Brad Gillingham

 

MAD: How did you get started? As I understand you where gearing up to be a basketball player. Kind of a bizarre way to start your Powerlifting fame Don't you think?

BG: My father is Gale Gillingham.  He is a former 5 times All Pro Offensive Guard with the Green Bay Packers. He played 11 seasons in the NFL.  He was inducted into the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame in 1982.  Back in the 1960's and 1970's there were not many small towns that had gyms or training facilities. All of his training in the off-season was done in our home in the small community of Little Falls, MN. My brothers and I have been around weight training since our earliest memories.  My father introduced all of us to weight training at an early age.  Ironically, I can't say that any of us boys cared for it to much to begin with.  My brother Karl and I started training more with weights in high school to prepare for Basketball and other sports.  I had a real thin build and I once high jumped 6'10". Karl and I were both Minnesota All-State Basketball players, and Wade was also very successful.  For various reasons our college careers were cut short and we began getting more serious about weight training.  My brother Karl participated in the ADFPA Central Minnesota Powerlifting Open in 1988.  This got us all hooked and we started focusing our efforts towards powerlifting.  I had a freak knee injury in college that left me with a dislocated knee and a nice railroad track scar on the medial side of my right knee joint.  It took me a little longer to get going in the sport. I entered my first meet in 1989 at the ADFPA Northwest Open.  I weighed 232 lbs.

MAD: For a man who influences so many… People wonder. who influences you?

BG: I have a lot of influences including family members, friends, and competitors that I have faced.  I am a big fan of all strength sports, and I appreciate the hard work and the differences it takes to be a competitor in weightlifting, powerlifting, strongman and even body-building.  I have learned a lot from watching competitors from all over the World and from reading and talking with as many individuals as possible.  My father and brothers influence me the most.  The “Oldman” was a pioneer in the NFL in strength training.  He developed the power rack along time before it ever existed in gyms.  A lot of his off season training was heavy partials out of a home made power rack.  He trained at home and had nobody to spot him when he went heavy so he would train lighter in full movements and finish off with heavy power rack partials.  He would train routinely between 1300-and 1500lbs in partial squats. I feel that he is one of the strongest men to ever walk the planet. He has traveled all over the world coaching me at various events.  In 1997 he made a big impression on the Ukrainian Powerlifters at the IPF Worlds in Prague, Czech-Republic.  I ask him to pull on the back of my suit straps and he lifted me 6 inches off of the ground right in front of the coaching staff.  They still talk to me about it today.

My brother Karl has transformed himself from a successful ADFPA National caliber powerlifter into one of the top strongman competitors in the world.  He has competed in 2 ESPN Worlds Strongestmen Competitions, and has made the 2005 IFSA World Championships finals this year at the age of 40.  He is a brutal competitor and is a fantastic athlete.  Karl should have followed the Oldman's lead and played on the grid-iron on Sunday afternoons.  He is that kind of athlete.  He has competed in 50-60 Strongman competitions Worldwide the past 8 years.  Karl has also traveled all over the World helping me at various contests.

Wade had all of the tools to be a World Champion powerlifter when he was younger.  He was much stronger than either Karl or I at an early age.  Unfortunately he suffered a severe back injury and his powerlifting career was cut short.  He recovered somewhat from the back injury and was able to transform himself into a World Class Strongman Competitor.  It was really interesting seeing him and Karl compete head to head for several years around the country.  His back injuries have continued to plague him and he is currently not competing.  He has focused his efforts in recent years into strength training and working on his grip strength.  He is still very strong and is regarded as having one of the strongest grips in the World.  He travels quite frequently with me to GNC shows and runs a contest that we hold in the GNC  GNC Grip Gauntlet. ns with me 3 nights a week and has traveled all over the world helping me at various contests.  He pushes me everyday in training.

The Gillingham Family

I have so many people that have influenced and helped me through the years. I can't possibly mention them all. Scott Safe has been instrumental in my training by turning me onto some of the Olympic Lifting training concepts. Scott and Steve Johnson helped me get to worlds my first couple of years with their generosity.  Pete Alaniz has provided a lot of support. I have had a number of friends and family members travel all over the world supporting me.  I think in 2003 in Vejle, Denmark, Nick Tylutki and I had 30+ friends and family members from Minnesota that made the trip.  Steve Johnson, Gary Grahn, Travis Fischer, Darwin Patzlaff, John Campion, my wife Diane, and many family members have traveled around the world supporting me and helping me out at contests.  I owe a lot to all of them.

MAD: What is your background? What other things do you do?

BG: I work for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in Marshall Minnesota. I primarily work with municipal wastewater treatment facilities. I also have been under contract with GNC as a sponsored athlete the past 6 years. I travel to the bigger fitness and strength training shows around the country to promote GNC and do strength seminars. GNC is a fantastic sponsor and they help to make all of my travels possible through the great sponsorship package and the excellent supplement support. My wife Diane works as a school teacher and I have two beautiful little girls named Emily (7) and Elizabeth (4).  My lifting would not be possible if it was not for the support of my wife and kids.  They help to put things in perspective.

MAD: I bet when your kids say ‘my daddy is stronger then your daddy’ no one argues. What is the story around Jackals Gym? How did that get started?

BG: Jackal’s gym started as a concept in 1995.  Basically a group of lifters from the Marshall area that was sick of lifting in a health club.  We formed a club and found a cheap place to rent.  We cancelled our memberships and loaded our equipment up that we had placed in the health club.  We all contributed financial resource to purchase more equipment and we add equipment each year. A member of the gym was nick-named Jackal.  He started the gym bank account so we decided to call the gym Jackals. We started selling t-shirts to support the gym and Jackals began. The big break-through came in 2001 when one of the gym members (John Campion) was building an office and heated storage building for his business.  The gym members helped to construct much of our current building.  We all learned in a hurry that squatting massive weights is not nearly as dangerous as climbing rafters and positioning support beams.  My brothers started the Jackals gym web site. The link is www.jackalsgym.com. It has turned into a great sideline business for Karl and Wade and they sell videos, Rehband equipment and various strength training merchandise world wide. 

Brad Gillingham in action

Jackals Gym has had a lot of success on the USAPL and IPF platform.  Minnesota has had 4 Men's Open lifters compete at the IPF World Championships.  Three of them train fulltime or part time at Jackals Gym.  We have some real intense workouts when Greg Wagner, Nick Tylutki, John and Jordan Krogman, Wade Gillingham, Gary Grahn, Darwin Patzlaff, myself and others are training 5x5 squats. I have been fortunate to make 8 IPF World Teams training at Jackals.  Greg Wagner competed at the 2002 IPF Worlds in Trencin, Slovakia.  Nick and I just got back from the 2005 IPF/IWGA World Games and Nick John 2004 IPF Sub-Junior World Championship Wade has had a very successful strongman and powerlifting career training out of Jackals and several other gym members have had a lot of success.

 Karl constructed another version of Jackals Gym in Northfield, MN about 5 years ago.  It has become a premier strongman training center for him and various strongmen competitors that train with him on occasion.

MAD: You just released a DVD on the Deadlift, How did your training style develop? Did you always the DVD in mind? Or did that idea come around just of recent?

BG: I developed my current training program through trial and error and lots of research.  My father was instrumental with his rack training program. I have read as much as I can and listened to as many people as I could.  I have based a lot of my 5x5 program from talking with my good friend Jorgen Ljungberg, Sweden.  I have tried to build strong muscle groups to mimic the back position that the Russian and Ukrainian lifters have mastered.  I have tried to use good logic that successful lifters utilize in their training. I also try to lift to be strong.  I approach my training with strength being the goal and not tweaking of equipment and gear.  I am not a big fan of gear. I am more of a fan of Raw Strength.  As I mentioned, Scott Safe turned me onto some of the Olympic weightlifting training movements.  I utilized all of this knowledge and came up with my current training program about 6-7 years ago.

I have been fortunate to help train a large number of lifters using my methods.  I figured it was time to put it together on film.  I recently released a deadlift training DVD that goes through my entire program.  I think it is easy to follow and details my training methods in both the deadlift and squat.  I have concentrated the focus of the DVD on deadlift training.  Basically it is a no gimmicks approach.  My training method is to build quality strength and muscle gradually over time without training with gear.  You will notice in the DVD that I rarely even wear a belt.  I hope the DVD can be useful to a lot of people.  I get a lot of satisfaction from helping others get strong.  The DVD is available on the www.jackalsgym.com website.

MAD: Drug use? The points of view vary on this subject.. what is yours?

BG: I have followed the great lead that guys like Shawn Cain and Ray Benemerito have paved for Drug Free lifting.  I have trained and competed my entire career drug free.  I do not look at this as a sacrifice but rather as following the rules of the organization and taking time to build muscle and strength gradually over time.  I don’t know any other way.  I think being a drug free athlete has increased my competitive career.  I am still making gains on the brink of turning 40. 

