Related tags:
strength + (9)
fitness + (6)
Exercise + (5)
training + (4)


Users that often use this tag:
jason's_planet (6)
Anatoly Pisarenko (4)
ludwig_van (2)

How to waste time in the gym, or not
posted by Listener on Dec 4, 2011 - 275 comments

"I happen to believe that the deadlift is a most beneficial exercise for men and women and athletes of both sexes of all ages ... The deadlift is not only a useful exercise to help build greater hip, leg, and back strength, it’s a movement everyone needs to know how to do properly because it will be done in some form or fashion countless times in a lifetime." Legendary strength coach Bill Starr writes about the deadlift, just as 27-year-old Benedikt Magnusson sets a new world record with a lift of 1015 pounds.
posted by Anatoly Pisarenko on Apr 2, 2011 - 99 comments

Stronger people are harder to kill. A 20-year study involving nearly 9000 men aged 20-80 found "Muscular strength is inversely and independently associated with death from all causes and cancer, even after adjusting for cardiorespiratory fitness and other potential confounders." Food for thought when designing your next fitness program?
posted by schroedinger on Jan 31, 2011 - 88 comments

Team Gorilla is "a celebration of the functional athletic physique, and the effort needed to attain it." Because strong is the new skinny.
posted by Anatoly Pisarenko on Jan 31, 2011 - 51 comments

Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie
posted by Anatoly Pisarenko on Jan 27, 2011 - 115 comments

Before the rise in popularity of the bench press as the de facto test of upper body strength, the overhead press was king. However, the press began to fall out of favor in the 1970s. Legendary strength coach Bill Starr provides a history of the lift and offers a number of suggestions for strengthening it. Until 1972, the clean and press was one of the three contested lifts in Olympic weightlifting. It was dropped from competition in part because of the dynamic style some lifters developed for the press, which was said to make judging the lift difficult. Bill Starr explains how to perform the technical Olympic-style press, and veteran lifter Tommy Suggs coaches it in a three-part video series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).
posted by Anatoly Pisarenko on Jan 16, 2011 - 46 comments

Bulgaria is not what you'd call a wealthy country. It has a smaller population than New York City. But Bulgaria utterly dominates the sport of Olympic Weightlifting. A full explanation of this prowess is beyond the scope of a simple blog post, but I will share with you this six-minute video about a man who built a nationally-ranked team training his athletes with barbells made of pipes and cogs and assorted industrial junk. I hope this goes at least a little way towards explaining their remarkable accomplishments.
posted by jason's_planet on May 5, 2010 - 17 comments

19-year-old weightlifter Pat Mendes of Nevada snatches 200kg. Mendes is the only American to ever snatch 200kg, and is within 16kg of the world record. [more inside]
posted by ludwig_van on Apr 23, 2010 - 83 comments

At 104, fit & spry Joe Rollino was the last classic strongman -- the sport of strength athletics, which evolved into modern bodybuilding. Standing 5'10" and weighing a mere 145 pounds, he was a fixture on Coney Island, known for feats of strength like 450 pound teeth lifts, or bending quarters with his fingers. Rollino also boxed in the 1920's as "Kid Dundee", and returned from World War II decorated with the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. Joe Rollino never drank, never smoked, was a lifetime vegetarian and a confirmed bachelor. He died today after being struck by a minivan.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on Jan 11, 2010 - 34 comments

"The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds."
posted by jason's_planet on Dec 7, 2009 - 97 comments

"It's big, like people were back in the 70s... Big when you get that way because you're just real damn strong." Brought to you from the Wichita Falls Athletic Club, 70sbig.com will teach you how to eat, how to train, and how to style your moustache so that you can get 70s big. Not interested in becoming 70s big? Then stop by and observe the amazing feats of those who were, like weightlifter Anatoly Pisarenko, who cleaned and jerked 583 pounds, or powerlifter Doug Young, who deadlifted 711 pounds in competition despite three broken ribs. The site also feature a series of cheeky interviews with Mark Rippetoe, owner of WFAC and author of books like Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training and Practical Programming for Strength Training.
posted by ludwig_van on Oct 8, 2009 - 48 comments

A History of the Bench Press, by Sean Katterle (includes a list of 600+ pound classic bench presses)
All three variations of the press on back – prone floor press, belly toss and bench press – persisted relatively unchanged through the 1940s, but a hierarchy among them quickly developed. For bodybuilders the bench version gained dominance, and by the 1950s it was the king of upper-body movements
posted by jason's_planet on Feb 4, 2009 - 44 comments

Japanese Cat Weightlifting (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by essexjan on Oct 5, 2008 - 41 comments

This is the moment Hungarian weightlifter Janos Baranyai's first Olympics ended in agony when he dislocated his right elbow in the ugliest moment yet of the Olympic weightlifting competition. Video, for the foolish.
posted by R. Mutt on Aug 13, 2008 - 83 comments

A while ago, Slate did an article on “The Race For The Thousand Pound Bench Press.” That milestone has been reached but not without controversy, mainly due to the use of the bench shirt, a super-tight supportive shirt without which those Herculean weights could not be lifted. The bench shirt has its defenders but many argue that it amounts to nothing more than cheating. By way of example, here is a video of the current unassisted (or “raw”) bench press record and here is a video of the current assisted bench press record. [more inside]
posted by jason's_planet on Apr 10, 2008 - 79 comments

Nicole Carroll is a CrossFit trainer who works out of Santa Cruz. Here is a video of her aiming for 15 reps of her bodyweight in the Overhead Squat, which is a very impressive lift. (In .wmv format) [more inside]
posted by jason's_planet on Dec 6, 2007 - 55 comments

Aneta Florczyk is an extraordinarily strong woman. Here is a video of her twisting a frying pan into a cylinder. She has deadlifted over 500 pounds. And pressed more than 250 pounds overhead.
posted by jason's_planet on Jul 30, 2007 - 34 comments

The "300" workout that turns you into a Greek statue (or homoerotic dreamboat). From Men's Health: Without resting between exercises, Butler performs 25 pullups, 50 deadlifts with 135 pounds, 50 pushups, 50 jumps on a 24-inch box, 50 floor wipers (*3), 50 single-arm clean-and-presses using a 36-pound kettle bell, and 25 more pullups. At least it works, and in only four months! In time for swimsuit season.
posted by geoff. on Mar 11, 2007 - 67 comments

Weight lifting in prisons & correctional recreation. With interesting legal commentary and videos.
posted by saysthis on Sep 20, 2005 - 24 comments

Work out? Why bother? Study shows that imaginary exercise builds muscles. Now if only imaginary friends worked the same way.
posted by o2b on Nov 12, 2001 - 22 comments