I'm 40 and teaching myself these lifts in my garage in the mountains of Japan. The comaraderie I see here is so awesome. What a great documentary.

What you do for the Weightlifting community is mind boggling. 🙏❤️

Started Olympic-Style weightlifting in high school in the mid 80s. I was a wrestler and was told that it would help be develope "explosive" strength. Well, I stopped wrestling after my second year in college and took up Sambo/Judo and the weightlifting DEFINITELY helped me develop strength that I could never get any other way. Now, at 50.....I dont lift like that anymore. I dont grapple like I used to either. But I will always love what I did and have great memories of the weight room. Peace

I absolutely love weight lifting everything about it - doing it/watching tutorials/watching competition's/reading books , just everything and I am gonna love watching this video. Thanks for posting x

It's freaking great for historical information about the grassroots of weightlifting in the US. It also demonstrates the passion and experience of weightlifters. I watched the whole thing.

I bought this when it came out and still regularly watch it when I want to calm down and be reminded about how much I love Olympic Weightlifting. Greg, thank you so much for your monumental contribution to our sport.

I got my USA Weightlifting Level 1 from Matt Foreman, and have done multiple weightlifting clinics with him as well. I was amazed to see him all over this film because he never mentioned, bragged or boasted about his involvement in “American Weightlifting” during any of the clinics/certifications. Great teacher, coach, and clearly very humble!

This is amazing. Thank you Greg. I often watched your coaching commentary vids between classes at ETSU when I was learning to lift and getting my degree. I'm excited to watch this, and to share it with my ex-phys students as an introduction to the world and culture of American weightlifting.

This was amazing, thank you. It has THE catalyst athletics shot of slapping on the last green onto 130 kg. 10/10. What more could you want?

What a wonderful film. Love hearing from all the coaches dedicated to building up youth. Incredibly moving, and reminds me of how much a couple of my coaches impacted my life.

WOW! What an incredible Documentary! There is something SACRED captured here on film...as it is! I am inspired by each Coach and all the students of theirs! Each athlete in this film from beginner to medalists and somewhere in between, were amazing to watch! To see those incredible gyms and all those plates of iron! Bravo Greg Everett!

Wow, this is a beautiful documentary. I clicked on it thinking I’d watch maybe 10 minutes. I ended up watching the whole movie. Great work.

Thank you for posting this! I remember watching it on DVD back in 2015. It is nice to see how much our sport has grown over the past decade.

Thank you for releasing this movie here, Greg. It adds to the incredible amount of knowledge you have been sharing regarding weightlifting, and - in general - I cannot stress enough how much influence your work has even outside of the US: I have been reading your book and watching your videos on KZfaq long before joining a local weightlifting club. Your way of presenting weightlifting was a huge influence to get me interested in the sport in the first place. The most memorable part of the movie, for me personally, was the chapter about weightlifting not being recognized enough in the public eye. I am aware that the movie is now already a few years old, but it was just interesting to see that a lot of people involved in USAW are envious of the popularity weightlifting has in some European and Asian countries. But I can tell you: I live in Austria and even though weightlifting has quite a long history here (some decades ago, people were lifting in the basements of pubs regularly), it is completely neglected by every kind of sport organization we have - they almost exclusively care about winter sports and soccer, that's where the money and the media attention lies. When there is a national championship in weightlifting, most of the newspapers and news channels will not even mention it. The people involved in weightlifting are often there because their parents and grandparents were already competing in the sport. It's very rare for people without family ties to get into competitive weightlifting, even though it has to be said that CrossFit had a certain effect to make it more accessible to newcomers. Anyway, I just wanted to make it clear that even in Europe it is not much different. Weightlifting is a niche sports that almost nobody really knows about, sadly.

Thank you for providing this content Greg. Truly a great watch and look into the history of the sport on the home soil. I appreciate the commitment you have to the sport of Weightlifting.

Awesome film. It demonstrates the ‘garage mind’ that I love and makes me want to keep lifting day in and day out. I lift by myself in my garage due to an inexplicable love for this sport. Thanks for releasing for us all to enjoy. Hearing Jim Schmitz in the opening credits brought me back to my first meet at Sac State when I was in high school in 2001 which gave me chills and reminded me of the fire I felt back then.

Awesome documentary, never knew about the history of american weightlifting. It is amazing how much it changed since this came out. So many american olympians and world champions.

