Anello Body Fitness

Introduction: We train clients from athletes to seniors with a combination of resistance training, aerobics, flexibility, and our unique mental conditioning process! We have over thirty years of proven success! Vince Anello is a five-time world powerlifting champion. In 1998, he was inducted into the Strength Hall of Fame in York, Pennsylvania. - - - - - - - - - - - DR. JUDD WHERE ARE THEY NOW? as told to PL USA by Judson Biasiotto Ph.D. 'The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example." - Benjamin Disraeli Have you ever wondered what happened to the superstars of yesteryears? Many of them I am sure are etched in your mind forever. Lifters, who, by way of their greatness, literally transformed power lifting from a backyard event into a forceful and thriving international sport. I am also sure there are other lifters, despite their greatness, who have escaped the recesses of your mind for some reason or another. Over the next few months, I am going to profile some of our sports most celebrated lifters drawing upon interviews, research, and articles from Power lifting USA in order to determine where they are now. In short, we are going to take a trip down memory lane in order to call to mind what some of these lifters accomplished during their career and to find out what they're up to now. Vince "Vin Dog" Anello In the seventies, along with Larry Pacifico and Fred Hatfield, Vince Anello was as celebrated a worldwide figure as United States power lifting has ever known. In power lifting circles, he was considered a god, a multiple world record holder and a national and world champion many times over. Without question Anello is considered one of the greatest power lifters to ever walk onto a lifting platform. He is literally a power lifting icon. He is also considered by most lifting experts as the greatest dead lifter of all-time, bar none. When elite superheavyweights were struggling to break the 700 pound barrier in the dead lift, Vince was consistently exceeding the 800 pound barrier weighing less than 200 pounds. In competition it was not uncommon for Vince to out dead lift his nearest competitors by as much as 200 pounds. He was literally a dead lifting machine. His coach, Vince Lubawicki, once told me that when Vince was training for the 1976 Worlds he actually pulled a mind boggling 880 pounds. "Vince was scheduled to pull 750, 800 and then 820," Lubawicki explained. "He pulled the first two lifts with relative ease, but the 820 went extremely hard, literally spine bending, which really surprised all of us-including Vince. When we checked the weight, we discovered that we had misloaded the bar. We had 880 pounds on the bar, not 820 pounds. During my entire power lifting career, that was the greatest lift I ever witnessed." Making near impossible lifts was rather commonplace for Vince Anello. In fact, his phenomenal career has been one long highlight film: 20 world records, and countless national and international championships. His best lifts at 198 pounds, equipment unaided, are a 750 pound squat, a 500 pound bench press, an 821 pound dead lift and a total of 1980 pounds. Not surprising, Vince was inducted into the Strength Hall of Fame at York, Pennsylvania in 1998. Vince's allegiance and commitment to the sport of power lifting are rather obvious when you talk to him. Certainly his views on the current state of power lifting are rather unique and refreshing. "I love power lifting and I always will," Vince says. "I contend that we are all brothers and sisters in a great sport, regardless of all the federations. I have competed in a number of different federations, and I have found wonderful people in every one of those federations. Still, I just wish power lifting would consolidate all of these governing bodies so that we would all be together again. I think it would make the sport more credible. Our world championships would then decide who are the strongest women and men in the world, and our records would reflect a more valid measure. As it is today, with all the federations, it is hard to determine who the best lifters are." Amazingly, Vince competed well into the nineties even though he had a badly damaged hip. In 1998, he was forced to retire because of his hip. Shortly there after, he married Sue Hoch, the absolute love of his life. In 2003, due to extreme pain, he had a complete hip replacement. Sue was instrumental in nursing him back to health. Together they founded Anello Body Fitness (please see the link on website section in this profile page), a fitness personal training gym in Strongsville, Ohio. The institute is designed to train athletes both mentally and physically. "I have always felt that athletic performance is multi-dimensional," said Vince. "An athlete is not just a physical being. He also has a psychological and social side. Consequently, for an athlete to reach his optimum level of performance, he has to concern himself with all three systems. He has to put all the systems together to form an integrated whole. That is what we try to do at our personal training gym, and we have been extremely successful with this approach, not only with the athletes we train, but with everyday folk who are trying to lose weight and get into shape. I am really proud of what we have accomplished at the fitness center," continued Vince. "Honestly, helping others to reach their goals has given me as much satisfaction as any world title I ever had." Sue and Vince are also very active in the Greyhound rescue program. They have their two dogs with them, Ajax and Firefly, around the clock. "I love animals. No matter where we go we take Ajax and Firefly with us-we are family," Vince admitted. "Our clients at the gym absolutely love them. In March, Betsy, our first dog, passed away. It literally broke Sue's and my heart. I miss her terribly. " There is no doubt that Vince is a power lifting icon-one of the greatest power lifters of all-time. More importantly, though, he is a wonderful human being. He has outstanding character. He is extremely devoted, honest, humble and kindhearted qualities which are indeed rare in today's society. Numerous times during his career, he has gone out of his way to help others. In fact, he has a propensity for putting others ahead of himself. In this respect, he is a very special human being. Perhaps, the most important and most revealing facet of Vince's life is the fact that he is a man of compassion and love. He is constantly reaching out and helping others with his time, his money, his knowledge and energy. His philosophy is, basically, people first and things second. Everyone who knows him loves and respects him. In short, Vince Anello is not only a world-class athlete, but he is also a world-class person.