Heavy Lifting

While recovering from hip surgery, one Club Member discovered a passion for weightlifting.

Randy Laxer is beaming in the photo. Standing on a winners’ podium, a bronze medal draped around his neck, the American’s face is projected onto a big screen behind him.

Accompanying the picture on Donny Shankle’s Instagram feed is a message from the five-time US weightlifting champion: “Very proud of Randy Laxer. After hip surgery a couple of years ago, he was determined to lift again.”

Laxer’s success in April’s Weightlifting Masters World Cup in Tokyo came in only his second competition since he began training with Shankle last November.

Recovery and rehabilitation are nothing new to Laxer. The Michigan native began playing hockey at the age of 4 and was a forward on a competitive traveling team in high school. The broken arms, teeth and nose came with the territory.

The physical wear and tear finally forced Laxer to hang up his skates a few years ago. A competitor at heart, he took up CrossFit. The popular workout program is an intense mix of aerobic exercise, calisthenics and Olympic weightlifting (snatch and clean and jerk).

“With running, I used to get bored,” says Laxer, 45, one midweek afternoon at the Club’s Fitness Center. “It was really hard to drag myself out there and run around the palace. CrossFit is just so much fun.”

But two years ago, Laxer tore the cartilage, or labrum, in his hip, which required surgery. The corporate lawyer says the Fitness Center proved to be key to his rehabilitation. He became a fixture at the third-floor space, as he completed his physical therapy exercises.

Within a year, he was able to restart his CrossFit training. And after attending two weightlifting seminars by Shankle in Tokyo, Laxer was hooked. In particular, he says, he enjoys the combination of technicality, strength and agility required to do well in Olympic lifting.

“As the weights get heavier, one millimeter off and you are going to miss the lift,” he says. “It is so precise, and that is why I like it.”

Shankle started personally coaching Laxer, and the Masters World Cup (for competitive weightlifters 35 and older) offered an opportunity to test himself.

“It was nerve-wracking,” says Laxer. “You are up on the stage by yourself, but you just get really calm, take a deep breath and do what you have been training to do.”

Laxer successfully completed all six of his lifts and set a personal record in the clean and jerk, lifting 109 kilos.

He says his short term goal is to increase weight, but ultimately he hopes to emulate the Olympic lifters still competing in their 70s and 80s. He says the new Hammer Strength Olympic lifting platform installed at the renovated Fitness Center has helped him in his quest.

“It’s a great way to stay in shape, so I’m just going to keep doing it,” says Laxer. “We’ll see what happens from there. Keep training, keep getting stronger, keep getting better.”

Words: Nick Narigon
Image: Enrique Balducci