Documentary :Weightlifting needs to become more mainstream and popular. Crossfit: got it👌🏽👌🏽 Thanks to crossfit, I discovered Weightlifting...and now i am a huge fan of the Weightlifting sport💪🏽🏋🏽‍♂️

So good, Greg! Sincerely thank you for everything you and Aimee do for this sport.

WHOOOOOO jist discovered this video and started watching!! Outstanding! Can't wait to enjoy the whole thing! Thanks Greg! 🤟🏽

This documentary makes me nostalgic for a time I never lived. Thank you for posting this!

Awesome!!! Went to watch last year and couldn't find my copy!!!

Fantastic film. I hope your sport grows in popularity - it really deserves it.

I've always wanted to watch this! Great stuff!

Almost ten years later! I bought the DVD and poster (which hangs in the garage gym), and it's interesting to see how much has changed and/or stayed the same over the last decade. Great to see it here, so that many more will be able to view it!

I was doing olylifts for football in 1991 when I met someone who lifted nationally in the 70’s…I saw the difference between power cleans and squat cleans and it changed my life. No one was doing that in my area. Shoes, bumper plates were scarce. I used to take my sneakers to cobblers and have them put soles with heels on them

Happened to watch this video and see my transformation at the end! Best thing I ever did for my self! Chris Is top class 🙏💪

Finally giving my lifting the attention it deserves. This film was wonderful, and your weightlifting book has been very enlightening.

finaly ive been wanting to watch this for years now!

Wonderful film. Thank you for sharing this with us. Under the correct conditions, more than muscles are strengthened in gyms, and gyms strengthen more than the individuals 'training' in them.

this was great, sport has grown a lot more now, love to see it

Thanks so much for releasing this, amazing watch. Loved seeing that oh so recognisable clip at 1:39:00, feel like I've seen it a thousand times.

I've been due to watch this again. Have thought about it for a few years now.

Thank you, Greg! Very insighful!

Love this video. Bought a hardcopy so I’d always have one. ❤️

Bought this years ago! Great doc!

Thanks for the documentary.

Thank you Greg!!!!!!!!!

If I had a million this is the first thing I would donate to ❤

GREAT Video, thank you!!! 👍🏼🇺🇸❤

Great vlog , very informative!🎉🏋💪

Fantastic!

Awesome film!!!!

I feel like since I started weightlifting in a commercial gym I’m doing my part helping the sport grow in the Midwest :)

Thanks for the movie.

This is really good

"If you don't love weightlifting you're not in weightlifting". No truer words have ever been said. I'm a masters powerlifter who loves to dabble in weightlifting when powerlifting gets stale. I've spent the last 25 years destroying my body for nothing else than the adrenaline rush of being on a platform for a grand total of maybe 4 minutes max. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

The hype!!!!

This is where the algorithm ends up when I fall asleep watching KZfaq

wish i wouldve found weightlifting when i was a teenager! getting my 6yr old into technique

Thank you

Is there anything you can't do, honestly? THANK YOU.

I'm nowhere near the elite level and I'm beat up all the time. I've chosen my suffering at the same time this sport has strengthened my body and mind in ways I couldn't imagine. Its fun when people ask you to move a couch that they cannot lift. lol

Amazing work on this documentary. It is phenomenal and there is not s single thing that I would disagree with. 10 years later have you seen any changes in the trends of weightlifting in this country? What has changed? Positively or Negatively?

As an Olympic Power Curler I love the last line, just go do curls!

As fun as it is to see beautiful women in corporate gyms-these basement and garage opened floor gyms create gods

Excellent points about a lack of development education, coaches pay etc. The popularity of all sports is definitely driven around revenues now. I am from Canada. I live and work and coach in the USA- South Florida. I competed in weightlifting in my 30s. Continue to coach athletes using it. The problem that is happening in all athletics and sport development in this country and in Canada is not a sensible long term athletic development system for all sports development. All kids are being forced into one sport. That sport does not recommend kids playing more than one sport. And so we have athletic directors in high schools that allow high school coaches (some of which are not qualified coaches just former athletes) enforce a behavior and belief that kids can only be baseball players. “If you dont come to practice you are off the team.” And parents that are being told or believe themselves that you need to dedicate all your time to only playing one sport is a problem. We know that athletes that participate in multiple sports have better athleticism. This is where the sport of weightlifting can be introduced earlier. That along with putting money back into schools to truly develop an athletic development model can enhance the athleticism of youth athletes and allow us to start identifying talent earlier.

