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I am a 31 year-old corrections officer from Circleville, Ohio who has been competing in the benchpress since 1995. I began "recreational lifting" when I was 13 to lose some weight and improve sports performance. It wasn't long before I discovered I had a talent for the benchpress, as my chest strength grew disproportionately to the rest of my lifts. During my freshman year of college, a friend convinced me to stop lifting at the YMCA and join the Circleville Barbell Club. The Club had been in existence since 1978 and was home to a number of state and national record-holders. They recognized my potential and began training me for competition. I entered my first meet as a light 165er and was expected to do very well. In practice I was pushing 350 in an old Frantz denim shirt. Well, my shirt blew out on my opener and I was done for the day. Needless to say, I have drastically improved since then. I stayed in the 165 class for several years before moving to the 181s, where I hit a best lift of 500. That lift placed me at #23 in the country and qualified as a 181-class Top 100 of All-Time lift. Recently, I moved into the 198 class and have posted a 530 benchpress. This lift also places me in the Top 25 in the country and breaks into the 198-class Top 100 of All-Time, as well. My current goals are to keep driving toward a triple-bodyweight benchpress, qualifying for BenchAmerica, and maybe one day, the Arnold Expo.
I now manage the Circleville Barbell Club and try to help new lifters who join, as a way of giving back what was once given to me. I have put together a pretty successful bench team and we show up to meets all over Ohio.
I first contacted Alan to get some APT items for a raffle we held at our 25th annual bench meet. Prior to this, I had no experience with APT gear. Once I tried out some of the items, I was so impressed that I asked Alan to sponsor me. I wanted to represent APT at meets, in magazines, and online because I firmly believe in his products. The ZRV's are very supportive yet extremely comfortable, and I never bench without them. The lifting straps.well, what can I say? They absolutely have no equal. There are no other straps, by any other manufacturer, that come close to the quality and comfort of APT's. Fellow Powerlifters, Bodybuilders, and Weekend Warriors.APT is top-notch gear. If you want to be the best, you need the best gear. Give APT a shot and I think you'll see what I mean.
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