Dr. Squat - Dr. Fred Hatfield

Well Todd,
I can remember hearing about it last year. I think it was one of my friends who told me about it. I met Ben White a few times through my circle of training friends; he competed in a powerlifting contest I was in and he came to train with us once. He was supposed to be in the contest as well as Johnny Jackson. Ben I know is quite a strong guy. At the powerlifting contest he benched 550 lbs raw @ 275 and with a six pack. Not that you have to have a six pack for powerlifting or anything like that. But a 550 lb bench press is quite impressive at that weight. Most bodybuilders could never dream of doing it and most powerlifters who can do it are in a higher weight class.

So yeah, last time I knew those guys both do powerlifting contests. Johnny Jackson is supposed to be real strong with his lower body strength and obviously Ben White is the one with the great bench press.

I think the contest they were doing was just supposed to be for fun. You know, they have a lot of events like that. It brings interest to the sport. Thats why I know every time there was a meet (powerlifting or strongman) I went to at Adirondack Barbell when Bill Crawford wasn't competing, Bill was the anouncer and he always tried to make it fun. When he would introduce guys he would say fun stuff about them like a brief bio, and when we made out lifts at this one meet he wanted us to make sort of a show off instead of just walking off the stage.

If you look up on youtube you can find a video from last year of Johnny Jackson and Ben White talking crap to each other about who was going to win the contest. It actually is silly if you think about it because for all the bodybuilders who compete in powerlifting, you can just compare their best contest numbers to see who is the best. Its all just for show.

Anyways, I thought the event would have gotten more publicity than it did and that someone would have more information about it. But I guess not because its not powerlifting in a specific federation and it isn't a bodybuilding contest either; all bodybuilders care about is being oiled up and pretty, and all powerlifters care about is the numbers. So nobody from either sport really cares.

Personally I like fun stuff. I loved competing in ammeter strongman even though I know I will never do it professionally. And I love powerlifting just the same.

Oh, and the comp was not raw, they wore Inzer blast shirts for the bench....event sponsored by Inzer I believe.

The blast shirt isn't cutting edge, but its not raw either. I used to get about 50-60lbs out of my old blast shirt, I am sure many people squeezed more out of them.

I saw Ben White push some monster weight at Albany Strength about 4-5 years ago, before he got into bodybuilding. Strong as hell. I remember him benching over 500 for sets of three in a t-shirt only.

Nate M.
PT, CSCS