With his hands caked with chalk and his right arm draped in a dragon tattoo, David Dailey clutches the charcoal bar.
Closing his eyes to mentally prepare himself, the 33-year old University of Memphis student breathes slowly: in and out, in and out.
Then, without warning, Dailey leaps into the air and swings the bar up, flying the 88-pounds of steel past his orange tank-top and over his head.
After repeating this several times, the exercise-sports science major drops the bar on the ground and smiles.
“I’m just getting warmed up,” he said. Across the gym, Shelby Peel slings another bar up in a blur, hoping for precision and speed.
“I’m working on the snatch,” the exercise-sports science graduate student, 24, said. “It’s the most technical Olympic lift that there is.”
In between Peel and Dailey stands T.J. Hardaway, 22, a U of M junior and studio art major. He heads for a bar but hesitates.
Hardaway is about to lift 308 pounds, a number that will give anyone second thoughts. The student gathers himself and grabs the bar. Others pause their workouts to watch as Hardaway, with all his might, forces the weight above his head. “Ahhhh!” he cried.
After a few seconds of triumph Hardaway drops the bar. 308 pounds of metal slam to the ground, shaking the gym to its core.
This may seem unusual to some, but for Dailey, Peel, Hardaway and others, it’s a typical Friday in the field house. These students and others are members of the Iron Tigers, a U of M Resident Student Organization that is sanctioned with U.S.A. Weightlifting. Robert Townsend, 43, the coach for the Iron Tigers, described how it’s different from other work-out groups.
“It’s not for people who just want to exercise,” he said. “It’s mainly for people who want to train for the sport of weight lifting.”
And train they do, as the Iron Tigers meet every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The group is particularly focused with a weight-lifting meet coming up on March 19th.
The meets fluctuate in size, and the number of competitors can range from 10 to 60. Regardless of size, the Iron Tigers like their prospects.
“If I can nail this down,” Peel said of the Snatch, “I think my chances are pretty decent to finish in the top three.”
Hardaway is confident in his abilities.
“I’m trying to win,” he said. “I have to just try and know what I’m capable of.”
When asked if he thought the Iron Tigers would do well at the meet, Dailey responded with a simple “hell yeah.”
But weight-lifting isn’t just about competition for the Iron Tigers. For Townsend, it’s always been about the variety of skills the sport of weight-lifting takes.
“It’s a pretty complete sport,” he said. “It takes strength, power, flexibility, timing, and high coordination. It’s what I’ve mainly been interested in for the past 20 years.”
For Kris Camelio, 25, it isn’t all about exercise.
“It goes beyond the gym,” the U of M graduate student and exercise- sports science major said. “It helps with other aspects of your life. I use it as a tool to keep the rest of my life together.”
