Rich Flores met his wife Cathy 22 years ago while exercising in a gym. You could say it was love at first bench press.
“We had one date, and that was all we needed,” Cathy Flores said.
The rest is powerlifting history. Flores today is one of the best powerlifters on the planet, with nearly 90 world and national titles and awards, including 21 Best Lifter awards, according to his website. Cathy also lifts, tends to the Flores’ website and is caretaker of her husband’s large collection of medals.
And then there is Lucretia Bowden-Arna, who lifted nothing heavier than the spirits of others until she made a left turn one day and out of curiosity walked into a recently opened health and fitness center in Park Forest.
Last month, Bowden-Arna set her fifth state record in only her second year as a powerlifter in a competition at Rich East High School, according to the Quality Classic Health and Fitness Center in Park Forest. Her husband Kenneth cheered her on.
For those whose heaviest lifting is schlepping two six-packs to the checkout counter, know this: Rich Flores is 77. Lucretia Bowden-Arna is 72.
Flores, from Chicago Heights, is a retired railroad electrician who began lifting weights at 18. Because of the different categories of competition, the 165-pound Flores usually sets both age group and weight records in almost every meet he enters. He won his 24th world title last year, setting new standards in squat (352.5 pounds), bench press (165 pounds) and deadlift (374 pounds) categories.
In 2004, the publication Powerlifting USA called him “probably the best Master PLer earth,” according to a clip on his website.
Hip replacement surgery four years ago slowed him down for four months, but Flores quickly returned to form, setting more records.
Four days a week, Flores lifts weights at the Quality Classic with his partners, Tony Lazzaroni and Rich Glumac, another world record holder.
“I keep doing it because I can and I do it by staying healthy,” he said. His website includes a long list of the more than 50 vitamins, supplements and nutrients he ingests, ranging from beta-carotene to zinc picolinate, while washing it down with green tea and water.
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It’s another story for Park Forest resident Bowden-Arna, who has been lifting for two years, or since soon after she decided to investigate the QC fitness center on Main Street run by Earl and Alia Davis.
“I was always active growing up in Chicago and I always liked to walk,” she said. “Once I would walk about four miles each way from where I lived to where I worked, so I thought it would be good to join and get some exercise.”
Earl Davis designed a workout schedule for her, and as she improved she was encouraged to enter competitive lifting. It didn’t seem as if a 121-pound woman could fit in with the larger, more muscular competitors.
When she told her husband Kenneth what she planned to do, she said, “He didn’t seem too sure what would happen but was at the meet with his camera.
“My oldest daughter even told me how proud she was of what I was doing,” Bowden-Arna said. “That was so special to me.”
Her age/weight total of 225.97 pounds for the three events was a Female Masters Division state record and the fifth time she’s broken Illinois bests, according to the gym. It also was her last effort of the year. Her hectic schedule includes being financial secretary of her church in Chicago, caregiver to two family members, and a hospice volunteer, along with getting in some bowling in what is left of her spare time.
A lot of medals also needed lifting. Six other Quality Classic lifters — Yvette Kendall, Jeff Kensey Jr., Ann LaFrance, Mike Price, Sylvia Roberson and Sharon Spence — took first in their respective divisions, with each setting a state record, according to the gym.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown and can be emailed at [email protected].