Olympic Barbell History Snippet

The Birth of the Modern Olympic Barbell

The birth of the modern revolving sleeve standardized Olympic barbell can be traced back to Germany when in 1905 Franz Velrum began selling the world's first plate loading barbell. In 1928 Kasper Berg of Berg Barbell began making "the first modern Olympic barbell." The Berg Barbell was used in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic games and soon thereafter York Barbell company, Jackson Barbell and others began copying, thereby standardizing the Berg Olympic barbell. Before the widespread acceptance of the Olympic barbell, resistance trainers used shot-loaded barbells with non-revolving sleeves that were, by necessity, thick handled. The Olympic barbell set, with its 1.1 inch gripping diameter width revolutionized progressive resistance training.

About the Author: Marty Gallagher

As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black's Gym to five national team titles. He's also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of multiple books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book Coan, The Man, the Myth, the Method and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.