The Straight Line is Unbent
Image of Casey Viator by Steve Wedan
Casey Viator, RIP, 9/4/2013
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The sky is blue, the sun is high, the circle is round, and -- surprise -- I’m off to the quarry to dig the iron. You with me?
I don’t have to go to the gym, I don’t need to go, I don’t even want to go. I go to the gym because I can. It’s what real men do.
Of course, if I don’t go, I fall apart, the world comes down around me and my eyes grow dim. There’s unrest among the nations, stock markets quiver and the beasts of the field become still. It gets worse. Red lines that never were drawn are erased, eradicated and remembered no more... almost forgotten.
And all the people said, “Wha?...”
It takes me 20 minutes by drone to get to the gym, 40 minutes to agitate the iron, and 20 minutes to return to headquarters. I never know what I’m going to do until I get there.
Will I flounder about or will I make a bold statement? Shoot from the hip or aim with specificity; plunge right in with lusty anticipation or will there be stalking, glaring and bitter confrontation?
I park, enter, scan the floor and, while secretly contracting my mystery muscles, make an almost certain determination of the one or two possibilities before me. It’s clear: no mountains will be moved today and no territories conquered; no records set and no trophies added to the mantel.
Nevertheless, I do detect suitable accomplishment and fulfillment just beneath the iron’s tough exterior.
You know what they say. It’s not how hard the iron is, how large or how heavy; it’s the fascinating force, the irresistible resistance, the component offers, and how it’s received, measured and engaged.
They also say a deed done often enough, and with decision, devotion and aspiration, is not a thing of habit but a profound affair of love.
Guess what? I contrived the previous passages that I might refer to myself in the third person and thus be included among the great and multitudinous “they” of social commentary. Building one’s legacy requires cunning selflessness.
Nevertheless, the faux declarations can be applied to the acts and actions we perform on benches in basements, at the ends of cables in garage corners and before sturdy racks in recreation rooms -- loyal, lovable, life-giving lifting.
Do you feel blue? Have you read today’s news? Is life getting you down? Are you in a twitch, a bind, a pinch? Go to where the iron is and perform a miracle! Do a few formed, focused and fundamental crunches and leg raises before it’s too late (five minutes total, including the time with your head in your hands).
I call this a-shot-over-the-bow training methodology, or the pin-prick approach, an unbelievably small and limited strike on the steely opposition, enough to say you did, but didn’t.
Now, while you’re still there (deep breath), grab a pair of friendly dumbbells and knock out a few sets of seated alternate curls (three will do) applying today’s funky rhythm and rhyme (eight reps).
Between the clusters of curls, lay flat and fly, press, pullover and extend those same dumbbells in an urgently carefree manner (some four reps per vaguely separate, loosely connected action). You’re blithely seeking and blissfully summoning the burn, pump and satisfaction of wide and varied muscle contractions.
Cool! Clank!
No one said it had to be a major operation. Sometimes a Band-Aid can stop the bleeding and save a life.
You did it. You’re done. Go home.
Unless you are home, in which case you might as well stay. As long as you’re here, how about some overhead presses supersetted with wide-grip pulldowns? Squats? Deadlifts? I’ll spot. Want a Bomber Blend Blast? Ice, no ice?
It gets lonely in September.
Laree e e e...! Let’s go to the movies.
DD
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Heavy Duty Casey Viator, B-62
He thudded suddenly upon the muscle scene like a boulder loosed from Rushmore just when my time as a Mister-something went in retreat. I didn’t know Casey Viator personally, but I’ve admired, appreciated and respected him from afar for many years.
Zane, Arnold and Franco, lusty and zealous competitors and my life-long friends, remained in my peripheral vision at Joe’s Gym, but my appetite for the iron had become that of a hungry mutt gnawing on a bone, a hunky and juicy T-bone.
Lift, chomp, heave, slurp.
Casey was a fresh rock pile in ’71, a 19-year-old Mr. America, a young slab of mass, cuts, rips and veins who applauded heavy-duty HIT (High Intensity Training) as the new-born musclebuilding methodology. Gritty Arthur Jones, wielding his ‘far-out’ Nautilus Equipment, cheered the way.
I peeked from the uncluttered certainty of the squat rack and sighed with relief that the weights were my play things and old-fashioned hard-working and dull volume training was for me. Where’s my bone?
Casey went on to become an anvil, then a sledgehammer, a mighty vice grip and a pile-driver. I never knew the man, just saw the awesome things of power he personified.
A mutual friend, an honorable person, a magazine writer, photographer and artist said, “He was always nice, witty, earthy and gentlemanly -- one of the finest, one of the good guys.”
Casey, hard at work and pressing on, left us a week ago, “One of the finest, one of the good guys.”
May we be strong and courageous...
God Bless us... Dave
*****
As Dave noted above, Casey Viator died last week, on his 62nd birthday. He had congestive heart failure for several years, and heart failure is thought to be the cause of death. To refresh your memory or expand your knowledge, here are some of my favorite links to him and his history.
On the sweet side, John Balik of Iron Man Magazine has collected memorial comments and tributes from Casey’s peers.
In addition to being the youngest-ever Mr. America, Casey was also well known as the participant in Arthur Jones’s Colorado Experiment. To relive that bit of history, Drew Baye has those chapters of the Nautilus Training Principles posted for you.
For an insider’s look at the Arthur Jones relationship and on Casey’s training at the time, please enjoy Steve Wedan’s lengthy memory piece, a two-parter here on davedraper.com.
Dave Robson did a lengthy interview with Casey about 10 years ago, still available on bodybuilding.com.
Casey wrote a book called Total Fitness, available on his website.
The training program Casey is famous for, a high intensity training program, is fully described in Ellington Darden’s book, The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results.
And finally, I’ll drop you off at the link where you’ll be captivated by images of him.
Casey's memorial service is tomorrow, Thursday, 9/12 at 2pm, Unity Church of Clearwater, 2465 Nursery Road, Clearwater, FL 33764. If you’d like to send a card, the church will forward it to Casey’s family for you.
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