Very good points & very many & long reasons why it is not more popular. Unfortunately past leadership politics have doomed the sport to irrelevancy. There are a lot of wonderful people in the sport, the problem is they are IN the sport & very few look at it (the actual performance product on stage) objectively. I absolutely love the lifts, have done them for decades now & really are part of my DNA so I understand the passion they all have. The product we work for years to produce is actually performed in a couple of seconds for the outside world to see. Then it is a minute plus before the next 2 to 5 second actual performance. People coming in off the street to watch a meet for the first time that are completely unfamiliar with the work that was involved, the weights that are lifted & the balance that is required do not have a point of reference. They sit for a bit then loose interest. I have sat at many meets from the World Championships down to the little local meets that I have either ran or participated in and the outside uneducated perception is that it is fairly boring. So to change the reference point, to educate the lay person takes money & that is where all the issues start. The people that and IN the sport each feel their team/club/school deserve the small allocation of funds & they are right they do. The question is though is that funding making the sport “grow” or just exist? To GROW there has to be a desire to participate at first but then there has to be a vision of value, a intrinsic reason to grind it out. In the American Society the big sports have a goal to make it to the “PROS” because there is a payday there. We have none, even an Olympic Champion comes away with very little compared to the amounts any of the big sports do for just the signing bonus. I know, I have a family member that signed his professional baseball contract out of high school & made more money in that single second then all of our Olympic participants have made together for the entirety of the sport, and he never played in the Majors. There is a way to build and grow it to the living room everyone can’t wait to watch level but to run it up to that level it would have to be an autonomous operation. Unfortunately all of people IN the sport are too attached to the old ways to let go. Perhaps in a few more generations it may happen after all there is the WNBA that does have a great talented product but it has taken outside objectivity and lessons learned the hard way from the NBA for it to grow. I know we could learn a lot from cross fit in the production and orchestration side to make an exciting regional and national events. Even the production of American Ninja can offer some ideas of presentation that makes it more interesting. I retired once, walked away & didn’t think of it for over a decade & found that my SOUL hurt, so I started back (painfully) & have loved every single muscle pull, cramp, callous tear, back spasm, knee hobble, & the occasional “WHITE MOMENT” lift even if it is only the bar, in my basement at 11:30 at night after a 14 hour day at work. I really really appreciated the video & also enjoyed the IWF video of a similar nature. Do I have an answer to the delema? Yes but I am also IN the sport so perhaps in another couple of generations it will come to fruition, or maybe not.

I know my interest in this sport started too late, despite my lifting for years. Not stopping me however, trying to overcome my impossible shoulders hahah.

"You have people watching golf, and fishing, and poker on T.V. in this country, and you can't tell me, those things are more exciting, or more interesting than weightlifting. The issue is that there are a lot more people who participates in those things and consequently understand them, can appreciate the difficulty of them and who are consequently interested in watching them." Greg Everett. I understand what he is saying with this. I'm an Iron Addict. I don't like golf (boring), fishing (rather watch paint dry), poker (take it or leave it, but mostly leave it). That being said, I think those sports/activities are way more interesting to the general public. With weightlifting, there is a lot that goes into making a successful lift, but you can't really see that as an average spectator. Therefore, it just looks like the same repetitive activity. That barely ever changes (records being broken). Just the same lifts year after year, with nothing different. With golf, there is a lot going on, and it does change year after year, and your average spectator understands this, because a vast majority participate in this sport. With fishing, there is an art that goes into hooking and reeling in a big fish, even after it's hooked doesn't mean you got it. Again, a lot of spectators know this, because they participate in this activity, it's also easy to understand the drama as your watching a 175 pound human, trying to reel a 200 pound marlin. Last, with poker, again lots of people are involved in the game and understand what's going on and the pressure of the game. Those, who don't play, can still feels it, while watching on T.V., and the reason is that the home viewers get to see cards. Which gets them into it. Without those cameras showing the cards, it would lose a massive audience, because nobody but the player's would know what their hand is until they revealed it. Again, I'm an Iron Addict, but still I don't think weightlifting will ever be on the level of these sports, to the average spectator or to the general public. Love this documentary, it's put together really well.

Nice stuff! Just one minor thing, are you sure weightlifting is "extremely popular internationally"? What I have heard from people in china is that it is not popular aside from the times athletes like Lu Xiajoun win Olympic medals. It is not like people do weightlifting for fun there, those who do weightlifting in China are selected and put into work for becoming good. I would agree with it being more popular in other countries, but you made it sound like people do weightlifting as people in Germany and Spain do/watch soccer.

Thanks

Zack punching the air in the corner

awesome

YES!!!!!!

