Marty Gallagher
The greatest powerlifter of all time making the greatest powerlift of all time ...
This is Ed's historic 901 pound deadlift weighing 219, I coached Ed on this day. He actually missed two lifts on his way to posting a 2,400 pound total; he missed a 986 pound 3rd attempt squat and a mind-blowing 920 third attempt deadlift. He had doubled a 900 pound deadlift in training prior to this competition! The 900x2 training lift was paused between reps.
Without a doubt the greatest athlete I've ever had the pleasure of working with is Ed Coan. Incredible Eddy is the Jim Brown, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali of powerlifting and his exploits are simply astounding when viewed from any athletic angle, be it peak performances or longevity.
Coan's friend and compatriot, Doug Furnas, was a powerlifting comet: a man who tore through our sport after rodeo, after big time college and pro football and before that pro wrestling. Powerlifting, for Doug, was just another whistle stop, an athletic interlude before commencing his decade long journey as a professional wrestler. Doug passed through the strength universe for a few brief years, leaving an indelible mark, before exiting our sphere and heading onto other athletic worlds to conquer.
Ed landed on planet power in 1981 and Incredible Ed has not been beaten in head to head competition since July of 1983 when he took second place at the National Championships to the power dominator of the previous decade, Mike Bridges. When Ed took second place to Mike, in their one and only meeting, it was symbolic: a handing off of the strength torch from the greatest lifter of the 70's and 80's to the greatest lifter from that point forward. It was Bridge's last competition and marked the start of Coan's utter and complete domination, a reign that is unmatched in any sport.
It is actually difficult to come up with an appropriate frame of reference when attempting to relate to outsiders what a phenomenon Ed Coan actually is. In my book on Ed, Coan: The Man, The Myth, The Method, I made some mathematical analogies that bear repeating. At one point in time, 1991, Ed Coan was mathematically 14.5% better than the rest of the world's top powerlifters in the 220 pound class. The second best 220 pound World Total was 2,100 pounds; a great total considering that the inflationary gear and equipment "revolution" had not hit powerlifting. The Monolift had yet to be invented and bench shirts of the time added 30-40 pounds to a lifter's bench press, not 40-60%.
To duplicate Coan's degree of separation from the rest of the field , a sprinter would need to shatter Asafa Powell's current 100 meter yard dash record of 9.77 seconds by posting an 8.35 time. Michael Johnson's current 200 meter World Record of 19.32 seconds would have to be bettered with a 16.52 time. The Cuban Sotomayer's World High Jump Record of 8'1/4" would require someone to leap 9'2" and Randy Barnes' 75'10" World Record in the shot put would need to be blasted to smithereens by someone tossing the 16 pound iron ball 86 feet. That was how far in front of the rest of the strength world Ed Coan was at one marvelous point in time.
Irish Ed is no genetic freak. It would be too cheap and too easy to write off his accomplishments as the result of some sort of accident on the part of nature. Ed is an extremely intelligent and conservative individual who was methodical yet innovative. To those who knew him, Coan was regimented and steadfast. He had an amazing, competitive psyche that was so fierce it was frightening - but it wasn't outward and demonstrative. You had to be fairly close in order to appreciate his internal fire. They say "the eyes are the windows into a man's soul" and Ed's eyes could burn holes in wooden walls and start fires prior to a world record attempt. If you stood within three feet of him prior to a big attempt, he literally generated intense body heat. I repeatedly felt the air temperature around his body rise appreciably prior to a gigantic lift. I suppose this was an outward manifestation of some unique internal psychological process.
This boy will consign us all to oblivion!
(Rival upon hearing Mozart for the first time.)
Well that's bad f...ing news for the rest of us!
(Nationally ranked lifter learning Ed was moving into his weight class.)
I met Ed Coan and Doug Furnas in the mid-eighties while coaching Mark Chaillet at the National and World Championships. Mark was a force to be reckoned with, and like, Doug, moved up from 242 pound class to the 275 pound weight class. I had shattered my leg in 1983 and was effectively finished as a lifter. I morphed into a coach and traveled with Mark and his ample posse to competitions, acting as his coach.
The most memorable powerlifting competitions of all time were the incredible Bacchanalian power festivals Larry Pacifico ran in Dayton. Ed and I ran into each other repeatedly at these meets and I was dumbstruck with his lifting. He was a 181 pound lifter when I first began seeing him lift up close and personal. One year at one of Larry's meets I was on my way to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory across the streeet from the Dayton Convention Center. I happened to cross the street as Ed and his crew were headed in the other direction. He waved me down and got right to the point. "Doug (Furnas) had a last minute emergency and cannot make it to the competition - can you coach me at the competition tomorrow?" Of course. I was flabbergasted and flattered.
