Meet Brian Drescher, a living legend. I stumbled upon YouTube videos of this guy and was pretty entertained. Unfortunately the guy who uploaded his two best videos put a block on embedding them, so you will have to click them manually.
This guy apparently loves him some Olympic weightlifting. When he hits his lifts, he’ll say things like, “In your face! There it is! Still the king!” so fast you wonder how he was prepared to say it while supporting 100 kilos overhead. The guy must be crazy like Ricky Bruch, but generally has a jovial disposition (as opposed to Bruch’s ill-tempered nature).
The first video I saw was this one at the 2007 Empire State Games, and it gives you a splash of his personality.
For whatever reason, the YouTube account doesn’t allow links to the videos. You can find the account here, and it is the 2007 Empire State Games video.
But you’ll learn so much more from him in this next vid (my personal favorite) — he spits out his life philosophy while doing a set of 10 power snatches at 70 kilos (note the “Got Total?” shirt).
Don’t fret, we also have videos of him competing in the 2008 and 2009 Empire State Games. This is a real treat folks, because he is, after all, an American legend.
39 thoughts on “A Living Legend”
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is it really not important to have straight elbows in competition?
and why do you guys think he does not flatten his back at the start?
i mean at the top of the jerk and the snatch, is it unnecessary to have straight elbows for the judges to green light your lifts?
Looking at the guy, do you think he can straighten his elbows? Do you think that people who can’t straighten their elbows are just not allowed to compete?
And I don’t know why the hell he pulls with a round back, I don’t currently have telepathic ability. Jesus.
–Justin
the guy is like 40+, flexibility and a solid lock out are probably not going to be his strong points
irregardlessly he is an icon and a hero
result of too much amonia? :) Just kidding, very entertaining and he clearly loves the sport!
“In your face!” That is some great shit, thanks for sharing.
“Irregardlessly”
Flame me all you want for pointing out a spelling error on the internet, but that is just taking the English language from behind.
He typed that to piss me off. He does it all the time.
–Justin
regarding the elbows, i dont know anything about judging so dont get mad jeez.
So you don’t have to lock out the elbows then? I’m only wondering the same as simonsky.
Diplomatic answer: he can’t lock out his elbows. He isn’t choosing to keep them bent.
–Justin
Awe-some! :)
Re locked out elbows, I thought the official rules were had to be locked out unless you have a medical certificate (which I’m sure he does)… kind of like work.
(you can always go to the official IWF site and read the rule book… it’s fun)
You show the judge the extent of your extended elbows before you lift. The USAW rules say it must be caught at “arm’s length”.
–Justin
As the others have said, it’s most likely a medical exemption. If elbows can’t lock out, they have to be as locked out as they will get. Yuri Zakharevich had a similar problem.
You don’t need medical papers at a meet. You just show them the elbow. Same in USAPL.
–Justin
That dude is a mad man. Awesome.
“Bigger than the sport.” Epic.
there we go, a true sportsman.
1)Irregardlessly is not a word …”In your face!”
2)In the NYS 2009 Vid Brian shows the judges that his full lock out is with his elbows bent, watch it again he clearly says “this is lock out right here” while his hands are in the air. “There it is!”
3)This guy needs to start a stand up routine where he does oly lifts the whole time and the punchline of every joke comes after he pulls a sweet snatch. I would totally pay to see that.
you’re right, irregardlessly isn’t a word, it’s a fucking lifestyle
– brent
eh eh eeh eh AAAAAAAAAAH ha there it is take a look
eh ehe eh eh eh eh eh aaaaaaaaaaaaaaawh still the king, 30 years
I am going to waste my day watching thses
There is uncanny quality to his lifting.
I don’t know if this is the right place to post this, but here goes anyway.
I’ve been squating twice a week since January. About 2 weeks ago I started lifting with a belt. When squatting last thursday I got a sharp pain in my stomach, just above my pubic bone. I finished my squats anyway, and I had no trouble with my bench pressing or deadlifts. I power clean and jerked and power snatched yesterday without any pain, but then squated today and could barely finish my first set at 5kg higher than last thursday because of the pain in my stomach. It hurt on my first work set but not on my last warm up set. I’m concerned that I could get a hernia because of the place the pain is. What would you guys recomend? Is the this kind of thing I should just man up and squat on anyway, or should I stop squatting heavy for a few weeks to let it heal? I went on to press for 3 sets of 5 for new PR without it hurting my stomach, if that helps identify more clearly what I should do?
1)Irregardlessly is not a word …”In your face!”
Dear God I hope you were not talking to me.
Anyway, case closed.
Great video!
atomichop,
I had a similar pain in the same area when I first got a belt. Disclaimer: This is a not a recommendation! I am just telling you what I did.
