Record-setting father, son show their dedication
Whitlow duo set national, state marks
Jerry Whitlow retired from powerlifting in 2013, not from lack of desire but as a concession to his age.
At 73, he now recalls thinking, “I’m too old to do this. I’m gonna hurt something bad.” And now?
If age is just a number, consider the numbers Whitlow and his son, Derek, put up in December at the Rio Rancho Regional: Two national records, six New Mexico records and a combined total lift of 2,315.5 pounds.
Of that total, 1,512.5 pounds belong to Derek, 37, a former
Manzano football player and track athlete whose palm prints are all over the New Mexico NASA (Natural Athlete Strength Association) record books.
But four of the six state records belong to Jerry, who came out of his four-year retirement to establish New Mexico age-group (70-79) and weightclass (242 pounds) bests in all three of the sport’s lifts: squat, 280.5 pounds; bench press, 220; dead lift, 302.5, as well as the total of the three (803).
Derek, competing in the 35-39 age group at 275 pounds, set state records in the squat (561) and with his total.
Both Whitlows established national records in the squat in their age groups and weight classes.
Why did Jerry decide to come back to competition?
It’s what Whitlows do. Jerry Whitlow, a native of
the North Valley, began lifting weights as a self-described sickly kid at age 12.
“I just kept lifting, and finally got me a barbell set and kept lifting and getting stronger and stronger, so this is what it turned into,” he said in a recent interview at Iron Soul Gym on Menaul, where he and his son train.
Jerry began as an Olympic lifter, competing in the overhead press, the snatch and the clean-and-jerk. But as Olympic lifting competition began to dry up, he switched to power lifting. He competed briefly, then got married (to Debbie) and for some 30 years focused on marriage, fatherhood and his work at PNM and later as a hot-air balloon pilot.
Derek, like his dad, began lifting when he was 12. Strength training helped him as an athlete at Manzano in the mid-tolate 1990s, and that’s when Jerry got back involved.
“They had a weight room (at Manzano), and I asked the coach if I could help my son and train with the team,” he said. “... I trained in there for three or four years and got pretty strong.
“Then I got to thinking, ‘I wonder if there’s any contests for a guy that’s around 54, 55 years old.”
At his first meet, he recalled, “I weighed 206 (pounds) and I squatted 400, benched 315 and deadlifted 450, so that was a good start.
“I just kept doing it because I loved doing it — not that I was that strong, but I loved doing it.”
Meanwhile, after high school, Derek got into bodybuilding. Eventually he grew weary of what he calls the dog-eat-dog nature of bodybuilding competition, as well as a bodybuilder’s strict diet.
In serving as a spotter for his dad, Derek observed how “all these powerlifters were really having a good time, and there was a lot of camaraderie.”
He joined his father as a powerlifter in 2007, debuting with a 600-pound squat, a 370-pound bench press and a 560-pound deadlift.
Since Jerry’s return to competition in December, the Whitlows train together whenever Derek’s work schedule at Home Depot allows. But Derek also trains in his garage.
“He’s got all my old weights that I had back in the ’50s,” Jerry said.
In fact, Derek said, he still uses squat racks that Jerry’s father, his grandfather, made back then.
“It’s definitely a passion and a desire to do this,” he said.
Derek also has a passion for Star Wars — posters, collectibles and, of course, the movies themselves. He has seen “The Last Jedi,” the latest in the series, six times.
“It’s great, but there’s a lot of controversy (among Star Wars devotees),” he said.
There’s no controversy about the father-and-son team’s dedication to their sport and to each other.
Lifting, Derek says, as well as involvement in church work, has drawn the family — he is Jerry and Debbie’s only child — closer and closer through the years.
“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, too, with emotional stuff and injuries and setbacks,” Derek said.
“So, to be able to do this (together) again is huge.”