A Tommy Kono talk on weightlifting

“This is where the power comes from… The hip.” – Tommy Kono.

To anyone who’s played a sport or had interaction with a coach, this is probably not news. One thing that struck me about this statement though: years ago when I took T’ai Chi, perhaps, the gentlest of all sports, they used to essentially say the same thing there too. Instead of saying “hips” they said Dan Tien, or your physical center of gravity. The instructor used to say it’s located 4 fingers below the belly button.

New Weightlifting gym in Brooklyn

Brooklyn Barbell Club. Looks pretty cool. 6 lifting platforms, tall ceilings.

Photos by Brooklyn Barbell Club

So far there’s 1 Olympic Lifting class/program. At $200/month — may be when I’m a fancy-pants executive and my child can pay for her own life. It’d be cool to check out now and then if they start doing a drop-in rate.

I wonder how the logistics would work out with only 6 platforms though if random people start showing up and a lot of regulars are already working out. Let’s see now, they have 5,000 Square Feet of space. As of September 2009 Craigslist shows commercial warehouse space leases in Williamsburg can be as follows: $5000 / 6500ft², $3000 / 2500ft². So BBC has to make around $6,000/month to cover rent. If they’re charging each person $200/month to use the facility, ($6,000/$200) they’d need 30 regulars to break even on rent. This excludes other bills, like any utilities they’d have to pay for in addition.

http://www.brooklynbarbell.com/programs/:

Olympic Lifting is a 12-week program that will teach you the three contested Olympic lifts: the snatch, the clean and the jerk. We will train you in the fundamentals of these three lifts. We start at the very beginning and move from there. The more advanced athletes will move up in weight faster and the novice lifters will stay with light weight and work on their form. Olympic-style weightlifting is renowned by athletic coaches far and wide as the best way to make their athletes powerful and explosive. Even mainstream fitness magazines are starting to acknowledge that swiss ball crunches are on the way out and full-body weightlifting is the preferred way to get in shape.

Class meets twice a week for 90 minutes….

http://www.brooklynbarbell.com/register/:

Pricing
Programs may be purchased online by clicking the appropriate “Register Now” link, or in person at the Brooklyn Barbell Club. We accept cash, checks, and credit cards.

3 Months Up Front: $600 Register Now
3 Month Contract: $200/month Register Now

This über stylish bag is the only one the training wheels fit inside

good thing it was dark outside, on the way to the gym:

since I practice at a globo gym that doesn’t have bumpers, I have to carry 1 pair of my own to the place each time I work out: