All in the family: Local strength athletes train bodies, minds
Daniel Martynowicz
Virginia Cornelius works on her bench press at her son’s home gym in Ronan. Cornelius has been strength training since 2003.
Melea Burke
Joe Pablo greets a friend after being honored at an Arlee High School basketball game in early December. Pablo passed away just two weeks late from cancer. Last month, Pablo’s friend and weightlifting buddy Skip Schacher set a new state record in the bench press and dedicated his win to Pablo.
Daniel Martynowicz
James Greene spots mom Virginia Cornelius as she works out on the bench. Cornelius recently set a new state record for dead lift in her age group.
Daniel Martynowicz
Daniel Martynowicz
Daniel Martynowicz
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RONAN — While tests of human strength and endurance probably date back as far as civilization itself, competitive weightlifting and training have evolved into a unique sport teaching participants discipline, respect and strength of mind and body.
Virginia Cornelius, a Ronan resident and involved community member, knows this all too well. While competing in the World Association of Benchpressers and Deadlifters Montana State Championship March 23, Cornelius set a new state deadlifting record in the 68-74-year-old class, lifting 154 pounds.
She is part of a small but dedicated strength-training community in the Mission and Jocko Valleys. The group works out at several gyms, including SKC’s weight room, and is a close-knit group of friends.
One such lifter, Skip Schacher, said there were about nine members of SKC’s lifting group present at the Montana State Championships. T.J. Haynes of Arlee competed in the Law-Fire Sub-Master Men division, earning first-place honors and setting a new state record with a 358 pound bench press. Several other local strength athletes earned first-place honors and set state records.
“The guys did pretty well,” Schacher said, adding that while he set a world record during the competition, he wasn’t satisfied and believed he could do better. He dedicated his world-record-setting set to the late Joe Pablo, a close friend and fellow lifter.
Pablo set a world record for bench press during the 2011 WABDL meet in Las Vegas, Nev., lifting 341.5 pounds. Four days later, he was diagnosed with lung cancer on top of diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis and four blocked arteries in his heart. He passed away Dec. 22, 2012, at the age of 62.
“Joe and I were pretty good friends,” Schacher said. “His pain was so bad sometimes that when I’d call him, he couldn’t talk. He’d hang up and call me back and say, ‘The pain is gone now; I can talk.’ He was quite a guy and I wanted to do something for Joe, so I dedicated my win to Joe Pablo.”
WABDL has commissioned the creation of a new award in Pablo’s name. Schacher believes the award, known as the “Courage Award,” will be given out to its first recipient during the world championship meet Nov. 5-10 in Reno, Nev.
“He had a lot of courage,” Schacher said. “I’ll tell you that.”
Courage is something Cornelius knows about, too.
Her journey began in 2003 with a shoulder injury requiring surgery to repair her rotator cuff and clavicle and polish the joint.
“Then, of course, the usual physical therapy began,” she said. “Several weeks of therapy proved no relief from the pain, and I asked my son, James, if he could help me.”
Cornelius’ son, James Greene, is an accomplished strength athlete. Greene said he started lifting weights for football, like most kids.
“I started hanging out with a local group of guys who got me into the gym, and I started powerlifting and competing in high school,” he said. “I was going really strong until 2008.”
Greene competed in the WABDL World Championships that year, taking fourth in bench press and second in deadlift. This would be Greene’s last competition to date, having had “my 15 minutes of fame, I just lost interest. That, and I was trying to finish up my degree,” he explained.
Greene said he was also a part of team USA during the 2002 All Nation Strength Challenge. The team competed in Canada and placed fifth in the world. He took 12th in a U.S. Strongest Man competition in Hawaii.
“I enjoyed the discipline and camaraderie of the sport, especially in the early days,” Greene said. “It’s almost like martial arts in a way. You’re taught in karate and jujitsu to not be self-centered. You’re taught to have self-control and treat others with dignity and respect.”
A certified personal trainer and lifelong weightlifter, Greene agreed to help his mom get back into fighting shape and build more strength in her shoulder.
