Phoenix Fitness Owner Royce Claflin talks Powerlifting & Fitness

Fit Talk with Melinda Corssino

Royce L. Claflin, owner of Phoenix Fitness in Dover, NH and creator of Barbell Athlete Ranking system (B.A.R.S.) was formally educated in business management. His obsession with strength training lead him to educate himself immensely in health and exercise. Furthering his education through numerous certifications and seminars and keeping up on the latest research and trends is vital to Royce and his coaching. He has a very particular set of skills you will not find anywhere else; Royce has experienced the worst cases injuries (ironically, outside of the weight room); these injuries include a spinal fusion, hip surgery and shoulder reconstruction. This experience has provided invaluable skills for developing his athletes and their education. Having extensive experience in different styles of strength training, from Bodybuilding, to standard linear progression, to the cube method, to Shieko, to Conjugate he has the ability to take clients from a novice lifter to a competitive athlete to a professional. What makes his story interesting, is how far He has came in his journey. His odds of being a competitive power lifter were certainly against him, graduating from from High School at 120lbs, 5’8”, 6’3” wingspan with a 80lb max bench press, pretty much drove him to exceed expectations and persevere through shortfalls and struggles . His lifting partners were piling chains and bands on the bars a long time ago before it was popular, and most of the time it was because of Royce’s crazy ideas leading the workouts. Royce built his bench press up to 365 lbs in 10 years, and again a second time after having both shoulders repaired. He deadlifted triple bodyweight with a dislocated spine, and squatted 4x/week under the same condition.