Powerlifting documentary bart kwan biography

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"Now everyone records at gyms and there's so much content, but this would be during the time where if someone saw you with the camera out, they’d be like ‘can you please put that away?’"

But Kwan was never just some meathead who decided one day to pull out a camera to spread his brand of training. Now everyone's recording, people are taking pictures in the bathroom—it's way different.

When we first started seeing like this rise of fitness social media, it was such a weird clash of the worlds.

My very first powerlifting meet, I was the only Asian guy there. I grew up with traditional bodybuilding stars, like Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman, and all these guys that I used to see on magazines. But then when I step into, quote, unquote, regular America, they're like, wait a second, why is this Asian guy 200 pounds? And it's like 70 percent, Asian, and probably 30 percent, Hispanic, but there's so many Asians there that even the Bank of America sign is in Chinese.

These big swole guys to me are the norm.

There's one side of me that likes really hardcore shit, like, "Let's go run a marathon" or "let's do Brazilian jiu jitsu" and there's not aggression, but this type of feeling that I need to get out. We had a bunch of comedy-based channels, and I don't think I started my own fitness stuff until maybe 2011 or 2012.

If you told someone you were a creator, or even a YouTuber, they wouldn't even know what you were talking about.

Kwan is a multi-faceted guy, and that's what he wants people to know not only about him, but other Asian-Americans in the fitness world. And initially, it was hard, and I never got any asthma attacks. I feel like I need both of those to be a whole person.

MH: What are your big fitness accomplishments?

BK: I've done like 10 powerlifting meets.

However, he hasn’t revealed any information about his parent and siblings. 

Kwan belongs to an American nationality and holds Asian ethnicity. Was there a moment where you felt ‘okay, I can go all in on this?’

BK: At that time, YouTube was such an organic space. I want to be that ultra, super-strong dad for him, so he can also grow up to be the image of a man that I think he should be, and then he can provide that for his family in the future.

But what I loved about powerlifting is when I went in and I was the only Asian, a lot of the guys, they're just bonding over strength. Martial arts was invented in Asia. Some of these [other] kids came from the Midwest, [and] I might have been the first Asian that they saw.

That became a part of my life where I took fitness very seriously. Then all through college I really enjoyed lifting weights. So starting at the end of November, I hired a coach, and I want to go on the biggest powerlifting platform, the IPF (International Powerlifting Federation). The duo is successfully maintaining their profession as well as family. How does that kind of wind up, going back and forth?

BK: It plays really well, to me, because I feel like there are different parts of me that make me whole.