped by Fred Hatfield.

Blue and Bradley were smaller lifters. Blue has a distinction of being a volume lifter because they didn't have enough plates in the prison where he trained. He also almost stopped lifting after a very bad shanking that left him with a bad eye. Peary Rader, who owned Ironman magazine took a shine to Blue while he was in prison, and use to speak on his behalf during those years. Peary had a fallling out with him when Blue got out and committed more crimes. Peary was a religious man, and I think he was shined on a bit by one of those "found Jesus" type stories. Alas Jesus is lost again as quick as he was found in most cases.

One interesting bit of prison weightlifting lore is the Meet of 1963 in Olympic Lifting, in which Jenkins Hudson defeated guest lifter Bill March, who was one of York Barbell's main lifters. He would've been an Olympic hopeful if he was out. I wish I could find some pics of the San Quentin and other teams, they were beefy guys for the times. You can read about that meet here -

http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2008/06/prison-postal-meet-1963.html .

Jenkins Hudson -

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Greg Beetle Lowe -

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Sports Illustrated article on him and prison lifting -

http://cnnsi.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1067898/index.htm .

Beetle's squat workout -

http://www.christianiron.com/Documents/Greg%20Lowe%20squat%20routine.pdf .

Don Blue -

http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2009/01/don-blue-world-champion-peary-rader.html .


Joe Bradley at about 3:20 in this clip -

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[Darren Avey]

Liftings big in UK prisons in fact the UK overall powerlifting prison champ in the 70s was none other than Reggie Kray

[gracie bjj]

we used to go to rahway state prison,trenton state prison and yardville corretional facility to compete, we had real certified judges come in from the street to regulate n oversee the meets. i was 22 yrs old  in 87 when i got in trouble, im 49 now n havent been bak to the joint since i got paroled in 92,i guess we all r entitled to one fuck up in our lives when we where young

[funk51]

donald blue and james williams were two powerlifting prisoners.