American Weightlifting

the documentary on my sport of choice. 

It was 2003 when I first competed in the sport of Weightlifting. My eldest son had broken a number of high school strength records that Spring and I had recently began implementing CrossFit into my personal training business. Since Weightlifting was a core element of CrossFit,cleaning,jerking and snatching would need to be mastered.

The sport appealed to me in many ways. Weightlifter possess circus freak explosive talents and on the whole their skills transfer well to other activities.

The past 10 years I have experienced relative success as a Masters Weightlifting competitor. State titles and a couple of National Championships which is why I was more than interested in Greg Everett’s production AMERICAN WEIGHTLIFTING, a documentary on the sport in the U.S.A.

AMERICAN WEIGHTLIFTING is a two hour production, Greg takes a look at the sport which is wildly successful internationally but barely recognized in the United States and often times confused with everything from bodybuilding to powerlifting. It’s a sport that occasionally benefits from fringe athletes breaking off from other sports and has benefited tremendously from the fitness start up CrossFit.

The cast of characters is an important part of this production. From here you can see how invested a Coach and the athlete become in attaining the next personal record and learn how some of the athletes got their start. All of this done with no financial incentive.

A strength of the presentation is the time spent with legendary coaches like Jim Schmitz, Bob Tanko, John Thrush and my friend Mike Burgener. It’s with each of these interviews you learn to appreciate the dedication to long term development and what each of these men hope for the long term life of their Sport.

In the end you learn that there is no professional league, or shoe endorsement deal. The crowds are sparse and the medals are carnival quality. But in spite of all these obstacles, the sport pulls you in.

Rather innocently I was snared by the challenge. Although well into my Masters career, I find myself chasing a NEW total. It’s just me, that platform and that bar loaded with weight. It’s going up or it’s not. I can blame no one. On the surface it all seems for very simple, and in that I believe lies it’s beauty.

American Weightlifting, a documentary is available here.