When you pull up to Iron Sport Gym on Chester Pike in Glenolden Pennsylvania, your first sight is a Dodge Ram 1500 completely customized with the gym’s colors and logo. You know this gym means business, or as its owner Steve Pulcinella puts it, “We do NOT fuck around up here. This gym is where shit gets done for real.”
elitefts alumni Steve Pulcinella entered his first powerlifting competition at the age of fourteen and has not stopped training since. During his eight-year powerlifting career, Steve won the Pennsylvania State Powerlifting Championship four times, the Pennsylvania State Region II Powerlifting Title two times and finished second at the USPF teenage national championships. In 1993 at the age of 27, Steve began competing in strongman and that same year was crowned Virginia’s Strongest Man and won the North America’s Strongest Man competition in Toronto. After competing in the World’s Strongest Man Competition in 1994 in South Africa, Steve joined the Highland Games and turned professional in 1995. During his career in the Highland Games that lasted until 2011, Steve participated in over 300 global events, earned over 40 professional titles and won the International Pro Highland Games in 2000.
Steve opened Iron Sport Gym in 1995 primarily as a place for him to train for the Highland Games. No other gym in the area could provide the necessary equipment, space and means to train for such high-level events. Little did Steve know, that Iron Sports would become and remain the premier commercial gym in Philadelphia for now over twenty years. To this day, it is still the only gym in Philadelphia that specializes in strength training, powerlifting, Olympic lifting and strongman all under one roof. What started as a gym for one man, would grow and become a safe haven for men and women who place training at the top of their priority list.
Iron Sport was not created to become a profitable company and it never will be. In fact, all of the money that comes into Iron Sport stays in Iron Sport. The money from each membership is reallocated to putting in a new door, fixing the roof, purchasing new equipment and keeping the lights on. Steve is not walking away each day with added money in his pockets, quite the opposite actually. Iron Sport cares about one thing: training. It is a place that allows men and women the opportunity to train with the best equipment and train amongst the strongest individuals in the region with 24-hour facility access.
Iron Sport Gym is consumed by a rich history, incredible feats of strength and legendary performers that trained under the same roof. The walls are filled with “Thank you Steve” signed photos from former professional athletes, IFBB professionals, world champion strongman, career powerlifters, professional wrestlers and features from Muscle & Fitness, Philadelphia Magazine, Men’s Fitness and Power Magazine.
Walk past the vending machine (full of elitefts gear and supplements) and The Big Wheels (1,485-pound deadlift two-man challenge) and you will find yourself on the gym floor with access to every piece of strength equipment necessary to build the strongest human body possible. Iron Sport has three elitefts power racks, one single monolift, three portable squat stands, five Olympic platforms, four benches, dumbbells up to 160 pounds, 5 sets of Werksan Olympic bumper plates, every form of barbell, and speciality bar imaginable, rows of chains and bands, weighted balls, a reverse hyper, a full line of Hammer Strength and Life Fitness machines and a garage filled with strongman implements.
Steve represents Live, Learn, Pass On to the fullest and demonstrates the elitefts fundamental values and qualities on a routine basis. He does not feel comfortable charging for training sessions and has created an environment within Iron Sport that operates as a community with people helping, supporting and motivating others to become the best possible version of themselves. It is no surprise that Steve and CEO Dave Tate have such a good relationship. Both men live a life of selfless behavior dedicated to helping others through the platform of training.
Steve will be the first to admit that his life consists of two things, training and television. He is either at the gym training and coaching others, or he is at home watching television with his two dogs while his wife, a former professional weightlifter, reads next to them. Having traveled for much of his life for the Highland Games, Steve enjoys lying low, staying local and splitting his time between the gym and the couch. In addition, Steve is now a grandfather! His grandson just turned two years old and Steve is anxiously looking forward to getting him on the platform and under the bar once he turns three.
If you are attending the 2018 Arnold Sports Festival be sure to keep an eye out for Steve who will be there with his current protégé Andrea White. White already has a strong competition record in powerlifting but she is just beginning to scratch the surface of unlocking all of her potential. Now that she is under Steve’s full tutelage, the sky is the limit.
Iron Sport Gym Official Website
Iron Sport Gym
505 S. Chester Pike
Glenolden, PA 19036
610-237-3840