White House Gym, Truman Administration


March 10, 1948

President Harry Truman’s White House gym with rings, exercise bike, medicine balls, pulleys, ladders.

For a chronicle on the evolution of the gym and amenities, check out BlogHer.com

Gym image from Harry S. Truman Library by Abbie Rowe. Info from White House Historical Association.

Left, Harry leads exercises on the U.S.S. Missouri during a voyage to Brazil. Newsmen accompanying him gave him the T-shirt he wears; it reads "Coach Truman, Athletic Director." Photographer unknown

Feb. virtual weightlifting meet complete



Latest topics from Virtualmeet.net

The February 2009 weightlifting meet is online. View individual lifts or the entire meet.

It was a good meet - 8 women, 7 men. Canada, U.S., UK, and Bulgaria represented. A rowing team in Canada contributed the bulk of participants. I was the only U.S. lifter. I lifted for Portland Oregon Weightlifting (POW) and came in second among women. I hit new PR's in both lifts.

Next weightlifting meet is the weekend of April 10th - 12th. Join us!

duckies


KOIN tower fitness center

Inside this iconic business building in downtown Portland lies a small but relatively well-equipped fitness center that's open to employee membership only. So shhh.... Here's a peek inside.

There are two flat benches (one freestanding, one part of a chestpress rack), a Smith machine, a handful of machines targeting bodyparts, dumbbells, a big clunky Universal, and a nook with about 10 cardio machines (one to three are generally down for repair at any given time), and two thick fold-out mats. Plus a water fountain and two TVs (Sadly, rare is the office employee who can work out without a TV.).

It's not bad, really, for a midday get-away.


The drawback: climate control. It's kept at a stuffy 72 degrees, with no active ventilation.



Kat gets a kettlebell

After my run with the bells, I adopted one of my own to incorporate into my training. The bells are used in full-body dynamic exercises that involve momentum, so I look forward to using mine in warm-ups and cooldowns around Oly weightlifting. ETA I'm enjoying "bell and bag" sessions on days I'm not lifting - alternating kettlebell drills with heavybag pounding. Good stuff!


Also, at LONG LAST, got a pair of 30# dumbbells. I've been waiting for a decent sale for years, and one hit this weekend. (I have a real bone to pick with Joe's, the store formerly known as G.I. Joe's. Their DBs are in a wire bin, so beat up, they look like crap, and the weight amounts themselves are probably thrown off from all the chipping damage. They should be ashamed to have them on their floor. So no, I did not buy these spiffy new ones from them.) At last, I can bridge the gap between 25 and 35 more graciously. Now I can start the next longerm wait to cough up the money for 40s.

Haka explained (Maori excerpt)

dumbbell museum


It's not really. But it could me. Took this today. Love this!

Ironworks Gym



Ironworks Gym is the gem of Creswell, Oregon. This is one of my very favorite gyms. Nestled in a rural speck of a town just south of Eugene, in a brilliantly landscaped oasis, this gym houses the old school disciplines - Olympic-style weighlifting, powerlifting - and it has more bodybuilding machines (specific-muscle group training) stuffed into it than a warehouse. They're stuffed into every nook - a Roman chair here, an adductor there. Each space has a distinct character and feel to it, from the slick group exercise fitness room to the chalk-filled, cement-floored weightlifting studio. Expansive windows face an impressive golf course, and that's hugged by miles sand miles of rural Willamette Valley greenery. This gym screams the sucess of an empire built on dreams of dedicated visionaries, and each discipine it houses through meets and classes seems to be staffed by salt-of-the-earth folks, like Tom Hirtz. If you're ever even within a few hours of this gym, don't miss it, anytime of the year.














Always Do Full Squats



Ironworks Gym, Creswell, Oregon