Founded almost 80 years ago, Clube Apolo was born well before the gyms we know today, air-conditioned, with modern equipment and training plans created via app, and at a time when bodybuilding and weightlifting (weight lifting) were still little known.
Founded in 1948 by master Arnóbio Noronha Sigaran, the place formed and spanned generations of athletes and became one of the main symbols of weightlifting and bodybuilding in Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil.
The place is considered the oldest gym in the state and the third oldest in the country.
In bodybuilding, Brazilians such as Ney Pradie, Hemílio Fontoura, Clotário Portugal, among others. In weightlifting. Powerlifting have been countless champions at national and world level. such as Felippe Portugal, Flávia Portugal, Marcelo Schneider, Eduardo Grumann and Clotário Portugal himself, current curator of the club, who keeps the memory of the master alive and the history of weightlifting.
Located on Avenida Farrapos since 1970, the staircase of the storefront already anticipates what we will find in the “temple” that carries history in the form of printed photos with bodybuilding legends such as Kevin Levrone and Ronnie Coleman, as well as medals, trophies, and old machinery, made purely of iron and biomechanics that have stood the test of time.
However, Apolo’s beginnings took place in Master Arnóbio’s own home, under the then name of Clube Esparta.
In the 1960s, he migrated to Avenida Mauá, where the name of Clube Apolo was implemented at the time, along with his Gaucho from Uruguiana Dionísio Felix, owner of Ferraço (a steel company), as well as two other people.
In 1970 he moved permanently to Farrapos, where he remains today.
Until 2010, the club operated as a gym open to the public in 2010, but today it is only closed to some members.
Arnóbio was also the founder of the Gaucho Bodybuilding Federation that operated from 1970 until 2008, today corresponding to the Gaúcha Bodybuilding Federation (IFBB-RS), in addition to also presiding over the Basic Lifting Federation which until the end of 1960 was linked to the Athletics Federation.
He passed away in 2020, at the age of 91, and in his honor the Arnóbio Sigaran Bench Press and Deadlift Cup was created, having its first edition the following year.
