Peter V. Karpovich: transforming the strength paradigm.
One of the most important figures in the public's acceptance of weight training as an acceptable activity for athletes was Russian-born physician Peter V. Karpovich of Springfield College, Springfield, MA. Karpovich, like most early 20th-century educators, opposed weight training for athletes and held a low opinion of weightlifting as an activity in general. However, he became strength science's most eminent and visible advocate after witnessing a demonstration of weightlifting organized by Bob Hoffman of the York Barbell Company in 1940. Following that demonstration, Karpovich conducted several seminal studies that examined the bedrock beliefs on which the arguments normally cited against lifting were built-that it would make a person slow and inflexible-in short, muscle-bound. His research consistently revealed that those beliefs were in error. Later, he went on to collaborate with Jim Murray on the first science-based book on the subject of strength training, Weight Training in Athletics, published in 1956.
Department of Kinesiology & Health Education, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. j.todd@mail.utexas.edu
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D049673:History, 20th Century; D008404:Massachusetts; D010806:Physical Education and Training / Q000266:history*; D014586:USSR; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities / Q000266:history; D014891:Weight Lifting / Q000266:history*