Mike Schmidt - Cheater ?

[Mongoose]

Yup. I was just strong from judo. And doing push ups (I would do 70 straight, several times a week in training.)


My legs still would not get the weight from my waist to my chest. And I can't say whether it's instinctive or not, nor whether I used my legs or not, but the weight was not that difficult for me as I recall. My point though is that compared to me then (a 230 push press) isn't that grand a lift for a person who was older than me, outweighed me by 40 pounds, and while doing an easier lift.

How tall are you?

[drstrangelove]

Five foot, 8.5 inches. That equates to 6-3, 202 lbs, if I was that tall, so not far off from 6-3, 210, just pint size version. My body fat would have been pretty low at 16 because I was doing 20-25 hours of athletics a week.

[Mongoose]

Five foot, 8.5 inches. That equates to 6-3, 202 lbs, if I was that tall, so not far off from 6-3, 210, just pint size version. My body fat would have been pretty low at 16 because I was doing 20-25 hours of athletics a week.

Still impressive but leverage/balance issues make it hard for taller guys to do most lifts. It takes more work to develop balance. Leverage remains a disadvantage.

Schmidt push pressing as much or more than NFL players and surprising close to Lou Ferrigno is suspicious.

[drstrangelove]

Yeah it is a skill lift. Unless Schmidt spent months/years doing it he shouldn't have come near Ferrigno et al.

What you're really saying is if Schmidt had spent time working on the lift he could have done as much as Ferrigno. I'm not buying it.

No. I'm not talking about Ferrigno and Schmidt. The thread is about Schmidt and I am bringing in my own personal experience with regard to Schmidt. I'm talking about me and Schmidt.

If I had been commensurately larger to equal Schmidt (by 40 pounds), a few years older and had training in lifting free weights, I would have certainly been able to do a 230-pound push press. It might seem like an unlikely lift, and I admit I might have been unusually strong for my size and age, but I did not do steroids, and I was not the strongest person I ever encountered at that time. I had a friend (same age) in judo (who was a linebacker at my school) and I competed against some West German Olympic wrestlers, and I had no doubt that they were stronger.

I think the point is that it's not "that" unlikely in my personal experience where outside influences like steroids needs to be invoked. Yes, of course steroids can give you the same result, but it's hardly needed. Now had Schmidt done a 375-pound lift, I wouldn't bring it up. Totally outside my personal experience. But Schmidt had 24% more body mass and muscle than me, so having more training and doing an easier lift of 44% more weight isn't shocking or outrageous. Doing one 134% more than me, yes. 44%, no.

[Reds5]

From own own personal experience I can believe that Mike Schmidt could lift what he did without being on steroids.

When was 17 I was able to lift 210 like he did, and was I only weighed 168 lbs. I was real strong from doing farm and masonry work from the time I was 12 years old.

[Afterglow]

Holy bump Batman!!!! Was knowing how much he could lift really worth doing this?:nosleep:

[SamtheBravesFan]

Holy bump Batman!!!! Was knowing how much he could lift really worth doing this?:nosleep:

Sure is. We must find ALL cheaters and purge them from the record books! :P

[Herr28]

Holy bump Batman!!!! Was knowing how much he could lift really worth doing this?:nosleep:

I know right. I was wondering where the hell this came from.

[Phantom Dreamer]

Was Mike Schmidt in the news recently?

[Cap78]

Was Mike Schmidt in the news recently?

No, apparently this is what we have resorted to here

[Dude Paskert]

When I was young and working at TI in Dallas, I went on a stint on second shift and ended up spending a lot of time at the company gym. Met an older guy who was about 5'5" but very strong, and we ended up as spotting partners because they weren't many other people around. Came to learn that this guy had been on the British Olympic wrestling team and he had developed an interest in weightlifting way back in the '50s as a result. You should have seen this guy's ears, they looked like some kind of bizarre fungal growths...he told me that it was common to twist and box the ears while wrestling since the refs usually missed or ignored it and it was a good way to irritate and distract your opponent.
Anyway, he helped found a weightlifting club early in the TI years that eventually became the fitness center where we met. He told me that the military press was THE lift back then and that you weren't really a full member of the club until you could press your own weight. Given that, Schmidt at 200lbs or whatever using his legs to press 230lbs does not sound like a mind blowing accomplishment for a strong baseball player. Given that these kinds of presses are awesome ways to hose up your back if you don't know what you're doing, it's pretty freaky to see a big star like Schmidt doing it with two spotters who look like they might have been janitors pressed into service for the filming. We had to do military press when I was in junior high, by high school it was dropped from the weightlifting regimen due to the potential for injury.

I peeked at the video again and I think that Mike may have been screwed by his long arms...Frederickson was about the same size and his arms look to be quite a bit shorter. Ask me how I know long arms are a big problem with presses like that...