Gymrat’s Weblog

USA Weightlifting promotes itself and its activities with a funny tv commercial, that will run 25 times on CSTV (College Sports TV, Wikipedia article).

According to the comments on Youtube the lady who cleans the bar is Natalie Woolfolk (profile at Washington Post), the USA Weightlifting National Champion aims to compete in the 2008 Olympic Games. The weights are props, so instead of 145 kilograms, the bar “only” weighs 46 kilograms…

Via Fitsugar.com

Yesterday, a novel attempt in solving the problem with one of the International Space Stations solar panels not folding fully was tried:

The problem lies in a guidewire that is stuck in one of the eyelets, causing the array to billow. NASA will try helping it along by jiggling the array in hopes that will push the wire through the hole.

It plans to move a joint on the panel to shake it, and may also ask one of the astronauts to break a sweat using a bungee bar-like exercise device. NASA officials recalled an incident where the space agency saw an array shaking and found the cause was astronaut Leroy Chiao working the device hard in his squats and lifts.

The attempt didn’t succeed though; Vigorous exercise unable to jiggle solar array into cooperating:

German astronaut Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency was told to do 30 seconds of robust exercise on a bungee-bar machine in an attempt to vibrate wires on the 115-foot solar array and prevent an unplanned, fourth spacewalk.

Mr. Reiter tried several times, but his exercise did not appear to change the solar array.

How do you exercise by lifting weights in weightlessness? Well, apart from the current set-up on ISS, scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, is developing the next generation of training equipment to be used - the Yoyo strength-training equipment.

Earlier this year the Swedish magazine which I work for (BODY Magazine) was asked to help recruit volunteers. One of the chosen was our magazines sales chief; Stefan Elfving. Here is a photo of his earning his volunteer fee on the machine:

More about the machine can be read at www.yoyotechnology.com. Also, here’s a two page article from the magazine Medical Science at Karolinska Institutet that explains the “Space Gym”: Space Gym - a health issue for astronauts (PDF, in English):

August 8th Russian weightlifter/strongman had a strength training seminar in Glasgow, Scotland. The video of some of his lifts that day has been uploaded to YouTube. 400kg Deadlift, 240kg Clean and Jerk, 150kg Muscle Snatch, 260kgx3 Front Squat. Just wow!

“City of Glasgow Weightlifting Club presents a strength training seminar by super heavyweight champion and IFSA strongman Mikhail Koklyaev.

• Russian Super Heavy Weightlifting Champion
• Snatch 210kg, C+J 250kg
• World Strongest Man 3rd Place 2005
• IFSA strongman ranked 2nd place
• BW 140kg, height 6ft 4 inches

Demonstration - witness amazing feats of strength in Olympic, power and strength exercises.
Interactive workshop – have the opportunity to find out more about the training involved to become one of the strongest ever human beings.”

The European Youth Championships 2006 was held in Landskrona, Sweden, July 23-30. Eleiko Worldwide Weightlifting News in cooperation with the International Weightlifting Agency Berlin, has provided daily reports and pictures:

European Youth Championships 2006 - Report 1

“The “Landskrona Idrottshall” is now summoning to the 16th European Youth Championships for young men and to the 13th for the young ladies. Since the age limit was changed in 2003 in Dortmund from 16 to 17, this is the fourth tournament of the “new era”.”

European Youth Championships 2006 - Report 2

“The performances that were crowned with European Youth records were outstanding: Matveeva clean & jerked 71 kg, Buci snatched 113 kg and achieved 254 kg overall − in clean & jerk he was just one kilo below his European Youth record from the Junior World Championships in Hangzhou. De la Puente snatched 76 kg.”

European Youth Championships 2006 - Report 3

“Pure commition in the 62 kg competition. “One of the Cypriots will win…”. All warning lights were on amongst the busy organisers. No flag and no national anthem − they weren’t in the Cypriot lifters’ luggage. They were in a quandary. The flag of Cyprus was procured from somewhere and the anthem downloaded from the internet…”

European Youth Championships 2006 - Report 4

“These are the first European Youth Championships in weightlifting for which its very own pop hit was composed. It is called “Heavyweight Champion” and was composed and written by Kenta Edvardsen from Skara. He was inspired by Magnus Kjellgren who handles the very good competition website here in Landskrona.”

European Youth Championships 2006 - Report 5

“The key word ELEIKO electrifies in weightlifting circles. No wonder because the Swedish world-renowned products are in demand in more than 150 countries. Apart from this, the company for barbells and accessories was created out of a small factory that manufactured electrical items.”

European Youth Championships 2006 - Report 6

“People in Landskrona were interested in finding out the “secret” of the German upswing over the last years. A reason for such a success is certainly the excellent team of coaches where the successful lifter from Munich Manfred Nerlinger and his colleague from Görlitz Thomas Faselt are also integration figures for the others. This also has an effect on the team’s good spirits.”

European Youth Championships 2006 - Report 7

“The “heavy day” to close the European Youth Championships was quite something. In the penultimate competition for young men up to 94 kg, 14 lifters crowded onto the platform for the presentation.”