So began a long association that allowed me to coach and assist Ed in those competitions where he performed the greatest powerlifting exploits of all time. I coached him when he posted his greatest ever totals and when he lifted his heaviest ever individual ifts. It was a heady and remarkable time. Describing those golden days of yore to younger lifters is odd. The modern powerlifter only knows of powerlifting since "The Great Disintegration and Scattering." When I speak of the heights powerlifting once attained before the splintering, these lifters gaze at me as Dark Ages men would if I were describing Rome before the Huns sacked and burned the city to the ground ...
Dayton, Ohio
Imagine a time when, for a brief sliver of time, everyone who powerlifted competed in a single federation. Those who attended these unified National and World Championships, run under the direction of power impresario Larry Pacifico and his brother, Dick, saw the very best, all lifting together, using the same rules, before sold-out convention center audiences. We honestly believed that mainstream acceptance of powerlifting lay just around the next corner.
Imagine a powerlifting competition where all the top lifters in the country competed in a single place at the same time. Imagine a promotional genius who had the wisdom and foresight to hold championship power competitions in the same town, Dayton, Ohio, at the same time, year after year. As a result of keeping the competitions consistent, over time an audience, an educated audience, grew to love and anticipate the Powerlifting Championships. Year after year, locals and visitors would descend on Dayton to attend these power extravaganzas. Eventually, thousands of people would fill the Dayton Convention Center. People would actually scalp tickets to see the heavyweight finale.
A packed house would sit in air conditioned comfort and watch the greatest lifters in the World ply their trade in front of strict judges in a competition run with the smooth efficiency of a Swiss Watch. Loud, vocal, bawdy, voracious fans hollered themselves hoarse when favorite lifters strode to the platform. Looking around the packed auditorium, the audience profile would be very similar to the type of crowd that attends the annual Sturgis Motorcycle festival each year. By keeping the competitions in Dayton at the same time each year, people were actually planning vacations around attending the Powerlifting Championships.
The Competition Setting
Returning champions had their airfare and hotel rooms paid for. Larry sent courtesy busses to the airport to pick up top lifters and whisk them back to the luxury hotel that adjoined the Convention Center, connected by a skyway. Each year Larry and Dick layered on another new and exciting twist or wrinkle. At its apogee, Larry flew in Klaus, the funky blind organ player from Germany, and between lifts or in dead spots, Klaus would get the crowd going by playing wild dance music.
Larry had a buffet steam table set up in the auditorium, 100 feet from the lifting, audience members could stroll over from their seats, purchase a hot meat loaf platter, perhaps some roast turkey with mashed potatoes, salads, pies, cakes, vegetables and (drum roll) a bottle of beer for a buck! Then walk back to their seat in time to see Hatfield squat 880 at 220 or Cash pull 832 to beat Fred and Larry. How about seeing Jacoby battle Ladiner? Back and forth these two battled, the lead changed hands something like six times. Joe pulled the winning deadlift of 800 only to be turned down in a 2 to 1 decision! Those were indeed the days.
I remember returning from the buffet line and telling my seatmate, Big Bob (an 800 pound raw squatter who had spent time in prison for manslaughter) "Bob, if we died and went to heaven - could it be any freaking better than this!" He shook his massive head, clicked my beer bottle with his and said, "Amen to that Little Daddy!"
You might see John Gamble, Terry McCormick, Dave Shaw, Larry Kidney, Tom Henderson, Bob Dempsey, Mark Chaillet, Sam Samangeio and Steve Wilson all doing battle in the 275 pound class - along with a half dozen other heavy hitter lifters. How about watching Ed Coan deadlift or Lee Moran squat? Or the time Fred Hatfield did battle with Jim Cash and Larry P in the 220 class? You could see Lamar Gant pull 650+ weighing 132 pounds. I remember every time Iron Immortal Doyle Kennedy would stride out to lift, some crazed nut would stand up and yell over and over, "MOUNTAIN MAN! KILL THE WEIGHT MOUNTAIN MAN!"
The feeling of camaraderie among the lifters was palpable: I remember Larry Kidney make a terrific clutch deadlift with 780 and then giving John Gamble a heartfelt hi-five as John passed Larry on his way to the platform to pull the 800 pound poundage that would beat Larry - the enemy was the barbell, not each other. After the competitions it was bawdy, wild, beer-soaked reveries at the Spaghetti Factory or the magnificent Sunday lobster brunch in the meet hotel. It was a precious golden time - now gone forever!
