York Barbell is an American-based international manufacturer of fitness products. Bob Hoffman, named "Father of World Weightlifting" by the International Weightlifting Federation, bought the Milo Barbell Company and founded York Barbell in 1932. As a prolific writer of books and articles, Hoffman promoted the benefits of exercise and nutrition. Among the company's first employees were weightlifters Tony Terlazzo and

John Terpak John Basil Terpak (July 4, 1912 – June 1, 1993) was an American world champion weightlifter. Early life Terpak's father was Ukrainian-born and worked in Pennsylvania's coal mines. Terpak pursued weightlifting in his youth and was noticed b ...

. Hoffman starting creating barbells in 1929, the same year he began to host meets in the oil burner factory. During the 1932, Los Angeles Olympics, Hoffman noticed how the teams from other countries looked down upon the America weightlifting team. The same year Hoffman opened the York Barbell Company and began promoting weightlifting. Hoffman reached out to ostracized minorities of the time to train and compete at York Barbell. During the Second World War, York Barbell supplied barbells to the United States military. When the war ended, the demand for barbells increased due to the military personnel returning home who had been exposed to weightlifting during the war. After the war, company machinist

Frank Spellman Frank Isaac Spellman (September 17, 1922 – January 12, 2017) was an American middleweight Olympic champion weightlifter. He won a gold medal at the 1948 Olympics, and a bronze medal and a silver medal at the World Championships in 1946–47. H ...

won a gold medal at the

1948 Olympics 1948 Olympics may refer to: *The 1948 Winter Olympics, which were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland *The 1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an internation ...

in Men's 75 kg Weightlifting, setting Olympic middleweight (165 pound) records in the

clean & jerk The clean and jerk is a composite of two weightlifting movements, most often performed with a barbell: the clean and the jerk. During the ''clean'', the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a racked position across the deltoids, without res ...

(336.25 pounds) and the total lift (859.5 pounds). From the decades of the 1930s through the 1970s, York Barbell sponsored over 40 national champions and numerous Olympic gold medalists, a few of whom are featured in one of the

murals of York, Pennsylvania The Murals of York, Pennsylvania are a series of murals painted on the sides of buildings in York, Pennsylvania between 1996 and 2002. Paid for with local donations, the murals provide the community with details about some lesser-known people, bus ...

. Today, the corporate office of York Barbell Company houses the official Weightlifting Hall of Fame and Museum and continues to host a variety of

powerlifting Powerlifting is a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athlete attempting a maximal weight single-lift effor ...

and

bodybuilding Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's muscles (muscle building) by muscle hypertrophy for aesthetic purposes. It is distinct from similar activities such as powerlifting because it focuses ...

competitions. For a time, the company had a food supplement business, which was involved in several violations of the law. During several occasions (1960, 1961, 1968, 1972 and 1974), the company's products were seized by the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

, (section "NHF's Leaders", subsection "Bob Hoffman") and in a 1968 consent decree it agreed to stop a long list of questionable health claims for their products. The fact that Bob Hoffman owned this company, was a weightlifting coach and a founding member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, as well as Hoffman's athletic career, helped make him "a major factor in the growth of nutritional fads for athletes", according to

alternative medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

critic Stephen Barrett.

References

{{reflist Weight training equipment Companies based in York County, Pennsylvania York, Pennsylvania American companies established in 1932 1932 establishments in Pennsylvania Manufacturing companies based in Pennsylvania Manufacturing companies established in 1932 Physical culture

See also

References