An Interview with Danny Camargo Senior International USA Weightlifting Coach, Daniel Camargo brings decades of experience as an athlete as well as a coach to his incisive thoughts about the sport. His athlete Mattie Rogers competes at the 2017 IWF World Weightlifting Championships on Saturday. Daniel Kunitz is the author of LIFT: Fitness Culture from Naked Greeks and Amazons to Jazzercise and Ninja Warriors. DK: When did you start to see a change in the popularity of weightlifting? DC: When my phone began ringing for the first time–this was 2012. Ahead of the actual fact that it was growing there was the perception that it was growing. There were a lot of discussions in the community, some formal, some informal. In 2012, I disagreed that the sport was growing: I felt that what was growing was the awareness of the movements, because of CrossFit, that there were more and more practitioners…
Exercise and Creativity
Speaking of Weightlifting
A Conversation with Phil Andrews and Kevin Farley This interview is the first in a series I will post during the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships in Anaheim, California. It took place about three weeks prior to the event. Phil Andrews is Chief Executive Officer of USA Weightlifting. Kevin Farley is Director of Membership, Communications & Digital Marketing. Daniel Kunitz is the author of LIFT: Fitness Culture from Naked Greeks and Amazons to Jazzercise and Ninja Warriors. Daniel Kunitz: I know anecdotally that weightlifting is growing in the United States, but do you have any statistics? Phil Andrews: At the time of the 2012 Olympic Games, we had about 11,000 members and by the end of the 2016 Olympic Games we had about 26,000. We were the fastest growing sport of the Olympic movement in that quadrennial: the other three were rugby, lacrosse, and archery. To be fair, rugby and lacrosse grew…
Weightlifting on the Rise
An essay I wrote on weightlifting, looking toward the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships. Unfortunately, it’s behind a pay wall.
Art and Fitness V: The Male Body
Here is an article on how art has depicted the ideal male body throughout history.
Andy Galpin Unplugged
Andy Galpin, along with Brian Mackenzie and Phil White, recently published a fascinating book about fitness and technology called Unplugged. I interviewed Galpin for Men’s Journal about how to properly use technology for health.
Art and Fitness IV: Female Body
This is an article looking at how ideals of the female form have been depicted, and influenced by, art.
Taking Down Big Sugar
Here is my Men’s Journal profile of Gary Taubes, whose new book, The Case Against Sugar, is out now.
Asceticism Reimagined
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you engage in some sort of ascetic practice. Here is an essay I wrote on contemporary asceticism for The Philosophical Salon of the L.A. Review of Books.
Art and Fitness III
In the late sixties, the artist Bruce Nauman created a number of videos based on “an awareness of yourself” that comes from “exercises” rather than simply thinking or reading, as he said in an interview from the period. His current show features seven video installations that look back on one of those pieces, Walk With Contrapposto (1967-8). I wrote about it here.