“He placed his big hands on my shoulder, felt where I needed to build muscle, and showed me mild exercises using slow motion, light weights and breathing exercises to ease into a totally new way to build the shoulder muscles back up,” Cornelius said. “I ceased using physical therapy. It took some time, but I gradually gained my range of motion back to do more than 90 percent and the strength also. I was amazed to see what simple weightlifting could do.”
As her shoulder and arms grew stronger, Cornelius started eyeing the very same weightlifting meets she’d attended for years, watching her son compete. On March 7, 2009, she rose to the challenge and competed in both bench press and dead lift, setting a new state record in bench press.
One year later, she set another state record with a dead lift of 148.7 pounds.
Gallbladder surgery and illness sidelined Cornelius for the next two years until, on March 23 of this year, she competed once more in both bench press and dead lift, setting a new state record in the dead lift with 154 pounds. She hopes to break the world record of 166 pounds at her next meet June 15 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“I am training to meet that goal,” she said. “I need to top that amount (but I’m) not sure what I intend to lift.”
The mother-son pair continue training nearly every night in Greene’s custom-built home gym. While Greene has trained many clients before, he said training his mother is very different.
“For one, it’s my mom,” Greene said with a laugh. “Two, I kind of have to put being her son aside and basically treat her like I would treat a normal client in respect to what she needs to be doing. I also have to watcher her fatigue level — It’s not like trying a young guy that you can really push. With a more seasoned person, you really have to be careful and take into consideration past injuries. You have to mindful of that.”
All the same, Greene said he loves the quality time the two get to spend together.
“My father died when I was 11 of cancer, so in a way, I kind of missed out on some of those times a lot of kids get to spend with their dads growing up,” Greene said. “At least now I can kind of help my mom through her golden years and help her enjoy that.”
As for Cornelius, she had a few words of encouragement for people, young and old, who might like to get into powerlifting.
“It’s not just for the competition, but to keep this older body moving,” she said. “Until a person devotes themselves to some form of exercise in their life, they do not understand how it helps with attitude, endurance, strength, and most of all a happy feeling about ones self.
“For those who don’t have the feel for it: Try it. You will like it, no matter what age you may be ... Remember, a body in motion stays in motion. A body at rest stays at rest.”
Montana State Bench Press and Dead Lift Championship March 23, 2013
Benchers
T.J Haynes, Arlee, Law-Fire Sub-master Men, 220, first place and Montana state record, 358 pounds.
Ike Pablo, Arlee, Master Men, raw lifter, 40-46, 242, first place, 314 pounds
Joseph Gerald Pablo, Arlee, Master Men, 40-46, 242, first-place and Montana state record, 407 pounds
Meafua Tualaina, Polson, Master Men, raw lifter, 47-53, 308, Montana state record, 451 pounds.
Skip Schacher, Ronan, Master Men, 68-74, 132, new world record, 187.02 pounds.
Virginia Cornelius, Ronan, Master Women, 68-74, 165, first place, 77.5 pounds
Dead Lifters
Alex Finley, Ronan, Class 1, Men, 220, first place, 501 pounds and “Lifter of the Day.”
Michael Gipe, Polson, Junior Men, 20-25, 165, no results
Craige Couture, Polson, Law-Fire, 40-47 men, 275, no results
Brandon Couture, Polson, Law-Fire, Open Men, raw lifter, 242, New Montana state record, 501 pounds.
Craige Couture, Polson, Law-Fire Open Men, 275, new Montana state record and first place, 551 pounds.
Louis Fiddler, Arlee, Law-Fire Sub-master Men, 220, new Montana state record, 462 pounds
Ulutoa Sikaleti, Polson, Master Men, 40-46, 242, no results
Vincent Pablo, Arlee, Master Men, 40-46, 308, no results
Meafue Tualaina, Polson, Master Men, 47-53, 308, lift was 429 pounds.
Virginia Cornelius, Ronan, Master Women, 68-74, 165, Montana state record, 154 pounds.
