Editors note: Katie Hejtmanek, Ph.D. is a cultural anthropologist conducting research on the culture of strength sports in the United States. This is the first of an in-depth series introducing ... Continue Reading
CrossFit Regionals Week 3: Experts Predict Top Women (& James Hobart’s Games Picks)
This is it, the last Regional weekend of the season, and our last chance to play our little Regionals speculation game. If you’ve been following along, you may have noticed that some of us are much better ... Continue Reading
Some Guy Just Created an Ultimate Database for WODs
We may be a little bit biased, but there seems to be a higher percentage of awesome people in the fitness community than in everyday life. Someone is always coming out with some new piece of equipment or ... Continue Reading
Strike Movement Chill Pill 2 Review: A New Athletic Standard?
Attention around movement has been growing as more people become interested in understanding the human body, health, performance, and physical expression. Many influencers of this culture — like Ido ... Continue Reading
CrossFit Bans Laura Phelps-Sweatt, Disqualifies Westside Conjugate from Competition
In a post published on the Games website, CrossFit has announced that Laura Phelps-Sweatt is banned from sanctioned competition for one year. Her team — Westside Conjugate, which was scheduled to ... Continue Reading
How to Watch the 2016 Russian Weightlifting Championships
If you want to watch one of the world's top weightlifting federations hold a stacked national championships, you're in luck: The Russian Weightlifting Championships are streaming for free on YouTube. The ... Continue Reading
Report: Nadezhda Evstyukhina Tests Positive from Beijing Olympics, Banned from Rio
On May 17th, news broke that several Russian weightlifters — including reigning World Champion and clean & jerk World Record holder Aleksey Lovchev — had received competition bans between four and ... Continue Reading
3 Practical Tips for Busy Weightlifters
Odds are that most of you reading this article have a job, career, family, or other responsibilities that interfere with training. Weightlifting is a very demanding sport, and mixing it together with other ... Continue Reading
Kianoush Rostami Breaks 85kg Clean & Jerk Record in Training
Iran's Kianoush Rostami has won two World Championships as an 85kg lifter, and he finished second at the 2015 World Weightlifting Championships in Houston (oh, and we won Bronze at the 2012 London Olympics ... Continue Reading
Are the Andersons CrossFit’s First Games Dynasty?
By definition, a dynasty is a family of rulers, with subsequent generations — or members within the same generation — passing the torch down from one to the next. And in spots terms, "dynasty" refers to ... Continue Reading
USA Powerlifting Nationals Results and Winners (and a 1,014 lb Squat)
USA Powerlifting Nationals was held from May 20-22nd in Colorado, and in case you missed the live streams, unofficial results and winners are already up on the USAPL's site via Google Spreadsheet. There ... Continue Reading
CrossFit Regionals Week 1 & 2: Top 5 Scores On Each Event Regardless of Region
Like last week, we've put all the athletes head to head to head to see who places in the top 5 for each event. Kara Webb still dominates with 4 appearances in the top 5, with Emily Bridgers coming in ... Continue Reading
“CrossFit Games Need More Chest Hair” (And Other Week 2 Gems)
Another week of Regionals, another week of FUBAR comments in the live youtube chat. While last week brought us some gems, particularly relating to Kara Webb and her past life as a kangaroo herder, ... Continue Reading
7 CrossFit Games Events We Haven’t Seen Yet (But Probably Will)
Every July, Dave Castro and the rest of the CrossFit Games team (okay, mostly Castro) throw a mix of the familiar and flat-out unexpected at athletes over a grueling 5+ day test. We see a combination of ... Continue Reading
How to Watch the 2016 Canadian Weightlifting National Championships
If you're looking for a place to watch the 2016 Canadian (Senior) National Championships in weightlifting, you're in luck: The event is live-streamed on YouTube thanks to the British Columbia Weightlifting ... Continue Reading
Should Individual Athletes Be Allowed to Go Team for The CrossFit Games?
A few days after week 1 of the 2016 CrossFit Regionals, athlete Sammy Wood took to Instagram to (graciously) thank the community, her coach, and supporters. She also announced that after failing to qualify ... Continue Reading
CrossFit Regionals Week 2: Experts Predict Top Women (with Special Guest Becca Voigt)
Week 1 of the 2016 Regionals is done and, thanks to live streaming and archived footage, we were able to see how the first batch of athletes handled the workouts on the competition floor. I was ... Continue Reading
Jolaine Undershute Is the West Regional’s Most Underrated Story
Jolaine Undershute isn't new to CrossFit Regionals, and 2016 will be her sixth year competing at that stage of competition. But while many saw the Canada West athlete's name toward the top of the ... Continue Reading
The 5 Most Beautiful Outdoor CrossFit Boxes in the World
We’re not sure what it is, but here in the BarBend offices, we’re feeling a little restless. Maybe it’s the constant New York City construction and traffic (so...much...honking), or maybe it’s because the ... Continue Reading
South Brooklyn Weightlifting Club Is Basically Barbell Disneyland
Tucked away in a narrow warehouse on the edge of Gowanus in Brooklyn exists a gym unlike most others in New York City. No marble locker rooms. No showers. No treadmills. The “cafe” is nothing more than ... Continue Reading
Why Becca Voigt’s CrossFit Games Streak Is a Mindblowing Accomplishment
CrossFit as a sport is young — incredibly young — so it's still difficult to gain perspective on athlete accomplishments over the years. Consistency changes definitions every year, and while it seems like ... Continue Reading
Four Russian Weightlifters, Including Aleksey Lovchev, Banned for Doping
The news isn't a big surprise to many fans of international weightlifting, but it looks like it's become official: Four Russian weightlifters — including (now former) 2015 World Weightlifting Champion ... Continue Reading
How to Watch USA Powerlifting (USAPL) Nationals
USA Powerlifting Nationals will take place from May 19-22 in Aurora, Colorado, at the Aurora Radisson Hotel. Checkins begin on Thursday, May 19th, with lifting taking place from May 20th through the 22nd. ... Continue Reading
The 6 Heaviest Snatches Ever Caught On Film
Like all sports, weightlifting has its legends of near-mythical lifts hit in training or local/unfilmed competitions — snatches and clean & jerks rumored about but never confirmed. The most ... Continue Reading