The pain was pretty sharp in the same area, and it was only when squatting. I went on and kept squatting anyways and it went away. My theory was that I was creating much more pressure in my abdomen than it had ever experienced and it was causing some pain but then adapted to the stress and the pain went away. I dont know. That’s what I told myself. I’m not real big on doctors and will avoid them if at all possible. Again, this is not a recommendation. Just sharing my experience. If the pain is severe, but isnt present at lighter weights, maybe reset a bit and work back up with the belt? Of course if it is severe and persistent, maybe get it checked out. Also, how long have you been making 5 kilo increases?
Leeuwer: Hey sorry, No i was not talking to you, I was talking to Brent.
OOOOh IN YOUR LIFESTYLE BRENT!
STILL THE KING!
No problem mate, glad you bust his balls about it too ;-)
That level of elbow inflexibility makes me nauseous. Irregardlessly, his power rivals that of a 10 kiloton nucular bomb.
Haha nucular. Thanks GW
My friend is in the process of uploading a VHS of the Empire State Games in ’92. Drescher power clean and jerks 150kg then.
He’s a great guy if you have ever met him, very nice and polite. He likes to put on a show for people during the meets. Last I heard he is working on “new material” for the meets.
I want to speak with him. Make it happen.
–Justin
I want going to say anything but I am sitting here at my desk thinking “hmmm 10kiloton sounds a little off..” so in light of my ponderings I did some math:
Ok 1 kiloton of TNT is equal to 4.184 Terajoules (that’s 4.184 trillion joules) so 10kT is 41.84TJ that’s pretty easy
Ok so now we have the formula for Joules: J=kg(m^2/s^2)
Now let us look at the videos of our new found hero, Brian, and by the looks of it I would say he is about 5’10” (70”)and that when he is locked overhead the bar is about 4-5 inches higher. So let’s say that is about 6’3”(75” = 1.778m)
Ok so I found a video where he snatches 105kg and according to my stopwatch skills, he does it in about 1.1 seconds. Time to plug our variables in…
J = 105kg(1.778m^2/1.1s^2) = 105kg(2.61263 m^2/s^2) = 274.32615 Joules
274.32615 Joules is fairly close to 41,840,000,000,000 Joules but I would not consider the two a rivalry per se.
Just my $0.02 IN YOUR FACE!
incredible
– brent
70’s Big — Killing work productivity one day at a time.
–Justin
Hey brent you should come hang out in Houston. If you want, you can stay in my extra room with my dog wrigley, he is pretty cool.
fuck there is a meet in Houston at the end of July that Justin wants me to go to
it’s 2 weeks after USAPL Raw Nationals, do you think i should go?
– brent
Will be in San Antonio this Thursday through Sunday. Not sure if Ill train or not, but if I get a hankerin to, does anyone have any suggestions where to go?
Ryan-
Thanks for the advis. Yeah I thought that it was the belt putting extra pressure on my lower abdomen. I started last week squatting 115kg x 5 x 3 on tuesday, then 120 x 5 x 3 on thursday, then only managed 125kg x 5 today. I worked up to 117.5kg x 5 x 3 following crossfit football programming, but then i put the weight down when I started the novice weightlifting program posted on this site. Maybe I should have put the weight up so quickly?
Please excuse the numerous typos in that post.. I should really proof read if my grammar and spelling are that bad first try.
Atomichop,
A 5 kilo increase every session may get hard to do. You may try 2.5. Slow and steady ya know?
I will try that. What should I cut the weight to on friday when I squat next?
Well if you’re worried about the pain, I’d say do as much as you can pain free, or as much as you can tolerate. Just be smart ya know. The time it takes to work back through a small reset is a lot shorter than it will be havin to come back from an injury. But someone else on here or maybe Justin will have better advice than I can give ya….
In the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, I would like to edit my previous statement. It should read, “his power rivals that of a 6.54875717×10^-8 ton nucular bomb.” I was merely trying to embiggen an American Hero.
A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man…
This video brings up something I have been wondering about, what are your guys thoughts on ammonia? I’ve been curious for awhile now. Everyone feel free to chime in. Livin’ irregardlessly, Ectropy out.
I wonder if somewhere along the line Brian Drescher switched amonia suppliers and unwittingly began snorting high grade Columbian weightlifting powder. This would explain his hilarious antics and addiction to the sport of weightlifting. A similar thing happened on an episode of “King of the Hill” where Hank buys crack cocaine as fish bait.
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Excellent Post!
With Brian, it’s also the little things that help make his performances special. Like how he changes singlets between the snatch and the clean & jerk (in the 2nd embedded video). Or how he sometimes addresses the bar from the other side, so his ass is facing the center ref.
I mean, it all is humorous, but back in the day he did lift some pretty significant weights. I believe his best clean and jerk was 175kg at @90kg bw and I saw a video of him snatching 135 and power clean & jerking 155 pretty easily.
“…I train 3 times a dayyyy!”
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