James Spurgin is a rare athlete in that he’s an active Olympic weightlifter, powerlifter, strongman, and CrossFit® athlete. That’s already pretty darn unusual, but when you add to that the fact that ten years ago, the former Marine lost the use of his right arm following a motorcycle accident, you really start to understand how remarkable a figure he is.
Today we want to highlight Spurgin’s first weightlifting meet, at which he completed a 64-kilogram (141lb) snatch and a 71-kilogram (156.5lb) clean & jerk. You can see all of his successful lifts in the clip below.
Columbus Weightlifting posted the clip with the following caption:
James crushed his first meet today @pittsburghbarbell. He also earned the most inspirational lifter award. Couldn’t be more proud of you James!
BarBend reached out to Spurgin to ask him a few questions about his training.
So at the meet on the weekend it looks like you made a 64kg snatch and 71kg clean and jerk, were those PRs?
Snatch was 64kg and clean & jerk 71kg, neither were PRs but as this was my first Olympic Weightlifting meet, I guess they could be considered PRs… my best gym lifts are snatch 71kg and celan & jerk 75kg.
How did you train for the meet — is your programming very different to the standard approach?
My training was only slightly modified from standard due to my snatch and clean pulls being the same thing. Other then that I do basically the same as everyone else.
What’s your secret to keeping a barbell in the front rack?
I don’t quite get it in the front rack position so I end up holding it in my hand resting the right side of the bar on my right shoulder and hold the middle of the bar with my chin.
You also won this year’s Strongest Disabled Man at the Arnold, right? What was the toughest event?
I didn’t win in 2017 but got a lot of attention from the stone loading event where I loaded a 150lb and 180lb stone then lapped the 200lb. But funny enough the 400lb loaded tire drag over concrete was more difficult.
How do you balance training between weightlifting, powerlifting, strongman, and CrossFit?
I do the majority of my time training weightlifting and then when a meet comes up for any of the rest I will train the events for the specific meet about 8 weeks out.
Are there any adaptive athletes who you look up to and get inspiration from?
As a whole, most athletes in general inspire me but if I were to choose I would say that its more the specific event or accomplishment that inspires me… like Brian Shaw’s 555lb stone or the recent 560lb, or the struggle between Naim Süleymanoğlu and Valerios Leonidis in the ’96 Olympics, or watching Rich Froning win his 4th CrossFit title in a row.
Awesome. Thanks for your time, James!
Featured image via @columbus_weightlifting on Instagram.