Nowadays you are lucky to get a hundred people to attend a power competition. Other than the lifters, their training partners, girlfriends or families, no one comes to watch powerlifting anymore. There are a dozen federations all holding "National and World Championships." The pre-scattering competitive environment spawned giants like Kaz, Larry, Coan, Ladiner, Bell, Lamar and Doug. As a result of his intense incubation in the undivided pre-scattering times, Ed Coan soared. If you plotted Incredible Ed's power progress on a chart, it would look like a bullet shot straight up in the air.
He started off at a high level in the early eighties and just kept getting better and better and better ... It was one of the most amazing runs in the history of the sport. Statistically the numbers speak for themselves ...
How the Greatest Powerlifter in History Trained
Ed and Doug Furnas took training cues from men like Dennis Wright and Bill Kazmaier They designed a powerlifting training template that became the standardized training regimen for the great lifters of the eighties and early nineties.
Ed would spend the off-season getting as strong as possible in the three powerlifts, or their close exercise variations, wearing little or no equipment. Then, 14 weeks prior to a major competition, he would commence a powerlifting cycle broken into three, 4 week mesocycles. During each four week cycle, a specific rep sequence would be selected and practiced across the board. Rep reductions were coordinated with the addition of power gear: knee wraps, lifting belt, squat suit, and bench shirt.
Coan had a repertoire of assistance exercises he used religiously. His approach was Purposefully Primitive and simplistic: get as strong as possible in the off-season in a variety of lifts wearing no gear whatsoever, not even a lifting belt. Then, when commencing the powerlifting pre-competition cycle, he would add supportive gear, a bit at a time, every four weeks. This kept his off-season interesting. He was a realist: neither he nor Furnas (nor Karwoski at the end of his career) missed reps in training. This was a testament to Ed's realistic assessment of his abilities. Small incremental steps were systematically taken that eventually delivered him to the predetermined destination.
A typical Coan poundage jump in the squat during the final stages of the cycle would never exceed 20 pounds, a trifling 2% weekly increase for a 1,000 pound squatter. Coan and Furnas were stylistic masters, each developed exercise techniques that fit their respective limb/torso lengths and practiced continually at refining and honing their techniques. They took great pride in technical execution. By staying within the technical boundaries of a lift, by never overestimating their strength levels, by be conservative, both men stayed injury free. This is a classical Coan routine taken from when he was at his absolute zenith. The Furnas template would vary slightly.
In 1999 Coan achieved the highest powerlifting total of all time, regardless of bodyweight, when, weighing 241 pounds he posted a 2,463 total. This is his 1,003 pound squat. note the depth and the fact that no monolift was used. I coaching Ed at this competition and have always felt that the fact that Bill Kazmaier made the trip to personally watch Ed lift took his performance to another level. Despite handling Ed for years in competition, I had never seen Coan so fired up. When Kaz walked into the backstage warm-up area, I felt an electricity run round the room. It was, "Oh Hell, The Man is here to assess The Man." I felt that Kaz's presence lifted everyone to the next level. As we came off the platform and passed Kaz after the 1,003 squat, I saw Kaz watching from his vantage point, stage left. I asked him 'What did you think of that Kaz?" Big Kaz was ecstatic and said, "Wow! He took that squat so low!" It was the ultimate compliment from the ultimate authority. High praise from Caesar.
Ed and I after his historic 2400 pound total. He weighed 219 pounds. I weighed 235. This gives a frame of reference to Coan's dense thickness and muscular compactness. Note how his huge hands swallow mine despite the fact that I'm five inches taller. How many guys 5'5" wear a size 11 shoe? I once sat behind Ed and Willie Bell at a Black's Gym team meeting. Ed and Willie sat side-by-side on identify height chairs. Willie was a stud having pulled 830+ at 242. Sitting behind them was eerie: though Willie was five inches taller, sitting down their torso height was identical, highlighting the shortness of Coan's legs. Ed was twice as a wide and twice as thick as the heavily muscled Bell, a world champion in his own right. It was a lesson in body leverages and structural architecture that I will not forget.
Check out the links below for profiles on other remarkable men I have met in my almost 60 years of training. Each have influenced me in different ways over the course of my strength career.
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Great article! I have his book and have used a lot of his training ideas!
Thanks Marty!! Greatest period ever, in our sport!👍👊💪
Really enjoyed reminiscing !!!
[…] on a plate or box with 550, you need a hell of a lot of warm-up sets. The really strong guys, like Coan, Karwoski and Chaillet, would need two hours to work through a squat or deadlift routine. […]