Focus and finish well. Those words describe the way Jim Ites reaches his daily and competitive goals.
Since December, Ites has been training at XL Sports Acceleration Program at the United Sport and Athlete Center in Waterloo under the training of Kira Werstein. His current goal - competing in the June 18-22 Senior Olympics in Colorado in weightlifting and the 100-and 200-meter sprint events. Werstein wants him to go for the 400-meter as well.
The XL program uses state-of-the-art equipment designed to train athletes for national and world competition. To develop his running form in a more efficient way with knees in front instead of inefficient backside mechanics, Werstein has him practice sprint drills such as the A-march and cone runs, which is a sprint over cones emphasizing proper sprint mechanics. Another training method utilized is medicine ball jumps which develop explosiveness, helping an athlete explode off the start of a sprint. Resistance sprints are integrated as part of the training regimen. With the use of a harness, Ites sprints with Werstein resisting him for a distance of 20 to 50 yards.
Ites also works out on two specific treadmills to help build him up for sprinting.
The Force is a self-propelled treadmill for intervals and sprints. While attached to a large hook, he runs as fast as he can for 10 to 15 seconds, then steps off and repeats the set several times.
The High-Speed treadmill inclines up to a 45-degree angle to provide resistance or the incline can be lowered for “over-speed” training, which teaches the fast-twitch muscles to recruit more muscle fibers and to fire quickly.It can accelerate up to 25 miles per hour and is mounted while it is moving with a harness attached to the athlete. Ites’ goal is to reach 20 miles per hour. He started at eight miles per hour and, at the time of this interview, he was up to 13.5 miles per hour and climbing.
Competing is not new to the 68-year-old pastor of Cornerstone Fellowship, a church in Cedar Falls. Ites, however, is most interested in competing against himself. It was the little aches and pains after turning 30 that started him on his quest for fitness.
Knowing himself well enough to determine that he doesn’t like to do anything for a long time, he chose power-lifting and sprinting as his focus areas. He claims he doesn’t run - he sprints. He doesn’t exercise, he trains - for something. It may be to deadlift one more pound or sprint one second faster, but he always has a goal in mind. And, “I don’t do anything that’s not fun,” he said.
Ites began to compete in meets around the age of 50, always training with a goal in mind. His first competition in which he dead-lifted was against girls, where one thin college woman dead-lifted over 300 pounds. It took him seven years to bench press over 300 pounds. The first day he did, he shouted out a loud “Tarzan cry.” In his first 100-meter sprint competition, he placed third in the 65- to 69-year-old class. One older competitor came up to him and said that his time would slow down as he got older. Ites told him that doesn’t need to happen.
He has been power-lifting for over 20 years. At that time, there were over 1,000 people over the age of 50 competing. He holds the record of 501 pounds in his age category in Iowa’s state power-lifting competition, held annually in March. At one time he held the Iowa Gold Medal in the bench press record at 315 pounds, a level he already has surpassed. He has been to the Senior Olympics in Las Vegas three consecutive times. The competition in Colorado is the qualifier to advance to the 2009 World Meet in San Francisco.
Competing every year, he has won many state contests and the national title in his category one year in Oklahoma City. He began sprinting five to six years ago. He first started competing in dead-lifting in 1989. Now, he only competes where track and field is combined with weightlifting.
Senior age categories start at age 50 and go up in five-year increments. He competes in the 65 to 69 bracket at the heavyweight level, currently weighing 195 pounds.
For the last 20 years, Ites rarely has missed a training workout, partly because he paces himself well. “If you do it right - scientifically, you will never have back pain.” In power-lifting, he increases a pound of weight each week so as not to do too much too soon. He increases slowly on the treadmill, as well. He plans to go even slower on the large incline treadmill as he reaches over 15 miles an hour. At age 68, he has a pain-free body.
Ites’ personal philosophy is equally strong. Although he eats steak several times a week, lots of eggs, protein powder every other day and takes food supplements, he said, “It’s not what I eat that is my first level of concern. My first step is ‘What do I believe?’ The body is made for perfect health. It starts with recognizing that the body is not you. You live in this body. This body will do what you tell it to do. I live in this body overcoming human limitations.
“The body is an amazing thing, but so is what we believe and what we say. If we do things out of fear, it’s not going to last. You have to love (what you’re doing) and say it beforehand, and not doubt in your heart, because you’re going to get what you say. I tell my body what to do. I take authority over it.” When he first started running and his knees started hurting, he slapped them and said, “You will do what I say.”
Spoken like a true pastor, he talked about how letting go of grudges is a good health tip. “The repressed energy of bitterness and anger is a killer. It is a great key to illness. One way or another it will start killing your body.”
Hebrews 12:1-2 pretty much sums up his inner and outer mode of operation. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfector of our faith...”
Ites’ ministry in the marketplace helps others see their personal and athletic potential. He has his own gym in the basement of his office, and through word-of-mouth various people train with him twice a week. The USA Center draws mostly high school students, but Ites has employed his leadership in drawing to the Center most of the 18-plus crowd who have fitness goals other than competing in international sports.
One of Ites’ annual traditions is to hold a Strength Show with family and friends to celebrate his July 16 birthday. This July he turns 69 and most likely will be celebrating more medals from his June competition after focusing and finishing well.
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