With the heated discussion of AC on this forum thread, I reached out to him to see if he’d be interested in an interview or checking in on the thread. He graciously sent this email in response.
Mike,After thinking a bit, i decided to just email you info and leave it at that. This type of topic has been beaten to death on a few other forums. A few years ago on a few sites includeing yours i beleive there was a post your stats thread and i posted my honest stats, which are all i ever post. that was right after i hit a 740 parallel squat so i was proud of it and looking back i wish i hadnt posted it.
As i said, and its hard for others to beleive and rightfully so, that I would just lift, run and jump for the pure enjoyment of it and want no accolades for it, but that is the truth. Now this being the internet age where everybody is world class at everything with little to no proof I can understand the skepticism in fact it seems like human nature to most. The problem is I dont seek public approval from the internet nor do I want to post any more vids or info. As far I as I am concerned, I am ok just helping out others, learning more info, and just being seen as an average joe stampcollecter with a little bit of sprint, jump and lifting knowledge.
For the track side of things, as i have said i ran for a few years and sucked, than ran some ok times mixed in with bad times, loads of minor injuries, tweaks and pullups and no where to train. my former teamates of mine will tell you, i had the tightest, worst form ever. i shuffled do the track the first three years i ran. i remember friends asking if i was hearing anything when i ran and then saw i ran so tight my traps were over my ears. that was an ongoing joke among my friends. i would never claim a speed trap time as an official time, just the most official i will run these days and i stand by that. I have run over the past two years under several different alias so that I can just run, enjoy and not have to worry about my friends looking up times and texting and calling afterwards. it sounds dumb but it put added pressure. since running under different names I have had a blast, not even my close friends know i do it and that is just how i want it. Just run and have fun. I ran four races last year one ok, one injuried and too personal bests. i have many technical glitches but slowly i have worked them out, and though i still have tons to work on, my times have gotten better and i absolutly love training for track with a speed trap timing system and maybe a training partner or two. competeting for me at this point is simply not economical. let me say though, that track is the most humbling sport i have ever participated in and for that i love it. however claiming unofficial times as prs is something that is not fair to those that have actually run them and cheapens what others have actualy accomplished in official meets. so lets just make that clear.
in regards to lifting, i have always been fairly strong and from the age of 17 on i saw the importance of squatting and jumping and over all pure athleticism. though it seems fairly obvious, at the time everybody thought it was funny that all i did was squat. squat to me was what bench is to everybody else. as the years went on, my squat went up and up and up. i hit a pr three years ago of 740 lbs and havent touched it since. I think at any given time if i dropped the sprints and plyos and just squatted again that it is something that i could break. I did 635×3 last week with 1 out of the three being considered high. again i realize that 740 lbs at my bodyweight or any for that matter is exceptional and I am quite proud of it. our state record for 198lbs is 611 lbs geared up and I have hit that literally hundreds possibly thousands of times in workouts. The sport of powerlifting at this point does not interest me with all the gear, and the other two lifts, which I am not as proficient in. My bench right now is just under 400 lbs which is not bad, but its also not amazing and i never deadlift (maybe 5 times in my life), just havent. Most people appreciate the amount of weight I squat. some highschool kids every now and then will tell me of a kid at their school who does more or a cousins uncles brother. The older guys really seem to give me a lot of credit for it and the local powerlifters ignore me. All in all, I am proudest of my squat or all things and love the lift. If i ever post a video which i get further and further from doing, i will let you know. but you have to know, the interent mentality is no matter what you show, they will find something wrong with it. look at world record youtube videos, half the comments are negative so defending is pointless.
jumping. Goes hand in hand with my squatting and when you consider my bodyweight and my squat and assume that i am proficient at jumping than they match up. however if you choose not to beleive the squat than you wont beleive the vert and so on. my vert was 34 or 36 when i went out for track that first year, i hit 42 by the time i graduated with a squat over 600. i have several vides of myself jumping, some internerds have done everything from timing them to measureing this and that, and they seem to match up. again if someone doesnt beleive it, than that is their opinion and I am ok with it. the verts have been measured with vertec, and timeing. i have never used a jumpad. the reach was done fully stretched after warmup and jumps using one arm. my standing vertical is about as good as my running vertical. I enjoy the jumping and that is why i do it.
powercleans. sucked at these when i first started doing them at age 20. still muscled up 275×4 the next year, and did 308×4 my last year there. i becames obsessed with the powerclean, so much that i have about ten ironmind videos and built my own lifting platform along with bumper plates in my garage. i beleive i asked you about the hook grip about 4 or 5 years ago and you told me it was everything it was cracked up to be so that really took my cleans to the next level. initially i hit a 384 clean with a full catch. then didnt have access to bumpes for a bit and just did the power versions of the lifts. i have powercleaned (though with a pretty good dip to get under the bar) 396lbs plus 1 lb collars putting me at 398. I will power clean or hang clean 400 at some point.
this just sums up my different lifts,jumps, sprints however this will not change anyones mind one way or another. either you want to beleive it or you dont and i dont blame those who dont and i appreciate those that take my words for face value. right now i am 26 and plan on sprint training for as long as i can and at some point powerlift just to squat and to see if i enjoy it. i look forward to each workout and trying to get better and realize that in sports like track that are measured by milliseconds with proper elevation and wind factored in that speed trap times mean crap to the track purists and to some point i agree. none the less i am confident in my speed, jumping and strength and if anybody finds themselves in south dakota (for whatever reason haha) send me an email and we can train.
If you beleive the other stats than the next question i get is if i am drug free which I am and always will be. I just dont see the need, nor do i have the desire and it seems even more selfish now with two kids and a wife. again no amount of drug tests will ever be enough to prove to those that have made up their mind otherwise.
[EDIT: text removed as it was personal conversation]. Hope this helps and answers your questions, and that you understand that I dont like this type of online argument stuff and so I want this to be the end of things. However if you or anybody else has a question that i didnt answer I would rather that person just email me at squatdr740[at]hotmail.com.
All the best,Alan Charles Barch Jr. (AC) (Squatdr)
Thanks AC for taking the time to write such an in-depth email. I think we all appreciate it. For those of you who want to know what all the fuss is about check out one of AC’s videos and be sure to visit his training site:
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