Gordon Santee, an energetic 65-year-old with a salt and pepper mustache, pulled a folded piece of white paper out of his pocket.“Here are my blood test results,” he said, excitedly. Standing in an aisle filled with jars of whey protein at Lindberg Nutrition, where he works five days a week, he proceeded to unfold the paper.
“Cholesterol, 166; HDL, 82; LDL, 76,” he read from the page, following each line with his index finger. “Everything is normal.” His doctors said he has the internal health of a 20- to 30-year-old, he claimed.
Not surprising, given that the balding, 148-pound 65-year-old, wearing a snug polo that hugged his biceps, holds 79 world records in power lifting, a strength sport that includes three weight lifting events: squat, bench press and dead lift. He’s been competing since 1980.
Santee’s passion for exercise, health and nutrition isn’t just a hobby. After a 38-year career in technology at different data centers, the Rochester, New York-native was set to retire in the early-2000s. But a casual conversation with Judy Lindberg McFarland in 2003 presented a unique opportunity. “She said, ‘Gordon, come over. We’re going to set up new store in your neck of the woods. We’d like you to help us set that up,’” he recalled. “I tell people, ‘I haven’t gone home since.’”
Santee trains four days a week, although, if he had his way, he’d train every day. “I could be very guilty of overtraining,” he said. “But you can’t, your body must recover.”
For about five years, he’s been a member at Gold’s Gym in Hawthorne and 24 Hour Fitness in Hermosa Beach. He also has a power lifting station in his garage – thousands of dollars of bars and two complete sets of weights – surrounded by posters of men with muscles.
Although Santee’s a certified personal trainer, he doesn’t work with clients. But having the certification lets him to stay updated on the latest technology and techniques. “It allows me to kind of stay on top,” he said.
On Mondays and Fridays, Santee works his upper body, shoulders and arms. On Wednesdays, he focuses on dead lifting, working out his back and part of his lower body, while Saturdays are reserved for leg activities. “It would be so easy to train every day,” he repeated, mischievously.
Down the hall from his garage workout station is a small room with a green street sign on the wall that reads, “Teddy Bear Trail.” Inside, hundreds of stuffed teddy bears fill ground-to-ceiling shelves that border the room. Santee’s bedroom, too, is filled with the teddy bears and stuffed frogs.
“We collect teddy bears,” he said, referring to himself and his wife Sandy, adding that a couple of the little guys, “Humphrey” and “Archie,” often accompany him on his travels to power lifting competitions abroad and nationwide. “They’re my talismans,” he said.
Nestled in the corner of the room full of teddy bears is a stack of plaques, most from the 2011 AAU World Bench, Deadlift, Pushpull and International Powerlifting Championships in Las Vegas. “Powerlifting Best Lifter Equipped 181 & Below,” one reads. In the closet, he’s stashed a cardboard box of gold medals. There are no trophies in sight – he’s donated them all to high school coaches to reuse for their own teams, he said.
“Breaking the mold”
Last April, Santee underwent his third and most recent surgery after tearing his bicep during training. By May, he was giving himself physical therapy. Five months later, he broke 24 world records for his age and weight class.
That month, he called his surgeon’s assistant. “I broke it again,” he recalled saying. “Her comment was, ‘Okay, how many records this time?” he said with a chuckle. “Because she knew it wasn’t my body, she knew I was breaking records.”
He’s a rare breed, still competing in his mid-60’s, which often leaves him with less than stiff competition. “When you get older, it’s a privilege of lifting because most of your competition is either injured or dead,” he said, laughing. “So that’s why I’ve changed the focus – not trying to win, but to actually break records.”
His personal bests include a 563-pound dead lift at a competition in Cape Town, South Africa, at 55 years old. Most of his records involve the dead lift. “The bar is lying on the floor, you bend and you grip it with your hands in reverse fashion and you just lift it up to standing, upright, erect position,” he said.
In 1994, at 48, he squatted a record 545 pounds, also his personal best. In fact, the bar was accidentally loaded 22 pounds heavier than he had requested.
“Sometimes it is better not to know what you are facing,” he said.
At 43, he bench pressed his personal best, 380 pounds, at the National Championship in Dallas.
After three decades of competition, Santee is nowhere near his finish line. When an accident about three years ago left him with torn tendons in his right hand, his surgeon offered a quick surgery fix. “I said, ‘Why don’t we wait until I get a little older, why don’t we fix this when I’m 85 or 90. Right now, it’s working fine,’” he recalled, with a laugh.
A year after the accident, he pulled a world record dead lift of 474 pounds. “So much for the injured right hand,” he said.
Santee said he plans to not only stay active, but also compete and referee for the next 20 to 30 years. “It’s kind of breaking the mold. The mold says you get old, things don’t work,” he said. “Being old doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t be strong.”