Nearly every warning you've heard about lifting weights was written down before anybody checked it. We trace where those warnings came from, starting with a Harvard student in 1854 and ending with a curve on a graph that's being used today to argue you can lift too much. Along the way: the men who built themselves with barbells and then sold the public five-pound dumbbells, because iron was expensive to mail and a booklet cost pennies. The muscle-bound myth, which nobody could define when a graduate student surveyed 45 physiologists about it. The 1961 report that took the deep squat out of every branch of the American military, measured with a device its author built himself and never validated. The claim that lifting stunts a child's growth, which no professional body ever actually made. And the argument women got, which was never about injury at all. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro2:33 2,500 years of people picking up heavy things7:24 George Windship and the Health Lift10:56 Blaikie's truck horse and the muscle-bound myth14:59 Bernarr Macfadden19:39 Charles Atlas and Dynamic Tension27:01 Carl Klein, a homemade device, and the parallel squat30:57 Thomas Delorme and three sets of ten35:20 Kids, growth plates, and where the stunting idea came from41:43 Women, "you'll get bulky," and Dudley Sargent in 191250:05 Pregnancy, from 1949 to a 2025 barbell study53:40 The pattern, and the curve on next week's graph Resources: Buy the book, Signal: https://www.barbellmedicine.com/shop/learning/signal/ New Barbell Medicine Hybrid 5K and 10K Run + Lift Programs Barbell Medicine coaching and templates: https://www.barbellmedicine.com 1. Downs DS, Chasan-Taber L, Evenson KR, Leiferman J, Yeo S. Physical activity and pregnancy: past and present evidence and future recommendations. Res Q Exerc Sport. 2012;83(4):485-502. doi:10.1080/02701367.2012.10599138. 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