I like it because it’s fun

Is it available in higher quality than 480p anywhere (would obviously pay for it)?

You get like straight away just for having the grit to start out without all the fancy equipment and training. It's about having the fire in your core to start something with a genuine reason rather than all the fancy bulshit.

1:35:35 that is just tragic! Nice doc! 1:19:03 I recognize that!

crazy how USAW membership has gone form 5k to 25k

Awesome doc. It's shame of what's happening to weightlifting today. The gov should sponsor these athletes. Also what I am disappointed with the doc is should include a little history of the York barbell club. Bob Hoffman is the man responsible for putting weightlifting on the map. Weightlifting legends such as Grimek, Stanko and Davis were the men who made the sport popular in it's infancy. I suggested you read the Legacy of Iron series of books by Kubik. The work is fiction but tells how popular the York barbell weightlifting team was in the 30s to 50s.

In Spanish we call weight lifting halter filial wish is mean love the weight haltero means lift & filial love., I did that unique sport for 5 years n I wish to comeback at my 51 year old

1:11:15- that's a young Ian Wilson in the background. It would be nice if, here in the U.S. if you said the term weightlifting people would know what you were talking about. Maybe someday.

And now it’s pretty popular in the US. How about it.

In Canada, weightlifting is even more obscure.

I bought my Italian lifting shoes from Bob Hise..I was subscribed to International Olympic Lifter. I was in Newport RI. I trained with a guy who was on our Olympic team in Quebec Olympics. I did the lifts to help with my powerlifting. I'm 68 now and cannot lift. Too many joint issues.

I am halfway through the video, here are some random thoughts (probably should have finished watching first). You don't mention Andersen, Schemansky, Bradford or Bob Hoffman (the founder of York Barbell). If Hoffman could support USA weightlifting, why there are no other sponsors today? Why Crossfit gets more attention and money than WL? Thank you. I like your videos, even though I don't lift. Oh, one more thing, you'd know more about doping, but the argument, that the US lifters are at a disadvantage to the rest of the world because of doping control, doesn't hold water for me. Look at Lance Armstrong. People get away with it, until they don't. Did you watch Icarus? Thanks again, good stuff.

Where are Steve and Audra? Are they still active?

weightlifting should be a high school sport. At least offered as a PE class (not pseudo powerlifting but proper weightlifting with auxiliaries)

Better coaching will bring us gold. We will have our own American style, not trying to imitate the USSR

Whatever happened to John Broz?

Uuuh I’m a leftover athlete.

Bob Bednarski!

s/o Notre Dame

USA Weightlifting goes nowhere without NCAA recognition...then Olympic medals will co me. Sad😢

Weightlifting has limited spectator value, that's true. But what about golf? To me, it's about as exciting as watching grass grow. But I can see why golf players watch it. They can appriciate the nuances of the game. Same with WL. Those who compete, or once did, understand what's going on, can break down individual lifts into its parts, nuances missed by the novice spectator.

We have powerlifters. Why don't we combine forces with them. We Elite FC, Westside Barbell, Garage Strength. Strength facilities. Louie Simmons. I don't be see any Olympic Coaches going to them. Arnold Schwarzenegger is there ask for his help. He can do something about it. Alot of resources. You know why Olympic lifting dies. Too much Kung Fu thinking not MMA.

for me the hardest part is to go into a squat when i snatch

The problem is that you need a personal trainer to learn this

The problem is definitely systemic of a total economic decline and financial enslavement. The Federal Government and the tyrants in it have allowed and profited with the international bankers to actively reduce the economic mobility and freedom of average citizens. All of that is important to understand as to why the Shepard's of our nation have not given individuals the economic freedom to pursue businesses which improve the lifes of our people. Most people cannot coach and mentor fitness and weightlifting students and also enjoy a life of economic comfort.

CrossFitter China Cho 1:48:15

The people in beginning don’t even look like they lift until they actually lift, I rather just look shredded than to look like them bodybuilding better🗿

That sucks we should be #1 in weight lifting too ! Yeah i bet other countries gotta be on the drugs lol we gotta change this !! Lol

I scratch my head why people are so interested watching and playing golf and there so much money in it even the insane amounts of endless wasted water for the courses. I’m really pissed they took weightlifting and boxing out of the Olympics. And far as drugs in sports NFL NBA MLB a lot of PED in those sports

It is a bummer that America just pales in comparison to other countries. Real bummer

Should check out Chinese kids are stronger than you video if you want to see something pretty amazing

1:09:38

Crossfit isn't helping the situation.

Jeez this doc is a downer