history

That's right...a real place. It's part of Kansas City and was only known as Muscle
Valley by the local lifters, several top local athletes and their families and people
who knew them.

Several years ago, when I was a young man of 15, I and my neighbors had
already been lifting for 3 years. We took it serious. When I was 14, I was already
the strongest guy in my high school. Since I was over 6ft, even the seniors took
notice. Steve, Russell (my neighbors) and I lifted at various locations around our
houses. Steve had a horse that he finally had to sell. That left a small barn
vacant.

Well, you know what that barn became. It became our gym. We put our various
weights in there, built a leg press machine out of railroad ties and bought a set of
heavy-duty squat stands. All together, we had over 2,000lbs of weight. We even
built an extention on to the barn with roof and floor.

We had a way of getting big plates free. They're called manhole covers. We had
4-135lb plates, 4-50lb plates and 6-35lb plates, which were all manhole covers
with a hole drilled out in the center. We had 2 York olympic sets and lots of other
plates.

When I was a junior, I placed in the state meet in shot-put and discus. My
cousin was a senior and placed 2nd in each. He lifted with us. He was a heck of a
football player and won a full-ride to North Texas State University. He played on
the same team as "Mean" Joe Green. They became friends.

I got bigger and stronger. My senoir year, I demolished the state shot-put
record by 2 feet. In fact, I broke a former Olympian's record. I held it for 11 years.
Our little horse barn started getting popular. Other well-known athletes would drop
in for a workout. Huge numbers were put up in our little gym. One of the McClain
brothers jerked 440 off the racks (his brother is the top masters Olympic lifter in
the country), I deadlifted 600 when I was 17 and my cousin could leg-press about
1500lbs. My neighbor, Steve, could do doubles in the standing strict military press
with 295lbs.

One day Steve, Russell and I loaded every weight we could on a bar and did
quarter squats off the racks...1100lbs. We were animals.

That barn, my parents house and my neighbors house were in a little,
secluded valley in the river hills off the Kansas river. My daughter Erin and son
Matt grew up there just like I did. You have to see it to believe it. It's right in the
middle of a large city, but it's like it's a hundred miles away. It became known as
Muscle Valley to lifters in Kansas City and Lawrence, Ks, where I attended Kansas
University on a full track scholarship and it became known in other places around
the country that had ties to the Citizens of Muscle Valley.