Earlier this month, grumpy old man and professional mean-mugger Steve Pulcinella made the trek to Ohio for the Arnold Sports Festival. While he was in town, he stopped by the elitefts S5 Compound and sat down for a very serious, no-nonsense interview with elitefts columnist Zach Gallmann. In this video, they begin with the most important question of the interview (does Steve even lift?) and progress through a variety of intense topics, such as how he feels about the two gay men that respond to every training video he ever posts, the water fountain in his gym that still isn't fixed, and the things that piss him off as gym owner.
MORE: Iron Sport Gym: Where Training Reigns Supreme
To begin, Steve talks about how he came to start Iron Sport Gym and what it's like being a gym owner, from the first steps of just wanting a good place to train to running a facility full time. Steve, who has worked with a lot of high-level athletes and has developed a good reputation for serious training, explains how his location near the airport hotels has led to a lot of WWE wrestlers coming to train at Iron Sport every time they're the in Philadelphia area.
Then he explains his experience in Highland games. When he got into the sport of strongman, it was nearly dead in the United States despite still being big in Europe. So Steve took note of what was going on in strength sports in Europe, discovered Highland games, and then one day decided, "Why not just go compete?" So he did, and fell in love with it, and got more and more involved. One thing Steve says that he believes makes Highland games really stand out is that the professionals are actually paid, and all of the winners receive money. It's far more similar to real professional athletics, unlike powerlifting or strongman where there's usually no compensation and the competitors even have to pay entry fees for the top, most prestigious, invite-only meets.
Gallmann and Steve then talk more about the world of training today and the things that piss Steve off, ranging from cameras all over the gym of people recording their lifting, to social media posts for every single set that a person does. He also shares a little of his philosophy on managing a gym: his water fountain may be broken for years, but he's got the newest rack and calls Matt Goodwin to price new items constantly.
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