Manuel Buitrago PhD

Coach Manuel received his honorary coaching credential in Olympic weightlifting from Chengdu Sports University, one of China’s premier weightlifting facilities and research center.

Manuel started as a gymnast out of high school and became interested in strength sports, especially weightlifting. He trained in the USA and with Ivan Abadjiev, but he was so intrigued by the different lifting style of Chinese weightlifters, that he started traveling to China to learn Chinese weightlifting techniques. There he visited various training bases throughout China and trained with professional weightlifters.

Coach Manuel learned to speak, read, and write in Chinese in college, so he also studied and translated various Chinese research articles, manuals, and textbooks on weightlifting.

During this ongoing process combining theory and practice, he has authored two books on Chinese Weightlifting: 1) A Visual Guide to Technique, and the textbook 2) Technical Mastery & Training. Both weightlifting books have been translated into various languages.

Coach Manuel has taught over 100 seminars on Chinese weightlifting techniques, theory, and programming in China as well as around the world. He also runs Ma Strength social media where he provides weightlifting and training tips to a global audience. And he also writes cutting-edge weightlifting articles for the Ma Strength Blog.