MORGANTOWN — If that beer keg had been, say, a wispy little cornerback instead, Andrew Presnell would have made the ESPN highlight reel all day long.
Presnell, a former offensive lineman for the University of Connecticut football team, muscled the vessel up to his chest, then his shoulder, with nary a grunt or wobble.
Even if he did produce a lattice-work of protruding veins in his arms and neck for his trouble.
The Vikings would have been proud.
“Believe it not, it does take strict conditioning to do this,” Presnell said Sunday afternoon.
He was among the throng of musclebound competitors in town for the annual “Test of Einhenjar and Battle in the Blizzard” event at Viking Performance Center on Green Bag Road.
Viking Performance is owned and operated by Jerry Handley, a former WVU strength and conditioning coach with a bent for Norse mythology:
The above-mentioned Einhenjar (sounds like, ayne-HAIR-yar”) refers to the band of deceased elite warriors of the same name rewarded for their bravery on Earth with eternal afterlife in Valhalla.
Viking Heaven, that is.
In the Viking Performance parking lot on a windy, 38-degree afternoon, a group of modern-day aspirants were lifting hellish amounts of weight on their journey there.
They would have been outside, no matter the weather — hence, the “Battle in the Blizzard” billing.
It wasn’t all strongman-histrionics, though, Handley said, echoing Presnell.
“You can’t do this if you don’t have training and technique,” the owner said.
Doing these kinds of “every day carries,” he said (beer kegs, girders, giant tires and the like) means all the muscle groups have to work together.
Just ask any beer-drinking Joe who ever threw his back out helping a buddy move a refrigerator or couch up a flight of stairs to a new apartment, he said.
And people who train with weights are a general healthy lot.
Such training, Handley said, prompts the body to do its own heavy lifting, in terms of holistic health.
“You get the most out of your nervous system when you do this,” he said.
Synapses fire, one muscle contracts while another relaxes — and the system processes it all for the benefit of every component involved.
And women who do weight training have been shown to keep bone density as they age, opposed to the other way around: Speaking of which, Handley said, Viking Performance is hosting an all-female “Maidens of Might” competition next month.
“Everyone can get the benefit of this training,” Handley said.
Presnell can attest to that. He’s 31 years old and notched up his time in the weight room after his UConn playing days were over.
“I wasn’t ready to stop being competitive,” said Presnell, who now lives and works in his home state of Maryland. He’s a personal trainer in Hagerstown.
Fans of WVU’s football Mountaineers might remember No. 58 for the Huskies.
Presnell still shoulders those memories.
“I had a few working Saturdays in Morgantown,” he said, grinning.
“Pat White. Steve Slaton. I don’t have to say anything else, do I?”
