Media mentions of All-Around

[Sanjiv Gupta]

This was brought to my attention by Jerome Licini. He and some other members have had issues posting on the Forum

Here is a very positive and encouraging podcast about All-Around Weightlifting. (This is the podcast that first informed me of the existence of the USAWA despite being an occasional lifter since the 1970’s.) I couldn’t find any existing forum posts with a list of good media references, so I decided to start this thread. (Apologies if I overlooked an earlier thread.)

Podcast Series: “Iron Culture presented by MASS”
Episode Title: “All Around Lifting: The First Form of Competitive Lifting (with Drs. Conor Heffernan and Cliff Harvey)”
Reference Information: Episode 294, Sept 30, 2024

There are of course many ways to find the podcast, but this seems to be from their core website:
https://ironculture.libsyn.com/ep-294-all-around-lifting-the-first-form-of-competitive-lifting-with-drs-conor-heffernan-cliff-harvey

Topic

[Jerome Licini]

Thank you, Sanjiv, for posting this for me!

[Sanjiv Gupta]

I gave this a listen and it was pretty well done. It is hard to explain what All-Round lifting is about, but the podcast does a good job of explaining some of the history of weightlifting before powerlifting became the squat, bench and deadlift and before weightlifting became the snatch and the clean & jerk. It was also nice to hear about how Cliff Harvey was introduced to the sport over 20 years ago. I feel very fortunate that I happen to live someplace where there were already some athletes competing and there were dozens more within a 1 day drive.

[Jerome Licini]

Another nice reference…

I found a thread started Feb 27, 2022 titled “How to get folks to try all round lifting?” in which Randy Smith pointed out the Reddit thread “The Odd, the Old and the Original: A case for Atypical Lifting”

The Odd, the Old and the Original: A Case for Atypical Lifting
byu/The_Fatalist inweightroom

[Sanjiv Gupta]

youtu.be/lGy-g8PqIAI?si=f2RQIwrgtiigd96M

When you start looking for mentions of All-Round weightlifting, it is everywhere. At about 1:12:30 in the linked interview between Zach Mullins and Adam Glass on The Grip Show, Adam starts talking about how All-Round should have been the next big thing (that CrossFit ended up being).

Ironically, I found All-Round weightlifting through a CrossFit Journal article:

journal.crossfit.com/article/the-odd-lifts

[Jerome Licini]

Nice links!

I particularly enjoyed the CrossFit article.

[Jerome Licini]

1) I just ran across the Health Oddity podcast out of England. Available at the regular podcast outlets or at
healthoddity.libsyn.com

So far I’ve barely scratched the surface. Episode 263 with Steve Gardner has nice discussions of IAWA all-round lifting at 35:00 and 59:20 minutes. Episodes and 255 and 214 with Stevie Shanks seem to feature notables in the IAWA, historical perspectives on all-round, and the Dinnie stones. The unnumbered episode “Dinosaur Training with Brooks Kubik” from Jan 13, 2023 is also a great one that I listened to because of Al’s Dino Gym.

(Some of Sanjiv’s comments about them were that “Steve Gardner has been around All-Round Weightlifting since the beginning and knows a lot of the history behind British Amateur Weight-Lifting Association (BAWLA), the development of British Strength Athlete’s Guild (BSAG) and eventually International All-Round Weightlifting Association (IAWA). He is also exceptionally strong. Stevie Shanks hosted the World Championship this year… His Dad (Jack) was the first to lift the stones since Donald Dinnie and their family is still the steward of the stones if anybody wants to give them a go.)

2) On YouTube, the strongwoman Chloe Brennan actually has a video titled “Training for the All Round Weightlifting World Championships!” (I believe an IAWA Postal meet near the end of 2024) Very inspirational! I felt the practice/training aspects felt very authentic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3UNvdLU0dw

3) The IronMind store has a set of 11 article reprints from the Milo journal about various all round lifts for <$75.
http://www.ironmind-store.com/All-Round-Weightlifting-11-MILO-Issues/productinfo/1282%2DAL/

[Sanjiv Gupta]

I really enjoyed giving these a listen and it reminded me of a pet project I was trying to get off the ground. If anybody would be willing to do a recorded Google video call, I would love to set up an interview covering athletic background, getting involved in All-Round, accomplishments, current goals, future predictions and any other topics in a roughly 30-45 minute interview.

No experience requirements to volunteer. The first couple will likely be a learning exercise and hopefully they get better and serve as a video library to preserve the history of all-round weightlifting as told by the members of USAWA.

Please reach out to me directly.

[Author]

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