A spate of YouTube videos has recently rekindled my love of Olympic Weightlifting. Specifically the iconic footage of German weightlifter Matthias Steiner winning a gold medal at the 2008 games in Beijing has encouraged me to begin digging into the history and indeed, the evolution of weightlifting at the Olympic Games. For those unaware of… Continue reading The History of Olympic Weightlifting
A friend of mine recently made a very serious and from my perspective funny discovery. Having spent months training in a University gym replete with shiny new barbells, he decided to join me in my own gym for a catch up and quick training session. Ever the opportunist, he decided it was 'Chest Day' and… Continue reading The History of the Olympic Barbell
Recently I had the good fortune to stumble across Alan Radley's excellent History of Physical Culture work. A combination of fun facts, serious scholarship and enough photographs to keep any Ironhead happy, it's likely that I'll be dipping in and out of this work for years to come. In any case, Radley's scholarship highlighted a… Continue reading Forgotten Exercises: The One Arm Clean and Jerk
In many ways the gold standard of the Iron game, few lifters will go through their careers without using an Eleiko barbell at some point in time. An iconic range in the weightlifting community, the history of this Swedish company is often forgotten. Indeed, so commonplace have Eleiko products become, be they barbells or plates,… Continue reading From Waffles to Weightlifting: Eleiko Barbell
An exercise designed to enact as much pain as possible. That at least is the thought that almost inevitably runs through my mind during a set of Bulgarian split squats. Heavy squatting? Fine by me. Heck throw in breathing squats for fun. I can grind through that. But high volume split squats? That's an altogether different… Continue reading The History of the Bulgarian Split Squat
Owing to the increasing popularity of powerlifting, cross fit and olympic lifting, chances are you either own a weightlifting belt or see them on a regular basis on the gym floor. A means of bracing the abdomen, weightlifting belts are a source of controversy in the weightlifting world between those who see them as legitimate… Continue reading The History of Weightlifting Belts
What could be simpler than lifting a weight overhead? Well like everything else in the world of fitness, a simple idea is often needlessly complicated, something exemplified by today's post on overhead pressing at the turn of the twentieth-century. Unlike modern weightlifting competitions, which have largely standardised the manner in which lifts can be executed,… Continue reading Continental and Military Pressing
Although unknown to the modern olympic lifter, Abele was one of America's finest lifters during the 1940s and 1950s. Unfortunately he was overshadowed by fellow US lifters John Grimek, Steve Stanko, and John Davis during the course of his career. Similarly the outbreak of the Second World War denied Abele the chance to lift at… Continue reading Louis Abele Training Programme
Memorialisation is a fascinating part of the human condition. From war to illness, cultures around the world have repeatedly sought to pay tribute to the good and bad of the human condition. Until recently, I wrongly believed that strength monuments were few and far between. Thankfully a quick google search put my ignorance to rest… Continue reading Monuments of Strength: Paul Anderson
It was the first time that the Olympic Games were held outside of Europe and the first time they were held in an English speaking country. It was heralded as a monumental step in the internationalisation of the Olympic spirit and it was prompted as such. Unfortunately, the reality of the 1904 St. Louis Olympics proved to… Continue reading Weightlifting at the 1904 Olympics
