A long brown beard, blue metallic framed glasses, metal music, and a warm presence.  Upon enrolling at Ashland University, most students will at least vaguely encounter these characteristics in the form of Louis Mancha–one of the most familiar faces on campus.

Mancha is the chair of the philosophy department, causing many students to know of him in and out of the classroom. Without a doubt his courses are thick with content but also equipped with intriguing conversations and debates. 

Most will agree on one simple concept: Mancha is hardcore. As if his fixation on metal music or his array of intense coffee mugs is not enough of a give-away for this, his involvement and experiences in power-lifting should do the trick.

“When I first got here in ’03, I was approached by a couple of students who just saw me at the rec, I guess,” Mancha said. “They wanted to know if I was interested in [power-lifting]. I thought it would be a good thing and I wanted to be actively involved. It was something I was really passionate about at the time.”

Indeed Mancha had already been familiar with power-lifting prior to being hired as a professor at AU. He began competing in the sport during his graduate school years at Purdue University.

Sitting in Mancha’s office is proof of his devotion to academia. His shelves are stocked to capacity with various books, and there is even a binder atop his shelf that is ready to burst open with copious amounts of papers crammed within. His office also contains different visuals reflective of his character, including a stuffed doll of the “Incredible Hulk” sitting near his desk and a colored drawing of the Hulk that he looks at with adoration, because it was customized by his son. Mancha has very friendly conversational attributes about him. He casually shuffles a deck of playing cards and sips his coffee from a mug shaped like the human skull.

Generally speaking, competitive power-lifting is fairly simple to understand. Mancha explained that lifters attempt to accomplish three basic types of lifts: the bench press, the squat, and the dead lift. While speaking, he even jumps up out of his seat to demonstrate various techniques.

“You have 3 attempts in order to get the highest total that you can during the meet,” he said. “Students are ranked in terms of weight classes, just like you do in wrestling.”

Interestingly enough, there is a power-lifting club at AU provided by Rec Services. In 2004 and 2005, Mancha served as the Faculty Advisor and was able to see the club achieve enough success in competition to compete in state-wide and national tournaments for both of those years. 

“I spent a lot of time in the gym those two years. We spent almost 20 hours a week just on off-time doing training and lift-routines,” Mancha said.

While the sport of power-lifting can yield truly amazing muscle structures and physiques, there is no denying the danger associated with it as well. 

“I’ve seen people just buckle under the weight. They bend their knees slightly, and they will go down. Part of our training was to also learn how to get out from the weight if you can’t lift it,” Mancha said. “You have to learn how to sit down on it and get it off of you, as opposed to leaning forward. The natural reaction is to try to push it off of you. That is the worst thing you can do—imagine 500 pounds whipping off of your neck, much less more than that.”

Even being proficient at power lifting can yield a little discomfort because certain techniques can actually inevitably cause cuts in a lifter’s shins.

“I had to put on my syllabus that if you are in need of aid, like if you are bleeding from the shins because you had a good day in the dead-lift, you should probably take care of that before you come in to class,” Mancha said.

Interestingly enough, Mancha’s involvement as a power-lifter has even translated into his role as a teacher. Throughout his academic experience, he really seemed to tie the ideals of philosophy and modern education as a whole very well to power-lifting.

“Learning how to lift is what philosophy is like,” Mancha said. “It is unfortunate that we have a culture of education with many of our students that think that, when you go into a class, it is the job of the professor to pop the top off and pour the information inside.”

In a thought-provoking way, Mancha strokes his beard as if to help generate further thought. At one point, he even smiles and admits that his mustache is tickling him.

“But the analogy is more like working out in the gym. When you come into my classroom, I want you to think hard, and I want you to think well. It’s like being in a gym. I can give you the program, and I can help train you, but if you don’t do the work, then you won’t get better at this,” he said.

It seems that Mancha has even grown closer to his colleagues on campus through power-lifting, such as Christopher Burkett, a political science professor at AU, who has currently been working out with Mancha several times a week throughout this semester.

“The qualities that make him a good teacher in the classroom also make him a good coach in the weight room,” Burkett said. “He is a great coach. He knows when to push hard, and when to ease off to avoid injury. He knows how to motivate you to go beyond your perceived capabilities.”

It is quite incredible, but there really are strikingly profound similarities between Mancha and the Hulk. He looks upon the drawing of the super-hero given to him by his son.

“There is a bit of a duality in me,” said Mancha.

Upon further contemplation on Mancha’s analysis of himself between the gym and classroom, he found himself initially at a loss for words, until finally effectively describing himself.

“I have two tools in my toolbox: [1] Reason–being a philosopher–and [2] my fists. I try not to get into that second one. There is this person who wants to be rational and who wants to provide the arguments, and give an explanation, and who is respected for his intellect.”

Mancha had a brief pause, before continuing.

“And then there is this other part of me. It’s just the visceral, deep, male-ness about just wanting to be able to move around big heavy things, and grunt, and to get respect that way. Maybe that is part of the Hulk. You don’t mess with the Hulk, because you will lose this fight.”

Mancha encourages all students to look into the AU Power-lifting Club. Currently, the President of the PL Club is Derek Reutter and the Faculty Advisor is Glen Fincher, who can both be contacted for more information.

Certainly the human body is highly more capable than what you might generally assume. Indeed this point is applicable both physically and mentally—something truly evident in Louis Mancha.