In December of 1973, I took a workout at the Texas Athletic Club in Austin, Texas, and tested myself for the first time in the deadlift. I was inspired to see what I could lift that day by watching a young woman deadlifting at the gym who had entered a local powerlifting meet as a...
I’ve been in isolation ever since I returned on March 9th from directing the 2020 Arnold Strongman Classic (ASC). Like other fans of Strongman, I’ve watched with sadness as show after Strongman show got canceled last month as the coronavirus spread around the globe. In recent weeks, I’ve been listening with yet more dismay to...
On Monday, March 2, 2020, I met my graduate course, The History of the Sport Industry in America, at the Stark Center to talk about a series of readings they’d been assigned that dealt with the business of strength. They were asked to read an article Ben Pollack and I wrote about 1950s gym-chain magnate...
“It’s a Good Life…” Celebrating the Stark Center’s 10th Anniversary A blog by Stark Center Director, Jan Todd I first heard the expression, “It’s a good life if you don’t weaken,” from my husband Terry Todd, who’d learned it from his grandmother, Agnes Todd, who no doubt had also heard it from her parents. As...
