New Hampshire state legislator Richard Abel wanted to get in better shape.
As he reached his late 60s, he found he’d become less active than he wanted. So in spring 2017, he reached out to former Dartmouth track and field coach Carl Wallin, who leads Thor’s Stone Athletic Club in Lebanon. The club comprises men and women — they vary in age but skew older — who lift weights and perform field events.
Abel decided to give it a shot.
“When I started, I didn’t even know what the different kinds of lifts were called. I didn’t know anything,” Abel said. “I had never done them before, and so I was really quite ignorant. But I did know I wanted to do something to get myself in shape.”
Wallin was eager to help Abel get started. The two had met before from seeing each other at the gym, and Wallin recalled meeting at a memorial.
Beyond the names of equipment, Wallin taught Abel the proper form to use while operating each lift, as well as everything he’d need to know to do shot put.
Abel, 71, is retired from his careers outside of politics in book publishing and teaching at Franklin Pierce University. He kept working on his weightlifting and shot put form, and they became a hobbies for him as he improved. And he started joining the club at various competitions.
At the beginning, Abel didn’t even realize the group did competitions.
“I was really doing it first for exercise,” Abel said. “Then when I realized that there were local and regional meets, and some of the members of the club have done national meets, I thought, ‘Well yeah, I’ll do that.’ ”
He started competing in shot put first. He went to the Dartmouth Relays and took a lot from the experience despite not knowing what he was doing. He started competing in weightlifting within his first year.
Most recently, Abel competed with the club on May 1 at the Revolution Powerlifting Syndicate New Hampshire and Vermont state championships. He bench pressed 155 pounds and dead lifted 270 pounds — figures he was quite proud of, considering his age. A year ago, he struggled to bench 100 pounds.
He’s also throwing the shot between 20 and 30 feet. Although he’s better than he was when he started, Abel feels that event is where he needs to improve the most.
Wallin is proud of Abel’s progress.
“I personally like him very much, and I consider him a friend,” Wallin said. “I think it’s opened up everything for him. There are a lot of people out there who want to do all kinds of crazy things.
“He’s probably one of the strongest guys in the House of Representatives, if not the strongest guy. When you’re strong, it gives you a lot of confidence to get up there and speak, not that he needed it.”
Abel said the hobby has helped his political career through his patience and persistence. In weightlifting and shot put, it takes both traits to learn proper form for each lift and work on it enough to repeat those motions perfectly in competitions. In politics, patience and persistence can be key when bills take a long time to pass.
His legislative colleagues have taken notice of his newfound strength. He said none have watched him compete, but he’s regularly asked how his weightlifting and shot putting is going. He’s also enjoyed meeting constituents at the competitions.
Abel said working with the group has been beneficial. He said it’s good to have the support from peers and that it’s led to good friendships.
He’s also grateful for Wallin’s instruction.
“In his career, he’s coached people who went on to the Olympics, and here he is coaching somebody like me and some of the others who are never going to be that good,” Abel said. “But he shares it. I think he’s really the shining star. He’s the magnet that draws people into this. I just think he’s a real wonderful person, and we’re really lucky to have him in our community.”
Seth Tow can be contacted at stow@vnews.com.