As strength, power, and competitive fitness athletes, we are always concerned with the effect of endurance training on our top end strength and power outputs. Despite the plethora of scientific and ... Continue Reading
“School of Champions” Documents Ivan Abadjiev’s 1987 Bulgarian Weightlifting Team
The Bulgarian system of weightlifting generally refers to a style of intense, competition-centric training developed by Ivan Abadjiev in the 1980s and 90s. His Bulgarian team had immense success in those ... Continue Reading
Caffeine and Kilos’ Danny Lehr Accepts Doping Sanction, Warns Against Mystery Supps
In a statement released on Monday, May 2nd, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced weightlifter Daniel Lehr has accepted a four-year competition sanction for a positive doping text. From ... Continue Reading
NPGL Eliminates Age 40+ Athlete Requirement
Though many things stand out in the NPGL — the speed, range of skills, substitutions — one of the more notable particulars was the requirement that all teams must have active athletes (male and female) age ... Continue Reading
Laura Phelps-Sweatt Blows Us Away with 1:07 ‘Isabel’
Photo: Laura Phelps-Sweatt Laura Phelps-Sweatt is one of our favorite powerlifters to follow on Instagram, but calling her just a powerlifter isn't actually fair — she's also an accomplished CrossFit ... Continue Reading
After Decades of Uncertainty, Lebanese Weightlifting Finds a Female Star
One of the most fascinating stories I heard at the 2016 Asian Weightlifting Championships revolves around the Lebanese Woman’s Weightlifting Team — which is currently just one lifter. Her name is Mahassen ... Continue Reading
What It’s Like to Compete at Regionals When You’re Not a CrossFit Superstar
You’ve never heard of me. My name never made it into a Regionals Recap, and my photo never graced HQ’s news feed. On the street, I don’t turn heads with my physique like my contemporaries (in name only), ... Continue Reading
Athletes to Watch on CrossFit Regionals Day 1
To say any athlete is going to dominate at CrossFit Regionals is always an iffy proposition; while there are good bets year in and year out, there are at least as many veterans who come up short on a ... Continue Reading
Strongman World Records Are Insane (Infographic)
Of the major strength sports, strongman gets among the least coverage online, and if it weren't for a few ESPN World's Strongest Man specials burned into our memory from the mid-2000s, it might have the ... Continue Reading
How to Watch USA Weightlifting Nationals and Olympic Trials
Update: NBC has confirmed with BarBend that there will be no TV subscription authentication necessary to watch weightlifting trials; anyone in the U.S. with the app should be able to watch whether or not ... Continue Reading
How Paul Anderson Became One of History’s Strongest Humans
If you mention the name “Paul Anderson” in front of a random group of people, most of them will probably think you’re talking about an unremarkable middle manager of a cereal manufacturer. A “Paul ... Continue Reading
Behdad Salimi Has the World’s Heaviest Power Clean (on Video)
We've seen some pretty big (if slightly unverified, and completed to football weight room standards) power cleans on video, but there's still one that takes the cake — and all sources indicate it's very ... Continue Reading
Jerry Pritchett With the Easiest 900+ Deadlift You’ll Ever See
The question "Would strongman competitors make great powerlifters?" is finally getting answered lift-by-lift, and records are falling as a result. This beautiful lift by World's Strongest Man finalist and ... Continue Reading
2016 Asian Weightlifting Championships Full Results
The 2016 Asian Weightlifting Championships have come to a close. The event — held April 21-30 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan — featured a mix of various nations' best, along with plenty of other top ... Continue Reading
Alexandra LaChance on Fitness, Injury, & What She Didn’t Expect at the CrossFit Games
It’s the oldest story in the book: a female athlete comes seemingly out of nowhere to qualify as an individual for the CrossFit Games after only having done CrossFit for a short time. Once the shock (and a ... Continue Reading
Pyrros Dimas to Hold Q&A Session at Olympic Trials in Salt Lake City
To be the best, learn from the best. Attendees at Next week's US Olympic Trials/National Championships will have the chance to ask 3-time Olympic Champion (and 4-time Olympic medalist) Pyrros Dimas their ... Continue Reading
Three Tiers of Responsibility: Which Strength Coach Are You?
There are obviously various levels to being a strength & conditioning coach. Let's break it down and discuss the importance at each level — and the implications thereof. First up we have the amateur ... Continue Reading
Justin Cotler on Coaching, GRID Champs, and the CrossFit Dynamix Superteam
In the world of "competitive fitness," we're getting used to athletes as crossover stars: weightlifters turned CrossFit Games contenders, powerlifters turned GRID competitors, individual CrossFitters ... Continue Reading
Throwback: Chad Vaughn Sets American Record with 190kg Clean & Jerk
Before the days of CrossFit boxes on every block, and before everyone from bankers to soccer moms knew the other definition of "snatch," Chad Vaughn was one of America's top weightlifters. To be fair, ... Continue Reading
Weightlifter Profiles: Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Nurudinov (105 kg)
At the 2016 Asian Weightlifting Championships, BarBend weightlifting correspondent Mike Graber sat down with members of Uzbekistan's National Team to discuss their training and goals. First up is Ruslan ... Continue Reading
Aleksey Lovchev Challenges IWF Suspension in Anti-Doping Meeting, Maintains Innocence
Following a provisional IWF suspension after his world record clean & jerk, Russian superheavyweight Aleksey Lovchev continues to maintain his innocence in an anti-doping appeal. On ... Continue Reading
Being Weak Is Dangerous: Mid-Week Fitness Motivation
If anyone ever questions your commitment to getting stronger, it may be time to think very carefully about who you're associating with. And with that in mind, we've rounded up some more of the best fitness ... Continue Reading
Nick Bloch Challenges Critics to a Head to Head “Grace”
A few weeks ago, Nick Bloch put the fitness community in a buzz when he completed the CrossFit workout Grace in under one minute. As far as we know, that’s a world record, which is all the ... Continue Reading
Max Aita Explains Abadjiev’s Bulgarian System. But Is It Sustainable?
For as much that's been discussed about the Bulgarian weightlifting system, there are hundreds of young impressionable lifters who have tried tackling it head on by maxing out their lifts daily and ... Continue Reading