Meet the 14-Year-Old Who Can Lift More Than 300 Pounds
By: Sam Price-Waldman from the Atlantic
Commentary by: Sam Smathers 4th
http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2014/02/meet-the-14-year-old-who-can-lift-more-than-300-pounds/283542/
Jake Schellenschlager, a fourteen year old boy form Maryland can deadlift lift 300 pounds. He has numerous awards for this strange talent from the International Powerlifting Association. He has never been injured in the two years of his training and only lifts his max three times a year, the other times he is supervised by a trainer and is using lighter weights with more reps. His parents support him and his cause and do not think that it is strange to have their barely into puberty boy lifting two hundred pounds on the regular.
I am not against sports at all. They are beautiful and almost a form of art, take basketball, lacrosse, sports of finesse and skill, these are like drawings that the athletes paint with their body as they play. Some sports have the most boring and horrible lines though, take car racing, circle after circle all that they are doing is wasting our fuels and making a whole lot of noise. In that same token I see no beauty in the ability to lift three hundred pounds and this kid is going to have so many knee problems when he is older and he is going to tear muscles and kill his body, but I guess we all are in the end. Even though I think this activity is strange and not all that beautiful, the disciple that he has learned from doing this has probably brought him closer to finding him self or taught him how to manage his time or something. Everyone needs a passion of sorts, goals to reach, or we are all just standing still, watching as the world passes us by unchanged by our individual passions thus allowing the grains of time weather down our souls to the same shape as all the others. This kid has molded his own soul, instead of waiting for the world to tell him who to be.
Interesting piece, with quite a poignant ending. Personally, I think one might find the beauty of his lifting 300 pounds in the uniqueness of his ability. Although, I suppose it has no more beauty than a person with extraordinarily long fingernails. Perhaps the beauty in racing could be found in the danger of the activity and the power of the technology involved. Both are certainly miles away form art.
ReplyDelete