Organizations and Publications Of Interest To The Weightlifter
All Things Gym at allthingsgym.com All Things Gym (ATG) has been promoting weightlifting in various ways for many years, taking many photographs at major competitions, producing podcasts and YouTube videos, selling personal lifting equipment like shirts and wraps.
BarBend at barbend.com BarBend covers is the strength sports (e.g., Olympic Lifting, Powerlifting, Strongman events). They also produced their own content about successful participation in strength sports. Fans of weightlifting would be well served to keep in touch with their website.
Brian Oliver at Inside the Games – at insidethegames.biz – Briian Oliver knows weightlifting and covers it often and well. You’d be well served to keep track of his work.
Bruce Klemens – Bruce Klemens is a lifter and photographer who has been capturing images of top US and International lifter for more than 50 years. As a result, he has amassed perhaps the largest library of weightily photes in the world. If you wanta picture of a top US lifter, or a top lifter at the international level, Bruche is likely to have one if nat many. Among a number of other places, you can find Bruce at his Facebook page – facebook.com/klemensliftingphotos/
CrossFit at crossfit.com – CrossFit was conceived by Greg Glassman as Cross-Fit in 1996. Glassman, a former gymnast, combined gymnastic and weightlifting exercise with cardio to create a total fitness program. Glassman joined with Lauren Jenai to create CrossFit.Inc. in 2000 and opened their first gym in Santa Cruz, CA in 2001. The first CrossFit affiliate, known as a “box” began operating in Seattle, WA in 2002. As of 2024 there were approximately 12,000 affiliates worldwide, about half in the US. The Olympic lifts, or variants thereof, are practiced in most if not all CrossFit affiliates, along with full squats. The explosion in these facilities exposed millions to the Olympic lifts and thereby increased the sport’s popularity in the US and around the world. Today it is likely that more than half the athletes who do Olympic style lifting in competition originally learned about it in a CrossFit box.
Dynamic Fitness at dynamicfitnessequipment.com Dynamic Fitness Equipment and its affiliated Sportivny Press have sold equipment for Olympic-style weightlifting and sports training for decades, along with publishing an amazing number of translations of Russian publications on training and technique, as well as original material penned by Bud and accompanied by terrific photos and videos. Bud has promoted the sport of weightlifting for many years as an athlete, coach, translator, athlete’s representative to the USWF, meet director (he has personally run two fine national championships) and lecturer. He has donated equipment to the USWF’s/USAW’s training center and Colorado Springs, advertised in the USA Weightlifting magazine published for decades at times when no one else did, and loaned equipment to countless meet directors of national and local competitions. Today he is the distributor for DHS barbell in the US. He has been one of weightlifting’s’ true friends.
International Sports Sciences Association. At issaonline.com The ISSA was founded in 1988 by Dr. Fred Hatfield and Dr. Sal Arria. The ISSA offers home study courses and exams leading to certifications in fitness training and sports conditioning. Their materials for each course are well prepared by people who typically have a great deal of practical experience in their fields as well as academic credentials. The ISSA courses focus much more on resistance training than those of the majority of certification organizations presently preparing fitness specialists.
International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). At iwf.sport The IWF is official governing body for the sport of Weightlifting worldwide. It oversees international competitions (including an annual World’s Championship in all but Olympic years and, in Olympic years, the weightlifting competition at the Olympic Games). The IWF also promotes the sport, promulgates the rules of weightlifting and coordinates the activities of the various national federations
Iron Grip Barbell Company – www.irongrip.com Iron Grip makes its equipment in the US and their competition series Olympic bars are very well made. They are located at 11377 Markon Drive, Garden Grove, CA 92841 You can contact them at info@irongrip.com.
Mav-Rik. At mavrikbarbell.com. Bob Hise Sr., who passed away in the late 1990s, started this company, and published a magazine called International Olympic Lifter (IOL), as an alternative to York Barbell. An athlete, coach, administrator and tireless promoter of the sport, Bob always supplied a helping hand to a weightlifters in need and gave far more help than he was ever given credit for. I can recall asking Bob for permission to use his gym after a long day of work during a business trip to California. He not only gave me permission, but he came out to his gym at midnight to watch every lift I did. Mav-Rik has new owners who are focused on selling the bumper plates that made the company a favorite of many because of their amazing durability. The new owners claim the same process is being used to make these plates today as Mr. Hise used.
National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) –. at nsca.com The provides training for sports and conditional professionals. In that connection it conducts a wide array of courses, along with publishing many books and periodicals NSCA publishes several periodicals that focus on strength and conditioning training for athletes. The organization supports the use of Olympic lifts and related exercises for the conditioning of athletes. The NSCA, through a related organization, certifies strength and conditioning specialists and personal trainers. Its programs are much more heavily focused on the effective use for resistance training for sports conditioning and fitness than other similar organizations.
Rogue Fitness at roguefitness.com Rogue is a major supplier of equipment to CrossFit facilities and a major sponsor of USA Weightlifting, supporting the organization in conducting national events and helping to support USAW athletes. They make an extraordinarily wide variety of equipment, from racks to competition quality bars (the latter used at USAW national events. .
Sportivny Press. See Dynamic Fitness listing above.
USA Weightlifting at usaweightlifting.org is the official sports governing body for the sport of Weightlifting in the US, recognized as such both by the United States Olympic and Paraolympic (USOPC) and the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). Located at One Olympic Plaza, Colorado Springs, CO 80909 Phone: (719) 578-4508 and e-mail usaw@usaweightliting.org CO, the USAW runs all national weightlifting events in the US, sends teams to international events an works to develop weightlifting in the US. Following their work is a must for all lifters and supporters of Weightlifting in this country.
Weightlifting.Org, Inc. at Weightlifting.Org – The publishers of this book, this organization is a not-for-profit 501(c) (3) organization. It is dedicated to the development of the sport of weightlifting in the US and around the world. In addition, to publishing this book, they have published a three-hour video as a companion to the book, on YouTube here. The Weightlifting.Org website has the results of all the US Senior Nationals, from the first one held in 1928 to the most recent. There are also summaries of American and world records, much biographical material on weightlifters and related strength sport luminaries. It works toward the development of Weightlifting in the US through its team of the same name, which trains at the Weightlifting Workshop facility. Volunteers from Weightlifting.Org coach lifters training at Weightlifting Workshop with free coaching and looks to develop the sport of weightlifting in schools.
Weightlifting Workshop – at WeightliftingWorkshop.com. The weightlifting workshop provides the gym space where members of the Weightlifting.Org weightlifting team train.
York Barbell Company. PO Box 1707, York, PA, 17405-1707. Tel: (717) 767-6481. York Barbell was started and managed by Bob Hoffman for half a century. At one time it was probably the leading barbell and health food company in the world. Through his flagship magazine, Strength & Health (as well as numerous other publications), Hoffman popularized weightlifting and weight training for sport and created millions of believers in weight training around the world. He did more than any other person to make the US a power in world weightlifting from the 1930s through the 1960s and the importance of his influence can be appreciated only by studying what happened to weightlifting in the US in the years following Bob’s loss of vigor and ultimate death. York Barbell has changed management several times since Bob’s death. New owners have recently revamped York’s product line. A discussion of York’s bars and bumper plates appears in Chapter 4. York’s “Hall of Fame” (located in York, PA) is unique, with its many pictures and exhibits from the history of the Iron Game, and its special focus on weightlifting history in the US. It’s worth a visit if you are ever near York. York has also sponsored the activities of the USWF/USAW for many years, establishing the company as loyal friend of weightlifting