OLD-TIME BARBELL MAN STILL GOING STRONG.(LIFE & LEISURE)

Byline: ART CAREY Knight-Ridder

Yeah, it was worth it.

It was worth it to see the ``Nova Scotian Hercules'' back-lift a table on which eight guys were sitting (about 2,000 pounds, all told).

It was worth it to see other strongmen blow up and burst a hot-water bottle, and bend taped-together pairs of 60-penny nails and half-inch-thick steel bars, or break heat-treated quarter-inch power-drill bits with their bare hands.

It was worth it to see the guy tear a deck of cards in two while balancing a goldfish bowl on a stick, and the other guy who shredded a deck of cards behind his back while hanging upside down, and then topped that by ripping apart a telephone book wrapped in duct tape.

But that's not why I traveled to the Downtown Athletic Club (home of theHeisman Trophy) in lower Manhattan on a recent Saturday.

Only one person has enough pull (in more ways than one) to induce me to visit New York City. And that person is the inimitable Al Berger.

Al runs a fitness club in Haverford, Pa., where he specializes in introducing folks, especially women and oldsters, to the joys and benefits of weightlifting, …