Drug testing is part of the rules in the USAPL/IPF.  Competitors need to compete drug free or face the consequences.  I feel that the IPF has a drug problem.  I also feel that the USAPL has a Drug problem. Unfortunately at this time I do not think it is getting any better.  I actually think it is getting worse every year.

 If you are going to compete in the USAPL and use drugs I am going to tell you that it wrong.  If you are competing somewhere else, it is your own business. 

MAD:You have had a long and decorated career  What is the greatest memory of your powerlifting career? Do you have any other goals you want to attain in Powerlifting or other strength sports?

BG: I have been fortunate to gain so many experiences through powerlifting.  It is hard to think of one single event that is my best memory.  I can think back to the fall of 1989 when I pulled 670 in my second contest.  At the time it was the State record.  I was ecstatic to say the least.  My first State Championship in 1991 was a big deal to me at the time.  When I placed 4^th in the 1992 ADFPA Nationals in Minneapolis I did not know at the time if it would get any better than that.  Two small-town, skinny legged, ex- basketball playing boys like me and Karl.  Karl placed 5^th and I placed 4^th.  We were really happy. 

Brads first 800 pound deadlift.

The game started to become much more intense when I won my first National Championship at the 1997 USPF Senior Nationals.  I went on to win the IPF Silver Medal in Prague Czech Republic.  My wife and I traveled together and we met my father, Karl, Wade, Travis Fischer, Darwin Patzlaff, Peggy, my mother and her husband Lee in Prague.  None of us had ever traveled over seas before and we did not know what to expect.  I was real nervous stepping into the venue the first day.  I was fortunate that Pat and Mike Anderson were there to get me settled down.  I was thirsty and hungry from the long trip and Ed Coan came over with a big bottle of water and some fruit.  Any time I turned around that week Ed was there with water and fruit.  It was tough to find good food over there. Ed found the whole team a decent place to eat next to the venue. I will never forget the efforts that Ed, Mike and Pat did for me over there.  I think if it was not for these guys the trip to Czech Republic could have been my last experience over seas.  They have all been good friends over the years.

Brads first cover on Powerlifting USA

The Gold Medal victory at the 2000 IPF World Championships in Akita City, Japan was a real turning point.  It helped to open up a lot of things for me.  I signed a major contract with GNC Pro Performance.  Through GNC I have been able to travel all over the country promoting the product line.  GNC is a great company with excellent safe supplemental products.  It has been a great connection for me and a relationship that has now spanned 6 years. Not only do I promote the products but I also use the products on a daily basis.  These products have helped me to become a bigger and stronger athlete. It opened up an opportunity for me to do strength seminars all over the country. I have spoken at the Arnold Classic, the Show of Strength, the NSCA National Conference and several other places with Dave Sandler and his Strength Pro Team.

My 2 experiences at the IWGA World Games were great.  The World Games is an IOC patronized event, and it is the real deal.  It looks and feels like the Olympics.  It was something else this year walking into the 35,000 plus packed stadium in Duisburg, Germany with Ray Benemerito, Nick Tylutki and the rest of the team for the opening ceremonies.  One of my best memories comes from sitting in the Athlete Plaza after the 2005 World Games with my Uncle Gary, Aunt Jane, Nick Tylutki, and Ray Benemerito.  They had this huge beer garden, carnival type atmosphere set up in a central location with live music and a lot going on.  More than 30,000 people visited the Plaza on a daily basis. The people in Germany were great fans of all of the sports associated with the World Games. It was great getting to meet a lot of different athletes from all around the world.  We sat outside in Germany drinking a few cold German Beers and eating some Bratwaurst until the early morning hours.  What a great place in the World for good conversation and camaraderie.  This is what it is all about.

Traveling the Globe with teammates like Sean Culnan, Ray Benemerito, Pat McGettigan, Greg Wagner, Nick Tylutki, Ervin Gainer, Tim Taylor, Wade Hooper, Tony Cardella, Rob Wagner, Dave Ricks, Greg Simmons and many others have provided me with a lot of memories.

Currently I am training to compete in the Battle of the Giants in Orebro Sweden in November 2005.  Steve Johnson is going to make the trip with Nate Nord to coach me.  This will be the 3^rd trip to Sweden for the Battle of the Giants with Steve.  We have had some good success in Orebro at one of the premier events in the sport.  I hope the body will hold together for at least 9 more lifts.

The future???  I am starting to feel that it is about time to wrap it up, but I do have a few things left to accomplish if I am physically able.

MAD:Anything else to add?

BG: Thanks Mad for the opportunity for this interview.  I really appreciate all the support that you and all of my friends from Minnesota Powerlifting have provided in the past 17 years. Good Luck and Train Like an Animal!