How Much Can You Lift?

When I was thirteen years old, I went to Treasure Island in Atlanta Georgia. Treasure Island was kind of like a K-Mart, but it was owned by J.C. Penny Company. I went in to buy a barbell set. The set’s total weight was 125 lbs., which was more than the 92 pounds I weighed at the time.

I could not find anyone to help me, so I laid the buggy down and scooted the 125 pound box into the cart. I got to the front counter and paid for my weights. I had a key to the car, so I went to the car and rolled the box into the car by leaning the buggy into the trunk and rolling the box into the trunk. The car sat considerably lower.

When we got back to McClendon Manor, I opened the box while it was still in the trunk and took the weights into the house one at a time. My mother was afraid that I would drop weights through the ceiling if I took them upstairs, so for the first few weeks the weights lived down stairs.

I started my weight lifting routine and found that I could not even lift the bar over my head. The bar with collars and sleeve weighed just over five pounds. Try as I might, I could not lift it. I worked at it and worked at it until finally I was able to lift this bar over my head.

First, I lifted it one time over my head. Then, I worked up to twice. Finally, I got to where I could lift it one hundred times over my head. Wow, I was getting strong now. I could lift the bar.

Finally, I added weights. I started out with five pounds. I worked up to where I could lift five pounds one hundred times.  Then, my mother let me take the weights upstairs because I was getting on her nerves. The weight set had been right in front of her dresser in her dressing room. The dresser had a big mirror and she kept having visions of me breaking the mirror. So, up the stairs I went. It took about eight thousand trips to get the weights up the stairs, but I got them there.

For a while the weights sat on the floor in my room. Finally, I decided to buy me a weight bench.  I worked my way up to bench pressing the entire weight set and bought two fifty pound weights. I was never able to use them. I went into a diabetic coma and, from that point forward, it was all I could do to lift me. I sold my weight set.

Now I am just getting back to where I can walk again. I had a major setback from my diabetes. I am slowly working my way back up in lifting weights. I know it sounds wimpy, but I was able to lift more weight at 14 years old than I can now. But, I am well on my way to getting there.


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